THE BURIAL
By J.
C. Philpot
Chapter
Six from the book Meditations on the Sacred Humanity of Our Blessed Redeemer
We last stood at the foot of the cross,
where we saw by faith the blood-shedding and death of our adorable Lord; we
viewed him yielding up his life by a voluntary act of his holy will, and heard
his gracious words, "It is finished," just before he bowed his head
and gave up the ghost. But we leave him not there. We have seen him die and by
faith now view his sacred body still on the cross. But he did not long hang
there as a spectacle to angels and men. {1} His
immediate disciples had fled, but there were those who came to perform those
offices of love by which a safe and secure place was provided wherein that
sacred body might lie. We see, then, by faith, that pallid body of which not a
bone was broken (though hands and feet were mangled and torn, and side
pierced), taken down with all believing reverence and adoring affection by
Joseph of Arimathaea and Nicodemus, aided, doubtless, by those holy women whose
names the Holy Ghost has recorded as afterwards beholding and sitting over
against the sepulchre where that pure body was laid.
As the original penalty was, "In the
day that thou eatest thereof, thou shall surely die," and as "the
wages of sin is death," the Surety and Sin-bearer must endure the penalty,
and literally, actually die in the sinner’s room and place. Thus there was a
necessity that the Redeemer of sinners should die; but as the Son of God could
not die, Deity being incapable of suffering and death, the blessed Lord took a
nature which could die - not by inherent mortality or external violence, but by
a voluntary act {2} - as voluntary as that by which he
assumed that nature in the womb of the Virgin, or resumed his body at the
resurrection.
Our thoughts, then, now lead us to the
body of Jesus in the grave; and here we see much to engage our meditations. The
first thing that strikes our mind in beholding this lifeless form is the
separation of body and soul which took place when the adorable Lord by a
voluntary act laid down his life. The last words that the Redeemer spoke were,
"Father, into thy hands I commend my spirit." By his
"spirit" we are to understand his human soul which at once went into
paradise, into the immediate presence of God, as he intimated in the words,
"And now come I to thee." #Joh 17:13. Nor
did he go thither that day alone. A trophy was soon to follow him - the soul of
that repenting, believing malefactor, who, a partner with him in suffering, had
become by his sovereign grace a partner with him in glory.
There was, then, an actual separation of
the Redeemer’s body and soul; but this did not destroy or affect the union of
his Deity with his humanity. That union remained entire, as his holy soul went
into paradise in union with his Deity, and thus he was still God-man as much in
paradise as he was at the tomb of Lazarus, or at the Last Supper. But his
sacred body, though by the act of death life was gone out of it, still remained
as before, "that holy thing." Death did not taint that sacred body
any more than sin did not taint it in the womb of the Virgin. The promise was,
therefore, "Thou wilt not leave my soul in hell (rather, in Hades, or that
paradise in which it was after death), nor suffer thy Holy One to see
corruption." #Ps 16:10. This holy body was essentially
incorruptible, as being begotten of the Holy Ghost, by special and supernatural
generation, of the flesh of the Virgin; but as in all other acts of the sacred
Trinity, Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, were all engaged that no taint of
corruption should in death assail it. The Father promised, and, as a God that
cannot lie, performed by his almighty, superintending power; the Son, by the
same innate, active, divine energy by which he assumed that body in the womb of
the Virgin preserved it untainted, uncorrupted in the grave; and the Holy
Ghost, who formed that body in its first conception, breathed over it his holy
influence to maintain it, in spite of death and the tomb, as pure and as
incorruptible as when he first created it. These things are indeed difficult to
understand or indeed conceive; but they are heavenly mysteries, which faith
receives and holds fast in spite of sense, reason, and unbelief. For see the
tremendous consequences of allowing any taint of corruption to assail that
blessed body. Could a tainted body be resumed at the resurrection? Corruption
would have marred it as it will mar ours; and how could a corrupt body have
been again the habitation of the Son of God? We are often instrumentally
preserved from error not only by knowing and feeling the sweetness and power of
truth, but by seeing, as at a glance, the tremendous consequences which a
denial of vital, fundamental truths involves.
