DEAD AND RESURRECTION #1

The Resurrection #1

First part of Resurrection topic as found in the Bible

      Taken from the book "Life and Immortality"

       by the late Basil Atkinson Ph.D.

Quote:

     We have sought in our first two sections (this was as

sectioned in his book - Keith Hunt) to look as thoroughly as

possible into the teaching of Scripture on the nature of man and

the meaning of death.  We found that what the Bible says on both

these great subjects consistently agrees that the dead are lying

in their graves in a sleep of profound unconsciousness, in which

they neither know nor remember anything of what happens in the

world.  

     In this section we study the joyful teaching of God's

victory over death, first in the Lord Jesus Himself, and then in 

all His believing people.  How are these promises fulfilled?  The

teaching of the Bible on this matter is clear, definite and

unmistakeable.  It has been rejected and despised by destructive

critics and unconverted theologians, but never by any Bible

believer however tenaciously he may cling to the idea of natural 

immortality, because no one can fail to see the teaching in the

Bible.

REVELATION OR INFERENCE?

     Those believers who hold to natural immortality add to it

the doctrine of resurrection and accept both.  On  this point we

will ask three questions.  First, how is it that the doctrine of

resurrection is taught clearly and  definitely in Scripture,

exactly as we should expect in the case of so momentous a theme,

while the doctrine  of survival or immortality of the "soul" is

not once taught definitely?  This theme is just as great and 

momentous.  There are a few passages from which, if they are

taken in isolation (but only so), such a  doctrine can be

inferred, but even assuming that such an inference could stand 

up against the consistent  testimony of Scripture as a whole, is it

reasonable, is it conceivable that such a tremendous truth about

the  nature of man and the real meaning of death should be left

to be understood by us by inference?  We are  left to fall back

on the writer mentioned on page 28, who stated, "The Bible does

not anywhere state the  immortality of the soul, it assumes it." 

But surely all readers will agree that it is the Word of God

alone  which is basic and axiomatic.

RELATIONSHIP OF SURVIVAL AND RESURRECTION

     Our second question is this.  If the believer at death is

released from the "burden" of his body, is "called  home," enters

immediately the presence of his Lord and is reunited with his

loved ones, enjoying complete  satisfaction and spiritual bliss,

what is the need or purpose of resurrection?  This very question

was once  asked of the writer by a thoughtful Christian lady.  If

a human being can live in perfect happiness without  his body and

exercise all the functions of a full human life, why should he be

burdened again with his  body?  An answer of course can be given:

"Because the whole man has been redeemed."  This is a theoretical

answer which does not  really touch the question, but as we

sought to show in our first section the whole man cannot exist

apart  from his body.  This question is sometimes met by speaking

of "paradise" instead of heaven and assuming  incomplete

satisfaction until the last day, but evangelical Christians do

not generally speak like this.

THOSE BROUGHT BACK TO LIFE

     There is a third point that needs to be raised.  In the Old

Testament there were three restorations of dead persons to life

in the days of the prophets Elijah and Elisha. In the Gospels

there were three people raised by the Lord Himself and in the

period of the Acts there were two raised by the apostles.  

If these eight persons had been enjoying a life of bliss in glory,

was it not greatly to their disadvantage, if not positive  cruelty, 

to bring them back to the weaknesses and troubles of the

world?  Again, how is it that not so much as a hint is recorded

to have been given by any one of them of experiences passed

through during the time between death and restoration, which

varied from a few minutes in the case of Eutychus to four days 

in that of Lazarus?  We may reasonably believe that, had they

enjoyed such experiences, they are likely to have spoken often 

of them for the rest of their lives.  The stories as they stand all

give us the impression that these persons awoke from a profound

sleep.

EVERLASTING LIFE

     There runs throughout the Old Testament a recurring note of

Messianic blessing to come.  In the law and the prophets this is

almost wholly national in character. In the Psalms and Wisdom

writings it becomes more personal. It is clearly outside our

scope to follow through all these promises. The absence of

direct references to resurrection in the books of Moses and the

smallness of their number in the rest of the Old Testament has

been remarked upon, the main reason being the occupation of the

Old Testament with the typical temporal blessings of the typical

people of God, all of which may be read in the light of the

Gospel and turned, as it were, into spiritual realities.

