The Resurrection - Part 2

In our continuing series on End Time Prophecy, we are studying what the Bible says about the resurrection. Last week, in part 1, we looked at the fact of such an event, where the body of people who have died will live again.

Acts 24:15 NIV

15 And I have the same hope in God as these men, that there will be a resurrection of both the righteous and the wicked.

There is definitely a day coming in which all the bodies that are in their grave will be resurrected, both the godly and the ungodly.

John 5:28-29 NKJV echoes what Luke says in Acts.

28 Do not marvel at this; for the hour is coming in which all who are in the graves will hear His voice
29 and come forth--those who have done good, to the resurrection of life, and those who have done evil, to the resurrection of condemnation.

Many people have been taught that there will be one general resurrection and one judgment. In such a scenario, everyone who had ever lived would be resurrected at one time and all of us - the just and the unjust - would be judged at the same time. The sheep would be separated from the Goats before the Great White Throne. The question that naturally arises is this:

WILL ALL OF THE DEAD, IN FACT, BE RESURRECTED AT THE SAME TIME?

There is definitely a time when all will be resurrected. Last week we also took note that the Bible teaches there will not be a general resurrection, where everyone is resurrected at the same time and stand before the judge at the same time. Revelation 20:5-6 tell us that the resurrection of the godly and the ungodly will be separated by at least 1000 years.

We looked at a number of Passages that address only the resurrection of the godly.

Phil. 3:10-11 "resurrection from among the dead."

Matt. 24:31 Only the "elect" are gathered.

Luke 14:14 A resurrection of only the "just."

Luke 20:35-36 Only those "accounted as worthy."

Heb. 11:35 A "better resurrection."

No, there is no general resurrection, where we find all, both saved and unsaved, raised from the dead at the same moment. Yes, there is a resurrection that is unique for those who belong to God. And Yes, we will immediately be taken into the presence of our Lord.

Last week I mentioned that the last two thirds of the Book of First Corinthians, finds Paul addressing questions the Corinthian church members had written to him. And in chapter 15, we find one of the best passages in the Bible, covering the subject of the resurrection.

Look at a short section of this great chapter. You will notice, that Paul links our resurrection to that of Christ himself.

1 Cor 15:17-22 NIV

17 And if Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile; you are still in your sins.
18 Then those also who have fallen asleep in Christ are lost.
19 If only for this life we have hope in Christ, we are to be pitied more than all men.
20 But Christ has indeed been raised from the dead, the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep.
21 For since death came through a man, the resurrection of the dead comes also through a man.
22 For as in Adam all die, so in Christ all will be made alive.

Then in verse 35, Paul seems to anticipate further questions from the Corinthian congregation.

1 Corinthians 15:35 NIV

35 But someone may ask, "How are the dead raised? With what kind of body will they come?"

Paul raises two questions, and I have had these questions asked of me dozens of time.

1. How, or by what process & power, are the dead raised?

2. What kind of bodies will we have?

For some these may be very perplexing questions, when you think of the different ways people have died. Some have totally disintegrated and dissolved in the earth. Others have been devoured by beast….or eaten by cannibals. Still others have been burned at the stake, or cremated, having their ashes scattered to the winds.

Many agnostic critics suggest that the bodily resurrection of the saints is impossible if the body is destroyed. Some have questioned how a body could be physically resurrected after a person had been eaten by a shark, and had become part of the food chain.

A famous example of this curious criticism of the idea of a resurrection is found in the writings of the French atheistic philosopher Voltaire. He ridiculed the doctrine of resurrection. He proposed a hypothetical situation where a starving soldier was forced by circumstances to eat an Iroquois Indian he had killed who himself had fed recently on some Jesuit priests.

Voltaire contemptuously asked:

"How is each to take again precisely what belongs to him? And what part belongs to each?"

The French philosopher Rousseau wrote a letter disputing this argument, saying,

"All the subtleties of metaphysics will never make me doubt for a moment the immortality of the soul and a beneficent providence………I feel it, I believe it, I want it, I hope for it. I will defend it to my last breath."

