The Resurrection Life of the Believer /
THIRTEEN The Resurrection Life of the Believer Foundation Text— We were therefore buried with him through baptism into death in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may live a new life. —Rom 6:4
Notice the "we too" of this passage. It surely teaches that the life we are called to live here and now is something ofthe same nature as the life Christ was to live when he was raised from the dead. It is a life belonging to the same order of things, an interior resurrection life, to be lived here in these earthly bodies.
We always carry around in our body the death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be revealed in our body. For we who are alive are always being given over to death for Jesus' sake, so that his life may be revealed in our mortal body.—2 Cor 4:10-11
Having been buried with him in baptism and raised with him through your faith in the power of God, who raised him from the dead.
When you were dead in your sins and in the uncircumcision of your sinful nature, God made you alive with Christ. He forgave us all our sins. —Col 2:12-13
164 / The Open Secret It is just as though one had died and been buried, and had risen again, and thenceforth walked in a new and risen life.
Such a one would look at things from an altogether different standpoint, and measure them by other measures. Try to put yourself in the place of Lazarus after he had been raised from the dead, and imagine, if you can, with what eyes he would behold the world and the things of it; and you will perhaps get a glimpse of the meaning ofthis resurrection life. Things once all-important to him, must have lost their value, and things once insignificant, must have become of mighty import.
But because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions—it is by grace you have been saved. And God raised us up with Christ and seated us with him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus.—Eph 2:4-6 The place from which we look, makes all the difference in the aspect of things. The resurrection life seats us in "heavenly places," and we look from these down upon earthly things, and not up from earthly places upon heavenly things. We are to walk through this world as those whose heart and brain move there, while our feet stay here.
Our "views" are simply what we see, and not necessarily what really zs. A man at the foot of the mountain, and a man on the summit, may both look in the same direction, but their "views" would be widely different.
I have given them your word and the world has hated them, for they are not of the world any more than I am of the world. My prayer is not that you take them out of the world but that you protect them from the evil one. They are not of the world, even as I am not of it.—Jn 17:1416
We are "not of the world" in the sense that we belong to a spiritual race whose home is in a higher sphere, and who go through this world only as pilgrims and strangers. We belong to the heavenly order, not the earthly; and our sphere of true
The Resurrection Life of the Believer / 165 living is not on the material plane, but on the spiritual. As someone has said, "we are encamped in nature, but not domesticated."
Since, then, you have been raised with Christ, set your hearts on things above, where Christ is seated at the right hand of God. Set your minds on things above, not on earthly things. For you died, and your life is now hidden with Christ in God.—Col 3:1-3
For here we do not have an enduring city, but we are looking for the city that is to come.—Heb 13:14
We say of some men that they "grovel," and we mean that their souls dwell on earthly levels, and are interested only in earthly things. Of others we say that they "soar" far above their fellows, and we mean that their souls dwell in upper regions, and their affections are set on heavenly things. The resurrection life soars. It mounts on eagle's wings into the divine region of "the life hid with Christ in God."
But our citizenship is in heaven. And we eagerly await a Savior from there, the Lord Jesus Christ.—Phil 3:20
Our "citizenship" is not here but in heaven. Heaven means simply the spiritual sphere of things; and to have our citizenship there means, that our real home and our real interests, and possessions, and rights are all in this sphere.
And God raised us up with Christ and seated us with him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus.—Eph 2:6
Consequently, you are no longer foreigners and aliens, but fellow citizens with God's people and members of God's household.
—Eph 2:19
To be "fellow citizens wit God's people," and members of "God's household" means to live in the resurrection life.
All these people were still living by faith when they died. They did not receive the things promised; they only saw them and welcomed them from a distance. And they admitted that they were
166 / The Open Secret aliens and strangers on earth. People who say such things show that they are looking for a country of their own. If they had been thinking of the country they had left, they would have had opportunity to return. Instead, they were longing for a better country—a heavenly one. Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God, for he has prepared a city for them.
