When we come
to chapter 54 of the prophecies of Isaiah, we have what we may
call a sample chapter of resurrection - a sample of the
conditions which the Lord would have as characterizing His 'New
Day'. We find in this chapter eight features, or characteristics,
of the New Day; eight, as you know, being the number of
resurrection. Let us cast our eye down the chapter, and note them
briefly in order.
(1) In verse
1, we see the movement from barrenness to fruitfulness. "Sing,
O barren, thou that didst not bear; break forth into singing, and
cry aloud, thou that didst not travail with child: for more are
the children of the desolate than the children of the married
wife, saith the Lord."
(2) Verses 2
and 3: from straitness to enlargement. "Enlarge the place
of thy tent, and let them stretch forth the curtains of thine
habitations; spare not: lengthen thy cords, and strengthen thy
stakes. For thou shalt spread abroad on the right hand and on the
left; and thy seed shall possess the nations, and make the
desolate cities to be inhabited." How true that was of
the resurrection of the Lord Jesus!
(3) Verses 4
and 5: from shame to honour. "Fear not; for thou shalt
not be ashamed: neither be thou confounded; for thou shalt not be
put to shame: for thou shalt forget the shame of thy
youth.."; and so on.
(4) Verses 6
and 7: from forsakenness to fellowship. "For the Lord
hath called thee as a wife forsaken and grieved in spirit, even a
wife of youth, when she is cast off, saith thy God. For a small
moment have I forsaken thee; but with great mercies will I gather
thee."
(5) Verses 8
to 10: from wrath to mercy. "In overflowing wrath I hid
my face from thee for a moment; but with everlasting kindness
will I have mercy on thee, saith the Lord thy redeemer."
You see the look back to the Cross, in which all those things
were true; but now it is resurrection, and they have passed. It
is a mighty and wonderful change.
(6) Verses
11 and 12: from affliction and desolation, to comfort and glory. "O
thou afflicted, tossed with tempest, and not comforted, behold, I
will set thy stones in fair colours, and lay thy foundations with
sapphires. And I will make thy pinnacles of rubies, and thy gates
of carbuncles, and all thy border of pleasant stones."
(7) Verses
14 and 15: from oppression to security. "In
righteousness shalt thou be established: thou shalt be far from
oppression, for thou shalt not fear; and from terror, for it
shall not come near thee. Behold, they may gather together, but
not by me: whosoever shall gather together against thee shall
fall because of thee."
(8) Verses
16 and 17: from reproach to vindication. "Behold, I have
created the smith that bloweth the fire of coals, and bringeth
forth a weapon for his work; and I have created the waster to
destroy. No weapon that is formed against thee shall prosper; and
every tongue that shall rise against thee in judgment thou shalt
condemn. This is the heritage of the servants of the Lord, and
their righteousness which is of me, saith the Lord."
Is this not
a wonderful sample of resurrection life, power and glory? As in
other connections, so in this, we carry it all over from Old
Testament history into New Testament, into this very dispensation
in which we live - the Day of Resurrection. How true all this was
- and is - of the Lord Jesus, in the first place. There had been
the negative side - all the straitness of which He spoke:
"How am I straitened till it be accomplished!" (Luke
12:50); the stripping, the barrenness and desolation of the
Cross; the shame and ignominy; the forsakenness, even of His own
Father and God - the very wrath of God rested upon Him; He
suffered affliction, oppression and reproach. All those things
were true, as we saw in chapter 53. But now the whole scene has
changed. What fruitfulness has taken the place of barrenness!
Yes, the 'corn of wheat, falling into the ground and dying', has
indeed borne very much fruit - fruit out of many nations. What a
great joy it is to us to know, and in so many cases to know
personally, something of the fruitfulness of His sufferings, in
the 'seeing of His seed'. Out of barrenness into fruitfulness;
out of His straitness, against which He groaned, into the great
enlargement which has come to Him - and what enlargement! - out
of shame into honour: multitudes and multitudes ever since, and
multitudes today, all over the world, are just heaping honour
upon Him. And so we could go on.
But you can
see also how true this became of that little band of disciples.
You can say that, at the time of the Cross, these negative and
dark things were in a certain sense true of them. Yes, everything
was gone, the trees were stripped bare; it was barrenness indeed.
In their hearts they were saying: 'What has it all been for? It
has all gone; we have lost everything.' But see the change from
the Day of Pentecost onwards. From barrenness to fruitfulness-
again you go through this list of characteristics - from
straitness, as a little band, a little handful of men, hedged up
in a few miles of Jerusalem, of Judaea, of Palestine, a little
country - unto what? "Their sound", said Paul,
"went out into all the earth,... unto the ends of the
world" (Rom. 10:18). What enlargement! it was the
lengthening of cords, the strengthening of stakes in
resurrection. Their aloneness - the terrible loneliness that had
come over them when He, as they thought, was dead - has given
place to a marvellous fellowship, that is being established in
relationship with an evergrowing company of fellow-believers. All
these things came about: this wonderful change-over was true for
the disciples.