But we pass on to Jesus in the tomb. A
sepulchre hewn out in the rock, and therefore pure, clean, and dry, and
"wherein never man before was laid," so as to be free from any taint
of corruption; a great stone rolled to the door of the sepulchre to preserve
the sacred deposit from external violence or unbecoming intrusion; Roman
soldiers forbidding all access of strange feet into the sacred precinct; a
guard of angels watching over that body in which their God and Creator had
dwelt; - how all these circumstances tended, and all worked together to the
same result - the safe guardianship and inviolable preservation of that holy
body which the Lord had assumed for the redemption of his people.
But may we not gather up profitable
instruction here? The holy women who mourned and wept at the cross did not
forget their dear Lord at the sepulchre. Thither their thoughts ran during that
Sabbath Day on which they rested according to the commandment; and with the
first dawn of the next day - the first day of the week, they sped their steps,
with spices, to anoint that dear Object of their faith and love. The mystery of
the resurrection was indeed hidden from their eyes; but they ceased not to love
in death and in the sepulchre that sacred form which they had loved in life.
May not our thoughts turn to the sepulchre too; and may we not, with these
gracious women, resort thither as to the sleeping-place of the body of Jesus?
Nature shrinks from death, even apart from that which following after death
makes it to so many a king of terrors. Even where grace has set up its throne,
and mercy rejoices over judgment, many unbelieving, infidel thoughts at times
will cross the mind and perplex the judgment about the separation of body and
soul, and the launching of the spirit into an unseen, unknown world. Faith, it
is true, can subdue these perplexing thoughts, better hinted at than described,
but faith needs some solid ground on which to build and rest. If, then, the
soul is blessed with any assured hope or sweet persuasion of interest in the
blood and obedience of the Lord Jesus Christ, so as to remove guilty fears, how
strengthening to faith is a view of his death, not merely as the only sacrifice
for sin, but as the exemplar so to speak, of our own! We shall all have to die,
and therefore to look by faith at the death of Jesus may be a profitable
subject of meditation as a relief against the perplexing thoughts to which we
have before alluded. Into his Father’s hands the dying Lord commended his
spirit. The Father received it, for him the Father heareth always; #Joh 11:42, and thus his spirit returned unto him who gave it. #Ec 12:7. Thus, by the act of dying, the soul and body of the
blessed Redeemer were, for a time, fully and actually separated as fully and
actually as ours will also be at death.
But follow by faith that soul of Jesus
when he breathed it forth, and view it at once and immediately entering
paradise, into the blissful presence of God. What food for faith is here! How
strengthening, how encouraging to a believing heart which has often been
perplexed by such thoughts as we have named, to view the soul of Jesus thus
passing at once into paradise. And may we not, by faith, view the soul also of
the believing malefactor, when the time of release was come, winging its flight
into the same paradise whither the soul of Jesus had preceded it? If we know
anything painfully and experimentally of the assaults of unbelief, the arrows
of infidelity, and the fiery darts of the wicked one, and how they are all
quenched by the shield of faith, we have found that faith, in order to stand
firm, must have the word of truth, a "Thus saith the Lord," upon
which to rest. Let us now, then, see how this stands as connected with the
death of the blessed Lord. Fortified by his holy example, if blessed with faith
in his Person, blood, and righteousness, the dying believer may commend his
spirit into the hands of Christ as did martyred Stephen, in the same confidence
that the Lord Jesus commended his spirit into the hands of his heavenly Father.
But, there is another sweet and blessed thought
connected with the grave in which Jesus lay. We may have seen the grave open
its dark mouth to receive a dear friend and brother, or some fondly-loved
relative, who has left a sweet testimony behind of his interest in the finished
work of the Son of God; and as we have looked down into that narrow cell, seen
the coffin lowered slowly into it, heard the clods fall heavily on its lid, and
felt how the beloved object was buried out of our sight, no more again to walk
with us here below, how nature has shrunk from each gloomy sight and sound!