—Heb 11:13-16 We "look for a country." Or in other words we are a developing race. It is not a place we are seeking, but a condition ; that is, a new nature and a new sphere of life. As has been well said, "God is gradually developing higher forms of life out of lower; the intellectual and the spiritual out of the animal and the sensuous. There are two men in the Bible, the flesh man and the spirit man, the man of the without and the man of the within; man as an animal, and man asa spiritual being, and the last is being evolved out of the first."
Therefore we do not lose heart. Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day.
—2 Cor 4:16
I pray that out of his glorious riches he may strengthen you with power through his Spirit in your inner being.—Eph 3:16
The resurrection life of which we are speaking, is the life of this "inner man." It is a life begotten of God, and therefore partaking of the very nature of God.
Through these he has given us his very great and precious promises, so that through them you may participate in the divine nature and escape the corruption in the world caused by evil desires.—2 Pt 1:4
We, who believe the promises, "Participate in the divine nature"; but we participate in the lower nature as well. And it is the struggle between these two natures that causes our conflicts, It is in the process of development which is going on
The Resurrection Life of the Believer / 167 within us, that all our sin and suffering are evolved. Whenever the lower nature in us gains the supremacy, we sin, and consequently suffer.
So I say, live by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the sinful nature. For the sinful nature desires what is contrary to the Spirit, and the Spirit what is contrary to the sinful nature. They are in conflict with each other, so that you do not do what you want.—Gal 5:16-17 And if I do what I do not want to do, I agree that the law is good.
As itis, itis no longer I myself who do it, but it is sin living in me.
. but I see another law at work in the members of my body, waging war against the law of my mind and making me a prisoner of the law of sin at work within my members.
—Rom 7:16-17, 23 (Rom 7:18-22) Our natural man, the flesh man, or as the Bible calls it, the "old man," can never fulfill the righteousness of God, for it is of the earth, earthy. With our "sinful nature," the flesh, we must necessarily always serve the "law of sin."
Those who live according to the sinful nature have their minds set on what that nature desires; but those who live in accordance with the Spirit have their minds set on what the Spirit desires. The mind of sinful man is death, but the mind controlled by the Spirit is life and peace; the sinful mind is hostile to God. It does not submit to God's law, nor can it do so. Those controlled by the sinful nature cannot please God.—Rom 8:5-8
It is only the spiritual man, the man born of God, the resurrection man, who can mind the things of the Spirit; and in fact it is only such who can even understand God and his ways.
For who among men knows the thoughts of a man except the man's spirit within him? In the same way no one knows the thoughts of God except the Spirit of God. We have not received the spirit of the world but the Spirit who is from God that we may
168 / The Open Secret understand what God has freely given us. ... "For who has known the mind of the Lord that he may instruct him?"
—1 Cor 2:11-12, 16 (1 Cor 2:13-15) The one essential thing therefore for each one of us is to have this spiritual man, this resurrection life, born in us.
Nothing avails but this. The tiger cannot understand the "thoughts of a man" because it does not have the "man's spirit" within it; and likewise we cannot understand the "thoughts of God" unless we possess the spirit of God.
Jesus answered, "I tell you the truth, unless a man is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God. Flesh gives birth to flesh, but the Spirit gives birth to spirit. You should not be surprised at my saying, 'You must be born again.'"
—Jn 3:5-7 (Jn 3:3-4; Gal 6:15) The new birth is a necessity in the very nature of things, for in Order to enter any plane of life we must be born into it. No amount of effort can turn a tiger into a man, and no amount of effort can turn the flesh man into the spirit man. That which is born of the flesh zs flesh, and always must be.
