Living by Faith - Romans

The Power of His Resurrection

Professor: Dr. R.J. Rushdoony

Subject: Living by Faith

Lesson: 31-64

Genre: Talk

Track: 031

Dictation Name: RR311Q31

Location/Venue:

Year: ?

Let us worship God. The Lord is risen indeed, hallelujah. I am He that liveth, and was dead; saith the Lord Jesus Christ, and behold I am alive forever more, alleluia.

Let us pray. Glory be to Thee oh God the Father, who on this day did raise Thy Son Jesus Christ from the dead, and has made us partakers of His victory over sin and death. Glory be to Thee oh Lord Jesus Christ, who for our sakes became flesh, hast overcome death, and has opened up the gates of eternal life for us. All glory be to Thee oh Holy Spirit, who has made us Thy people, Thy temples, and who day by day dost lead us into all truth in Jesus Christ. We praise Thee, Father, Son, and Holy Ghost; and we rejoice that ours is the victory because of Jesus Christ, and that we are the people called to overcome all things in His name, and to be more than conquerors through Christ our Lord. In His name we pray, amen.

Our scripture this morning is from Romans 8:16-23, our subject: The Power of His Resurrection. 8:16-23. Romans 8:16-23.

“16 The Spirit itself beareth witness with our spirit, that we are the children of God:

17 And if children, then heirs; heirs of God, and joint-heirs with Christ; if so be that we suffer with him, that we may be also glorified together.

18 For I reckon that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us.

19 For the earnest expectation of the creature waiteth for the manifestation of the sons of God.

20 For the creature was made subject to vanity, not willingly, but by reason of him who hath subjected the same in hope,

21 Because the creature itself also shall be delivered from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the children of God.

22 For we know that the whole creation groaneth and travaileth in pain together until now.

23 And not only they, but ourselves also, which have the firstfruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, waiting for the adoption, to wit, the redemption of our body.”

For Saint Paul, history and eternity are very closely related. This is not only so in the obvious sense that the Godly go to heaven and the ungodly to hell, but also that the structures of our eternal life are developed in history, and that the movements of time and history climax in eternity. Very specifically, Paul tells us that the resurrection of Christ from the grave is our resurrection from the death of sin, that we are therefore the people of the resurrection, and that the whole of creation moves to its great redemption. This is the end of death and a resurrection world.

But in the process, as we move forward to that great event, one enemy of Christ after another shall be overcome Paul says in 1st Corinthians 15:23-27, until finally the only remaining enemy is death, and death itself shall be destroyed at His coming again.

In this text in verse 16, Paul declares that the Spirit itself beareth witness with our spirit that we are the children of God. We know that we belong to the world of the resurrection when the Holy Spirit bears witness with our spirit that we are Gods children. It is not simply our feeling which determines this, but the Holy Spirit who gives us new life, a new center, and a new focus. We have a security, knowing through the witness of the Spirit where we belong, because our hearts cry out, they thirst for the living God. We have a joint witness of the Spirit and our own spirit.

In verse 17, Paul goes on to speak of our joint heirship with Christ, we are co-heirs, “and if children, then heirs; heirs of God, and joint-heirs with Christ; if so be that we suffer with him, that we may be also glorified together.”

The first privilege of our adoption is that we can call Him Father, Abba Father. The second is that the Fathers wealth is made available to the children. But another aspect of our heirship is that we suffer with Christ. Paul says in 2 Timothy 2:11 “It is a faithful saying: For if we be dead with him, we shall also live with him:” and to live with Him is to be a partaker of the reproach of Christ, of the sufferings of Christ.

We face the hostility of the old world of Adam towards Jesus Christ, we face its reproaches because of our separation from it, so that as someone has said, it is a fixed law that when we are Christian there is a division whether we choose it or not; the world makes it, and we had better choose to stand with Christ.

In verse 18 Paul continues: “For I reckon that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us.” The struggles we now face do not compare with the glory which shall be revealed. This glory exists already in Jesus Christ; it shall also exist in us. Meanwhile there is a necessity for a struggle against a world in revolt against our Lord.

We have, Paul says in this chapter, three sources of comfort. First, in verses 18-25 he speaks of the hope of glory, then in verses 26-27 the present help of the Spirit, and third in verses 28 following, the all embracing purpose of God’s love and government. These, Paul says, should strengthen and comfort us.

Our suffering separates us from the world around us. The road to glory is marked by suffering. We suffer because we see the evil of the world, and it concerns us rather than pleases us as it does the ungodly, and because we are concerned for the future of those whom we love, and of the world.

Then we have a remarkable verse, 19: “For the earnest expectation of the creature waiteth for the manifestation of the sons of God.”