     When we reach the New Testament, we find that the kingdom 

of God and everlasting life, two aspects of the same thing, form 

the blessings promised to the individual believer through faith in

Christ.  References to resurrection are many more in number in

the New Testament, illustrating the fact that life and 

immortality have been brought to light through the Gospel (2 Tim.

1.10).  We will examine these references in both Testaments and

we shall find that God's purpose for His people is to give them

victory over death by a glorious resurrection to take place

instantaneously at the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ in glory

at the end of the world.  At the coming of the Lord, which

will be sudden and instantaneous, the generation of living

believers will be transformed in an instant by the same change 

as the dead at the resurrection and be caught up to meet the Lord,

abiding with Him henceforth in eternal glory.  The resurrection

of believers will be on the same model as the resurrection of

Christ.  God's way of victory is far more glorious and  triumphant 

and far happier for the believer than the way of survival and 

natural immortality.  

     Christian people shrink from the idea of their loved ones

lying for years in the grave, but they forget that the un-

consciousness of the dead is so profound that time does not

pass for them.  Children will sometimes go to bed early to make

the morning come quickly.  The moment after the believer draws

his last breath and closes his eyes he opens them again in the

presence of Jesus in resurrection glory with all his loved ones

and the whole loving brotherhood of the church of God around 

him.

     He has his resurrection body, his house not made with hands,

eternal in the heavens.  He never has, nor will have, nor can

have the experience of a strange kind of life without a body,

separated from his loved ones left on earth, a life which, when

all is said and done, can only be described as that of a ghost.

VICTORY OVER DEATH

     We will divide our Scriptural references into four sections:

(I) those dealing in a general sense with victory over death, of

which there are only two examples; (2) those dealing with

resurrection; (3) those dealing with the coming of the Lord; 

and (4) those dealing with the glory to come.

     If we turn first to Isaiah 25. 8, we shall find the first

promise of victory over death "He will swallow up death in

victory; and the Lord God will wipe away tears from off all

faces."  This passage is quoted by the apostle Paul in I

Corinthians 15.54 and its fulfilment explained to take place at

the resurrection of believers at the coming of the Lord.  

The connection with the coming of the Lord is implied in the

following verse Isaiah 25.9, when the people of God are found

expressing their joy at the presence of God and His salvation.

     The second passage that promises victory over death is to be

found in Hosea 13.I4: "I will ransom them from. the power of

the grave; I will redeem them from death: O death, I will be thy

plagues; O grave I will be thy destruction."  The second part of

this passage differs widely from the Hebrew in the Greek 

version and is quoted, again with some alteration, from that

version by the apostle Paul in I Corinthians 15.55, being joined

there with Isaiah 25.8. We thus have the direct testimony of the

New Testament that victory over death comes at the resurrection

of the people of God.  If resurrection meant only the 

restoration to the godly of a part of their being which they

could live in perfect happiness without, there would be little

point in celebrating it so emphatically as a victory.

RESURRECTION IN THE OLD TESTAMENT

     Our first passage is Isaiah 26.19.  Here we find six

separate points: (a). The resurrection of the people of God. 

The dead who belong to Him will live, the context showing that 

by "live" the prophet means "live again," a usage we so often find

in the New Testament. (b). The resurrection is personal and

individual. "My dead body" will arise at the same time as all

the godly. (c). The godly dead are called upon to awake and

sing.  When the call comes to them, they are asleep, and they

will hear the call just as Lazarus heard the Lord's loud can to

him to come out of his grave (John 11.43). Thus one day we

shall hear and shall share in the great song of victory over

death raised by millions of voices. Now would this be a natural

way to address the dead if they were alive in heaven and had been

joining in a song of triumph for centuries? Would they under

such circumstances be told to awake? (d). The dead who are

called upon to awake are said to be dwelling in the dust, not in

heaven or paradise.  As we have seen in our second section, this

is the consistent teaching of the Bible about death. (e). The

dead will arise to life, strength, freshness and youth on the

resurrection morning.  All this is indicated in the prophet's

words, "thy dew is as the dew of herbs." (f). There will also be

a resurrection of the unjust. When dealing with the rephaim, we

saw that this was the probable meaning of the last sentence of

this verse.  In the immediate context we find the coming of the

Lord to judgment connected with the resurrection (ver. 21). 