While Voltaire and other atheists and agnostics may see this issue as an insolvable problem, God is not subject to the finite limitation of their human minds. God is quite capable of resurrecting a body of a man as He was in creating that body the first time in his mother's womb. God created each of us as very unique creatures. No two of us are exactly alike. Every one of our bodies' 50 trillion cells, even the smallest cell of our hair or skin, contains the complete DNA genetic code required to reconstruct our complete body. All that is needed is one cell. It contains the code to your whole physical body, down to our particular tastes in music and food.

Besides that, Biologists tell us that our physical body constantly renews itself at the cellular level. Every seven years or so, almost every one of these 50 trillion cells has been completely replaced by new cells. Therefore, in the natural course of life, our body will use and discard trillions of cells and they are scattered throughout your home and work place, etc. The enormous quantity of discarded cells would be enough to make up our body several times over. God would only need one single cell of our body, with it DNA code, in order to recreate our complete body. There really is no difficulty in God locating one single cell, regardless of what happens to our body.

SO, WHAT DOES THE BIBLE SAYS? WHEN OUR BODIES ARE RESURRECTED, WHAT WILL THEY BE LIKE?

1. Firstly, our bodies will be our own bodies.

2. Secondly, our bodies will be changed to like Christ's glorified body.

Let's look at what the Bible says about this question.

1. Firstly, our bodies will be our own bodies.

When we are resurrected, we will not be clones of each other. The Bible tells us that we are individual human beings, now and forever. We shall stand in the Last Day as individuals to meet Jesus Christ either as our Judge or our Savior.

Each body will still retain the unique imprint given to us by our Creator. The Book of Job clearly teaches that we will be resurrected in the last days in our own restored yet physical body

Job 19:25-26 NKJV

25 For I know that my Redeemer lives, And He shall stand at last on the earth;
26 And after my skin is destroyed, this I know, That in my flesh I shall see God,

This kind of verse stirs up a classroom of thoughts or questions. I'm going to stand before him in this body? If so, why this body. I don't even like my body. Why don't we just start over on a new model?

As we continue, we will try to answer these questions. In 1 Cor. 15, -- That great resurrection chapter - Paul speaks briefly about a seed being put in the ground. He likens that seed to our bodies. He says, "When you sow a seed, it must die in the ground before it can live and grow." He is saying, "You can't have a new body without the death of the old one."

Paul would like us to change the way we think about the burial process. To kind of paraphrase Paul he is saying, The graveside service is not a burial - but a planting. "The cemetery is not the resting place, but rather the transformation place." Yes, as Job stated, it will be our body, but a fantastic transformation will have taken place.

See how Paul describes it in 1 Cor 15:37-38 NKJV

37 And what you sow, you do not sow that body that shall be, but mere grain--perhaps wheat or some other grain.
38 But God gives it a body as He pleases, and to each seed its own body.

Just as the buried seed sprouts new life, so our body will blossom into a new body. To translate - just as you can't envision the full plant by looking at the seed before it is sown, you can't envision the new body by looking at the old body. Yes, it is our body, but it is changed. That takes us to point #2.

2. Our bodies will be changed to like Christ's glorified body.

Christianity is a resurrection religion. The Scriptures tell us that the resurrection of Jesus from the dead supplies both the proof and the pattern of the resurrection of our body at His coming.

1 Cor 15:45-49 NIV

45 So it is written: "The first man Adam became a living being"; the last Adam [Christ], a life-giving spirit. 46 The spiritual did not come first, but the natural, and after that the spiritual.

Paul continues for the next couple of verses to describe this comparison between the first man, Adam, and the last Adam, Jesus Christ. Finally, in verse 49, he concludes:

49 And just as we have borne the likeness of the earthly man [Adam], so shall we bear the likeness of the man from heaven [Christ].

Our bodies will be changed to be very much like the body Christ had after his resurrection. We call that his "glorified body." We actually find that mentioned in Philippians 3:20-21 (NIV).

20 But our citizenship is in heaven. And we eagerly await a Savior from there, the Lord Jesus Christ, 21 who, by the power that enables him to bring everything under his control, will transform our lowly bodies so that they will be like his glorious body.

