the son of man had it.

Heaven and man were connected in the person of Christ. If man out of Christ—as al yet were had not, in any sense, entered there, stil there was one who was, in His person, the Revealer of that which was heavenly. But how could man—whe could not, even if a teacher of Israel, understand the reality of the new nature (even as needed for the known earthly things), for he thought in the old nature-understand heavenly things? But this brought out another truth, the necessary door of what was heavenly; but if so, it is the open door to everyone that should believe. Not only was it necessary to be born again, even for earthly blessings, but there were further counsels of God.

The son of man,-for Jesus was more than Messiah,must, in the counsels of God and in the need of man, be lifted up, rejected from this earth. But this lifting up was His rejection by the world. Christ could not, for man was a sinner, take His place as Messiah in blessing to Israel. He was to suffer in the character, in which He had to say to all men: "As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness" (ver. 14), so, instead of a living Messiah, they were to have a rejected, dying Son of man. The cross was healing, saving, power for man Whoever believed in Him would not perish, but have everlasting life-for God so loved the world-an immense truth then, which opened the way to the fullest display of God and of grace, if one should not rather say it was such. It was an efficacious work of God (not to fulfil prophetic promises merely), but, to bring to God, "that whosoever believed in Him" (this Son of man), "should have everlasting life." It was needed. Atonement must be made,-Redemption must be accomplished, if sinful man was to have to say to a Holy God. If there was a revelation of the divine nature, and man's partaking of it was connected with his having to say to God, there must be atonement as well as a new birth; the Son of man, He who, as man, was to have, in man's nature, the inheritance of all things, and who took up man's cause, must be lifted up, like the Serpent in the wilderness, made sin for us, that men might look

upon Him and live. This met the need of man, but it was only one side of the truth. When men rest here they see what meets the holy nature and judgment of God, but God stands as a holy Judge; nor does this, therefore, give full liberty to the soul. It is the propitiatory, the needed, side of Christ's death. But how did this come about? It was that God so loved the world, that the Son of man, who must be lifted up, was the Son of God, whom He had given in love. God so loved that He gave. Thus, though propitiation was needed, love was the source of all. The holiness of God's nature, His righteous judgment, maintained as regards sin,-but His love manifested. The son of man was son of God. Both with a view to one wondrous object-that sinful man, whosoever believed in Jesus should have eternal life. This was the final test of man, too. We have thus the nature of God revealed; and a twofold work wrought, which, while it fits man to enjoy that nature by his being born of it,-glorifies it too in all its character; so that the gift of Eternal Life maintains and displays the love and holiness and righteousness of God. And this is what is essential and blessed. But the full, peculiar, dispensed character of this, as wrought out in grace, is not brought out here; and it is this which I would now endeavour to bring out, the gracious Lord helping me.

If the Son of man was lifted up, died to bring us to God, where and how is life? It is in resurrection. This, too, leads us to another important element of truth. If risen-I am risen from the dead. I have died in Christ. This we shall see has a double character. I may look at myself as having no spiritual life; hence as dead in trespasses and sins; or I may look at myself as alive in sin and the flesh, and then I speak of having died to it. Christ could speak of a new nature needed in order to enter the kingdom; bat He could not then call on any one to reckon himself dead. He could connect that nature with God directly in the statement of what it was, and what He was; and that was peculiarly suited, as is evident, to His person, a divine revealer of what He knew and of man's partaking of the divine nature.

This was, indeed, the excellent part. But for our deliverance, another truth was to be connected with this: the death and resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ. We receive Christ as our life when He has died and risen. He is a life-giving spirit. Because He lives, we live. He is our life; that eternal life which was with the Father and was manifested to us. But, for sinners to have-righteously, and according to God-part in this, Christ. must make the propitiation, must die. died to sin once; and, now, alive in resurrection, lives to God. We receive Him through the Spirit in our hearts, and have life. "This is the record: that God hath given to us Eternal life, and this life is in His Son. He that hath the Son hath life; and he that hath not the Son of God hath not life" (verses 11, 12). But He whom we receive is the Dead and risen One, our Life,the true "I" in which I say of sin: this is no longer I. "I am crucified with Christ; nevertheless, I live; yet not I but Christ liveth in me." This is the life of Christ as risen from the Dead, in us the power of life in resurrection. We are alive, for faith, only in and by Him, though the flesh be in point of fact there. Yet I do not own it as alive and part of myself, but only as an enemy which I have to overcome. Thus in Romans vii., we find: "When we were in the flesh" (ver. 5); in Romans viii.: "Ye are not in the flesh, but in the Spirit, if so be that the Spirit of God dwell in you" (ver. 9). Many other passages illustrative of this point will come before us in pursuing our subject.