You, however, are controlled not by the sinful nature but by the Spirit, if the Spirit of God lives in you. And if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he does not belong to Christ.—Rom 8:9
The salvation revealed by the Lord Jesus Christ, therefore, goes far deeper than the mere outward commands, "You shall," and "You shall not," which are all addressed only to that which is "born of the flesh," i.e., the natural or carnal man. The salvation of God gives man a new nature, one "born of the Spirit," that is so true and right in its very issues, as to live right outwardly without any law, from its own essential nature. The resurrection life works, not "after the law of a carnal commandment, but after the power of an endless life."
Because through Christ Jesus the law of the Spirit of life set me free from the law of sin and death. For what the law was powerless
The Resurrection Life of the Believer / 169 to do in that it was weakened by the sinful nature, God did by sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful man to be a sin offering. And so he condemned sin in sinful man, in order that the righteous requirements of the law might be fully met in us, who do not live according to the sinful nature but according to the Spirit.—Rom 8:2-4 It is the inward "law of the Spirit of life" that sets us free from sin; and not the outward law of ordinances. Commandments are not needed when the inward life is right.
What shall we say, then? Shall we go on sinning so that grace may increase? By no means! We died to sin; how can we live in it any longer? ... For sin shall not be your master, because you are not under law, but under grace.
What then? Shall we sin because we are not under law but under grace? By no means!—Rom 6:1-2, 14-15 (Gal 5:18)
Ifa man is athief at heart, no laws or penalties can keep him from stealing; but ifa man is honest at heart, not even laws and penalties could make him steal. And this is the secret of the resurrection life. It cannot sin, because it is born of God.
If you know that he is righteous, you know that everyone who does what is right has been born of him.—1 Jn 2:29 (1 Jn 3:6-10)
This does not mean that it is impossible for a child of God to sin, but only that it is impossible for that nature in him which is born of God, to sin. Many Christians are yet to a great degree
"worldly and acting like mere men."
Brothers, I could not address you as spiritual but as worldly— mere infants in Christ. I gave you milk, not solid food, for you were not yet ready for it. Indeed, you are still not ready. You are still worldly. For since there is jealousy and quarreling among you, are you not worldly? Are you not acting like mere men?
—1 Cor 3:1-3 "Infants in Christ" have the spiritual life begotten in them, but it is not yet dominant, and they are still more or less under
170 / The Open Secret the control of the worldly, or carnal, mind. Judged by the marks Paul gives in this passage of what the carnal mind consists in, it would seem as though not many Christians had developed out of this stage as yet!
But we may develop, we are meant to develop; only we do not always understand the way. We think to do it by a greater stringency of legal efforts, by stricter rules and more searching commandments. But God's way is by faith.
Before this faith came, we were held prisoners by the law, locked up until faith should be revealed. So the law was put in charge to lead us to Christ that we might be justified by faith. Now that faith has come, we are no longer under the supervision of the law.—Gal 3:23-25 The law acts as a supervisor to bring us to Christ, but it is powerless to carry us any further, and it is only by faith that we can enter into or live the resurrection life.
You foolish Galatians! Who has bewitched you? Before your very eyes Jesus Christ was clearly portrayed as crucified. I would like to learn just one thing from you: Did you receive the Spirit by observing the law, or by believing what you heard? Are you so foolish? After beginning with the Spirit, are you now trying to attain your goal by human effort? Have you suffered so much for nothing—if it really was for nothing? Does God give you his
Spirit and work miracles among you because you observe the law, or because you believe what you heard?—Gal 3:1-4
The resurrection life is a matter of faith and development.
We trust God for it, and he develops it in us.
How do people get delivered from the foolishness of childhood? Not by being commanded to give it up, but by growing out of it. When I was a child, I used to think that grown-up people wanted to play as much as I did, only there was a law against it. I thought this law came into effect at a certain age, and I pitied all the people who had reached this age, and dreaded growing old myself, because the sad time was
The Resurrection Life of the Believer / 171 drawing nearer for me. But when I had reached maturity, I found there was no law needed, for the desire to play was gone;
I had outgrown childish things.
When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I put childish ways behind me.—1 Cor 13:11
And just so it is in this resurrection life. Our souls at first dread to enter upon it, because we are afraid of its demands.