The clearest indication of what our future resurrected body will be like, is to be seen in what kind of body Jesus had after his resurrection and glorification. The passage we just read promises that our body will be like His. The apostle John echoes this thought in 1 John 3:2.

2 Dear friends, now we are children of God, and what we will be has not yet been made known. But we know that when he appears, we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is.

David realized this way back when he was writing Psalm 17.

Psalm 17:15 NKJV

15 As for me, I will see Your face in righteousness; I shall be satisfied when I awake in Your likeness.

Regardless of the wording, the promise is the same. Your body will be changed. You will not receive a different body - you will receive a renewed body. Just as God can make an oak out of a kernel, or a tulip out of a bulb, He will make a new body out of the old one. But this time, it will be a body without corruption -- a body without weakness, and without dishonor - a body like the body of Christ.

All I have said about our future resurrection is predicated on the fact of the resurrection of Christ. The historical truth about the physical resurrection of Jesus Christ is the bedrock upon which the entire Christian faith stands.

The apostle Paul declared, in 1 Corinthians 15:14 (NIV)

14 And if Christ has not been raised, our preaching is useless and so is your faith.

SO, WHAT DO WE KNOW ABOUT THE RESURRECTED BODY OF JESUS? WHAT WAS IT LIKE?

1. Firstly, the resurrected body of Christ was a REAL body.

Jesus didn't come as a mist or a wind or a ghostly specter. He came in a body. A body that maintained a substantial connection with the body he originally had. His body was real enough to walk on the Road to Emmaus (Luke 24:15). A body that had flesh and bones.

He told the disciples, in Luke 24:39 (NIV), --

39 Look at my hands and my feet. It is I myself! Touch me and see; a ghost does not have flesh and bones, as you see I have."

When Jesus rose from the dead, He appeared to His disciples physically. His resurrected body was tangible. They could actually touch it. Following His resurrection, the Lord was no phantom or ghost or hallucination. He body was a real body.

To prove his body was real, he sat down with his disciple is Galilee to eat breakfast.

Luke 24:42-43 NIV

42 They gave him a piece of broiled fish, 43 and he took it and ate it in their presence.

Just remember that He did not have to eat for sustenance, like He did before, because now He had an incorruptible, immortal body.

The Book of Revelation teaches that every one of God's resurrected children will participate in the glorious marriage supper of the Lamb. This event takes place in Heaven following the Rapture. We will eat and drink with our Lord Jesus Christ and all the other saints who are there. Yes, Christ's glorified body was real, and so will ours be real as well.

While it was a real body, it was not simply a clone of his earthly body.

Mark 16:12 (NIV) tells us……

12 Afterward Jesus appeared in a different form to two of them while they were walking in the country.

Although Jesus' body was like His body's appearance prior to His death, there was an indefinable and ethereal quality about his appearance. While He was the same, he was different. Mary Magdalene, along with the two disciples on the road, and his disciples on the sea initially failed to recognize him when they first met Him. Mary did not know Jesus when He first appeared to her outside the empty tomb. Neither did the two walking on the road to Emmaus. This could partly be explained by the fact that they had not really expected him to be alive. And yet, to all of them, recognition did come eventually. Ultimately, hundreds of individuals recognized Jesus.

Also note that in one of the verses we read earlier, He said He had a body of "flesh and bones." He did not say He had a body of "Flesh and blood." Hebrews 2:14 tells us that in His humanity, Jesus partook of "flesh and blood." And according to Leviticus 17:11, "The life of the flesh is in the blood."

But Jesus shed his blood on Calvary! This is because, according to the same Leviticus 17:11, "it is the blood that maketh an atonement for the soul." In his death, Christ poured out His blood to redeem us from our sins. And in His resurrected body there was not a drop of that blood. His body was "flesh and bones." According to 1 Corinthians 15:50, Flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God. But flesh and bones can.

So the first thing we learn about Christ's glorified body, is that it was a real body….one that was physical and touchable.

