The Death and Resurrection of Christ

James Butler Stoney (J.B.S.) was a student of the Scriptures.  He was studying the letters of the apostle Paul while he waited to be ordained as a curate at Trinity College, Dublin, Ireland.  It was then that he discovered that the gifts for ministry in the church of God are given to His own by the Lord Jesus Himself, so that by Christ's direct appointment those who belong to Him become apostles, teachers, etc. (Ephesians 4). Once he realized this he decided to no longer wait for a curacy but instead went out immediately into the highways and hedges and invited sinners to come in to God's so great salvation.

He managed to speak somewhere every day and traveled much. A fervent, impressive speaker, he anxiously avoided the appearance of eloquence, believing that the Spirit of God was the only power for holiness.

The following is taken from his lectures included in The Circle of Truth:

"I desire, beloved friends, to bring before you in these lectures, if the Lord permit, what has been brought out by our Lord Jesus Christ. I begin with His death and resurrection. Every believer has some idea of the death and resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ, and when there is some advance in piety they look for His coming again; but there is very little knowledge of what comes in between the two. I desire to bring before you what He has brought out—THE TRUTH in its parts.

"This evening I confine myself to the fact that He was on earth, and what He did here. That He died and rose again is a familiar subject, but the more you ponder it, the more you find that it will bear pondering, and the more wonderful will it become to you.

"We have types and illustrations of it. We have all heard of the creation of this earth in Genesis I, of what took place on the first three days, and the great event of the fourth day, when the sun rose on this earth!

"God made two great lights: the greater light to rule the day, and the lesser light to rule the night. What a change! what a wonderful change it made upon the material earth when the sun rose upon it; but, great as that was, it bears no resemblance to the magnitude of the fact, the amazing fact—and I want to press this—that God’s Son has been here on this earth.

"The sun shone; it was a great fact, and everything on the earth was necessarily affected by it. You can conceive what an immense difference there was between the first three days and the fourth when the sun rose in his splendour; but immense as that difference was, it is small indeed and poor in the presence of the great fact that God’s Son was here in this world. 'The dayspring from on high hath visited us.' God was manifested in flesh. One wonders how one can walk about the earth and forget even for a moment this stupendous fact. You can understand the apostle, as he breaks forth to Timothy, 'Great is the mystery of godliness: God was manifest in the flesh.' That is the first thing, and I desire to press it on every heart. It is a very simple thing, but it is a very great thing; everything necessarily comes out in a new order. In the material creation everything in the first day is as nothing to what took place on the fourth day. Now the greatest has come to pass. GOD has been manifested in flesh. God’s Son has been here.

"I turn to John’s gospel (John 1:14): 'The Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us.' Well, beloved friends, I hardly like going from the subject, there are such momentous issues flowing from the fact that God’s Son was on earth. 'When the fullness of the time was come, God sent forth his Son, made of a woman, made under the law.' You cannot conceive anything greater! He was the Creator. He made everything; all was good in the eye of God. He made man, the head of it all, in the image and likeness of God, the head of the creation and set in authority over the earth—but that man let everything drop, he gave in to the enemy, and all was wrecked with him. What a thing for the Creator! The Creator was God’s Son. Then God’s Son, who made all, became a Man. 

"The Creator had made man, placed him head over the earth, and he had failed; and He becomes a Man Himself. The first man yielded to the enemy, then came forth the promise that the Seed of the woman should bruise the serpent’s head, but only His heel should be bruised. 

"I want you to get hold of the fact that man, the first creature of His hand on earth, has failed; but that in the fullness of time God sent forth His Son made of a woman. In Scripture language, a passage you all understand, 'I have laid help upon one that is mighty.' That is now fulfilled I would arrest you with the grand fact, that God’s Son became a Man and dwelt among us. He was the Son of God, equal to the Father, and because the first man has failed He becomes a Man, and John says, 'We beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth.' It is so great, yet so simple, I want the youngest in this room to get the light of it into his soul, that God’s Son has become a Man.

