The Nature of Resurrection
The Nature of Resurrection
Resurrection is the transition from Adam to Christ; from flesh and blood to the Spirit and Word of God.
Next to the blood atonement, resurrection may be the most important aspect of the Divine redemption.
From my point of view, resurrection is not emphasized nearly enough. Some of the reasons may be that the unscriptural "rapture" has taken the place of resurrection in Christian thinking.
The "rapture" is not a scriptural doctrine. But resurrection is central to the plan of redemption.
Perhaps the best known passage, at least to Evangelicals, is John 3:16:
For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.
I may be mistaken, but I think most Christian people have a kind of vague idea that this verse somehow and in some manner means we are going to live forever in Heaven; whereas if we do not receive Christ when He is presented to us we will go to Hell.
Since the verse does not mention Heaven or Hell, perhaps we should look more closely at what it is saying.
"Shall not perish but have eternal life." What does that really mean?
What does "shall not perish" mean? What is "eternal life"?
To my knowledge, spirits do not perish but are conscious forever somewhere in the universe.
Could "perish" have to do with our body? In that case, John 3:16 may be referring to immortality as well as to spiritual life in the Presence of Christ.
The Greek term for "perish" is " apoletai. " The root meaning is "destruction."
Do not be afraid of those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. Rather, be afraid of the One who can destroy (apolesai) both soul and body in hell. (Matthew 10:28)
As to "eternal life," the Bible defines eternal life for us:
Now this is eternal life: that they know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom you have sent. (John 17:3)
The destruction of our body and soul is contrasted with knowing God and Jesus Christ. This is interesting isn't it? But such is the true meaning of John 3:16. If we choose to believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, our body and soul will not perish; instead we will know God and the Lord Jesus.
What would immortality in the body have to do with knowing the Father and Jesus?
For one thing, the Apostle Paul always was seeking to know Christ; not to know about Him, but to know Him in the sense of being an integral part of Him.
To know Christ as being part of His Body could very well bring immortality to our physical body, since the Lord Jesus Himself is the Resurrection and Eternal Life.
If we choose to believe in Christ in the sense of cleaving to Him, our body will not be destroyed but be filled with the Spirit of God and be in the closest of fellowship with God and Jesus. I think this is the meaning of John 3:16.
To really believe in Christ means we are learning to live by His Life, always inviting Him into all we think, say, and do.
Notice the following passage:
Do not be amazed at this, for a time is coming when all who are in their graves will hear his voice and come out—those who have done what is good will rise to live, and those who have done what is evil will rise to be condemned. (John 5:28,29)
"Rise to live; rise to be condemned."
I believe this verse is referring to the bringing back to life of our physical body such that it comes forth from the grave when it hears the voice of Christ. So it is apparent that every person who has ever lived in the earth will at one point come out from the place of burial and stand before Christ.
There are those who have done what is good. They shall rise to live. I would say this is referring to immortality as well as to life in the Presence of Christ.
To those who by persistence in doing good seek glory, honor and immortality, he will give eternal life. (Romans 2:7)
I think it would be fair to say that our belief in Jesus Christ must cause us to do good if we are to rise to live. Could you agree with that? According to the Apostle Paul, we must persist in doing good if we wish to be immortal and eternally enjoy the Presence of God.
Then there are those who have done evil. I believe this would mean whether or not they have claimed to be Christians. They are resurrected from their place of burial to be condemned.
Now, what would that mean? It would mean that when they come forth from their place of burial it is to face an angry Christ who rebukes them because of their behavior.
You know, I believe we place altogether too much importance on doctrine. Correct doctrine might lead us to Christ for salvation, but the correctness of the doctrine itself is not nearly as important to God as is behavior that reflects His image.
Sometimes, as in the case of the Pharisees, the doctrine of a believer may be perfectly correct, while he himself is a wicked, grasping, murderous individual. Some of that sort of behavior was evident in the Catholic churches of hundreds of years ago. I don't think those wicked people have fellowship with God and Christ because they were of the Catholic persuasion. Do you?
My favorite Catholic is Saint Lawrence of the Resurrection, who in every situation practiced the Presence of God; although Cardinal Newman runs a close second because of his hymn, "Lead Kindly Light." Cardinal Newman must have been a truly good man to compose such a hymn.
Truly good people have fellowship with God, whether or not their doctrine conforms to our group.
The title of this briefest of essays is "The Nature of Resurrection." What is resurrection anyway? It certainly is more than reviving our dead body, whether unto life or condemnation!
I was thinking about the time that God sought to kill Moses. Moses' wife referred to him as a "bloody husband." Let me say that every true man of God is a "bloody husband" because God always is seeking to slay him.
Why is this? It is because flesh and blood is an animal creation. It cannot have genuine, lasting fellowship with God. God wants to transform us into a life-giving spirit, which He Himself is. So much of our Christian life is occupied with coping with the deaths into which the Spirit leads us.
