Institutes of the Christian Religion (Vol. 2 of 2)
CHAPTER XXV.
THE FINAL RESURRECTION.
Though Christ, the Sun of Righteousness, after having
“abolished death,” is declared by Paul to have “brought life
and immortality to light,” shining upon us “through the gospel,”[600]
whence also in believing we are said to have “passed
from death unto life,”[601]
being “no more strangers and foreigners,
but fellow-citizens with the saints, and of the household
of God,”[602]
who “hath made us sit together in heavenly
places” with his only begotten Son,[603]
that nothing may be
wanting to our complete felicity,—yet, lest we should find it
grievous to be still exercised with a severe warfare, as though
we derived no benefit from the victory gained by Christ, we
must remember what is stated in another place concerning the
nature of hope. For “since we hope for that we see not,”[604]
and, according to another text, “faith is the evidence of things
not seen;”[605]
as long as we are confined in the prison of the
flesh, “we are absent from the Lord.”[606]
Wherefore the same
apostle says, “Ye are dead, and your life is hid with Christ in
God;” and “when Christ, who is our life, shall appear, then
shall ye also appear with him in glory.”[607]
This, then, is our
condition, “that we should live soberly, righteously, and godly,
in this present world, looking for that blessed hope, and the
glorious appearing of the great God and our Saviour Jesus
Christ.”[608]
Here we have need of more than common
patience, lest, being wearied, we pursue a retrograde course, or
desert the station assigned us. All that has hitherto been
stated, therefore, concerning our salvation, requires minds elevated
towards heaven, that, according to the suggestion of
Peter, we may love Christ, whom we have not seen, and, believing
in him, may “rejoice with joy unspeakable and full of
glory,” till we receive “the end of our faith.”[609]
For which
reason, Paul represents the faith and hope of believers as having
respect to “the hope that is laid up in heaven.”[610]
When we
are thus looking towards heaven, with our eyes fixed upon
Christ, and nothing detains them on earth from carrying us
forward to the promised blessedness, we realize the fulfilment
of that declaration, “Where your treasure is, there will your
heart be also.”[611]
Hence it is, that faith is so scarce in the
world; because to our sluggishness nothing is more difficult
than to ascend through innumerable obstacles, “pressing toward
the mark, for the prize of the high calling.”[612]
To the
accumulation of miseries which generally oppress us, are added
the mockeries of the profane, with which our simplicity is assailed;
while voluntarily renouncing the allurements of present
advantage or pleasure, we seem to pursue happiness, which is
concealed from our view, like a shadow that continually eludes
our grasp. In a word, above and below, before and behind, we
are beset by violent temptations, which our minds would long
ago have been incapable of sustaining, if they had not been
detached from terrestrial things, and attached to the heavenly
life, which is apparently at a remote distance. He alone,
therefore, has made a solid proficiency in the gospel who has
been accustomed to continual meditation on the blessed resurrection.
II. The supreme good was a subject of anxious dispute, and
even contention, among the ancient philosophers; yet none of
them, except Plato, acknowledged the chief good of man to
consist in his union with God. But of the nature of this
union he had not even the smallest idea; and no wonder, for
he was totally uninformed respecting the sacred bond of it.
We know what is the only and perfect happiness even in this
earthly pilgrimage; but it daily inflames our hearts with increasing
desires after it, till we shall be satisfied with its full
fruition. Therefore I have observed that the advantage of
Christ’s benefits is solely enjoyed by those who elevate their
minds to the resurrection. Thus Paul also sets before believers
this object, towards which he tells us he directs all his own
efforts, forgetting every thing else, “if by any means he may
attain unto it.”[613]
And it behoves us to press forward to the
same point with the greater alacrity, lest, if this world engross
our attention, we should be grievously punished for our sloth.
He therefore characterizes believers by this mark, “Our conversation
is in heaven, from whence also we look for the Saviour.”[614]
And that their minds may not flag in this course,
he associates with them all creatures as their companions.
For as ruin and deformity are visible on every side, he tells us
that all things in heaven and earth are tending to renovation.
For the fall of Adam having deranged the perfect order of
nature, the bondage to which the creatures have been subjected
by the sin of man is grievous and burdensome to them; not
that they are endued with any intelligence, but because they
naturally aspire to the state of perfection from which they have
fallen. Paul therefore attributes to them groaning and travailing
pains,[615]
that we who have received the first-fruits of the
Spirit may be ashamed of remaining in our corruption, and not
imitating at least the inanimate elements which bear the punishment
of the sin of others. But as a still stronger stimulus
to us, he calls the second advent of Christ “our redemption.”
It is true, indeed, that all the parts of our redemption are
already completed; but because “Christ was once offered to
bear the sins of many, he shall appear the second time without
sin unto salvation.”[616]
Whatever calamities oppress us, this
redemption should support us even till its full consummation.