But does it
stop there? No! The same thing became true in every new believer;
and it has been true from then on until now. These are the things
which are the characteristics of the true believer's life - a believer's
life! If you are living on the other side of the Cross, or
even if you are living in the day of His death, just living with
Christ dead, these things are not true. But if we are living, as
true believers should, on the ground of His resurrection, then
all these things are true. It is a very blessed thing for us to
be able to say, without any hesitation or reserve, that He has
changed our life from barrenness to fruitfulness; from straitness
to enlargement; from shame to honour; from forsakenness and
aloneness to fellowship; and so on. This is the heritage of every
true believer.
Immediate
Effects of Christ's
Resurrection
In the
resurrection of the Lord Jesus, there is struck and sounded forth
this wonderful note - a new life, a new hope, a new assurance! We
see it clearly in the New Testament. It is worth noting the
marvellous effect that His appearances had upon the people
concerned. As far as we can see, there were about ten appearances
of the Lord after His resurrection. Five of them took place on
one day, between sunrise and perhaps a little after sunset; the
other five were scattered over a period, in different
places. But it
is most
impressive, most instructive,
to see the tremendous change that came over
the people, and over the whole situation,
between the time before He appeared, and the time He
disappeared. Let us run through some of those appearances.
The first,
undoubtedly, was with Mary Magdalene, who came early to the tomb,
with spices, to anoint His body (Mark 16:9; John 20:1-18).
What a poor, sad, desolate, empty sort of person she was that
morning! What a plaintive note there is as she beholds Him
without recognising Him, and takes Him for the gardener: 'Sir, if
you have borne Him away, tell me where you have laid Him'. Jesus
only speaks her name - "Mary" - and the whole situation is
transformed, transfigured! She hurries from the tomb - hurries away
to tell the disciples. It would seem, too, that there were other
women nearby, and that, as they were going, she and they, to
tell the disciples, Jesus met them on the way - another
transforming scene and experience (Matt. 28:8-10; Mark 16:10,11).
And then, we
are told, He appeared to Simon Peter (Luke 24:34; 1 Cor. 15:5). It does
not need very much imagination to picture what kind
of Simon he was when Jesus appeared to him. He was not a very
happy sort of man! If ever there was a man who felt he was
bereft - bereft of everything, stripped, stark, alone, forsaken,
and in utter despair - it must have been Simon Peter. And then
Jesus appeared to him - gave him a private interview! Ah! that
changed the whole situation, completely transformed the whole
outlook for Simon.
Then there
were the two disciples on their way to Emmaus (Luke 24:13-35;
Mark 16:12,13). What sad, doleful, desolate men they were! As
they walked those three miles, it must have seemed the longest
three miles that two men had ever walked! But then Jesus appeared...
Their eyes were opened, they saw... He went... and those
three miles back were the shortest three miles that ever men had
run! I don't know what their time was for the course! - but I am
quite sure they were not conscious of those three miles. Distance
and time lost all their meaning as they raced back, fleet of
foot, to Jerusalem, to tell the others. And as they came in,
before they could get out anything of what had happened to them,
they were met with this from the other disciples: "The Lord
is risen indeed, and hath appeared unto Simon"! They were
changed men, and it was a changed scene in Jerusalem into which
they came.
And He
appeared to the apostles themselves, and to James, and to "above five
hundred brethren at once" (1 Cor. 15:6,7).
His appearance - that is,
His coming in resurrection - brought about a marvellous change
on every occasion, in every situation. It represented a very real
fulfilment of Isaiah 54 - Isaiah 54 is resurrection!
Can This Be a Present-day Experience?
Now, the big
question that arises for us is: Have we any ground for believing
that this can be our own up-to-date experience? And I want to say
that the New Testament presents us with very solid ground for
just that. We find very much, in the experiences of men and women
after the Lord had gone to glory, that had this effect. I need
only turn you to the book of the Acts, and remind you of that
Ethiopian on his way home, disappointed and desolate, sorrowful
and perplexed. Surely we may say that, through His servant Philip
and through the word of Isaiah 53, the Risen Lord met that man.
The whole scene was changed. The last thing we hear of him is:
"he went on his way rejoicing" (Acts 8:39). Here is
a transfigured life, a transfigured situation, because one has
come into touch with the Risen Lord. That incident is typical of
the marvellous transformation that took place when the Spirit of
the Lord touched people, came into their lives, came into their
midst. They met sometimes in much perplexity and oppression, in
much affliction and suffering with the threats of the rulers, and
they went away changed people, full of joy, full of confidence.