What could then relieve the burdened mind, and soothe the sorrowing spirit, but
a sweet persuasion by faith of these two things: First, that the soul of the
departed one was with the Lord, which was far better than again to be burdened
with the body of sin and death, now for ever laid down; and second, that the
Lord Jesus, by lying himself in the grave, had consecrated it as his people’s
sleeping-place, and perfumed it, as it were, by permitting it to be the deposit
of his own incorruptible body.
What a trial to their faith must the death
of Jesus have been to his disciples and believing followers! When their Lord
and Master died, their hopes, for the time at least, seem almost to have died
with him. This seems evident from the language of the two disciples who were
journeying to Emmaus. "But we trusted that it had been he which should
have redeemed Israel." #Lu
24:21. How staggering to
their faith that the Lord of life should be put to death; the King of glory be
covered with shame and ignominy; and that he, whom the heaven of heavens could
not contain, should lie in the narrow precinct of a garden sepulchre.
But another thought strikes our mind as
arising out of this fruitful subject of spiritual meditation - the apparent triumph of evil and of the powers of darkness, in the
death and burial of the Lord Jesus.
To the eye of sense, truth, holiness,
innocence, all fell crushed by the arm of violence as Jesus hung on the cross.
To the spectator there, all his miracles of love and mercy, his words of grace
and truth, his holy spotless life, his claims to be the Son of God, the
promised Messiah, the Redeemer of Israel, with every promise and every prophecy
concerning him, were all extinguished when, amidst the triumph of his foes, in
pain, shame, and ignominy, he yielded up his breath. We now see that, by his blood-shedding and death, the blessed Lord
wrought out redemption, finished the work which the Father gave him to do, put
away sin by the sacrifice of himself, reconciled the church unto God, triumphed
over death and hell, vanquished Satan, magnified the law and made it
honourable, exalted justice, brought in mercy, harmonised every apparently
jarring attribute, glorified his heavenly Father, and saved millions with an
everlasting salvation. But should we have seen this as we see it now, had we
stood at the cross with weeping Mary and broken-hearted John, heard the railing
taunts of the Scribes and Pharisees, the rude laughter of the Roman soldiery,
and the mocking cries of the Jewish mob, viewed the darkened sky above, and
felt the solid earth beneath rocking under our feet? Where would our faith have
been then? What but a miracle of Almighty grace and power could have sustained
it amidst such clouds of darkness, such strength of sense, such a crowd of
conflicting passions, such opposition of unbelief?
So it ever has been, so it ever will be,
in this time state. Truth, uprightness, godliness, the cause of God as distinct
from, as opposed to error and evil, have always suffered crucifixion, not only
in the person, but in the example of a crucified Jesus. It is an ungodly world;
Satan, not Jesus, is its god and prince; and, therefore, not truth but
falsehood, not good but evil, not love but enmity, not sincerity and uprightness
but craft and deceptiveness, not righteousness and holiness but sin and
godlessness prevail and triumph as they did at the cross. This tries faith; but
its relief and remedy are to look up, amidst these clouds, to the cross, and
see on it the suffering Son of God. Then we see that the triumphing of the
wicked is but for a moment; that though truth is now suffering, it is suffering
with Christ; and that as he died and rose again, so it will have a glorious
resurrection, and an eternal triumph.
One or two thoughts more before we close
this part of our present subject of meditation.
To be partakers of Christ’s crown, we must
be partakers of Christ’s cross.
Union with him in suffering must precede union with him in glory. This is the
express testimony of the Holy Ghost: "If so be that we suffer with him,
that we may be also glorified together." #Ro 8:17.
"If we be dead with him, we shall also live with him; if we suffer, we
shall also reign with him." #2Ti 2:11,12.