"The next thing is, He is the true light. In John the first thing I get is, 'The true light was that which, coming into the world, lightens every man'; and a little lower down (John 1:17)—I will put them together 'The law was given by Moses, but grace and truth came by Jesus Christ.' You see I put grace and truth together. I am looking now at what He is. He is Light, and light is what I call the moral being of God. But more than that, He comes to declare God: 'The only begotten Son, who is in the bosom of the Father, he hath declared him.' 

"Now He has not only come, but, having come, He does two things. He exposes what is not of God, and discloses what GOD is. Follow that, and see what a pathway it is! Read down the gospel narrative, and you will see how He exposes all—all that was good in the eyes of man, religious, comely, amiable; and, on the other hand, He could say, 'He that hath seen ME hath seen the Father.' Does your soul take in the moral grandeur of such a course? Let us see how it works. In the early part of John you find that the first great thing He did was to set forth what God is. He tells us, 'God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life'; but I do not go into that now.

"I turn to His pathway here. Look at the Lord in His way with the woman of Samaria; this blessed One talking to a poor sinner! What does He offer her? 'Whosoever drinketh of the water that I shall give him shall never thirst; but the water that I shall give him shall be in him a well of water springing up into everlasting life.' When? Hereafter? No; now, here, and for ever. Magnificent! A poor, wretched, abandoned creature she was; but not a word at first about what a sinner she was, but what God is; He first shows what the giving God is, and the new condition He could set her up in, there in Samaria. She only looked at it naturally, thought only that He spoke of spring water. But He is light too: He turns to her conscience, and says, 'Go, call thy husband'; and this exposes to her what a sinner she was. A little later she goes to the men of the city and says, 'Come, see a man, which told me all things that ever I did.' She talks only of the light; this prepares for the love. He 'told me all things that ever I did.' He does not want to expose, but He must. He is the light. He shows what the giving God is, and He begins with this; all contrary to the light must be removed; the love is the measure of what is conferred.

"Now in chapter 8, beloved friends, a guilty sinner (there is no question as to her guilt) is brought into His presence. Up to chapter 8 it is the love side that is before us. Here and in chapter 9 it is more the light. A guilty person is brought before Him, and He says, 'He that is without sin among you, let him first cast a stone at her.' What happens? The Pharisees who had their reputation to maintain, being convicted by their own consciences, went out one by one, beginning at the eldest, even unto the last. There was no one to point a finger at her. The light has exposed them. I cannot dwell on this part. But I want you to understand that the law, when it finds you out, condemns you; the law exposes to condemn; the Lord exposes to relieve.

"Grace and truth came by Jesus Christ. He shows not only what man is, but what God is; hence you find to the woman who did not go out He turns and says, 'Hath no man condemned thee? . . . No man, Lord. . . . Neither do I condemn thee.' Is it that He glosses over sin? No; not at all! But the most wonderful thing comes out, no human tongue can describe it. He comes to expose everything, but He comes to relieve. He exposes down to the very bottom of the heart, but takes away for the believer everything that is exposed. That is what you get in John 1, where His character is portrayed: 'Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world.' But if any one does not believe in Him, the wrath of God abides on him—that does not mean that it comes on him, but that it remains on him, it has never been off; while for the believer all is exposed and all is removed.

"I trust, beloved friends, you have some apprehension of the walk of our blessed Lord here, how at the close He could say, 'I have glorified thee on the earth.' We now come to His death, He is to die! This blessed One came for this. 'For this cause came I unto this hour.' 'Except a corn of wheat fall into the ground and die, it abideth alone: but if it die, it bringeth forth much fruit.' Now let us see what He has effected by His death and resurrection. I know it is an elementary subject, but one very dear to us all, and the more we look into it, the more we shall see the amazing consequences that flow from His death and resurrection.

