Truly this is most precious as a type of the risen Christ. That same Joseph whom they cast into the pit, God made lord of all Egypt. That same Jesus whom men crucified, God has made Lord of heaven and earth (Acts 2:36).

But if God purposed by Joseph to save much people alive, what, I ask, was God’s wondrous purpose of grace in the death and raising again of Jesus from the dead? The purpose of God in resurrection is so little thought of in this day, I scarce know how to speak sufficiently plain to be understood. Take this illustration: a gardener has his vineyard so blighted, the vines are so dead, that he cannot possibly have fruit from the old vines. Knowing this, he purposes, and brings in, an entire new vine, new kind, a new stock, that he may have fruit. He does not purpose to improve the old vines, but to set them aside, and have an entirely new vine. The old vine of Adam’s race is blighted with sin. God sees it so dead in trespasses and sins, that He knows fruit there cannot be found in it. Man is ruined, dead, blighted with sin. Now, this is the long forgotten truth. God did not purpose, in sending his beloved Son, to improve the old vine, but to set it aside in death, even the death of Jesus, proving that, as Jesus died for all, then were all dead. And thus, in raising Jesus from among the dead, God has begun a new vineyard, so to speak; an entirely new creation, having entirely new life, new nature, everything new, and everything of God. Men could not make a greater mistake than they do in trying to improve the old vine. In Christ risen from the dead, the beginning of this glorious new creation, all is perfect; old things are passed away, all things become new, and all things are of God (2 Cor. 5:14–18).