'Christ possesses all power over death.'
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He has the keys of death. It is He who will, in the appointed hour, make alive our mortal bodies by His glorious authority and power.
The message of Easter morning is that the tomb is empty. Christ took up His body again and came forth into the daylight. After a period of forty days, during which time He engaged in activities not described in full in the Gospel accounts, He ascended to the Father. He ascended while still in His body. He possesses all authority in Heaven and on the earth.
There is no other hope equal to that of the Christian Good News. The Good News is that the believers in Christ will not perish in the grave but will come back to life in their bodies.
It does not matter if they have been blown into bits by a bomb, they will come forth in their bodies. They may have been drowned at sea but they will come forth in their bodies. They may have been burned at the stake, yet they will come forth in their bodies.
What a hope! We will see our loved ones again and we all shall be alive forever.
The effects of the disobedience of Adam and Eve have been reversed in Christ. All the authority and power of death has been delivered into the hands of Jesus, as represented by the "keys" (Revelation 1:18).
Christ can do as He will with all the creation of God, and it is His will that the saints, His brothers, reign with Him over the creation. Therefore death holds no terrors for us.
It is important for the Church of Christ to understand that redemption is yet ahead of us. Redemption, in scriptural terms, is the destroying of the power of sin and death over the physical body.
In the present hour we possess the pledge of the Holy Spirit—a pledge on the redemption that is to come. The full benefits of the death of Christ on the cross are yet ahead of us. He has "kept the good wine until now" (John 2:10).
And when these things begin to come to pass, then look up, and lift up your heads; for your redemption draweth nigh. (Luke 21:28)
And not only they [the material creation], but ourselves also, which have the firstfruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, waiting for the adoption, to wit, the redemption of our body. (Romans 8:23)
Who hath also sealed us, and given the earnest [pledge] of the Spirit in our heart. (II Corinthians 1:22)
Which is the earnest [pledge] of our inheritance until the redemption of the purchased possession, unto the praise of his glory. (Ephesians 1:14)
And grieve not the holy Spirit of God, whereby ye are sealed unto the day of redemption. (Ephesians 4:30)
Who are kept by the power of God through faith unto salvation ready to be revealed in the last time. (I Peter 1:5)
We have seen that what we have now is a pledge, a deposit on the fullness of redemption. We have been "sealed unto the day of redemption." The fullness of redemption includes the restoration of life to the mortal body.
Christ never will be content with the redemption only of the spirit and soul of the member of His Body. He is waiting patiently until the Glory of God the Father is directed toward the breaking of the power of sin and death over the mortal body. The making alive of the bodies of the saved is the final act in the restoration of what was lost in Eden.
The release of the created universe, including the making alive of the bodies of the saved people, is the fullest expression of Calvary. The Gospel of Christ is the promise that we shall not perish but have everlasting life—in the body.
Christ is the enemy of death. Every particle of death must flee at the Presence of Christ—Head and Body. Death will be cast into the Lake of Fire, which is the second death. There is no place for death among the saints of God.
So when this corruptible shall have put on incorruption, and this mortal shall have put on immortality, then shall be brought to pass the saying that is written, Death is swallowed up in victory. O death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory? The sting of death is sin; and the strength of sin is the law. (I Corinthians 15:54-56)
The saints are moving, under the guidance and power of the Holy Spirit, toward the abolishing of death in the body. The abolishing of death in the body, which is the "resurrection" of I Corinthians, Chapter 15, will occur at the coming of Christ. The fullness of the reward will be given at that time to those who have been diligent in the processes of redemption described in the preceding pages of our book.
The overcoming of death in our body is the mature expression of the "rest" of God, of Hebrews, Chapter Four. It is the land of promise; the "mark," of Philippians, Chapter Three; the "perfection," of Hebrews, Chapter Six; the "salvation ready to be revealed in the last time," of I Peter, Chapter One; the "redemption," of Luke 21:28 and Ephesians 4:30.
For we are saved by hope: but hope that is seen is not hope: for what a man seeth, why doth he yet hope for? (Romans 8:24)
The hope that saves us and that spurs us on to put to death the deeds of our flesh is the vision that one day the sin and death in our body will be removed and we, as a result, will enter the rest of righteousness, holiness, and obedience to God.
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