Now the word ‘manifestation’ is very literally in the Greek the word which we have in English: ‘Apocalypse.’ Apocalypse, revelation, uncovering, revealing. Now this is a strange thing, first Paul tells us all of nature has a bent, a direction, stronger than gravity, towards the new creation. If you throw a ball into the air it will come down, that is the force of gravity. Stronger than that is the bent, the drive of all creation, to the new creation. But there are millions, hundreds of millions of Christians; what are they waiting for? What is this revelation, this uncovering of the Christian? This is an important point, and it is a sad fact that in our day this verse has been neglected and its meaning forgotten.

Paul says that the sons of God have not yet revealed themselves. Their revelation is what they manifest in the way of fulfilling the Lords commandment, the mandate, the apocalypse of the sons of God. The early church worked to manifest, took seriously. For example, when we read the Venerable Bede and his life of saint Cuthbert, we are told of Cuthbert’s way as a bishop, and I quote: “He delivered the poor man from him that was too strong for him, the poor and the needy from him that despoiled him, he took care to comfort the sad and faint hearted, and to bring back those that delighted in evil to a Godly sorrow. He strictly maintained his old frugality, and took delight in preserving the rigors of the monastery amidst the pomp of the world. He fed the hungry, clothed the destitute, and had all the other marks of a perfect bishop.”

This was what it was to reveal the Christian. You went out to reach those who were lost, you helped the poor, the sick, the needy. You see that again for example in the lives of many another saint, but of Cuthbert Bede also said and I quote: “He cared for the poor, fed the hungry, clothed the naked, welcomed strangers, brought back captives, protected the widow and orphan also that he might win the reward of eternal life amid the choir of angels with Jesus Christ our Lord.”

Another one of the great early saints, Wilfred, when he was elected a bishop the people rejoiced saying: “We elect him in the prime of manhood to teach the law of God.” That was the role of a presbyter, of a bishop.

The apocalypse, the manifestation, the revelation of the sons of God, is their exercise of godly dominion over all things, bringing all things into captivity to Jesus Christ. It is wrong to sit back and wait for the second coming, we are to effect Gods apocalypse to the extent that He has given us powers in our particular domain.

In verse 20 Paul continues to develop this point, saying: “For the creature” (or creation) “was made subject to vanity, not willingly, but by reason of him who hath subjected the same in hope,”

Leenhardt some years ago beautifully stated the meaning of this verse, and I quote: “Since man has not fulfilled toward creation the ministry with which he was instructed, creation, for lack of guidance and control is not evolving toward the end that was assigned to it, it moves purposelessly in the void. Life leads nowhere except to corruption and death. Mataiotes stresses this futility of existence, it essential vacuity or lack of substance and meaning; it is man who is responsible for the subjection of creation to this condition, which is contrary to its destiny; for it is man who has failed to direct it towards its ultimate meaning.”

As a result the liberation of all creation awaits the apocalypse of man, man’s assumption of his dominion mandate. The word ‘corruption’ that Paul uses means in the Greek a state of decay, an inferior condition to the natural one. The natural condition of creation is stated in Genesis 1:31, when God finished creation He looked at it and pronounced it “Very Good.” Sin and death are unnatural in God’s creation, they are a deformation of it, and therefore to restore it is the work of Christ and of His kingdom.

Man, by pushing back the realm of sin and the power of sin and its darkness, increases the realm of life. As we extend the power and the sway of Jesus Christ, His regenerating, His sanctifying power, his reconstructing power, we push back the realm of sin, we increase the realm of life; until at the last, death itself is destroyed.

Calvin in writing on this passage, said that the whole of creation groans and travails, looking for that glorious day, because the whole of creation is to be resurrected, regenerated, restored. Now Calvin made this clear this included the animal creation, at the same time he warned anyone against pursuing the idea, because he did not believe that we should probe beyond the plain word of God, and start developing with our imagination more than it says. But he said very clearly, the whole of the animal creation, the whole of the creation, is to be resurrected.

Another commentator of a couple of centuries ago, Godet, said and I quote: “Paul does not say that nature will participate in the glory, but only in the liberty of the children of God. Liberty is one of the elements of their glorious estate.” He went on to say that this power which will be manifested, expresses the unchecked development of the free expression of all the powers of life, beauty, and perfection, wherewith this new creation will be endowed.

Moreover, Meyer, another commentator of old, said and I quote: “Observe how Paul has conceived the catastrophe of which he is speaking, not as the destruction of the world and a new creation, but in harmony with the prophetic announcements, especially those of Isaiah, as a transformation into a more perfect state. The passing away of the world is the passing away of its form, by which this transformation is conditioned, and in which according to Peter, fire will be the agent employed, and the hope, the tenor of which is specified, might in connection with a living personification be ascribed to all nature, as if it were conscious thereof, since the latter is destined to become the scene and surrounding of the glorified children of God.”

Now I’ve taken time to quote from some of these older writers for a reason. When the church was stronger and Christianity more powerful, they saw the implication of this verse. They saw the mandate, they saw the end as the culmination of a long process of victory by the people of God; they did not believe in just sitting back, waiting for the second coming, they realized that God required us to push back the work of sin in every area, and make the power of the resurrection known; and this is why they were more than conquerors, and why when people restricted the power of the resurrection to our Lords victory over the grave, and to the end and the second coming and the general resurrection, the church declined. It waned in power, because they had pushed the power of God out of this world in their thinking.