     In Ezekiel 37.1-14 we find the then future Gospel revival

and restoration described in terms of resurrection.  It is

scarcely possible to see an account of literal resurrection in

verses I to 10, though some have done so.  In verses 12 to 14 

we may well see a continuation of the figurative description of

spiritual revival (compare John 5.25), though based on actual

resurrection as it will take place at the last day.  We may thus

perhaps look to these verses to be a promise, prophecy and

picture of our resurrection.  We find (a) the opening of the

graves, (b) our coming up out of our graves, (c) our being

brought into the land (Greek gee) of Israel.  This land is the

new earth (Greek gee) in the eternal glory to come (2 Peter 3.

13). (d) We find the spirit of life put within us.

(An interesting understanding from Atkinson on Ezek.37, 

but the words plainly used show there should be no hesitation 

in understanding this section to refer to a literal physical

resurrection of Israelites. If God could raise some from their

graves to physical life after the resurrection of Jesus, as

recorded in the Gospels, then it should be nothing for Him to

raise many Israelites to physical life again in due time,

according to this passage in Ezekiel 37 - Keith Hunt).

     We now come to Psalm 16. 10, 11, a passage which the apostle

Peter tells us is a prophecy of the  resurrection of Christ.  We

have dealt with this passage before.  The soul (Heb. nephesh) of 

Christ, that is Himself, the whole Man, was in sh'ol, that is,

the grave, but He was not left there.  After  three days He rose

again.  He was shown the way of life and joy in the presence of

God with pleasures at His right hand for evermore.

     In Psalm 17.15 we find David's prophecy of resurrection

for himself and each individual believer. Here we find (a) that

we shall see the Lord's face, (b) that we shall be righteous

before Him. Our sanctification will then be as perfect as our

justification is now, (c) we shall enjoy satisfaction, (d) we

shall awake, that is, from the grave on the day of resurrection,

(e) we shall be like the Lord. We have exactly the same message

in 1 John 3. 2.

     In the book of Job there are two important passages dealing

with resurrection. The first is found in Job 14.14,15. We

have already had occasion to touch on this passage. Job has

spoken of the sleep of death, from which a man does not awake

till the end of the world (ver. 12).  He asks to be hidden in

the grave and remembered at the last (ver. 13).  He asks in

verse 14 if a man will live again after death.  The unexpressed

answer is yes. He will wait in the grave (sleeping and

unconscious) all the time that God appoints for him, till his

change comes. This is the great change to take place at

resurrection (1 Cor. 15.51,52).  On that day the Lord will call

to each sleeping saint and he will answer (ver.15), just as

Lazarus answered the Lord's call (John 11. 43).

     The second passage in the book of Job is the well-known Job

19. 25-27. Here we find (a) that job has been given by

inspiration knowledge of the last day and the resurrection, (b)

that the living Redeemer will stand at the last day on earth. 

The Redeemer is of course the Lord Jesus and Job's reference may

well cover both His first and second comings. (c) Job's body will

come to corruption in the grave, (d) yet he will see God in 

a risen and glorified body. There is doubt here about the

preposition translated "in." It may be translated "without."  

In this case it means that Job will see God without the old

weaknesses and sinfulness of the natural body which was sown 

in the grave. The preposition is perhaps best translated "from."

 In this case it means that job will see God on the resurrection

morning from the very eyes which he possessed at the time of

speaking, although they would be transformed and glorified. (e)

We are taught the identity of the individual in resurrection with

the person that he was before death. The last sentence of verse

27 is better rendered in the margin, "my reins within me are

consumed with earnest desire (for that day)."

     The last Old Testament passage is to be found in Daniel 12.