We want to keep our playthings, and our childish amusements.
But as the divine life is developed, and the soul becomes more and more mature, it finds that the "childish ways" drop off of themselves. The resurrection life "puts them behind us" not because it must, but because it wants to, because it has outgrown them.
Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come!—2 Cor 5:17
This is all true to faith. But we must make it true in experience also; and here comes the struggle.
For we know that our old self was crucified with him so that the body of sin might be rendered powerless, that we should no longer be slaves to sin....
In the same way, count yourselves dead to sin but alive to God in Christ Jesus.—Rom 6:6, 11 You, however, did not come to know Christ that way. Surely you heard of him and were taught in him in accordance with the truth that is in Jesus. You were taught, with regard to your former way of life, to put off your old self, which is being corrupted by its deceitful desires; to be made new in the attitude of your minds; and to put on the new self, created to be like God in true righteousness and holiness.—Eph 4:20-24 We must "count" ourselves to be dead and alive again, by faith, on the authority of God's word, which declares that we are. We must "put off" our old self by faith, and "put on" the
172 / The Open Secret new self by faith also. And then we are to make this practical, by dying continually to the self-life, and by living only and always in the resurrection life. We must say with Paul, "I am crucified with Christ; nevertheless I live; and yet not I, but Christ lives in me"; and we must then act this out practically whenever the occasion arises. Our faith "counts" it, and the Lord enables us to make it real.
The faith that you can take a train and reach your destination in three days if only you buy your ticket, is a very different thing from the actual experience of the train ride itself. Andin like manner, the faith, that in Christ you are already dead and risen, is a very different thing from the daily experience of "carrying in the body the death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be manifested in our bodies." The one is a step of faith, the other is a /f¢ of faith. The one may be momentary, the other must be lifelong.
Itell you the truth, unless a kernel of wheat falls to the ground and dies, it remains only a single seed. But if it dies, it produces many seeds. The man who loves his life will lose it, while the man who hates his life in this world will keep it for eternal life. —Jn 12:24-25
There is no other way. The kernel of wheat must abide forever alone in itself, unless it die; and the soul must also. To "remain only a seed" in this sense means the awful solitude of the self-life, shut up to self, bounded and limited by self. What solitude could be more awful! But "if it dies it produces many seeds" and, therefore, much fruit. The resurrection life is abundant in fruit.
Joseph is a wonderful type of this resurrection life. It is a life which, from the first, dreams of victory and dominion over the things of time and sense; but which can only attain to this dominion through suffering. In a dream God revealed
Joseph's future kingship to him.
Joseph had a dream, and when he told it to his brothers, they hated him all the more. He said to them, "Listen to this dream I
The Resurrection Life of the Believer / 173 had: We were binding sheaves of grain out in the field when suddenly my sheaf rose and stood upright, while your sheaves gathered around mine and bowed down to it."
His brothers said to him, "Do you intend to reign over us? Will you actually rule us?" And they hated him all the more because of his dream and what he had said.—Gn 37:5-8
His brethren hated him and called him a "dreamer." And souls that have hada sight of this resurrection life, and venture to speak of it, will often be hated also and called "mystics," and "dreamers"; and perhaps not even their brethren in the church will understand them.
If the world hates you, keep in mind that it hated me first. If you belonged to the world, it would love you as its own. As it is, you do not belong to the world, but I have chosen you out of the world.
That is why the world hates you. Remember the words I spoke to you: "no servant is greater than his master."
—Jn 15:18-20 (Gn 37:19; Jn 17:14) Joseph's exaltation and victory were sure to come, for God had declared it; but the road to them was by the way of trial, and suffering, and loss. It led through the pit, and through slavery, and through imprisonment in Egypt.
And they took him and threw him into the cistern. Now the cistern was empty; there was no water in it.
