THE BODILY RESURRECTION

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1. Anticipated in the Old Testament.

Such terms as “in the latter days,” “awake and live,” are indications of a resurrection. The Old Testament contains many types of the resurrection. Joseph was counted dead, but he came back to his father; Jonah was in the belly of the fish for three days and three nights, and then was released; Daniel was placed in the lion’s den, a place of death, but came out alive; Israel died in the wilderness, and a new Israel went in Canaan. All of these are figures of the resurrection. The following Scriptures verify the resurrection. “Thy dead men shall live, together with my dead body shall they arise. Awake and sing, ye that dwell in dust: for thy dew is as the dew of herbs, and the earth shall cast out the dead” (Is. 26:19). See also Job 19:26, 27; Psalm 16:9, 11; Daniel 6:23; 12:2; Matthew 12:40.

2. Revealed In the New Testament.

“As in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive” (I Cor. 15:22). “[I] have hope toward God, which they themselves also allow, that there shall be a resurrection of the dead, both of the just and unjust” (Acts 24:15). See also Matthew 22:30-32; Luke 14:13, 14; 20:35, 36; John 5:28, 29; 6:39, 40, 44, 54; I Thessalonians 4:14-16: II Timothy 1:10. Christ did not come to save my soul only, but all of me: my soul, spirit, and body. All of me is to be saved.

B. The Nature of the Resurrection.

Death is never set forth as the hope of the believer. In Corinth (I Cor. 15) some had declared that there was no bodily resurrection, but in the above chapter Paul rebukes them for this false doctrine and proves to them that there is a resurrection (by Christ’s own resurrection): if one does not believe in man’s resurrection, then it is impossible to believe in Christ’s resurrection; and if Christ had no resurrection, there is no Gospel, and if no Gospel, we are not saved. Satan has always been against the Word, and he has many weapons trained on it. The revelation he most despises is that of the resurrection. Materialism denies the resurrection altogether. Spiritualism denies the bodily resurrection. We are never to doubt the resurrection. “I forgot God when I said, How can this be?” Whether man believes, or understands the resurrection means little; it is true, nevertheless. Some people cannot believe that flesh and bones shall be perfect. When speaking of Christ’s resurrection, they maintain that it was a spiritual resurrection. We know by this statement that they do not know what they are talking about. Jesus Christ’s spirit was not put in the tomb; only His body was. The Roman soldiers were not stationed at the sepulcher to guard His spirit, but to guard His body. It was His body they guarded; it was His body which arose from the dead! One Scripture used by those who believe only in a spiritual resurrection is I Corinthians 15:44: “It is sown a natural body; it is raised a spiritual body. There is a natural body, and there is a spiritual body.” Notice that the verse does not say “a spirit body,” but “a spiritual body.” The natural body is controlled by the soul; the spiritual body shall be controlled by the Spirit; hence, a spiritual body.

1. Theories Proposed.

a. Germ Theory.

This is an old Jewish belief found in the Talmud. According to it, in man there is a little bone, called a “luz,” which death can not destroy, and out of that germ the body will be resurrected. Some Christians hold to this theory, using I Corinthians 15:36, 37 for support.

b. Identity Theory.

This is the belief that the body in the resurrection will be raised just as it was buried. A body buried with an arm missing, will be raised with an arm missing; an infant buried will be an infant raised; a lunatic buried, a lunatic raised. The Mohammedans hold to this theory. If this be true, we will not be like Jesus.

c. Reincarnation Theory.

This idea supposes that when a man dies he goes immediately into another body. If this should occur, we would not be “at home” with the Lord. When a person dies, he is not a complete human being; he can only be so by a bodily resurrection (I Thess. 5:23).

d. Intermediate Body Theory.

This theory contends that the believer receives his resurrected body immediately upon his death. It is based on II Corinthians 5:1-4: “We know that if our earthly house of this tabernacle were dissolved, we have a building of God, an house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens. For in this we groan, earnestly desiring to be clothed upon with our house which is from heaven: if so be that being clothed we shall not be found naked. For we that are in this tabernacle do groan, being burdened: not for that we would be unclothed, but clothed upon, that mortality might be swallowed up of life.” But the above Scripture refers only to those believers who are living when Christ comes.

2. Truth Believed.

The resurrection is by Divine Power! “God giveth a body as it has pleased him, and to every seed his own body” (I Cor. 15:38). Jesus Christ’s own resurrected body was proved to be flesh and bone. When Christ appeared unto the disciples, He remarked, “Behold my hands and my feet, that it is I myself: handle me, and see; for a spirit hath not flesh and bones, as ye see me have” (Luke 24:39). Christ did not say that there were no spirits, but that a spirit does not have flesh and bones. Ezekiel 37 pictures the resurrection of Israel; flesh, bones and spirit are mentioned, but no blood. The law demanded the shedding of blood, and Christ shed his blood to pay for that demand. In the resurrection, all will be raised without blood; life will be in the spirit of man.

“[The Lord Jesus Christ] shall change our vile body, that it may be fashioned like unto his glorious body, according to the working whereby he is able even to subdue all things unto himself” (Phil. 3:20, 21). Our bodies, the same ones that may be planted in death, will pass under a great transformation and be raised. If we should plant a lily, a lily will come up; if we plant wheat, wheat will come up; if we plant tares, tares will come up; if we plant human bodies, glorified human bodies will come up. God looks upon the cemeteries as nothing but harvest fields. The seeds in these harvest fields are the bodies of the dead, and the harvest is the resurrection.

