e is it standing? In its
grave; all the time in the very grave where the acorn died; it has stood
there stretching its roots deeper and deeper into that earth in which its
grave was made, and yet, all the time, though it stood in the very grave
where it had died, it has been growing higher, and stronger, and broader,
and more beautiful. And all the fruit it ever bore, and all the foliage
that adorned it year by year, it owed to that grave in which its roots are
cast and kept. Even so Christ owes everything to His death and His grave.
And we, too, owe everything to that grave of Jesus. Oh! let us live every
day rooted in the death of Jesus. Be not afraid, but say: "To my own will I
will die; to human wisdom, and human strength, and to the world I will die;
for it is in the grave of my Lord that His life has its beginning, and its
strength and its glory."

This brings us to our next thought. First, Christ received life from the
Father; second, Christ lived it in dependence on the Father; third, Christ
gave it up in death to the Father; and now, fourth, Christ received it
again raised by the Father, by the power of the glory of the Father. Oh,
the deep meaning of the resurrection of Christ! What did Christ do when He
died? He went down into the darkness and absolute helplessness of death. He
gave up a life that was without sin; a life that was God-given; a life that
was beautiful and precious; and He said, "I will give it into the hands
of my Father if He asks it;" and He did it; and He was there in the grave
waiting on God to do His will; and because He honored God to the uttermost
in His helplessness, God lifted Him up to the very uttermost of glory and
power. Christ lost nothing by giving up His life in death to the Father.
And so, if you want the glory and the life of God to come upon you, it is
in the grave of utter helplessness that that life of glory will be born.
Jesus was raised from the dead, and that resurrection power, by the grace
of God, can and will work in us. Let no one expect to live a right life
until he lives a full resurrection life in the power of Jesus. Let me state
in a different way what this resurrection means.

Christ had a perfect life, given by God. The Father said: "Will you give up
that life to me? Will you part with it at my command?" And He parted with
it, but God gave it back to Him in a second life ten thousand times more
glorious than that earthly life. So God will do to every one of us w