2, which looks beyond the Gospel age to the resurrection: "And

many of them that sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake,

some, to everlasting life, and some to shame and everlasting

contempt." A difficulty here lies in the words "many of them,"

which appear to imply that there will be some among the dead who

will not awake at all.  This may be the slender foundation of the

teaching of the Christadelphians on the subject. The explanation

seems to be in the Greek version which translates "some....some"

by "houtoi.. ...houtoi," "these.....these."  This allows us to

take the "many" to refer to those who rise to life and the

residue to those who rise to shame. The Apocalypse teaches us

that there will be an interval between the resurrection of the

just and that of the unjust (Rev. 20.5).

     The dead here are again described as "them that sleep in the

dust of the earth." This cannot refer to bodies apart from the

real persons who are their owners.  Bodies as such can neither

sleep nor wake.  Only the whole conscious person, of whom indeed

the body is a vital part, can sleep or wake.  It would be untrue

to describe as sleeping those who had been for centuries enjoying

fulness of joy in the Lord's presence.

     Verse 3 goes on to describe the blessed and glorious

condition of the righteous after their resurrection. Before we

leave the Old Testament there are two points that should be

noticed.  Firstly there are at least two general references to

the power of God to make alive as well as to kill (Deut. 32.39;

1 Sam. 2.6), in which we may see an indirect reference to

resurrection.  We notice that if a man is killed he may be made

alive.  He is not kept alive at death.

     Secondly we may notice that references in Scripture to

death, though they may touch only indirectly upon it, tend to

give the impression that a person as such descends to the grave

and never suggest that he may be alive in some other world. 

Naturally it is impossible to follow all these out, but we may

take an example from 2 Samuel 18.17: "And they took Absalom, 

and cast him into a great pit in the wood, and laid a very great heap

of stones upon him."  Most modem Christians would have written,

"And they took Absalom's body, and cast it into a great pit in

the wood, and laid a very great heap of stones upon it."  We

would venture to ask our readers when reading their Bibles to

keep an eye open for any such references and carefullly judge the

impression which they obtain from them.

THE RESURRECTION OF THE LORD JESUS CHRIST

     It becomes clear as we read the New Testament that the model

for the coming resurrection of the people of God is that of the

Lord Jesus Christ, on which it is based and with which its nature

is essentially identical.  

     This is made specially clear by the apostle Paul in 

1 Corinthians 15. Thus if we turn to the Gospels we shall 

find that His resurrection has the following characteristics:

(1). His tomb was empty, so that He rose in the very body that

He had taken from Mary (Matt. 28.6).  If we have been able to

follow the findings to which our study in our previous sections

has led us, this is exactly what we should expect. (2). He met

with and spoke to His disciples after His resurrection (Matt. 28.

9,10,16-20). (3).  At their first meeting with the Lord after

His resurrection His disciples did not always recognise Him (Luke

24.16). (4).  He was recognised later by a characteristic action

or word (Luke 24.31). (5). In His resurrection body He was 

capable of vanishing and appearing suddenly, so that the nature

of His body was completely changed and raised to a higher plane

(Luke 24.31,36).  This is what the apostle Paul says in 

1 Corinthians 15.45,51. (6).  The marks of the nails were still

in His hands and feet (Luke 24. 39).  His body was still composed

of flesh and bones (Luke 24.40). (7).  He ate food after His

resurrection (Luke 24.42,43). (8).  The body of the Lord at the

moment of resurrection had passed through the graveclothes (John

20.4-9) and presumably through the stone at the grave's mouth.

(9).  The Lord told Mary Magdalene not to touch Him (John 20.

17), although the other women shortly afterwards clung to His

feet (Matt. 28.9).  The significance of this is not  easily understood. 

(When you understand the typology meaning of the Feasts of the 

Lord as outlined in Leviticus 23, then understanding this is cleared up. 

The Wave Sheaf offering on  the first day of the week during the feast 

of Unleavened Bread represented the risen Christ being accepted as 

the first fruits of the first spiritual harvest of God. After Jesus appeared 

to Mary Magdalene, who was not allowed to touch Him, He 

ascended  to the Father and was accepted as the wave sheaf 

offering of the first of the first fruits harvest. Then coming back 

to this earth, He could be touched, as He was, by some of His 

other disciples. All this is fully explained in other studies of mine -

Keith Hunt).