"We will turn to the Old Testament for types of His death. The first I turn to is Exodus 12:13: 'When I see the blood, I will pass over you.' The blood shelters from the judgment: that is the first thing that the guilty soul finds out, that he is sheltered from the judgment by the blood of Christ; mind you, we are talking of guilt now; the blood shelters from the Judge, it keeps the Judge out; but there is no rest there. Very often this is a very interesting time with souls, because the soul is so in earnest; like the Israelites, in haste to get out of the place where the judgment was. With loins girt and shoes on their feet and staff in hand they ate the passover. There is evident haste, but no rest. To me, in this state they are very like a man in a life-boat: he is rescued, but still in the place where the danger is; he would like to get to shore: safe, but not clear of the power of the enemy, not clear of Pharaoh and the Egyptians. That is really where many a soul is to-day.

"Turn to Exodus 14:26-28: 'And the Lord said unto Moses, Stretch out thine hand over the sea, that the waters may come again upon the Egyptians, upon their chariots, and upon their horsemen. And Moses stretched forth his hand over the sea, and the sea returned to his strength when the morning appeared; and the Egyptians fled against it; and the Lord overthrew the Egyptians in the midst of the sea. And the waters returned, and covered the chariots, and the horsemen, and all the host of Pharaoh that came into the sea after them; there remained not so much as one of them.' The power of the enemy is destroyed. 'The Lord overthrew the Egyptians in the midst of the sea . . . there remained not so much as one of them.' Now that is a very simple statement, but do you understand what that typified? Did any Israelite, even the youngest of that company, doubt? Did not every one of them know that they had crossed the Red Sea? that they had seen the enemy destroyed? that they were not only safe from judgment, but were delivered from the place where the judgment was? There is not a question about it. It puts the believers to-day to shame. The Israelites were not only sheltered from the Judge, not only had left the place of death, but were clear of the power of the enemy. They knew they had left the place of judgment, and that they had seen the power of the enemy destroyed.

"Let us now turn to the New Testament, and look at the antitype, the reality of this. I know this is familiar ground, but the truth you know best is the truth that will yield you most: I turn to Hebrews 2:14, 15: 'Forasmuch then as the children are partakers of flesh and blood, he also himself likewise took part of the same; that through death he might destroy him that had the power of death, that is, the devil; and deliver them who through fear of death were all their lifetime subject to bondage.' He took part of the same that He might destroy him that had the power of death (destroy is the same word as abolish), that he might deliver them who through fear of death were all their lifetime subject to bondage. He not merely passed through death, but He bruised the head of the one who brought in death. The judgment of death had come upon man through the devil; therefore, as the scripture says, the Seed of the woman should bruise the serpent’s head. Where the power was, there the power should be annulled; not death in itself, but him that had the power of it. Hence the proof that He who did it was greater than the devil. As a man He mastered Satan—the devil owned Him the Son of God. No one created on the earth could be delivered from the fear of death before Christ died and rose. Never! Not one—it could not be. Death was the penalty of sin. We have gained immensely as to this; He has the keys of death and of Hades. The power of the enemy is broken; we have more than shelter, we have peace.

"The first man had failed. The Son of God, the Man of God’s pleasure, comes into the world, HE has suffered for sins, the Just for the unjust, that He might bring us to God. The gain is immense! Not only shelter, but peace; and I do press this very earnestly upon you, because there is a very imperfect idea of peace generally. Forgiveness in itself is not peace: peace is, that the foe is silenced, there is not an enemy. 'Who was delivered for our offences, and was raised again for our justification. Therefore being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.' Hence the Lord’s first salutation to His disciples after He rose is, 'Peace unto you.' He had silenced every foe that was between God and you. 'The horse and his rider hath he thrown into the sea . . . they sank as lead in the mighty waters.' I turn to Exodus 15. There you get the mark of a man in peace; the mark of a man who only knows the shelter of the blood is that he wants to get out of Egypt, out of the place where the judgment is. Like the man in the life-boat, he is eager to get to shore. The mark of a man in peace is the song, and he never sings till then, and in the song there are three parts. 'I will sing unto the Lord, for he hath triumphed gloriously: the horse and his rider hath he thrown into the sea'; that is the first part: 'brought to God,' as Peter expresses it. In verse 1 they sing this one simple fact, the complete overwhelming of the enemy. This is what Miriam sings—I believe it was the chorus. Then in Exodus 15:2 you have another thing. I am on new ground; as God has given me peace, I must think of Him:

