This was the “first resurrection,” and these were the persons who had a part in it, which no subsequent christians can ever can have.  Rev. xx:6—­“Blessed and holy is he that hath part in the first resurrection, on such the second death hath no power, but they shall be priests of God and of Christ, and shall reign with him a thousand years.”  But if Christ had not come in his kingdom at the end of the Jewish age, as the prophets and himself had declared, then the whole Christian system must have fallen and the names of its martyrs and apostles remained buried in perpetual infamy as a set of deluded men and impostors.  But, blessed be God, it is not so.  They, by their faithfulness, have attained unto the “first resurrection” and thus broken the dark chains of infidelity into fragments.  This is the resurrection and change referred to in Phil. iii:20, 21, and 1 Thess. iv:15, 16, 17, on which we have commented.

We have intentionally omitted till now Phil. iii:11, 12, as our ideas will be more readily comprehended here than in our introductory discourse, where we simply adverted to these words of Paul—­“If by any means I might attain unto the resurrection of the dead—­Not as though I had already attained either were already perfect,” &c.  Here we perceive that the resurrection unto which he desired to attain depended on his exertions in the cause of Christ, and being faithful unto the end.  He says (verse 14)—­“I press towards the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus.”  But what prize was this?  Ans.  It was a part in the first resurrection to which he desired to attain (verse 11) and he was not “perfect,” he feared “lest after having preached to others himself might be a cast-away.”  He feared that he might not endure faithful unto the end.  He was well aware that the promise was—­“Be thou faithful unto death and I will give thee a crown of life.”  To obtain this crown of life in the first resurrection, was the highest prize, the highest calling of God, ever suspended upon human merits!  Paul did continue faithful, and as he was led to the thought of death, with composure and satisfaction exclaimed—­“For I am now ready to be offered; and the time of my departure” is at hand.  “I have fought the good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the faith; henceforth there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness, which the Lord the righteous Judge shall give me at that day, and not to me only, but unto all them also, that love his appearing.”  Here we perceive that Paul had continued faithful, and was entitled to the promised crown, which was awarded to him, and to all “the dead in Christ,” who, on account of their faithfulness, had a part in the first resurrection—­when he came in the clouds of heaven to establish his kingdom.  It has nothing to do with the immortal resurrection of the dead, for that is not the reward of merit, but the gift of God.  To that all shall