(10).The spear wound was still in the side of the Lord as well

as the nail prints in His hands and feet (John 20.27).

     To sum up the nature of the resurrection appearances of the

Lord we find two principles underlying them, (a) identity of

Person and (b) change of nature.  It is clear from Scripture that

our own resurrection will be governed by these as well.

RESURRECTION IN THE GOSPELS

     We turn first to the direct teaching of the Lord about the

resurrection in answer to the Sadducees who denied it. This is

found in parallel passages in the first three Gospels, Matthew

22.23-33; Mark 12.18-27; Luke 20.27-40. The Sadducees

invented an artificial objection to resurrection with which they

foolishly supposed that they could catch the Lord.  They based it

on the law to be found in Deuteronomy 25.5,6, which ordained

that a man should marry the widow of his deceased elder brother

and raise up children in his brother's name. They told the story

of seven brothers, who all married the same woman one after the 

other in accordance with this law and asked whose wife she would

be in the resurrection.  The Lord  answered this foolish

conundrum at once by explaining that there was no sex or marriage

in glory after the resurrection.  He then went on to tell the

Sadducees that the fact of resurrection is contained in the words

of the Lord to Moses at the bush, "I am the God of Abraham, the

God of Isaac and the God of Jacob" (Exod. 3.6). He states that

God is not the God of the dead but of the living.  It is

extraordinary that so many have read into these words the

doctrine of survival and natural immortality, drawing the

conclusion that if God declares Himself the God of the living and

not of the dead therefore Abraham, Isaac and Jacob and an the 

departed people of God must be alive now. It is extraordinary

because such a conclusion destroys the whole point of the

passage, which is to prove the resurrection. 

     If the dead are now living in a disembodied state, to say

that God is the God of the living and not of the dead does not in

any sense prove resurrection.  

     Instead it removes the necessity of it. The Lord's argument

requires that the dead are not now living in a disembodied or any

other state.  God is the God of the living, not of the dead. 

Abraham, Isaac and Jacob are now dead. Therefore they must 

come to life in resurrection in order to fulfil and vindicate God's 

declaration. Thus the resurrection is proved, as the Lord says.

The evangelist Luke makes this clearer by adding the sentence,

"For all live unto Him." He means that all the dead live (not

indeed in an absolute sense), but in the sight of God.  They do

so in view of the glorious resurrection in which they are to be

restored to life and live for ever with Him in glory.

     These passages are among the strongest in Scripture against

survival and natural immortality.  It is impossible to reconcile

them with them.

     We now turn to Luke 14.14. Here we find the Lord telling

those who entertain the poor and those who cannot entertain them

in return that it will be recompensed them in the resurrection of

the just. Notice that there is no word about recompense at

death. If, as the Lord here distinctly states, recompense does

not come till resurrection, it follows that the departed, if they

are alive, have not got perfect satisfaction and fulfilment. 

This is a dangerous and unscriptural doctrine.  But difficulty

vanishes if we believe the teaching of Scripture that the dead

are sleeping in their graves.

RESURRECTION IN THE GOSPEL OF JOHN

     In the Gospel of John the Lord Himself gives us four

wonderful promises of resurrection: (1). Raising the dead and

making them alive is the work both of the Father and the Son

(John 5.21). (2). All who are in the tombs will hear the voice

of the One Who is Son of God and Son of man and will come 

forth, the good to a resurrection of life and the bad to a resurrection

of judgment (John 5.28). Many have deduced from this verse that

there will be a simultaneous resurrection of the just and the

unjust, but it need not bear this meaning and it seems from

Revelation 20.5 that there will be an interval between the

resurrection of the one and that of the other. (3). The Lord

Jesus will not lose a single one of His believing people, but

will raise up each one at the last day, because it is the

Father's will that everyone that believes on the Son should have 

everlasting life and the Lord Jesus will raise him up at the last

day (John 6.40). Thus we are taught that the way to everlasting

life in the final glory is by resurrection on the last day. (4).

