The Scripture sense and meaning of quickening is very great, and meaning of quickening is very great, and includes some very precious properties, with which every child of God is supposed to be acquainted in his own person and circumstances. It runs indeed through the whole of the divine life of God in the soul, from the first quickening the sinner, which is by nature clad in trespasses and sins, through all the after-ages of the renewed life, until that grace is finished in everlasting glory.
And what tends to endear this divine favour to all the happy receivers of it, the Scriptures graciously declare that all the persons of the GODHEAD are engaged in this merciful work, and every individual soul carries about with him, from day to day, evidences in his own heart of the united love, and grace, and favour, which is upon him, form the quickening operations of the Father, Son and Holy Ghost. I beg the reader to attend to what holy Scripture saith on this point, and then look into his own heart for the blessed testimonies to be found there corresponding to the word of God.
Concerning God the Father's quickening grace upon the soul, we read, (Romans 4:17) that "God quickeneth the dead, and calleth those things which be not as though they were." And agreeably to this, the apostle Paul tells the Ephesians (Ephesians 2:4-5) that them he had quickened, "who were dead in trespasses and sins. God (said he) who is rich in mercy, for his great love wherewith he loved us, even when we were dead in sins, hath quickened as together with Christ."
And, we know from the same authority, that one of the divine characters of our Lord, given of him by the Holy Ghost, is that of a quickening Spirit "The last Adam (was made) a quickening Spirit." (1 Corinthians 15:45) And this is in perfect agreement to what the Lord Jesus himself said: "For as the Father raiseth up the dead, and quickeneth them, even so the Son quickeneth whom he will." (John 5:21)
And with equal clearness of truth, the same blessed things are spoken in Scripture of the quickening power of God the Holy Ghost. "It is the Spirit that quickeneth: (saith the Lord Jesus) the flesh profiteth nothing. The words that I speak unto you, they are spirit, and they are life." And the apostle Peter was directed to tell the church, that even the human nature of Christ, as the Head of his body the church, when put to death in the flesh, was quickened by the Spirit. (1 Peter 3:18)
What a blessed contemplation do such views open to the souls of the redeemed, when made conscious of their own personal interest therein! Jesus as the Head of his body the church, unites all his individual members to himself. By virture of this headship, and their union in him, he becomes the source, and fountain, and spring of all spiritual life. For by virtue of that union, of what he is in himself as their head, he communicates to them perpetual supplies in a life-giving, soul-quickening, soul-renewing, strengthening, refreshing power, from day to day; and like some rich, overflowing, and ever-flowing fountain, diffuseth life, grace, strength, and joy to all his members. "Because I live, (he saith himself) ye shall live also" and hence his servant the apostle saith, "your life is hid with Christ in God." Such are the blessed privileges to which all true believers in Christ are begotten! By those quickening influences of the GODHEAD, they are first brought into a new and spiritual life from the death of sin, from which they are awakened. They are carried on from day to day, in the renewed acts of grace they receive from the same source of mercy; under all spiritual decays, arising from their own helplessness and frailty, they are raised up by the continual streams of "that river which maketh glad the city of God;" and the same almighty power which first brings forth into life the renewed soul, preserves from all future decays, dissolution, and death, the spiritual frame, until brought home to everlasting glory. Hence David, sensible of the source from whence all the energies of grace were derived, cried out no less than nine times in one Psalm for the quickening influences of the Lord's Spirit, (Psalms 119:25; Psalms 119:37; Psalms 119:40; Psalms 119:88; Psalms 119:107; Psalms 119:149; Psalms 119:154; Psalms 119:156; Psalms 119:159)