We are not told in what language he spoke. But it was human speech, of the same nature as that which Saul heard on the Damascus road. More than that, in this chapter there is a careful delineation between what is actual description and what is to be understood as figures of speech.
Even this is not the end. The Bible tells us of the future coming of Jesus to the earth, and describes this visible coming in terms that have to do with space and time and history. This is future to us still, but it is nevertheless space-timeness:
"And I saw heaven opened, and behold a white horse; and he that sat upon him was called Faithful and True, and in righteousness he doth judge and make war. His eyes were as a flame of fire, and on his head were many crowns; and he had a name written, that no man knew, but he himself. And he was clothed with a vesture dipped in blood: and his name is called The Word of God. And the armies which were in heaven followed him upon white horses, clothed in fine linen, white and clean. And out of his mouth goeth a sharp sword, that with it he should smite the nations: and he shall rule them with a rod of iron: and he treadeth the winepress of the fierceness and wrath of Almighty God. And he hath on his vesture and on his thigh a name written, KING OF KINGS, AND LORD OF LORDS" (Revelation 19:11-16).
Again there is a spaceness here, because we are told the place: Armageddon, that is, the mountain of Migiddo (Revelation 16:16). The place where he later comes and touches the earth is spoken of in the Old Testament: it is the Mount of Olives (Zechariah 14:4). At each point it is the same. The glory and wonder of Christ is not pushed off into a world that is "other" than our own. In each of these cases, intriguingly enough, there is identification of space, identification of time. There is a real, historic death of Jesus Christ. There is a real, historic resurrection. And there is a real, historic future glorification that is meaningful in terms of space, time, and history: our own space, time, and history.
The Bible says that the day will come when both saved and unsaved men will look upon the glorified Christ. They will see him. Every man will see him, not as a religious idea, but glorified, in a real space-time situation. But these passages not only say that he will be so, but that he is so now. The glorification of the Lord Jesus Christ is not pushed off only into a future moment when he shall be seen by all men. It is not pushed off into that great moment when he shall come in glory and we are told every knee shall bow. He is glorified now. The ascension was not a disappearance into a nothingness, into the world of mere religious ideas. Between his ascension from the Mount of Olives, and his appearance on the Damascus road he did not cease to be. And again there was not a great void into which he disappeared from the time of his appearance on the Damascus road until John saw him on the isle of Patmos. This is Jesus as he is now. He is so glorified, at this present moment.
As we cgntemplate these things, several things must immediately come before us. First of all, as we consider Jesus speaking in the Hebrew tongue, on the Damascus road, and appearing to John and speaking to him on the isle of Patmos, we have here clear proof of an historic resurrection of Jesus Christ. But there is much more than this. This physical resurrection is the proof of the finished work of Jesus Christ on the cross, proof that the work is really done, that nothing need be added to his glorious substitutionary work for our justification.
But even this does not exhaust the matter. We are told in the Word of God, by the apostle Paul, that in Christ's resurrection we see the promise, the first fruits, of our own coming physical resurrection. What we see him to be after his resurrection, Paul insists, we shall be. When I consider the resurrection of Jesus Christ, not merely in the world of religious ideas or ideals, but in the world of space and time and reality, I have the promise from the hand of God himself that I will be so raised from death. This body is so much of myself, in the total personality-the whole man-and it will not be left behind in the salvation which is brought forth through Jesus Christ. His death on the cross is of such a nature that the whole man will be redeemed. In one specific day, the Christian's body will be raised from death, like Christ's risen body, glorified.
But there is more even than this. The reality, the spacetimeness of the physical resurrection of Jesus Christ means something to us also today: "What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin that grace may abound?" (Paul is not talking about some far-off time, he is talking about the redeemed in the present circumstances.) "God forbid. How shall we, that died to sin, live any longer therein? Know ye not, that so many of us as were baptized into Jesus Christ were baptized into his death? Therefore we were buried with him by baptism into death; in order that like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also may walk in newness of life. For if we have been united with him in the likeness of his death, we shall be also in the likeness of his resurrection: knowing this, that our old man was crucified with him, in order that the body of sin might be made powerless, that henceforth we should not serve sin. For he that is dead is freed from sin. Now, if we died with Christ, we believe we shall also live with him: knowing that Christ being raised from the dead dieth no more; death hath no more dominion over him. For in that he died, he died unto sin once for all: but in that he liveth, he liveth unto God. Likewise reckon ye also yourselves to be dead indeed unto sin, but alive unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord. Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body, that ye should obey it in the lusts thereof" (Romans 6:1-12).
Let us carefully notice some points here.
First, Christ died in history. That is the point we have been making. He died in space, time, history. If you had been there that day, you could have taken your hand and rubbed it across the rough wood of the cross of Jesus Christ you could have got a splinter in your hand from the cross.
Second, Christ rose in history, and we have made a strong point of this, too. Christ rose and he was glorified, in history.