Our old adamic nature is a demon. He must be controlled. He cannot be converted. He must be replaced by the Lord Jesus Christ.
As the Lord Jesus stated:
The Spirit gives life; the flesh counts for nothing. The words I have spoken to you—they are full of the Spirit and life. (John 6:63)
The Apostle Paul set attaining to the resurrection as his goal in life.
And so, somehow, attaining to the resurrection from the dead. (Philippians 3:11)
Since Jesus said that everyone at one time or another shall be resurrected from the dead, it certainly is doubtful that Paul meant he was seeking to attain to that which already has been promised.
There is no question but that Paul was endeavoring to attain to the resurrection that is unto life.
Since the resurrection from the dead is divided into a first and a second resurrection, I believe it is probable that the Apostle was seeking to attain to the first resurrection, the resurrection of the Royal Priesthood. The second resurrection will include all other people, and will take place at the end of the thousand-year Kingdom Age.
Blessed and holy are those who share in the first resurrection. The second death has no power over them, but they will be priests of God and of Christ and will reign with him for a thousand years. (Revelation 20:6)
Now I don't think Paul meant he would become immortal at the moment he was praying, prior to the appearing of Christ.
In fact he said as much:
Not only so, but we ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for our adoption to sonship, the redemption of our bodies. (Romans 8:23)
If Paul was not seeking to attain to the resurrection, since the Bible promises every person will be resurrected, and it was a hope that Paul was looking forward to at the appearing of Christ, then exactly what was Paul trying to attain to?
And so, somehow, attaining to the resurrection from the dead.
I would venture that there is an inner resurrection that prepares us for the resurrection of our body in the Day of Christ.
What then would be the nature of this inner resurrection that Paul had set as his goal?
The answer has to do with what resurrection actually is; what eternal life actually is.
The Lord Jesus defined eternal life as the intimate knowledge of God and Himself. This is eternal life---that people might know God.
Could we say then that Paul was endeavoring to be free from his adamic nature so that increasingly he might be filled with the Father and Christ?
As we read of Paul's tribulations, in the Book of Second Corinthians, Paul indeed was a "bloody husband." God continually was "killing" Paul.
For we who are alive are always being given over to death for Jesus' sake, so that his life may also be revealed in our mortal body. (II Corinthians 4:11).
And what was the result of this continuing death?
I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I now live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me. (Galatians 2:20)
The verse above is the true meaning of "resurrection."
Could we say then that "resurrection" is our release from the adamic creation and the bringing of us into the Life of God, the Life that Christ is?
Perhaps we could venture that there will be a resurrection of the body in the sense of its release from mortality into immortality.
There also is a preceding and perhaps prerequisite resurrection that takes place as the daily crucifixion of our inner nature is followed by the replacing of it with Divine Life. We have to be resurrected internally before we are resurrected externally. Make sense?
If we stop to think about it, God would not be wise in placing a corrupt adamic nature in an immortal body. In fact, He drove Adam and Eve from the garden to prevent this from happening.
The Lord Jesus is the Firstborn from the dead. He lived for thirty-three years in an adamic form, and then came forth from the tomb as the beginning of the new creation, the Kingdom of God. Nothing of the adamic remained.
The old body was not left in the cave of Joseph of Arimathea. But the body that came forth was an indestructible resurrection body filled with Divine Life. This is what God means by making all things new.
The Kingdom of God is not all new things but the things to which we are accustomed made new in Christ. We think we may want a Heaven in which there are all things that are new to us. This is not what we want. What we truly desire is that to which we have been accustomed, particularly relationships, set free from sickness and death.
The Ark of the Covenant, which represents Christ and His Body, was fashioned from acacia wood covered within and without with pure gold. Wood represents humanity and gold represents Divinity. This tells us that Christ always shall continue to be Son of Man and Son of God—both wood and gold.
This is true of us also. It is important to note that Christ never lost His unique identity. Neither shall we lose our unique identity. However, we shall have lost our ability to be independent of Christ and God, just as They never shall be independent of us. Christ never shall be independent of the Father or of us!
I do not believe it is commonly understood among Christians that we are called to be a part of Christ, which is to be a part of God. We recoil at this idea, supposing that it is blasphemous. But we had better get used to it.
The Kingdom of God begins with flesh and blood. But then it is replaced with the Divine Nature. We really are the offspring of God. The lineage of Adam no longer can restrain us.
Through these he has given us his very great and precious promises, so that through them you may participate in the divine nature, having escaped the corruption in the world caused by evil desires. (II Peter 1:4)
Who are we that we should be raised to God's right hand in Christ? We are sons of the Highest and genuine brothers of our Lord Jesus.
Such is the nature of "resurrection." It is our emergence from the lineage of our ancestor, Adam, into the family of our Father. The heart of resurrection is not the bringing back to life of our adamic bodies. Rather it is the redeeming of our mortal bodies by filling them with the Spirit of God. This is our adoption as sons of God.