—Gn 37:24 (Gn 37:28; 39:20) Through emptying to fullness, through abasement to exaltation, is always the way in this resurrection life. This is a necessity in the very nature of things.
If the butterfly life is to be born, the caterpillar life must die.
The flesh-man must be put to death, if the spirit-man is to live.
This is the explanation of the trial and suffering and loss that come to us all, as we advance in the divine life.
Whoever finds his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life for my sake will find it.—Mt 10:39 (Lk 9:24; Gal 15:24)
174 / The Open Secret Through all its trials, the resurrection life reigns triumphant. It conquers by yielding, and reigns by serving. Joseph was a king, even in slavery or in prison.
The Lord was with Joseph and he prospered, and he lived in the house of his Egyptian master. When his master saw that the Lord was with him and that the Lord gave him success in everything he did... .—Gn 39:2-3 The Lord was with him; he showed him kindness and granted him favor in the eyes of the prison warden.—Gn 39:21
Blessed are the poor in spirit, / for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.... / Blessed are the meek, / for they will inherit the earth.
.../ Blessed are those who are persecuted because of righteousness, / for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
—Mtr 5:3, 5, 10 (Mt 5:11-12; Gn 39:4-6, 22-23; Mk 10:42-45) Joseph's exaltation came at last, and the only road which could have brought him there, was through the very trials that had seemed as if they must crush him. God was in them all, and made out of each a chariot to carry him onward.
Then Pharaoh said to Joseph, "Since God has made all this known to you, there is no one so discerning and wise as you. You shall be in charge of my palace, and all my people are to submit to your orders. Only with respect to the throne will I be greater than you."—Gn 41:39-40 Then Joseph said to his brothers, "Come close to me." When they had done so, he said, "I am your brother Joseph, the one you sold into Egypt! And now, do not be distressed and do not be angry with yourselves for selling me here, because it was to save lives that God sent me ahead of you. .
.. But God sent me ahead of you to preserve for you a remnant on earth and to save your lives by a great deliverance.
So then, it was not you who sent me here, but God. He made me father to Pharaoh, lord of his entire household and ruler of all
Egypt.—Gn 45:4-5, 7-8 (Gn 41:41-44) "God sent me." Yes, through these very trials and apparent losses, God was leading his child onward to the fulfillment of
The Resurrection Life of the Believer / 175 his early dreams. And the soul now, that bows itself meekly to the yoke of trial and misunderstanding, and holds a steadfast faith through all, will find at last, as Joseph did, that these very trials have been God's chariots which have borne it intriumph to its longed-for exaltations. "if we suffer with Christ we shall also reign with him."
But rejoice that you participate in the sufferings of Christ, so that you may be overjoyed when his glory is revealed. If you are insulted because of the name of Christ, you are blessed, for the Spirit of glory and of God rests on you.
—1 Pr 4:13-14 (2 Cor 1:5-7) The soul that suffers shall also reign. The things of time and sense shall be put under our feet, and we shall walk in the power of the resurrection life, as conquerors, through the very places where before we have been slaves and prisoners.
Joseph named his firstborn Manasseh and said, "It is because God has made me forget all my trouble and all my father's household."
The second son he named Ephraim and said, "it is because God has made me fruitful in the land of my suffering."
—Gn 41:51-52 Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall trouble or hardship or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword? As it is written:
"For your sake we face death all day long; / we are considered as sheep to be slaughtered." / No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us.
—Rom 8:35-37 It is only the resurrection life that can be "more than conqueror" in a world like this. And who would not willingly and gladly lose his own self-life in order to find such an all-conquering life as this?
Consent then to die. Do not seek to improve or make more beautiful the caterpillar life, for no amount of beauty or improvement can turn the caterpillar into the butterfly. The transition can only come through death. Let the old self-life
176 / The Open Secret die then, that the new and risen life, that life which is hid with Christ in God, may have free scope to grow and develop. For thus and thus only shall you be able practically and triumphantly to be raised as Christ was raised, to "live a new life."