This is the exact opposite of the liberal theology, which speaks of the kerygma, that we make Jesus the Christ when we preach him. Nothing could be further from the truth. It is a total denial of the wonder of the teaching of the Bible. We do not make Jesus the Christ when we preach him. Jesus is the Christ, whether we preach him or not. Men may not know the wonder of the gospel if we do not preach it. But our failure to preach cannot change the fact of the Person or the glory of the Lord Jesus Christ. On this present day he is raised, he is glorified. If no one preached Jesus Christ today, and no one thought once even of the word "God," it would make no difference whatsoever to the fact that Jesus is the Christ. He rose in history, he is glorified now. And this word of his resurrection, of his present glory, has meaning in our present spacetime world.
Third, we died with Christ when we accepted him as Savior. If I have accepted Christ as Savior, this is now a past thing in history. The individual Christian's salvation is rooted in two space-time historic points. The first is the finished work of Jesus on the cross of Calvary, and the second is the point of time when, by the grace of God, the individual accepted Jesus Christ as Savior. Here are two space-time points upon which our salvation rests. And if I have accepted Jesus as my Savior, in the past, then Paul can speak concerning me: "Therefore being justified [in the past] by faith, we have [in the present] peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ" (Romans 5:1). This is clearly the thrust of the whole statement, from the tenses of the Greek text.
In Romans 6:2, this is connected in such a way: "God forbid. How shall we, that died to sin, live any longer therein?'
The verb "died" is in the aorist tense. When we accepted Christ as our Savior, in God's sight we died with Christ. "Therefore we were buried with him by baptism into death" (Romans 6:4a). That refers to the time when we accepted Jesus as our Savior. "Knowing this, that our old man was crucified with him" (6:6a). So here we have the third historic point. Christ died in history; Christ rose in history; we died with Christ when we accepted him as Savior. This too is an historic thing. It is something that happened (past tense) at a poin
t of history.
The fourth point is that we will be raised by him as he was raised. And this will be a point of future history. The clock keeps going. And when the Christian is raised from death, the great trumpet sounds, the word is spoken and every Christian comes forth from the grave at the command of Jesus Christ; the clock on the wall will not stop, it will still turn. The clock is almost ready to strike three as I write this. It is conceivable that Jesus will come before five past. If such is the case, the clock on the wall will not stop turning. At ten past, the clock will still run on. This is the biblical picture. The future resurrection, with this present body, and our future changing will take place in a twinkling of an eye: in history, in space-time, true history.
"For if we have been united with him in the likeness of his death, we shall be also in the likeness of his resurrection" (Romans 6:5).
This truly refers to his resurrection, but "resurrection" is the emphasized thought. In the Greek, the "his" is left out; the emphasis is upon resurrection. "We shall be" (future) "in the likeness of resurrection."
"Now if we died with Christ we believe we shall also live with him" (Romans 6:8).
This is the future tense. We died with Christ when we accepted him as Savior in history. We will be raised physically or changed in the twinkling of an eye in a moment of history.
But that is not all. There is more here, a fifth point. These great truths are to be brought down into the area of present Christian life, and true spirituality. The Bible says that in the present life we are in practice to live by faith as though we are dead now. "For in that he died, he died unto sin once for all: but in that he liveth he liveth unto God. Likewise reckon" (this is an act of faith) "ye also yourselves to be dead indeed unto sin" (Romans 6:10, 11a).
As Jesus died in history, and once for all was dead to sin, so now we are called in faith to count ourselves dead, in practice, at this present moment of history; not in some far-off world of religious ideas, but in reality, at this moment on the clock. By faith we are to live now as though we have already died.
But even that is not all. If it were, it would include only the two words, rejected and slain. But the words are rejected, slain, and raised: raised, not just as an idea of future physical resurrection, though that will be real and future to every Christian, but as a present thing. So the sixth point is that we are to live by faith now, in the present history, as though we had been raised already from death. That is the message of the Christian life. That is the basic consideration we are discussing. "Therefore we were buried with him by baptism into death: in order that as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also may walk in newness of life" (Romans 6:4).
Paul is not speaking here of the future millennium or eternity; that is a different thing altogether. It is now: "May walk in newness of life." "Knowing this, that our old man was crucified with him, in order that the body of sin might be made powerless, that henceforth we should not serve sin" (Romans 6:6). How? By faith: "Likewise reckon ye also yourselves to be dead indeed unto sin, but alive unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord" (Romans 6:11).
When? Right now! This is the basic consideration of the Christian life. First, Christ died in history. Second, Christ rose in history. Third, we died with Christ in history, when we accepted him as our Savior. Fourth, we will be raised in history, when he comes again. Fifth, we are to live by faith now as though we were now dead, already have died. And sixth, we are to live now by faith as though we have now already been raised from the dead.
Now what does this mean in practice, so that it will not be just words going over our heads? First of all it certainly means this: that in our thoughts and lives now we are to live as though we had already died, been to heaven, and come back again as risen.
Remember, at least one man has gone there and come back. Paul speaks of such a man in 2 Corinthians 12:2-4. I think it was Paul himself, but whether it was Paul or another, certainly there was such a man.