We find the marvellous and well-known promise of the Lord Jesus

at the grave of Lazarus: "I am the resurrection and the life; he

that believeth in Me, though he die, yet shall he live, and whoso

liveth and believeth in Me shall never die." (John 11. 25,26). 

We are here taught that resurrection and everlasting life are the

gift of Jesus alone, that the believer will be raised to life

even if he dies, as most believers have done already.  Here

"live" means "live again," as so often in the New Testament. 

     Thirdly we are taught that every believer living at the last

day when Christ returns in glory will never die.  We may also

give to these words the undoubted meaning that when once a

believer is raised he will never die (Luke 20.36).

     We notice that not only in making these promises did the

Lord never say, "Whoever believes in Me I will take home to be

with Me in glory when he dies and will also raise his dead body

at the last day," but that no such promise is once found in any

verse of the New Testament.

RESURRECTION IN THE ACTS AND GENERAL EPISTLES

     From the references to resurrection in the Acts of the

Apostles we learn that the apostles preached in Jesus 

the resurrection from the dead (Acts 4.2) . It is never said

that they preached any disembodied life between death and

resurrection. At Athens the apostle Paul preached Jesus and the

resurrection (Acts 17-18).  Again it is never said that he

preached any other hope.  In the course of the same address he

announces the day of judgment with Christ Jesus as judge, the

proof of this being His resurrection (Acts 17.31). Some of his 

hearers mocked at the resurrection and some postponed a decision

(Acts 17.32).  If he had preached like some of the great

Athenian thinkers the immortality of the soul, they are not so

likely to have mocked.  

     When the apostle was before the council in Jerusalem, he

declared that the issue at stake was the resurrection of the dead

(Acts 23.6). These references show the extent to which the

resurrection was on his heart and mind.  Before Felix the

Governor the apostle declared that he shared with the Jews the

hope that there would be a resurrection both of the just and the

unjust (Acts 2,4-15). The Jews must have known this from Isaiah

26.19.  In Acts 26.8 the apostle asks King Agrippa and the

other distinguished members of his audience why it should be

thought incredible among them that God should raise the dead, and

he connects the resurrection with the promise made to the fathers

(Acts 26.6,7). 

     We may search the book of Acts in vain for any reference

whatever to a disembodied survival between death and

resurrection.

RESURRECTION IN THE APOSTLE PAUL'S EPISTLES

     Nowhere in Scripture do we have clearer or more glorious

promises of the resurrection than we do in the writings of the

apostle Paul.  Thus he tells us in Romans 6.5 that, if we have

been joined to Christ in His  death, we shall be joined to Him in

His resurrection also.  In Romans 8. 11 he tells us that, if the

Spirit of  the One Who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in us,

the One Who raised Jesus from the dead will also make alive our

mortal bodies.  Both these passages may include a reference to

the power of the Holy Spirit enabling us to live in newness of

life by sharing the resurrection life of Christ while still in

this world.  

     In Romans 8.23 in the context of the whole creation

groaning and travailing together he says that we also groan

within ourselves waiting for the adoption, the redemption

of our body.  We may notice that he does not say that we groan

within ourselves waiting for the release from our body. What we

wait for is the redemption of our body from the grave by

resurrection, which will make real and external to us the 

blessings which we now enjoy in our spirits by faith.  But there

would be no sense or point in saying this if we are to be "called

home" at death to glory and perfect satisfaction.

     It is in the epistles to the Corinthians that we find the

clearest and most definite teaching about the resurrection in the

two great passages 1 Corinthians 15 and 2 Corinthians 4 and 5.

Before these there is the statement in 1 Corinthians 6. 14: "God

hath both raised up the Lord and will also raise up us by His 

power."  Our future resurrection follows from the resurrection of

the Lord.

     The fifteenth chapter of 1 Corinthians is the great chapter

which deals with the resurrection from every aspect, perhaps in

answer to a question on the subject which had been asked the

apostle by the Corinthian believers. He occupies verses 1 to 8

by affirming the death, burial and resurrection of Christ and

lists six post-resurrection appearances of which the last had

been to himself.  In these verses we may notice the apostle's

statement in verse 6 that some of the five hundred brethren who

had seen Him had fallen asleep.  