The flesh and the world are to be crucified to us, and we to them; and this can
only be by virtue of a living union with a crucified Lord. This made the
apostle say, "I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I,
but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh, I live by
the faith of the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me." #Ga 2:20. And again, "But God forbid that I should glory save
in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom the world is crucified unto me
and I unto the world." #Ga
6:14. An experimental
knowledge of crucifixion with his crucified Lord made Paul preach the cross,
not only in its power to save, but in its power to sanctify.
But as then so now, this preaching of the
cross, not only as the meritorious cause of all salvation, but as the
instrumental cause of all sanctification, is "to them that perish
foolishness." #1Co 1:18. As men have found out some other way of
salvation than by the blood of the cross, so have they discovered some other
way of holiness than by the power of the cross; or rather have altogether set
aside obedience, fruitfulness, self-denial, mortification of the deeds of the
body, crucifixion of the flesh and of the world. Extremes are said to meet; and
certainly men of most opposite sentiments may unite in despising the cross and
counting it foolishness. The Arminian despises it for justification, and the
Antinomian for sanctification. "Believe and be holy," is as strange a
sound to the latter as "Believe and be saved," to the former. But,
"Without holiness no man shall see the Lord," is as much written on
the portal of life as, "By grace are ye saved through faith." Through
the cross, that is, through union and communion with him who suffered upon it,
not only is there a fountain opened for all sin, but for all uncleanness. #Zec 13:1. Blood and water gushed from the side of Jesus when
pierced by the Roman spear.
This
fountain so dear, he’ll freely impart;
Unlock’d
by the spear, it gushed from the heart,
With blood
and with water; the first to atone,
To cleanse
us the latter; the fountain’s but one.
"All my springs are in thee," #Ps 87:7, said the man after God’s own heart; and well may we
re-echo his words. All our springs, not only of pardon and peace, acceptance
and justification, but of happiness and holiness, of wisdom and strength, of
victory over the world, of mortification of a body of sin and death; of every
fresh revival and renewal of hope and confidence; of all prayer and praise; of
every new budding forth of the soul, as of Aaron’s rod, in blossom and fruit;
of every gracious feeling, spiritual desire, warm supplication, honest
confession, melting contrition, and godly sorrow for sin - all these springs of
that life which is hid with Christ in God are in a crucified Lord. Thus Christ
crucified is, "to them who are saved, the power of God." And as he
"of God is made unto us wisdom, righteousness, sanctification, and
redemption," at the cross alone can we be made wise unto salvation, become
righteous by a free justification, receive of his Spirit to make us holy, and
be redeemed and delivered by blood and power from sin, Satan, death and hell.
Nor is there any other way to become dead to the law, our first husband, so as "to be
married to another, even him who is raised from the dead, that we may bring
forth fruit unto God." #Ro
7:4.
By the baptism of the Holy Ghost (of which
water baptism is a type and figure) we are baptized into Jesus Christ, and
specially into his death. #Ro
6:3. By his blood-shedding
and death he fulfilled the law, bearing its curse, and thus he "blotted
out the handwriting of ordinances that was against us, which was contrary to
us, nailing it to his cross." #Col 2:14.
{1} As the blessed Lord breathed out his life about the ninth hour,
or three o’clock in the afternoon, and the preparation of the Passover begun
about four o’clock, it would seem that his dead body did not remain above, and
most probably under, an hour upon the cross before taken down for burial.
{2} It is remarkable that three of the evangelists use three distinct
words (in the original), to express the voluntary way in which the Lord Jesus
yielded up his life. In #Mt 27:51, it is
"yielded up the ghost," literally, "dismissed his spirit;"
in #Mr 15:38 and #Lu
23:47 it is the same word, "he gave up the ghost," literally,
"breathed it out," and #Joh 19:3,
"gave up the ghost," literally, "delivered it," all
implying a voluntary act.
Please direct your comments to Mike
Krall.