2. The Resurrected body of Christ is a SPIRITUAL Body

Some of you might wonder, "How can it be both a real physical body, yet a spiritual body?" Doesn't "spiritual" mean something like a ghost, not physical? Most of you will probably recall that when Christ met with the disciples following his resurrection, Thomas was not with them. The rest of them tried to convince Thomas, and we find him saying, in John 20:25-26, NKJV

25 "Unless I see in His hands the print of the nails, and put my finger into the print of the nails, and put my hand into His side, I will not believe."
26 And after eight days His disciples were again inside, and Thomas with them. Jesus came, the doors being shut, and stood in the midst, and said, "Peace to you!"

His body was real and physical, and although he invited Thomas to touch his body, Jesus was able to pass through a closed door without opening it to be in the presence of Thomas.

1 Corinthians 15 also speak of this "spiritual body" we will be given at the resurrection.

1 Corinthians 15:42, 44 NKJV

42 So also is the resurrection of the dead. The body is sown in corruption, it is raised in incorruption.

44 It is sown a natural body, it is raised a spiritual body. There is a natural body, and there is a spiritual body.

Paul does not say that the body with be a spirit, but says we will have a spiritual body. By this, it means our new body will be of immortal substance. He is making no reference to becoming immaterial, intangible or without flesh and bones. Today, by and large, you and I are governed by our physical body. My spirit could not have come to the church this morning without my body. As a general rule, wherever my body goes, there goes my spirit. But after I am resurrected, my spirit will govern my body. My spirit will take my new body wherever it wills.

Thus far, when considering what our new bodies are going to be like, and knowing that they will be like Christ's "glorious body", we have learned that:

1. The body will be a real body.

2. The body will be a spiritual body

3. The resurrected body of Christ is an INCORRUPTIBLE and IMMORTAL body.

1 Corinthians 15:51-53 NKJV

51 Behold, I tell you a mystery: We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed --
52 in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed.
53 For this corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality.

Gone forever will be any physical defects, bruises or ailments.

Romans 8:11 NKJV

11 But if the Spirit of Him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, He who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through His Spirit who dwells in you.

And then in 1 Corinthians 5:4, we read:

4 For while we are in this tent, we groan and are burdened, because we do not wish to be unclothed but to be clothed with our heavenly dwelling, so that what is mortal may be swallowed up by life.

Any weaknesses or frailty we may have now, will be replaced by strength and power. 1 Cor. 15:43 says our body "will be sown in weakness; it is raised in power." We will not have to continue bearing the scars from the pains of life. Neither will be have the disfigurement of disease or the wounds of violence. For the first time in our life we will no longer be subject to physical death, disease or decay, nor will we ever again suffer pain. We will possess "perfect" bodies that will be incorruptible and immortal.

In heaven's accounting, only one wound is worthy to be remembered. And that is the wound of Jesus. Our wounds will be no more.

I like what Joni Eareckson Tada, a Christian paraplegic, write, in her book Heaven: Your Real Home

"Somewhere in my broken, paralyzed body is the seed of what I shall become. The paralysis makes what I am to become all the more grand when you contrast atrophied, useless legs against splendorous resurrected legs. I'm convinced that if there are mirrors in heaven (and why not?), the image I'll see will be unmistakably "Joni," although a much better, brighter Joni. So much so, that it's not worth comparing……I will bear the likeness of Jesus, the man from Heaven."

To that, I say a big "AMEN!"

WHY IS IT NECESSARY FOR OUR BODIES TO BE RESURRECTED? WHY CAN'T WE REMAIN SPIRIT BEINGS FOR ETERNITY?

Let me begin to address this issue by asking you yet another question.

BACK IN THE GARDEN OF EDEN, WHAT WERE SOME OF THE EFFECTS OF SIN?

In Genesis 2:17, God said: "…in the day you eat of it, you will surely die."

So here is what happened when man sinned in the garden.

1. Man immediately died, spiritually (separated from God}.

2. He also immediately began to die physically.

3. The physical creation was affected by sin as well.

Gen. 3:17 says…..cursed is the ground for your sake. Verse 18 goes on to tell how the ground would produce thistles and thorns.