     Many Christian writers today would have said, "Some have

been called home." We may also notice that the whole of the

apostle's teaching in this chapter is based upon the resurrection

of Christ and not a word said about, much less based upon, the

survival of Christ between death and resurrection. Some have

thought that such a survival is taught in 1 Peter 3.18, where

Christ is said to have been put to death in flesh but quickened

(that is, made alive) in spirit. But if this text had referred

to survival it could not have said "made alive." It must 

have said "kept" or "preserved alive." The "spirit" is the

resurrection nature of Christ (1 Corinthians 15. 45) and the

"spirits" of verse 19 are "the angels that sinned" (2 Pet. 2.4).

In verses 9 to 11 the apostle diverges for a little from his

main topic to emphasize God's grace to him and his own

unworthiness to be entrusted with the Gospel.

     He goes on in verses 12 to 19 to ask his readers how it can

be possible for them to deny that there is any resurrection. 

He points out that if this is so then Christ is not risen. The

consequences of this are threefold: 1. Faith is vain; 2.

Believers are still in their sins; 3. Those fallen asleep in

Christ are perished. This last is very important. It means that

believers sleeping in their graves would never wake up.

     Now the apostle triumphantly declares that Christ is risen. 

Resurrection and life came by man, just as death came by man. 

Christ rose as the first-fruits, then will rise those who belong

to Him at His coming.  

     Then comes the end. We cannot tell for certain all that the

apostle means by the end, but it will comprise the complete

victory of Christ over all His enemies, the last to be destroyed

being death.  God will then be all in all (verses 20 to 28).

     Here the apostle diverges again to introduce arguments for

the truth of the resurrection drawn from the experience of his

readers and of himself (verses 29-34). If there is no

resurrection, he says, there is nothing left in life but to enjoy

the present, and he gives a solemn warning against sin and

ignorance.

     From verses 35 onwards he works up to his grand climax at

the end of the chapter. Dealing with the question of the method

of resurrection he compares death and resurrection to the sowing

of seed in the ground and the appearance of the grain when it

comes up. The one is utterly unlike the other, yet an  identity 

runs through them. The bodies of those who rise differ

as the various earthly creatures differ and as the heavenly

bodies differ.  The body is sown in weakness, but raised in

power.  It is sown a natural (Greek psychikon) body, it is raised

a spiritual body. This agrees with the fact that the first man

Adam was made a living soul (Greek psychee) and the last Adam,

Christ Jesus, was made a life-giving spirit (Greek pneuma). As

we have borne the image of the earthly, so shall we bear the

image of the heavenly.

     The apostle goes on in verse 50 solemnly to declare that

flesh and blood cannot inherit the Kingdom of God. He continues,

"Behold, I shew you a mystery. We shall not all sleep, but we

shall all be changed, in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at

the last trump.  For the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall

be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed". Dead and

living will be changed instantaneously and glorified at the

coming of the Lord when the trumpet sounds. Now could the

apostle have said, "We shall not all sleep," if none of us are

ever going to sleep at all, but to live in glory in a disembodied

state?  It would be a strange way of putting the facts. It is a

person who sleeps, not a dead body as such. Waking and sleeping

are not words which can properly apply to a body apart from a

whole person. If a modern Christian had written this passage, he

would have written somewhat as follows: "We shall not all die,

but those who die will be changed at the moment of death. When

the trumpet sounds, the glorified spirits will be reunited to

their bodies, and we shall be changed." But we shall find that

it is safer and happier and better to believe that the inspired

writers meant exactly what they said and used words according 

to their accepted meaning among their contemporaries.

     When the resurrection to incorruption and immortality has

taken place, then the final victory over death will have been

won. In view of these wonderful facts we may know that our

labour in the service of the Lord is not in vain (verses 53-58).

