The Seventh Aspect of the First Resurrection
Another aspect of the resurrection of the victorious saints has to do with appointing them to the high thrones of rulership and judgment.
The central concept of the first resurrection from the dead, the resurrection of the victorious saints, is the transfer of the rulership of the nations of the earth from the disobedient angels to the conquering saints. The conquering saints are those who have cooperated with the Holy Spirit until Christ has been fully reaped in their personalities. The adamic nature has died and the Nature of Christ has taken its place.
The first part of the first resurrection is taking place in us now as the Holy Spirit is working in us to remove King Self from the throne of our heart and to place King Jesus on that throne. If the first part is not brought to maturity now we cannot participate in the resurrection of the saints in the Day of the Lord. No human being who is ruled by self can participate in the first resurrection. Man was created to be the throne of God.
And I saw thrones, and they sat upon them, and judgment was given unto them: and I saw the souls of them that were beheaded for the witness of Jesus, and for the word of God, and which had not worshipped the beast, neither his image, neither had received his mark upon their foreheads, or in their hands; and they lived and reigned with Christ a thousand years. But the rest of the dead lived not again until the thousand years were finished. This is the first resurrection. (Revelation 20:4,5)
What is the purpose of the first resurrection ? It is to place saints on the thrones that govern the world. There is no resurrection (other than that of the Lord Jesus) before this resurrection. It is the first resurrection.
Who will participate in the first resurrection? The believers who have stood faithful to the point of martyrdom for the witness of Jesus, for the Word of God. They have refused to think like the world, to act like the world, to be a part of the world system. They are the Lord's elect and will rule with Him over the nations of saved peoples of the earth (Revelation 3:21).
In reviewing the rewards offered to the victorious saints it is interesting to note that the greatest reward of all—that of sitting with Christ in His throne—is given to those who overcome the world and Satan during the spiritually lazy, pleasure-loving, self-centered, weak-minded age of Laodicea. Where the greatest temptation is, there the greatest glory is possible.
Nowhere else in the Scriptures is the expression "the first resurrection" employed. We pointed out previously that the Greek word translated "resurrection" in Philippians 3:11 is a special term for resurrection and should be translated out-resurrection (implying the first resurrection). The resurrection of Revelation 20:4-6 is the resurrection the Apostle Paul was striving to attain. The mark, the prize of the upward calling of God in Christ, is the first resurrection from the dead.
Let us fasten our gaze on this goal.
What kind of people will arrive at the first resurrection from the dead?
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. (Revelation 20:6)
If we attain to the first resurrection by refusing to participate in the world spirit, and if we stand true to death for the witness of Jesus and the Word of God, we will be eternally free from the authority of the second death, which is the Lake of Fire. We have the assurance in writing from God that we never again can be in jeopardy of the white throne judgment. The maximum penalty given at the white throne is eternal separation from our Creator in the lake that burns with fire and sulfur.
The resurrected saints will be gloriously alive forever and will rule and judge on the thrones that govern the nations of the earth. Can you think of anything more wonderful than to be a coheir, an heir of people, with the Lord Jesus Christ?
The stipulation is that we be "beheaded for the witness of Jesus, and for the word of God," and also that we do not worship the beast, neither his image, nor receive his mark on our forehead or in our hand.
The term "beheaded" may include physical martyrdom. But this would limit the participants in the first resurrection to those who have been decapitated. Literal "beheading" is not nearly as important in the Kingdom of God as the "beheading" of the saint so he no longer is governed by his fleshly mind but by the will of God in Christ. The change from self-will to the will of Christ is the key transformation governing our eligibility to rule with Christ.
Only the personal cross of the disciple can cure the malady of self-will. Until self-centeredness is healed thoroughly we are worthless to God as a ruler or a priest.
The worshiping of the beast and his image has to do with our participation in the world system—particularly in the system of commerce. So great is the love of money in the Christian churches that it is being preached today that the sign of God's blessing is material prosperity. The love of money is the root of all evil and the basis of Antichrist's empire.
The hoarding of money is man's way of refusing to acknowledge that he lives by every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God. The true saint gains, through Christ's grace, total victory over the love of money. It is impossible to serve both God and money. The believer will eventually hate the one and love the other. It is inescapable.
Death to self-will, and death to participation in the world system of commerce, are necessary for attaining to the first resurrection from the dead. By death to participation in the world system of commerce we do not mean the individual does not buy products from a store. We mean, rather, that he does not make the acquiring of money the central goal of his life on earth.