Has the
dispensation changed since the time of the Acts? That book has
never had a conclusion; it is just broken off. The Holy Spirit
never intended Luke to write the end of the story, because it had
to go on and on and on to the end of the dispensation. What was
true then is to be true in our experience now. Yes, we have
plenty of ground and evidence for this. But then, you say, 'On
what ground can this experience be mine?' If the Scripture gives
that which justifies an expectation that it should be true in our
case, if we really have it in the Word that it ought to be like
that with us, then the question arises, 'How can this be true of
me?' Let me therefore try to say, as concisely as possible, how
it can be - how we really can know this.
The Need for (1) A
Positive Stand Upon the Ground of the Cross
Firstly, we
must take our stand most positively on that ground which God has
provided for us through the
Cross of the Lord Jesus. That is, we must appropriate all the
values of Isaiah 53, as being provided for us. Isaiah 53 tells us
all that has been done for us. "He was wounded for our
transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities: the
chastisement of our peace was upon him". "He bare the
sin of many". Our whole state and condition, under
condemnation and judgment, was put on Him by God Himself. 'He, He
made His soul an offering for sin.' That was on the Divine
side. If you and I will still linger on the ground of question or
doubt as to whether the Lord Jesus has done that, for us, as men
and women, for our sins, past, present and future, there is no
hope of this transforming experience of resurrection! If you are
still nursing condemnation, still opening your heart or your mind
to accusations, you are, in effect, denying the work of the Lord
Jesus on the Cross, and God cannot show you His mighty arm.
"To
whom is the arm of the Lord revealed?" Never to the man or
woman who brings in any question as to the work of the Lord Jesus
in His Cross! Never! You must get right off that ground in every
way. If you are so fond of doubting and questioning, if you will
so tenaciously hold on to condemnation, can you not swing right
over in the opposite direction, put all that capacity for
doubting and unbelieving round the other way, and say about your
condemnation: 'I don't believe it! Isaiah 53 says that He took
all that for me: then I definitely do not believe, I will not
believe - the Cross of the Lord Jesus forbids me to believe - that
there is condemnation.' Yes, put your strong and mighty capacity
for unbelieving the other way round - let it be converted! Put it
over against all the work of the accusing spirits, the accusing
conscience and the accusing heart. Meet the whole thing in
reverse!
No, we shall
never know this mighty, many-sided transformation and
transfiguration of life, until we quite positively take our stand
upon the values which we see secured for us in Isaiah 53. We
shall once again, and in the simplicity of a beginner, have to
sit down with that chapter, and, as has been so often said, put
our own name in there: 'He was wounded for my transgressions; He
was bruised for my iniquities;
the chastisement of my peace
was
upon Him; with His stripes I
am healed.' We shall never
experience resurrection glory until we have our feet firmly
planted on that ground. You see, it is we ourselves who
constitute the ground of death: it is in us - it is not in Christ;
we must therefore repudiate our own ground. We must say, when the
Accuser would bring all
our sins to remembrance: 'Yes, I know them well, and thousands
more; but... there is One who died in my place.' Faith must
credit God and Christ with the full meaning of the Cross.
(2) A Positive Drawing Upon the
Power of His Resurrection
Next, we
must take a positive attitude at all times to "the power of
his resurrection" (Phil. 3:10) - the attitude of faith in
'God who raises the dead' (2 Cor. 1:9). We must really reckon
upon that 'extra', and that 'other', which is represented by the
power of His resurrection. It is all true - that this is this and
that is that, and things are as they are; it is all true. We are
not putting on blinkers, trying to make believe that we are not
as bad as we are, or things are not as bad as they are: we know
that they are just as bad as they can be, inside and out. But... there
is something more than that - an altogether
transcendent factor: and that is, the power of His resurrection.
We must take a very positive attitude at all times toward that.
(a)
For Personal Life
This means,
in practical terms, a definite drawing upon His risen life. But
it does not mean that we are thereby entitled to break the laws
of God. For instance, if you speak at three or four or five
meetings a day, for something like eleven weeks, without one
day's rest, you are breaking the laws of God, and God will not
protect you. That is exactly what I have known to happen. How
long it takes us to learn these lessons - sometimes a whole
lifetime! We get drawn out by need and appeal and so on. I
believe the Lord is very sympathetic, but, nevertheless, He does
not set aside His laws. So I have to say, that, while avoiding
breaking Divine laws, the laws of nature, the laws of our bodies
(and you can never speak of the laws of nature without meaning
God, for the laws of nature are an expression of God, and God is
Himself the supreme Law of Nature: that is not Pantheism, but it
does mean that the laws of nature bring you right into touch with
God) - I say, while not violating God in His laws, in the body and
so on, we must deliberately at all times draw upon His
resurrection life. We must do it; we must keep a tight
hold, so to speak, on the risen life of the Lord, and draw upon
it; make a very practical thing of it.
