But why do we stress the distinction between the living God and the God of resurrection? Because, while the living God can perform many acts on man's behalf, the nature of the living God cannot blend with the nature of man. When, on the other hand, the God of resurrection works, His very nature is wrought into the nature of man. Brothers and sisters, please note carefully that even when the living God has performed some act on your behalf, after that act as before it, He is still He and you are still you. His working on your behalf does not impart anything of His nature to you. The living God can work on behalf of man, but the nature of the living God cannot unite with the nature of man. On the other hand, when the God of resurrection works, He communicates Himself to man by that which He does for him. Let me cite two illustrations.

When the children of Israel were in a hopeless plight in the wilderness, the living God opened a way for them across the Red Sea. The dividing of the Red Sea was a miracle which demonstrated to them that God was the living God, yet that miracle performed for them did not bring any measure of the life of God into them. They witnessed many other divine acts in the wilderness—e.g., God gave them bread from heaven and water out of the rock—but despite those and other wonders performed by God for them, nothing of God Himself was thereby imparted to them.

In contrast to this, the apostle Paul testifies to knowing not only the living God, but also the God of resurrection. Paul was so sorely tried that he despaired of life, but it was thus he learned to trust in the God who raises the dead. When the God of resurrection acted on his behalf to raise him from the dead, that divine act not only accomplished something for Paul; it also communicated God's own nature to Paul.

Brothers and sisters, do discriminate here. The miracles wrought for Israel in the wilderness were acts of the living God; but despite the many miracles wrought for them, nothing of God was wrought into their constitutions. The miracles wrought for Paul were wrought by the God of resurrection, and each fresh miracle wrought a fresh measure of God Himself into the life of Paul. Alas! though generations have passed since the resurrection, many Christians are almost ignorant of the God of resurrection and are only interested in the living God. Let me try and bring this matter home to our daily lives.

A brother becomes seriously ill. His case is considered hopeless, but God has mercy on him and works a miracle on his behalf so that he recovers. Thereafter, he testifies to the fact that God is the living God. Yet within a short time of his recovery he plunges right into the world. Even when he is living in the world, he still remembers that God is the living God and that God preserved his life from death. But he has experienced no increase of divine life; he has only experienced a miracle of healing.