Riches are deceitful, and it nearly is impossible for the wealthy to enter the Kingdom of God. Yet in the wealthy nations of our day it is a rare Christian who is free from the love of money. Multitudes of Christians, many of whom are unaware of their danger, already are bound with the Antichrist spirit of the love of money.
Release from the deceptions of the Antichrist money system is difficult to acquire, once one has become accustomed to living in such a system. However, at stake is the saint's position on the throne of the universe; and so it is well worth the effort to gain release from the bondage of trust in money.
The term first means that nothing has come before. The first resurrection from the dead is the first resurrection from the dead.
The resurrection from the dead of the Lord Jesus in actuality was the first resurrection from the dead. The resurrection from the dead of the firstfruits is part of the resurrection of the Lord Jesus because they are an integral part of Him. He is their Resurrection and their Life. Their resurrection is a part of His, a part of the first resurrection.
The same is true, no doubt, of the saints who arose along with the Lord and appeared to the people of Jerusalem (Matthew 27:52,53). Perhaps this select group who were raised at the time of Christ's resurrection served as an honor guard of saints whom God chose to accompany the Lord Jesus as He surveyed the creation He had just purchased with His own blood.
Enoch and Elijah ascended to God; but theirs was not a true resurrection for they had not died physically.
The ascension of Enoch and Elijah were different from what will be experienced by the saints who are alive when the Lord Jesus returns. We who are alive when the Lord comes will be "changed" (I Corinthians 15:52). We shall pass from mortality to immortality. This is a true resurrection.
There is no evidence Enoch and Elijah experienced actual resurrection. They experienced ascension but not resurrection. We know this is true because our Lord Jesus is the "firstborn from the dead" (Colossians 1:18). If Enoch and Elijah had experienced resurrection prior to their ascension the Lord Jesus would not be the Firstborn from the dead.
The Lord Jesus was the first Person to die physically, be raised from the dead, and then receive the glorification of his Body. Enoch and Elijah do not as yet possess glorified bodies, for "they without us should not be made perfect" (Hebrews 11:40).
When the trumpet of God sounds and the Lord Jesus returns to assume His rightful throne as King of kings and Lord of lords, then the bodies of all the saints, the elect of the new covenant and of all other covenants, will be raised from the dead. Their spirits and souls returning from Heaven with Jesus will enter their revived bodies—bodies now made eternally alive by the Holy Spirit (Romans 8:11).
Next, the living remnant, those who have survived all that has come to pass on the earth during the closing days of the Church Age, will be transformed from flesh-and-blood physical life into the Life of the Holy Spirit of God.
Then all the elect will ascend to meet the Lord Jesus in the air — not in Heaven but in the air. The purpose of our meeting Christ in the air is that we may be assigned to the thrones from which the fallen angels, who have ruled the nations from their spiritual vantage points in the air, have been cast down.
Wherein in time past ye walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience: (Ephesians 2:2)
"The prince of the power of the air."
The purpose of the resurrection of the saints is not that we may go to Heaven. We do not need to have our body raised from the dead in order to go to Heaven. We go to Heaven when our physical body dies and returns to the ground, provided we are rightly related to God through Christ.
The purpose of raising the bodies of the saints from their place of burial is that they may rise to meet the Lord in the air and then take over the thrones that have been vacated. The thrones have been vacated because the rebellious angels have been forced from them and hurled into the earth (Revelation 12:9).
The Seventh Aspect of the First Resurrection
The final event in the first resurrection from the dead will be the clothing of all the saints, including Enoch and Elijah and also those saints who rose from the dead after Jesus' resurrection, with a body like that of the glorified Jesus. We all shall be made perfect together.
Who 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. (Philippians 3:21)
For 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. (II Corinthians 5:1)
The heavenly body that will clothe our revived mortal body is our reward for serving Jesus in this life. The grandeur, power, and capabilities of our heavenly body depend directly on the deeds we have practiced during our lifetime on the earth. Our new body is the consequence of our behavior now—in this world. Here is the perfect justice of God: we shall be clothed with our own works; we shall reap what we sow (II Corinthians 5:10).