"'He is my God, and I will prepare him an habitation.' That is, I desire that God should be honoured in the place where He has given me peace. This is the second part of the song. Then in Exodus 15:17 you have the third: I am going to God’s habitation: 'Thou shalt bring them in, and plant them in the mountain of thine inheritance.' We were not only guilty, but lost, driven out from Paradise; and I do not believe any soul has ever true rest until he knows that he belongs to a new place. God’s Son entered into death that He might destroy him that had the power of death. I ask you, do you believe that death is abolished? I hope that many here will say, Well, I believe that He has abolished death, and I can say with the apostle: 'O death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory? The sting of death is sin; and the strength of sin is the law. But thanks be to God, which giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.' I press this; it is the lack in souls to-day; in all that company of Israel there was not one, not even a child, who did not know they had crossed the sea, that the Egyptian was gone, and the power of the enemy was broken; secondly, that God should be exalted; and thirdly, that they were going to God’s place. There was not one that did not know it. In type, 'brought to God.'

"Well, beloved friends, so far I have dwelt on Christ’s death for us, and every believer has some idea of this; but there are two more types of His death. We have seen that we are brought to God; the song celebrates this. You may say then, Why do we want the other two? We want them in relation to ourselves, and this is where so many are hindered. All believers know something of Christ’s death FOR us, but there is more, we must believe that we died with Him. If I only had to do with God’s side of it, I need not go farther than the blood of the lamb, and the Red Sea.

"But there is sin in me, and I need more. This comes out in Romans 6, and in the type is set forth by the brazen serpent and Jordan. Exodus 12 answers to Romans 3, and Exodus 14 to the last part of Romans 4, that is Christ’s death for you. But now you get to yourself, and this I must dwell a little upon. I read Romans 6: 8: 'Now if we be dead with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with him.' Now I am sure if you get hold of this truth you gain immensely. Many believers are puzzled to know what is to be done with sin in them. They often ask, What is the meaning of dying with Christ? They will gain immensely when they believe they have died with Christ. Only this week I had a letter from a stranger, asking how he was to be freed from the sin in him. Nothing tries the believer more than finding sin in him, and the more conscientious he is, the more he is tried by it. There is no escape but through death. 'He that is dead is freed from sin.' Death is on you, therefore there is no relief but through death. Death clears us from the whole thing, there is an end of it; not our own death, but Christ’s death; though if you were dead yourself you would be free, you would be out of it; but we who believe are dead with Him. And that is not all, there is the greatest gain connected with this, and that is, we have His life. 'If we be dead with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with him.' You have eternal life in Him, with whom you died. If you do not believe that you are dead with Him, it is plain you are not going on happily in life with Him.

"Now I turn back to John 3:13, and you will see how it answers to the brazen serpent. 'No man hath ascended up to heaven, but he that came down from heaven, even the Son of man which is in heaven. And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of man be lifted up: that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have eternal life.' Now mark, he does not go to the type of the blood on the lintel, or the Red Sea; they are Christ’s death for us, and as your soul enters into that, you know there is no disturbing element; everything that was between God and you is gone; all that could disturb has been removed, and you know also that you have a place with God. You may say, Is not that enough? Yes; enough if there were no sin in you; but there is, and you must learn how you are freed from it, and this the brazen serpent teaches. The brazen serpent came at the end of the wilderness journey, it was on the border of the wilderness (Numbers 21); the well (answering to John 4:14) was geographically outside the wilderness. John introduces us into the new thing—but he first shows us the brazen serpent, the condemnation of the first man. If I understand this new thing, I am like a bird let loose from its cage, in freedom; I have got into liberty. Look at that verse in Romans 6:8. If I have died with Him, of course I shall live with Him if He is alive. It is so simple, a child can understand it; and baptism is the expression of death with Him. 'Buried therefore with him by baptism unto death.' Therefore 'reckon yourselves dead to sin, and alive to God in Christ Jesus.' Death only can set free from sin; this death cannot be in yourself, but you have found it in Christ.