4. Man's body would return to the dust from which it had been created.

Among many other things, these are some of the works of Satan and of sin which resulted from the fall of mankind. These are some of the effects of sin.

WHY DID CHRIST COME TO EARTH?

1 John 3:8 gives us the answer.

For this purpose the Son of God was manifested, that He might destroy the works of the devil.

One of the works of Satan which Christ came to destroy is found in Hebrews 2:14-15.

Hebrews 2:14-15 NIV

14 Since the children have flesh and blood, he too shared in their humanity so that by his death he might destroy him who holds the power of death-that is, the devil-
15 and free those who all their lives were held in slavery by their fear of death.

Because of sin, Satan has had the power of death. Christ took upon himself a physical body (flesh) so that He might destroy this work of Satan. You see, the redemptive process of God involves the physical as well as the spiritual -- our physical earth and our physical bodies. This was necessary, because sin had its affect not only upon man's spiritual nature, but also upon all of the physical creation.

Romans 8:22-23 NIV

22 We know that the whole creation has been groaning as in the pains of childbirth right up to the present time.
23 Not only so, but we ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for our adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies.

If sin has affected a curse upon our physical body, and upon the physical earth, and if Christ has come to destroy all such works of the devil, then it follows, of necessity, that He must give us a new body and a new earth. And that is exactly what is going to happen.

If Christ does not show that each effect of sin has been silenced once and for all, would in not indicate that Christ was defeated in at least that issue. His eternal plan for man and for the rest of his creation would have been thwarted. And giving us a new body shows the victory of Christ.

According to 1 Corinthians 15:54, the change of our bodies into that which is incorruptible, proves that "death is swallowed up in victory." And because Jesus has destroyed, as He promised, this work of Satan, the verses that follow can now be stated emphatically.

1 Corinthians 15:55-57 NKJV

55 O Death, where is your sting? O Hell, where is your victory?
56 The sting of death is sin, and the strength of sin is the law.
57 But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.

Like He promised, Christ has defeated the enemy of our Soul.

With regard to the physical world, during the 1,000 year reign of Christ, the earth will be restored back to its Garden of Eden condition. At that moment, another work of Satan will have been destroyed.

Isaiah 11:6-9 (NKJV) is only a small indicator of what will happen during the millennium.

6 The wolf also shall dwell with the lamb, The leopard shall lie down with the young goat, The calf and the young lion and the fatling together; And a little child shall lead them.
7 The cow and the bear shall graze; Their young ones shall lie down together; And the lion shall eat straw like the ox.
8 The nursing child shall play by the cobra's hole, And the weaned child shall put his hand in the viper's den.
9 They shall not hurt nor destroy in all My holy mountain, For the earth shall be full of the knowledge of the LORD As the waters cover the sea.

We will have more to say about this era in our lesson on the Millennium.

Let me summarize what we have addressed today. We are told that Christ has wrestled the keys of death (and hell) from the enemy - Satan. At present, the devil has the power of death over the bodies of all men and women - even godly men and women. We will all die, if the Lord tarries.

But Satan will not always have this power. The Lord will consummate the victory. According to 1 Corinthians 15:26-27, the last enemy to be destroyed is death. And our resurrection is final proof that Christ has destroyed all the works of the devil.

According to 1 Corinthians 15:54, as we read a moment ago, the moment our bodies put on immortality, then will the saying be fulfilled: "Death is swallowed up in victory."

I hope this has shown you the necessity of the resurrection and the changing of our bodies. We preach the redemption of the whole person --- spirit, soul and body. And the redemptive process is not consummated until the final enemy has been defeated. One of these days, the trumpet will sound and the dead in Christ will rise and those alive will be changed.

Even if our Lord tarries his coming, Hebrews 9:27 says that each of us have an appointment with death, after which we will be judged. That is one appointment we will not miss.

Are you ready for that day? If you are, then what joy will be yours and mine when we rise to meet him and so shall we ever be with the Lord.

I'm excited - I hope you are!

Last Updated: Wednesday September 07 2011
©2001 John's Notes