He that overcometh, the same shall be clothed in white raiment; and I will not blot out his name out of the book of life, but I will confess his name before my Father, and before his angels. (Revelation 3:5)
And to her was granted that she should be arrayed in fine linen, clean and white: for the fine linen is the righteousness (righteous deeds) of saints. (Revelation 19:8)
The first resurrection is the perfection in Christ that cannot be attained until those whom God has chosen have arrived at the glory prepared for them (Hebrews 11:40; I Corinthians 13:10).
It appears that many of the rulers of the world to come will be appointed from the group of saints who remained faithful to God throughout the reign of Antichrist—especially during his mature manifestation in the last days. This is in fulfillment of the words of Jesus: "But many that are first shall be last; and the last shall be first" (Matthew 19:30).
Truly, the Lord Jesus has "kept the good wine until now" (John 2:10; Haggai 2:9).
Some of the greatest heroes of faith of the Kingdom of God will be those who bear witness during the closing days of the present age. "The people that do know their God shall be strong, and do exploits" (Daniel 11:32).
Let us review the aspects of the resurrection of the saints we have discussed in this brief article.
. The concept of there being necessary elements in attaining to the first resurrection from the dead. These elements are described in Revelation, Chapters Two and Three.
. The resurrection "in the Spirit" as the Spirit of wisdom and revelation abides on us and we learn to walk in heavenly places in Christ.
. The open testimony to the peoples of the earth as the despised remnant are revived from the dead and brought up to the heaven (Revelation 11:12)—probably into the region of the clouds (compare Acts 1:9-11).
. The formation in the saints, through eating Christ's flesh and drinking of His blood, of the Conqueror, of the Resurrection, of Christ—the Ruler of the ages to come.
. The concept of the firstfruits of the Wife of the Lamb. The first resurrection is for the overcomers, for those whose love for Jesus is so strong and consistent they faithfully have left all else to cleave to Him alone. Their reward is to be with Him forever. Christ and His firstfruits are together always. It is the romance of which all other pure romances are miniature examples.
. Gathering to the heavenly Farmer what He has sown in the earth; the separation between what is of God and what is not of God.
. The changing of the thrones that govern the earth from the authority of the rebellious angels to the authority of the saints who are filled with Christ and who live and move and have their being in obedience to Christ.
. The final event in the first resurrection from the dead, which is the clothing of all the saints, including Enoch and Elijah and also those saints who rose from the dead after Jesus' resurrection, with a body like that of the glorified Jesus. We all shall be made perfect together.
Each of the ruling saints has been crucified with Christ. King Jesus has been enthroned in each of their personalities. They are the victorious saints. Through the grace of God in Christ they have overcome the love of the world, the love of sin, and the love of self. They are servants of the most high God.
It is God's intention to fill the entire creation with Christ (Ephesians 1:10). The Kingdom of God is God in Christ in the saints governing and blessing all the saved creatures of the universe.
The "land of promise" of the Church, the goal of our endeavors, is the spiritual rulership of the material creation. Being coheirs of Christ, our inheritance is the nations of the earth. The earth itself and all that is therein are our possession (Psalms 2:8).
Christ died and rose again in order that He may be Lord of all.
For to this end Christ both died, and rose, and revived, that he might be Lord both of the dead and living. (Romans 14:9)
In Him we die, and then are raised with Him so we may serve God, under Christ, throughout God's creation. The saints are the royal priesthood of the ages to come.
Although we are heirs and rulers of all things we have been assigned a temporary, imprisoning body through means of which we are being taught the righteous ways of the Lord. It is a body of humbling (Deuteronomy 8:3).
If we are successful in this instruction, if we overcome the obstacles placed before us, we will be given an eternal body at the return of Jesus. This is the first resurrection from the dead—the giving of eternal, ruling bodies to those who have been found worthy. It is the "crown of life," the authority of eternal life in an incorruptible body.
Many have been called to the Divine Glory, but because the some of those who have been called judge themselves to be "unworthy of everlasting life" (Acts 13:46; Revelation 3:4), only a few are chosen. Only a few "graduate."
The last two chapters of the Book of Revelation portray the result of the workings of God through Christ. The new Jerusalem, which is the Kingdom of God, the entire perfected Wife of the Lamb, is established forever on the new earth. A glorious new sky reveals the splendor and majesty of the Lord God. The victorious saints inherit all these things. Each of them possesses a body like that of the Lord Jesus Christ.
They are the sons of God (Revelation 21:7). They shall see the Face of their Father. They shall rule over all the works of God's hands forever—ages without end.
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