"Now I look at the type. The brazen serpent never did the mischief, none of it; but it was made in the likeness of what did all the mischief. Man was suffering from the bite of the serpent. The poison was in him. It was the devil, the old serpent, who did the mischief. But now what happened? The man that looked at the brazen serpent lived. That is the way John uses it. 'Even so must the Son of man be lifted up.' The Lord is introducing a new thing, the heavenly thing, but first the old is condemned, that man is gone in judgment. Sin is not forgiven; it is condemned. 'For what the law could not do in that it was weak through the flesh, God sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin, condemned sin in the flesh.' Sin in the flesh is gone in judgment in Christ’s death, and I am alive in His life—this is a fact. 'The law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law of sin and death.'

"Well now, I am coming to a point that I think will help you; I know how a believer often loses the effect of the truth by turning to his experience. He says, Oh, I do not feel dead. Does that make it not true that the believer is dead with Christ? Are you going to have faith first, or feeling? which is it? An Israelite looked and he lived; he felt he was healed. You ask me, Do you always feel that you are dead? I say, No; because I do not always believe that I am dead with Christ; I cannot feel it unless I believe it. It is faith first, and then feeling. It is a fact to faith. I go by the fact. I have died with Him, and the consequence of that is, I am alive with Him. I have no other life. What other could I have? It is so simple, the youngest believer can understand it. But I press in connection with this, that if you are not acting in the faith of this, you will get a bad conscience.

"You must keep your conscience up to your faith, then you have a good conscience. If you neglect a good conscience, you make shipwreck as to your faith. Suppose I lose my temper; I have failed in faith, I have acted in the flesh; my conscience is exercised, I go to God about it, and I judge myself. I had been sowing to the flesh—reading the newspaper, indulging in gossip, or the like, and I did not find it out till I had lost my temper, or done something out of the way. Like Samson, he thought to go out as at other times, but wist not that the Lord had departed from him. You ought to find out in a minute that the Lord had left you, or rather that you had left the Lord. If I am not walking continually in faith, I am sure to fail.

"It is with Christ I am dead, and not in myself. Sometimes I am afraid to do anything, to move, or write a letter, because I am sure to blunder, to do it wrong, when I have lost the Lord’s support. Thank God, the Spirit of God never leaves me, but He will not help me when I have been ministering to the flesh. I am like a bird with a wounded wing, I have the power but I cannot use it. I have to go to the Lord and confess that I had gone back to the flesh that was condemned in His death, and had not reckoned myself to be dead indeed unto sin. You must accept the word of God, that to faith you are dead to sin. Our old man is crucified with Christ. I press this, for I feel it is of great importance. You have to believe, and then reckon on God to enable you to walk up to your faith, in order that you may preserve a good conscience.

"I turn now to Joshua 3, the Jordan, the last type of the death of Christ. The New Testament scripture that answers to this is Colossians 2:20: 'Wherefore if ye be dead with Christ from the rudiments of the world.' Now Jordan is very interesting. It is my death. Oh, but, says someone, I have not passed through death, meaning what is called the article of death, physical death. But I do not accept that you have to pass through the article of death, because the Lord is coming, and if He came you would not die. I am dead with Christ from the rudiments of the world. All the cords that bound me are loosed by His death. It is true there is sometimes a physical fear of death beforehand, but when you come near to it, the fear is all gone, except in those cases where discipline is necessary; the flesh that I had failed to judge, is judged. His death has severed me from everything, even in myself, that could keep me out of heaven.

"Do you believe that Christ’s death has freed you from everything before God that could bar you from His presence? If the Lord were to come, you would find it is a fact. Now look at the last part of Joshua 3. There was not a drop of water visible. Commentators say that at the Red Sea Israel went through in single file—the water a wall to them on the right hand and on the left. They could see the waters of judgment which Christ had to bear. Certainly we do learn the death of Christ there. But in Jordan there was no sight of water. Commentators say they went over abreast. You may ask me, Do you feel it? I do feel exercised about it, that is the very thing that helps me to expound it to you. The Lord does not send angels to expound, but someone who is learning it. I have gone through great exercise about it.

