As birth is the entrance into natural life, and as dying is the entrance
into a state of death, so resurrection, though itself “one act at once,”
is in reality the entrance into a new and heavenly life. Birth, dying,
resurrection are important not as completed acts, but as acts of transition
into something that lies beyond. They are the three gates which men
must pass on the heavenly journey. Thus the Sunday of the Resurrection
leads on to the Sunday of the Risen Life, both Christ’s and ours in Christ,
Who “being raised from the dead dieth no more.” (Rom. vi. 9.)
THE EPISTLE. (1 S. John v. 4.) RISEN
LIFE IN CHRIST.
The power for Risen Life comes from union with our Risen Saviour.
A. The Victory of Life.
The Christian has to war a constant warfare against the world around
him, its temptations, evil example, and its indifference to spiritual realities.
He can only overcome the world by a life and energy from a higher source;
he must be "born from above." It is not enough to receive Christ
as a teacher come to reveal a higher and better mode of living, for thus
we should only possess a higher standard than others without the power
to rise to it, but, when we believe that our Teacher is the Son of God,
"His commandments are not grievous," for with the commandment we may look
for the grace, and with the example of life the power to live. Thus
believing that Jesus is the Son of God, we are born of God and receive
power to overcome the world.
B. The Bringer of Life.
Our Lord came "that we might have life, and have it more abundantly."
This double benefit is mystically described by S. John as "the water and
the blood," with evident reference both to the two Sacraments and to S.
John xix. 34.
(1) He Came with the Water.
Our Lord came to cleanse us by the washing of water (1 Cor. vi. 11,
and Eph. v. 25, 26) from our sins, water being both the natural and revealed
symbol of spiritual cleansing. By baptism for the remission of sins
we are relieved from guilt, and every remission of sins after baptism is
only the renewal of the grace then given. Baptism is also the initial
sacrament of life, "the laver of regeneration" (Titus iii. 5), since by
baptism we are incorporated into the living body of Christ and are grafted
into the living Vine, and as such are taken into covenant with God, being
baptized into the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost (S. Matt.
xxviii. 19). This baptismal position is the consequence of our Lord's
death, Who shed out of His most precious side both water and blood.
(2) He Came with the Blood.
Most emphatically S. John adds: "Not by the water only, but by the water
and the blood."
"The blood is the life" (Gen. ix. 4), and the offering of blood was
intended to figure the offering not of death, but of life (Levit.
xvii. 14).
We need, therefore, not merely the new birth of water, but something
higher and yet more vital. Having received life, we need it "more
abundantly" (S. John x. 10).
This is expressed also in the word used for our appropriation of life--we
are to be washed in the water, but to drink the blood (S. John vi.
54); "He that drinketh My blood hath eternal life," and similar passages.
It is to be remembered that everywhere "the blood is the life," the
life of the Risen and Ascended Lord, and partaking of the blood we abide
in the living Christ and He in us.
This is the closest communion with Christ, Who is our life, possible
here on earth. We are not to be satisfied with the lower life of
the water, but to desire both "the water and the blood," sin's "double
cure."
C. The Witnesses of Life.
Omitting the interpolated verse 7 (cf. R.V.) the connection of
thought is plain, viz., that the life imparted by the Spirit, the
Water, and the Blood is the perpetual witness to the Son of God.
The life of the Church is the evidence for the claims of her Master.
This testimony is not the witness of men, but the witness of God in men,
and yet comes through men, for each believer has the witness in him.
As life proceeds from life, so the Risen Christian proves a Risen Christ
to be the source of his Christianity, and the growth of the Church is an
ever-increasing witness to Christ, a perpetual miracle.
For the above interpretation cf. Chrysostom (Hom. 85).
"The Church consisteth of these two together, and those who are initiated
know this, being regenerated by water and nourished by the Blood and Flesh.
Hence the Sacraments take their beginning."
THE GOSPEL. (S. JOHN xx. 19.)
THE RISEN LIFE
OF THE CHURCH.
A. The Life as Manifested to the Church.
Our Lord, already manifested to individuals, to Mary Magdalene, to the
women, to S. Peter and the two disciples going to Emmaus, is now manifested
to the body of the official leaders of His Church. He came with a
message of reconciliation. They had sinned against Him, but He returned
not in anger, but with pardon. He had dismissed their sin from His
memory, let them do the same, accepting His message of Peace.
He came bringing the sure conviction of Faith, proving not only that
He was alive, but that He was the same Jesus which had been crucified.
The wounds of the faithless are the confirmation of the faithful.
He came bringing joy with Him--"then were the disciples glad when they
saw the Lord."
Faith, peace, and joy (Rom. xv. 13) are the heritage of the Church,
the very life by which it lives and by which it overcomes the world.
B. The Life as Manifested by the Church.
The Church has received Life in order that it may be the channel of
Life to the world. That it may do this it has received:--
(1) A Divine Commission.
This commission is as divine as that of our Lord, of which it is the
extension. It was given not to individuals, but to a society, a visible
body of disciples assembled in one place. Christ said not "I send
a book or a doctrine," but "I send you." The disciples made up the
Church, but they did not make it; Christ made it. By belonging to
this body men become Christians, and are distinct and separate from the
world as within closed doors. They go forth to represent Christ to
the world as His Body.
(2) A Divine Life.
Our Lord breathed His own Spirit of Life into the Church, that as there
was one body, so there might be one Spirit; and that as there was a commission,
so there might not be wanting power to carry it out. The Spirit was
given primarily to the Church, and to individuals as members of the Church
and Body of Christ, even as the Sacraments were given to the Church that
the individual might find his life by losing it in a life greater than
his own. Thus the Church has received the Spirit, the Water, and
the Blood for the life of the world.
(3) A Divine Authority.
The Church was not only sent and commissioned, but invested with authority,
and has the sanction of Christ to represent Him among men as the giver
and withholder of pardon, and, as His ambassador, to declare His terms.
This power, inherent in the Church, is exercised by the ministry, and is
connected with the gift of the Holy Ghost.
THE COLLECT.
A Reformation Collect, fitly closing the Easter Octave, and peculiarly
suited to the case of those baptized on Easter Day.
A. The Life of Justification.
This is ours through the death and Resurrection of Christ, which proclaimed
the sufficiency of that death (Rom. iv. 24, 25), and has been conveyed
to us individually by the water of baptism.
B. The Life of Sanctification.
We pray to our Almighty Father that He would grant us to keep a perpetual
Easter, putting away the leaven of malice and wickedness and serving in
pureness of living and truth (cf. 1 Cor. v. 8). This is the
life of sanctification which is ours through the blood of Jesus, which
"cleanseth us from all sin."
These are not two lives, but one life in two stages and degrees, and
both are ours "in Christ."