"I knew a man in Christ above fourteen years ago (whether in the body I cannot tell; or whether out of the body, I cannot tell: God knoweth;) such an one was caught up to the third heaven."
Paul is saying that this man went to heaven; he was caught up in the third heaven. The third heaven is used here in the sense of the presence of God. It does not necessarily mean far off, but the presence of God. The point is that this man was caught up into heaven, and then he came back.
Can't you imagine this man as he came back from heaven? He had seen it as a propositional truth, as a brute fact. He had been there, and looked at it, and then had come back. Would anything ever have looked the same to him again? It is as though he had died. It is as though he had been raised from the dead. Just as the Mount of Transfiguration gives us a different perspective when we are in the perspective of the Kingdom of God, how different this man's perspective would have been all his life. The constant pressure to conform to the world about us, the social pressure and every other kind of pressure of our day-surely it would have been broken. How could he conform to this, which is so marred, so broken, so caught up in revolution against God, so disgusting? How could he, in comparison with what he had seen? What would the praise of the world be worth when one had stood in the presence of God? The wealth of the world, what would it look like beside the treasures of heaven? Man longs for power. But what is earthly power after one has seen the reality of heaven and the power of God? All things would look different. Surely all of this is involved in the statement that we are to live by faith now, as though we had already died, and already been raised from the dead.
But Romans 6 does not leave it here, as though we are merely projecting our imaginations. There is more to it than this. "For in that he died, he died unto sin once for all; but in that he liveth, he liveth unto God" (Romans 6:10). Jesus Christ lives indeed in the presence of the Father. This is where we are called to live. We are to be dead in this present life! Dead both to good and bad, in order to be alive to the presence of God. Yes, even to good. We are to be dead-not unconscious, not locked away in some darkness, but alive to God in communion with him, in communication with him. Our call to faith in this present life is that we should live as though dead to all things, that we might be alive to God.
This is what it means now, as I wrote earlier, to love God enough to be contented; to love him enough in the present world to say, "Thank you" in all the ebb and flow of life. When I am dead both to good and bad, I have my face turned towards God. And this is the place in which, by faith at the present moment of history, I am to be. When I am there, what am I? I am then the creature in the presence of the Creator, acknowledging that he is my Creator, and I am only a creature, nothing more. It is as though I am already in the grave, and already before the face of God.
But one more note needs to be sounded. We must not stop here! When through faith I am dead to all, and am face to face with God, then I am ready by faith to come back into this present world, as though I have already been raised from the dead. It is as though I anticipate that day when I will come back. I will be in that number, as will all who have accepted Jesus as Savior, when the heavens open, and we come back, following Jesus Christ in our resurrected, glorified bodies. And so now I am ready to come back as though back from the grave, as though the resurrection had already taken place, and step back into this present historic, space-time world. "Likewise reckon ye also yourselves to be dead indeed unto sin," (that is where I stopped before, but it does not stop there) "but alive unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord" (Romans 6:11). "Neither yield" (here is the faith) "ye your members" (that is, in the present world) "as instruments" (weapons, arms, tools) "of unrighteousness unto sin: but yield yourselves unto God, as those that are alive" (right now) "from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness unto God" (Romans 6:13). So what is the Christian calling, on the basis of all this?
It is a calling moment by moment to be dead to all things, that we might be alive to God at this
moment.
We must notice however that this is not a sheer passivity. Often, it seems to me, Christians have missed the whole point here, by relating this merely to some sort of passivity. But that would be simply a nonbiblical mysticism, not much more than the pagan stoic concept of Marcus Aurelius. That would be merely a resignation, the French word accepter. It is like the beast in the field that cannot move. But it is not this way in the Scriptures. I am still a man, made in the image of God. "Yield ye your members," commands Paul (Romans 6:13) - yield. It is not a state of passivity. You cannot bring forth the fruit, as we shall see later, but nevertheless you are not a figure of stone. God deals with you in the circle in which he made you, man in his own image.
"Know ye not, that to whom ye yield yourselves slaves to obey" (but you do the yielding) "his slaves ye are whom ye obey; whether of sin unto death, or of obedience unto righteousness? But God be thanked, that ye were the slaves of sin, but ye have obeyed from the heart that form of teaching" (there is a content involved here, not a mere existential experience) "which was delivered to you. Being then made free from sin, ye became the servants of righteousness. I speak after the manner of men because of the infirmity of your flesh: for as ye yielded your members slaves to uncleanness and to iniquity unto iniquity; even so now yield your members as slaves to righteousness unto holiness" (Romans 6:16-19).
Feel the force of the "activeness" in the midst of the passivity. "Yield yourselves": every man must be a creature. He can be nothing else but a creature in this life or in the life to come. Even in hell, men will still be creatures, because that is what we are. Only one is self-sufficient in himself, and he is God. But now as Christians we are introduced to the great reality: our calling is to be creatures in this high, tremendous, and glorious way, not because we must be, but by choice.
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