And if the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead is living in you, he who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies because of his Spirit who lives in you. (Romans 8:11)
"Our adoption to sonship, the redemption of our bodies." (Romans 8:23)
As I stated in the beginning, resurrection is second in importance only to the blood atonement made on the cross of Calvary. Therefore we ought not to ignore it in favor of an unscriptural "rapture," in which believers who still are living in the adamic, flesh and blood nature, are carried to Paradise to recline in their corrupt condition for eternity.
As for the bodies that are raised to condemnation and destruction:
Whoever sows to please their flesh, from the flesh will reap destruction; whoever sows to please the Spirit, from the Spirit will reap eternal life. (Galatians 6:8)
"As the new heavens and the new earth that I make will endure before me," declares the Lord, "so will your name and descendants endure. From one New Moon to another and from one Sabbath to another, all mankind will come and bow down before me," says the Lord. "And they will go out and look on the dead bodies of those who rebelled against me; the worms that eat them will not die, the fire that burns them will not be quenched, and they will be loathsome to all mankind." (Isaiah 66:22-24)
We may not think of ourselves as being in rebellion against God. But if we cannot say in every situation, "Not my will but Yours be done," we are in rebellion against God. The whole world is in rebellion against God, as we can see by looking around us, and considering our own heart.
Also, please note that at the last judgment, all the dead of history stand before God, except those who have attained to the first resurrection.
And I saw the dead, great and small, standing before the throne, and books were opened. Another book was opened, which is the book of life. The dead were judged according to what they had done as recorded in the books. (Revelation 20:12)
I believe it is fair to say that each person was raised in his or her body, in that this is the second and final resurrection of the dead. They are standing before the Throne in their body.
Then we see that those whose name was not written in the Book of Life were thrown into the Lake of Fire in their body.
Anyone whose name was not found written in the book of life was thrown into the lake of fire. (Revelation 20:15)
Each human being in his or her body was thrown into the Lake of Fire, to be with Satan, death, Hades, and the False Prophet and Antichrist who were thrown in their body into the Lake of Fire at the time of the Battle of Har Magedon .
Here we see the fulfillment of the Words of the Lord Jesus when He spoke of God destroying our soul and body in Hell.
We were born physically as a rebel against God. It is by looking to the Lord Jesus for all we think, say and do that we become free from the label of being a rebel.
The only solution to our problem is to replace our fallen nature with the Lord Jesus Christ. Adam never can be converted to Christ. He rebelled against God in the garden and he continues to rebel today.
We might think of being resurrected as being brought into the Kingdom of God. What role does sin play in keeping us out of the Kingdom of God; in preventing our resurrection?
The acts of the flesh are obvious: sexual immorality, impurity and debauchery; idolatry and witchcraft; hatred, discord, jealousy, fits of rage, selfish ambition, dissensions, factions and envy; drunkenness, orgies, and the like. I warn you, as I did before, that those who live like this will not inherit the kingdom of God. (Galatians 5:19-21)
Those who continue in known sin are not children of the Father. Therefore they do not inherit the Father's Kingdom.
Now, exactly how does sexual immorality prevent us from inheriting the Kingdom of God? How do fits of rage prevent our resurrection?
To be resurrected is to be changed from flesh and blood to the Spirit and Word of God. It is the Spirit of God who makes this change in our personality.
But God will not give His Spirit where there is disobedience to God. The Spirit will be withdrawn, keeping us from inheriting the Kingdom of God; preventing our change from flesh and blood to the Spirit and Word of God.
We are witnesses of these things, and so is the Holy Spirit, whom God has given to those who obey him. (Acts 5:32)
For if you live according to the flesh, you will die; but if by the Spirit you put to death the misdeeds of the body, you will live. (Romans 8:13)
If we continue to disobey the Father, the Spirit of God is withdrawn from us.
We see, then, that wherever the deeds of our sinful nature are being practiced, the Kingdom of God is absent and there is no transition from flesh and blood to the Spirit and Word of God. This is a law of the Kingdom of God, and grace, mercy, and our perception of God's unconditional love, have no effect upon it. It is a case of sowing and reaping.
When we continue in known sin, the Spirit of God, the Kingdom, and the resurrection unto life are removed from us and we face the destruction of our personality along with all those who disobey God.
When we come forth from our place of burial in the Day of Resurrection, we will reveal how much of the resurrection we have attained to; how much of the Kingdom of God we have attained to; how much of Christ we have attained to; how much eternal life we have attained to. The Lord Jesus Christ Himself is the Resurrection and the Life.
I declare to you, brothers and sisters, that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God, nor does the perishable inherit the imperishable. (I Corinthians 15:50)
We commence in a perishable state, but by continuing to press into Christ we become imperishable. Such is the true nature of resurrection and eternal life.