being; and with the perfection of life, there came the perfection of the love.
1. The security of this risen life. It is not mere life out of nothingness, as
in the case of the first Adam, but life out of death. And it is this life which
Scripture presents to us as higher, fuller, and more secure. The soil out of
which the tree of immortality springs is not the common soil of earth; it is
the mold of the graveyard, the dust of the tomb. This far securer life, this
life that no death can touch, comes to us from the risen life of Him who
died and rose again. The faith that knits us to Him makes us partakers of
His resurrection-life; nay, does it so fully that His resurrection becomes
ours: we are risen with Him, and with Him have put on a divine
immortality.
2. The power of the risen life. It was as the risen One that He spoke, "All
power is given unto me." It was as possessor of this power the He went
forth from the sepulcher; a power like that by which He overcame death;
"the power of an endless life." This corn of wheat had fallen into the ground
and died; and though sown in weakness, it was raised in power. It was with
this power of the risen life that He ascended on high, leading captivity
captive. It is this power of the risen life that He now wields upon the throne.
It is in this power of the risen life that He comes again in His glory;
Redeemer, king, Judge of all. It is this power of the risen life that He puts
forth in His Church,-that He exercises in the begetting us again to a lively
hope, and in sustaining each begotten one in a world of hostility and death,
amid fightings without and fears within. It is to the power of this risen life
that we betake ourselves in the day of weakness and conflict; so that, strong
in the Lord, and in the power of His might, we are made more than
conquerors.
3. The love of the risen life. Resurrection was a new and higher stage of
being; and with the perfection of life, there came the perfection of the love.