There is you see, as Meyer said, a vast difference between seeing the world only ending in destruction as against a transformation, a culmination of the regeneration of all things which began when Christ, the first fruits of them that sleep, arose from the dead.

Luther said of verse 21 that Paul says two things and I quote: “First, that the creation will be set free, namely from vanity, when the ungodly have been condemned and taken away, and when the old man has been destroyed. This liberation is now taking place every day in the lives of the saints. Second, that it will not only no longer be vain, but also it will not be subject to corruption in the future.” Paul says that all of creation groans and travails like a woman in childbirth, waiting for that glorious day, and looking to us, to our revelation of what it means to be a Christian, to our exercise of our dominion mandate. Creation is not to be superseded in the second coming, it is to find fulfillment together with us; and it is for this that the whole of creation groaneth and travaileth in pain together until now.

And in verse 23, Paul says: “And not only they, but ourselves also, which have the firstfruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, waiting for the adoption, to wit, the redemption of our body.”

We who are in the Spirit, we too long for the liberation of our whole being, and of the whole of creation, into the glory of the eternal. Our fullness comes with the resurrection of the body.

To cite Leenhardt again, he said: “It is not merely a question of the liberating power of death, it is a question of the redeeming action of God aimed at endowing humanity with a new status of existence, by bringing the believer to share in the power of Christ’s resurrection.”

Here and now, as well as at the end, we are to manifest the power of His resurrection. The power of Christ’s resurrection means that a redeeming force and people are now at work, working in history to bring all things into captivity to Christ; that we are, each of us, an apocalypse in process, a revelation occurring, a revelation of Gods glory, Gods dominion, Gods power; and all around us the natural world looks to man. It doesn’t have a mind, but it has in it something comparable, we can say to gravity, a force, that wants man to manifest himself in the dominion of God.

In brief, what Paul tells us is, that the scope of the resurrected Christ’s redeeming power is cosmic and eternal. Let us pray.

All glory be to Thee oh God, who has in Christ resurrected us from the death of sin, and given us the power of the resurrection, that we might be more than conquerors, bringing everything into captivity to Him who is our Lord. Give us grace day by day to be a walking apocalypse, a walking revelation of Thy power, Thy grace, Thy mercy, Thy regenerating stream of life. Bless us all to this purpose, and make us mighty and effectual in Thy kingdom, in Jesus name, amen.

Are there any questions now about our lesson? Yes John?

[John] I just wanted to speak of an incident that happened to me a week ago, we had some friends in visiting from Los Angeles, and this one lady is just recently graduated from a college, a Christian college, and we began to talk about Matthew 24, the Olivet Discourse, and various other kinds of things, and after I had talked for 45 minutes her mouth was hanging down in her chest because she had never heard a postmillennial eschatology expressed before, and she said: “You mean that you actually believe that we are going to survive the present day?” And it was incredible to see the impact of that particular teaching on her, and I said it was the power of the resurrection, that that was what the resurrection was all about; and it was incredible to see the impact of that teaching on this young lady, because I think she took five or six books out of my library, it may have cost me because she took several books out of my library, and I can’t tell, it just seems to me that the single most important thing that we have to convey to people in this day and age is hope, and I think in terms of the resurrection and the eschatology of the resurrection that that is probably one of the major keys of doing it, because most people don’t believe we are going to survive it.

[Rushdoony] Yes. They have an eschatology of the last things, but not an eschatology of the resurrection, and it is precisely that, that Paul is always stressing; and the fact that he should use the word apocalypse to describe our duty is most compelling. We are to be a revelation of the power of the resurrection. Yes?

[Audience Member] Isaiah 11:7 speaks of the lion eating strong like the ox, would this, I guess there are two parts to the question, first of all, is Isaiah speaking of a latter part of the millennium, or is he speaking of the new creation, and secondly in either case are we to interpret that or to understand that literally?

[Rushdoony] Yes, some have taken that to be literal, stating that just as in the Garden of Eden this was unquestionably true, before the end to some degree this will be true. Others say that it is symbolic of the peace that will prevail in some fashion. I would say the safest procedure is to take Calvin’s approach, that God makes a statement, we are to believe it, and recognize the peace that is to prevail, without going into the details to much because then we lose ourselves in peripheral things.

Are there any other questions or comments?

Well, if not let us bow our heads now for the benediction. Thy word is truth oh Lord, and Thy word is joy and peace and strength unto our hearts. We thank Thee that by Thy grace we have the blessed assurance of victory, that we have a calling to be an apocalypse, a revelation of Thy kingdom, and of Thy law word. Bless us to this purpose we beseech Thee.

And now go in peace, God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Ghost, bless you and keep you, guide and protect you, this day and always, amen.