"I know, by the death of Christ, I am clear of everything that could come between me and God, clear of the rudiments of the world. His death is your Jordan, and by it you are set on new ground altogether. Hence in Colossians 3 it is, 'For ye are dead, and your life is hid with Christ in God.' Have you learnt, beloved friends, what this blessed Man has wrought? That He has not only borne the judgment that was upon you, delivered you from the power of the enemy, but that He has set you free from every single thing that is unsuited to Himself in that glory where He is, and that would bar you from His presence. 'Your life is hid with Christ in God.' 'Stand fast therefore in the liberty wherewith Christ hath made us free.'

"Everything is taken away that could bind me to this world. Take Ephesians, though that is out of my line this evening, but Ephesians shows me I can go up there. I believe many a soul has tasted being over Jordan who has never accepted it. If in the enjoyment of the life of Christ, tasting of the joys of association with Him where He is, that soul is really over Jordan. By accepting it, I mean owning it as your only true place. If you accept it, you cannot return to the things of this life to be taken up with them. They are weights that would hinder you; as in Hebrews 12, you lay aside every weight and the sin that doth so easily beset you, in order that you may run the faster. When I accept what Jordan entails, I sit loose to everything here, I get rid of the hindrance to my onward course. I believe that is the way discipline comes in. Discipline is to free us from things here, that we may go on the faster, as an express train gets rid of luggage trucks in order to proceed quicker; while at the same time we fulfil our duties better than ever.

"All discipline comes in to help you, to free you from earthly things, that you may be partakers of His holiness—what He is. The word for holiness here is only once used, and means its abstract nature. Take Stephen, every stone that battered him only detached him the more from things here, and verified to him the reality of the life outside it. It is said that a man in a balloon as he ascends gradually loses his senses, first one and then another, till in the long run he becomes wholly unconscious, and here the illustration fails, because he has not another life. But suppose he had another life, a divine life, the higher he went and the more he lost consciousness of the one, the more he would get into the other—a wonderful gain. Like the apostle, he was sensible of the divine sphere into which he was introduced, but unconscious of his natural condition: 'Whether in the body, or out of the body, I cannot tell.' I have a divine life, but to enjoy it in its own sphere I pass through Jordan—death with Christ. There was no Jordan for Hezekiah; all his links were here. Paul’s links were all above, he longs to depart and be with Christ. Perhaps you say you are not up to it. Very likely. And if so, discipline may come in that you may be more detached from things here, and more in the enjoyment of heaven. You must be always on the alert; if you do not walk in the Spirit, you will be carried by the flesh; there is the danger. 'If we live in the Spirit, let us also walk in the Spirit.'

"Christ’s death has done everything for you, has set you free to walk in liberty from the man here; and not only that, but to walk in liberty from the place where you are, detached from and unencumbered by the things here. The Israelites were safe out of Egypt, but the failure was they would not go on to Canaan. From the beginning down to this very day, man has always had reluctance to go to God’s place. Take Abraham going to Canaan, there was reluctance; and his family eventually left it. Where Christ is, there is your place. Love always gives the best thing it can. The Father’s house is thrown open to you, where everything tells of the perfection of the divine love that sought and found you; and yet how few accept it! They would rather stay on earth. But you are brought to God. Then what are you to do? To walk here in the delightful sense that there is not a shade between you and the Father’s heart; and take care you do not go back and get your heart connected with anything here. You have a life that belongs to God, that introduces you into the sphere and character of things where God is, therefore do not go back into the world, 'He hath given us an understanding' is the consummation of John’s first epistle, therefore he adds, 'Keep yourselves from idols.' An idol is something in this world.

"Who is sufficient for these things? Our sufficiency is of God. We must ever fall back upon God. I need not add more. My comfort is in looking to the Lord. My confidence is in Him, and I count on Him to make good to your souls what I have tried to present to you."