My Redeemer Liveth.
Taken from the book:
All of
Grace
by
Charles Haddon Spurgeon
 ONTINUALLY have
I spoken to the reader concerning Christ crucified, who
is the great hope of the guilty; but it is our wisdom to
remember that our Lord has risen from the dead and lives
eternally.
 You are not
asked to trust in a dead Jesus, but in One who, though
He died for our sins, has risen again for our
justification. You may go to Jesus at once as to a
living and present friend. He is not a mere memory, but
a continually existent Person who will hear your prayers
and answer them. He lives on purpose to carry on the
work for which He once laid down His life. He is
interceding for sinners at the right hand of the Father,
and for this reason He is able to save them to the
uttermost who come unto God by Him. Come and try this
living Saviour, if you have never done so before.
This living Jesus is also
raised to an eminence of glory and power. He does not
know sorrow as "a humble man before his foes,"nor labor
as "the carpenter's son"; but He is exalted far above
principalities and power and every name that is named.
The Father has given Him all power in Heaven and in
earth, and he exercises this high endowment in carrying
out His work of grace. Hear what Peter and the other
apostles testified concerning Him before the high priest
and the council:
The God of our fathers
raised up Jesus, whom ye slew and hanged on a tree.
Him hath God exalted with his right hand to be a
Prince and a Saviour, for to give repentance to
Israel, and forgiveness of sins (Acts 5:30, 31).
The glory which
surrounds the ascended Lord should breathe hope into
every believer's breast. Jesus is no mean person—He is
"a Saviour and a great one." He is the crowned and
enthroned Redeemer of men. The sovereign prerogative of
life and death is vested in Him; the Father has put all
men under the mediatorial government of the Son, so that
He can quicken whom He will. He openeth, and no man
shutteth. At His word the soul which is bound by the
cords of sin and condemnation can be unloosed in a
moment. He stretches out the silver scepter, and
whosoever touches it lives.
It is well for
us that as sin lives, and the flesh lives, and the devil
lives, so Jesus lives; and it is also well that whatever
might these may have to ruin us, Jesus has still greater
power to save us.
All His
exaltation and ability are on our account. "He is
exalted to be," and exalted "to give." He is exalted to
be a Prince and a Saviour, that He may give all that is
needed to accomplish the salvation of all who come under
His rule. Jesus has nothing which He will not use for a
sinner's salvation, and He is nothing which He will not
display in the aboundings of His grace. He links His
princedom with His Saviour-ship, as if He would not have
the one without the other; and He sets forth His
exaltation as designed to bring blessings to men, as if
this were the flower and crown of His glory. Could
anything be more calculated to raise the hopes of
seeking sinners who are looking Christward?
Jesus endured
great humiliation, and therefore there was room for Him
to be exalted. By that humiliation He accomplished and
endured all the Father's will, and therefore He was
rewarded by being raised to glory. He uses that
exaltation on behalf of His people. Let my reader raise
his eyes to these hills of glory, whence his help must
come. Let him contemplate the high glories of the Prince
and Saviour. Is it not most hopeful for men that a Man
is now on the throne of the universe? Is it not glorious
that the Lord of all is the Saviour of sinners? We have
a Friend at court; yea, a Friend on the throne. He will
use all His influence for those who entrust their
affairs in His hands. Well does one of our poets sing:
He ever lives to intercede
Before His Father's face;
Give Him, my soul, Thy cause to
plead,
No doubt the Father's grace.
Come, friend, and commit your cause and your case
to those once pierced hands, which are now glorified
with the signet rings of royal power and honor. No suit
ever failed which was left with this great Advocate.
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