I have said, that this view of the divine life in resurrection comes before us in two ways in Scripture. Man may be viewed either as alive in sin; or, as dead in sin. His flesh is alive and active as regards evil; it is utterly dead as regards God;-not one movement of soul in the natural man towards Him. The epistle to the Romans presents the former view; that to the Ephesians the latter. They coalesce in presenting the man as risen with Christ-though the epistle to the Romans barely reaches this ground-but just touches on it. Their

epistle teaches fully Christ's being raised by God the Father, but only just touches on our being alive to God.

The Ephesians saw, as regards the doctrine of their epistle on this point, Christ as dead, and the sinner dead in sin (ii. 1); and both raised up together. This flows from Christ's being seen exalted on high and the church united to Him. Man is not contemplated doctrinally as wickedly living in sin (although the fact is recognized); but, in the full apprehension of his state in relation to God-he is dead in sin. And the whole condition of the church is the result of the same power being exercised in raising Christ Himself, and every believer spiritually (chap. i. and ii.).

In the epistle to the Romans, Christ is seen risen from the dead, but not ascended (save an allusion in one. verse of viii), because the object is to show the putting away of the old state, and the introduction in life and justification into the new,—not the glorious results, save in hope. Man's guilt is largely proved. Christ has died for us; but Christ has risen also, for our justification; we are justified,-dead to sin and alive to God,-delivered from the Law.

The epistle to the Colossians is between the two in doctrine. It views man as living in sin, but the Christian as having died and as now quickened with Christ. Our new nature there, as born of God, takes, when our condition is fully displayed, the character of our having lied and risen again with Christ, and even of our sitting n heavenly places in Him.

But my object now is: our condition in life. Let us ecall, that Christ, as thus risen, is our life. The work of tonement must have been accomplished, or no sinner could have been united with Him. He could have given no life according to God to any. The corn of vheat would have abode alone. Not that life and the bower of life was not in Him, but that the righteousness f God would have been in abeyance.

But that work has been accomplished; and now, Christ-not the first Adam-is my life as a believer. But hen I say: When I was in the flesh. I am not in the esh, but in the Spirit. The first Adam in his sin and esponsibility is not my standing before God at all; but he second, Who has become my life. I am in Him as

my righteousness: He is in me as my life. Now, I say: I have died to sin; I am crucified with Christ; I am alive to God through Jesus Christ. "In that He died. He died unto sin once; but in that he liveth, He liveti unto God. Likewise reckon ye also yourselves" (Rom. vi. 10, 11). This is what Paul insists on in the sixth chapter of the epistle to the Romans. "We were baptized into His death" (ver. 3); "planted together ir the likeness of his death" (ver. 5). We are dead to sin. "If we be dead with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with Him" (ver. 8). Hence (for, as I said, the apostle only just touches this ground), we are to reckon ourselves alive to God through Him (ver 11). So in the epistle to the Galatians, Christ livet! in me" (chap. ii. 20), "the spirit is life because of righteousness" (Rom. viii. 10). But we are not said to be risen with Him.

And remark in the elements, even, of this doctrine. necessarily from its very nature-we are not called to die to sin. No such thought is in Scripture. We are called upon, as alive in Christ, to mortify every move ment of sin; but not to die to it. We are alive in Christ who has died, and we are viewed as dead; and called upon to view ourselves as dead, because Christ who is our life, has died. "I am crucified with Christ (Gal. ii. 20). "They that are Christ's have crucified the flesh" (chap. v. 24). "Reckon yourselves to be dead" (Rom. vi. 11). "You have been planted together in the likeness of His death" (ver. 5); "buried with Him unt death" (ver. 4). "Ye are dead" (Col. iii. 3). Such is the uniform language of Scripture. All the sentimental talk about crucifying being a lingering death, is the setting aside the plain and imperative sense of these passages. "I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me" (Gal. ii. 201 We have died in Christ; that is the doctrine of Scrip

ture.

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The epistles to the Galatians, the Romans, and the Colossians, etc., all alike teach this and press it on Christians. I am wholly delivered from the whole system in which I lived as alive in the flesh. So the