“And we shall be changed” (I Cor. 15:52c). Yes, a great transformation will take place, but it will be the same body, for the resurrected body of Christ proves that it will be the same body, as He bore in His resurrected body the print of the nails. I Corinthians 15:42-44 describes fully the resurrection of the just (God tells nothing of the bodies of the damned in their resurrection): “It is sown in corruption; it is raised in incorruption.” A dead body is a corruptible body. A live body is a mortal body. Nothing is ever said in Scripture of planting a mortal body. A corruptible body is subject to decay and dust, but one day it will be raised in incorruption, a body fit for heaven, that can never be subject to corruption again. “It is sown in dishonour; it is raised in glory.” These vile bodies have been dishonored by sin, but one day they will be raised in glory like unto the glorious body of our Lord. “It is sown in weakness; it is raised in power.”

Sin has made us weak, also. The weakest thing in the world is a dead body. In order for a dead man to move, he must be moved. He has eyes that cannot see and ears that cannot hear; he makes no protest about being put in a coffin and placed in a grave. There is no resistance in a dead body. These same weak bodies shall be raised with great power. Notice what man can do for the eyes today, but think what God will do. The resurrected believer will be able to see spiritual beings. Mortal man has the microscope and telescope, but, oh, what eyesight our new bodies will have! Today we have limits of speed, but in the resurrection there will be no limit. Do not make present standards the limit of our future standards. “It is sown a natural body; it is raised a spiritual body.” The natural body is our animated body, containing flesh, bones and blood. Our resurrected spiritual bodies shall not be spirit-bodies, but spiritual; they will be bodies composed of only flesh and bone, no blood, dominated by our spirits.

C. The Time of the Resurrection.

“As in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive” (I Cor. 15:22). All men shall be raised from the dead, but not all at the same time. The Scriptures plainly declare that there are two resurrections, and not a general resurrection. They are the first, and the last resurrection (Rev. 20:5, 6).

1. The First Resurrection.

The first resurrection includes Christ, and all believers of all ages. Their resurrection occurs at different intervals. Christ at one time; the Church at the Rapture (before the Tribulation); and the Old Testament saints and Tribulation saints after the Tribulation.

a. Christ the Firstfruits.

“Now is Christ risen from the dead, and become the firstfruits of them that slept” (I Cor. 15:20). The firstfruits was God’s pledge that the entire harvest would come later. Christ’s being the Firstfruits is God’s pledge that the harvest will be coming later. “Because I live, ye shall live also” (John 14:19b). There are records of others being raised from the dead, but these were “resuscitations,” or restorations; they died again. Christ liveth to die no more! “Behold, I am alive for evermore” (Rev. 1:18b).

b. The Saints at Christ’s Resurrection.

“The graves were opened; and many bodies of the saints which slept arose, and came out of the graves after his resurrection, and went into the holy city, and appeared unto many” (Matt. 27:52, 53). On one occasion, the Lord Jesus said, “Except a corn of wheat fall into the ground and die, it abideth alone: but if it die, it bringeth forth much fruit” (John 12:24). Christ did die and was planted as a corn of wheat, but when He was raised from the dead, He brought forth much fruit with Him. This fruit was the saints who arose immediately after His resurrection. We do not know how many were raised, nor do we know where they went. They may have gone up to heaven with him, for remember, he was the Firstfruits, and we know that in the Feast of Firstfruits, a sheaf of the wave offering was waved before the Lord. There was more than one grain in the sheaf. Thus, we are led to believe that there were more people in the firstfruits to go to heaven than just Christ.

c. The Body of Christ (The Church).

The Church will have a resurrection of its own. “The dead in Christ shall rise first” (I Thess. 4:16). The Church was never known in the Old Testament (See Chapter VII). Therefore, the Old Testament prophets saw nothing of its Spiritual baptism, rapture, resurrection and transformation. The Church was a mystery hid in God; it was first revealed to the Apostle Paul (Eph. 3:1-9). However, the old Testament saints did know of their own resurrection, which shall occur after the Tribulation (Dan. 12:2, 13). The resurrection of the Church was revealed to the Apostle Paul; it will occur before the Tribulation. “Because thou hast kept the word of my patience, I also will keep thee from the hour of temptation, which shall come upon all the world, to try them that dwell upon the earth” (Rev. 3:10). See also I Thessalonians 1:10. There has been over nineteen hundred years since Christ the Firstfruits has been raised. The time of the resurrection of the Church is not known.

d. Old Testament and Tribulation Saints.

This phase of the first resurrection takes place after the Tribulation, at least seven years after the Church is raised. It includes all saints who do not belong to the Body of Christ. “Go thy way till the end be: for thou shalt rest, and stand in thy lot at the end of the days” (Dan. 12:13). See also Daniel 12:1,2.

2. The Last Resurrection.

The last (or second) resurrection occurs after the Millennium, and shall include all the wicked dead. They shall be raised to stand before the Great White Throne. “The rest of the dead lived not again until the thousand years were finished. This is the first resurrection. 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” (Rev. 20:5, 6).

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