When I was a
small boy, I remember my mother telling me something that has
remained with me to this day.
She was describing to me the death of my grandfather, an old man
of eighty-four. She was sitting by his bed, holding his hand, as
he was slowly, very slowly passing away. He had been a very
strong man, physically, and this is what she told me. 'He had
hold of my hand', she said, 'in a tremendous grip: I was praying
for him, but he was gradually sinking away: but I felt as though
he was drawing the very life out of me; I felt my very vitality
being sapped; he was pulling something out of me, to hold on to
life: and at last I could stand it no longer - I just had to wrench
my hand out of his; and when I did so, he went.'
Well, I do
not know how much scientific truth there is in that; but to me it
is an illustration. We have literally got to draw on the vitality
of our Lord. It is an attitude, a grip of faith: we must 'lay
hold on life', as Paul said to Timothy (1 Tim. 6:12). It must be
something that we do.
I fear we
are far too indefinite in this matter of our relationship to our
Risen Lord. We believe in the resurrection; we believe in
resurrection life; and we believe that it is for us: but we are
not definite enough about it. We must first ask ourselves: 'Do I
need resurrection life? Am I in need of the power of His
resurrection?' Of course, if you have no sense of need, you will
not be definite about it, but if, in any way, you really feel
your need of the power of His resurrection, that the Arm of the
Lord should be revealed to you in that way, then ask yourself the
further question: 'Are there any Scriptures, any statements in
the Word of God, which justify me in believing that that life is
for me?' Then, if you believe the answer to that to be in the
affirmative, say to yourself: 'Let me get to the Word, and find
out what it says about this; let me gather up, search out, all
that the Word of God says about this matter of resurrection
life - for me!'
Do it as an
exercise, not just picking out random texts; get a strong
foundation of Scripture under your feet. "If the Spirit
of him that raised up Jesus from the dead dwelleth in you, he
that raised up Christ Jesus from the dead shall quicken also your
mortal bodies through his Spirit that dwelleth in you" (Rom.
8:11).That is in the Bible! "Always bearing about
in the body the dying of Jesus... that the life also
of Jesus may be manifested in our mortal flesh" (2 Cor. 4:10,11). That
is Scripture! Gather up in this way all that
you can find, take it to the Lord, and say: 'Lord, your Word
clearly says...' (and here you can quote Scripture to Him, if
you like: it is a very healthy thing to remind the Lord of His
Word). 'Now, Lord, you have said that the power of the resurrection
is to be known in Your people, in believers, as a present
experience: here is Your Word about it.' Bring it to the Lord;
present it to Him, all that you can find; be very definite in
this matter. We might see marvellous things, wonderful things,
have a far greater testimony of resurrection life, if only we
would be more definite about it. It is not just going to 'happen'; it
is not going to be casual. Any dillydallying about this
thing will not find us coming into the good of it. We must be
positive; we must be definite; we must make this a very real
matter.
For it is
not just personal, for our own private good; the whole testimony
of our Risen Lord is bound up with this. There is, of course,
thank God, the personal application, and this may be either
spiritual - for we are surely all, individually, in constant need
of new accessions of life spiritually - or it may be physical.
Blessed be God, that we can take life for our bodies! We may know
resurrection life carrying us through impossible situations,
physically. Or it may be that we need a new accession of life,
the 'baring of His arm', in our ministry: for all ministry, if it
is to be true spiritual ministry, has to be fulfilled in the
power of His resurrection.
(b) For
Corporate Life
But then,
widening out beyond personal, individual need, it may apply to a
company of the Lord's people of which we are a part, or in which
we may have some responsibility. Things are going down into
death, straitness and dishonour; the situation is not glorifying
to the Lord; and we are greatly burdened with the need - Oh, that
the Arm of the Lord might be revealed! Oh, that the power of
resurrection might be manifested! What are you going to do about
it? Well, it requires the same exercise. This resurrection of the
Lord Jesus is for every aspect of the life of the believer and
the Church.
But... it
does not just happen. I say once again: we have got to take a
very definite and positive attitude to this matter. If we will,
and if we do, there are those who can testify, from a long
history, that this really does work - that repeated miracles of
sustenance and enablement and supply, of raising up and carrying
on, will result again and again, from a definite laying hold of
the fact that Christ is risen for
us. He died for us - He is risen
for us. He died in our place - He lives in our stead. He is the
Living One!