Another great passage relating to the resurrection is to be found

in 2 Corinthians 4.14 to 5.10. In 4.14 the apostle says that

in all the trials and pressures of his ministry he is sustained

by the knowledge that the One Who raised up the Lord Jesus will

raise him up also with Jesus and present him with the Corinthian 

believers. But if he knew that he was going to be in glory in a

disembodied condition immediately upon his death, is not this the

very place where he would have mentioned this as being at least

part, if not the whole, of the hope that, sustained him? Yet no;

he fixes his hope on the resurrection. He knows, at least he

does not mention, any other hope. And it is after his

resurrection, not before, that he expects to be presented in 

the presence of God. In verse 16, his outer man is his Adamic

nature, his soul, himself as he is in this world.  His inner man

is his regenerate nature, obtained from the Spirit of God at his

new birth. In verse 18 he contrasts temporal things and eternal

things.

     If we turn on to 5.1, we find the apostle speaking of our

earthly house of this tabernacle and the possibility of its being

dissolved in death. This earthly house is the natural body of 

1 Corinthians I5. 44 and the tabernacle which the apostle Peter

knew he must soon put off (2 Peter. 1.13,14). If this is

dissolved, that is, if we die, we have a building of God, a house

not made with hands, eternal in the heavens. This is the 

spiritual body of 1 Corinthians 15.44, which we are given in

resurrection. We do not have this building immediately upon

death and the apostle does not say here that we do. A verse or

two later on he denies it.  

     Now if the apostle had expected to be with Christ in glory

in a disembodied state, could he have passed this expectation

entirely over in a context such as this and fixed his

whole hope on his resurrection body?  "We know that if our

earthly house of this tabernacle be dissolved.....," why this is

exactly the place to say "....we shall be in spirit in the

presence of the Lord in heaven." But he did not say it.  The only

reason can be that he knew of no such hope.

     He goes on to say that in this tabernacle we are in

distress. We long to be clothed upon with our house which is

from heaven, that is, our resurrection body (ver.2), "if so be

that being clothed we shall not be found naked" (ver.3). An 

equally possible translation of the Greek words ei ge (if so be)

is "inasmuch as." Whatever exactly is the apostle's meaning in

this verse, it is clear that he is not looking for, nor does he

desire to be "naked," that is, in a disembodied condition. He

repeats this in verse 4. Though distressed in this tabernacle,

his desire is not to be unclothed, but clothed upon, that

mortality might be swallowed up of life. This is the same thing 

as he describes in 1 Corinthians 15. 53. It has been thought

that to speak of the body as a building or a garment implies a

spirit or person that continues to live separately from it. But

this natural figure of speech need mean no more than that there

is a mind within the body and joined to it and indeed in view of

the direct Scriptural teaching that we have reviewed can mean no

more. Man is indeed what is called today a psychosomatic unity. 

He has an outward physical man and an inward man of thought and

emotion. This readily intelligible figure of speech cannot by itself 

sustain the doctrine of the survival of the spirit or the  immortality 

of the soul, especially in the absence of any Scriptural statement 

of either.

     In verses 6 to 8 the apostle says that we know that when we

are present in the body we are absent from the Lord. Yet we

desire rather to be absent from the body and present with the

Lord. Many have taken this to mean present with the Lord in a

disembodied state.  But this is not so because (1) the whole

context of the passage deals with resurrection (4.I4 and

onwards), (2) the apostle does not desire a disembodied 

condition (5.3,4), (3) "the body" in verses 6 and 8 means this

earthly body, as is clear from verse 10, (4) the only possible

way in which the apostle can be present with the Lord is by

resurrection (1 Thess. 4.17, which we shall study shortly). The

apostle has in mind only two states, the present earthly one in

this "natural" (Greek psychikon) body and the one in resurrection

glory. Here we are absent from the Lord. There we shall be

present with Him. He knows of course that the generation living

at the end will pass from the one to the other instantaneously

without experiencing death, and he was like us completely

ignorant of the time when that moment would be. This view of 

the apostle's meaning is confirmed by his references to the 

judgment at the conclusion of the passage (ver.10), which 

takes place at the end of the world.  

     The apostle's language here is also consistent with the fact 

that in the dying believer's subjective experience he passes

instantly from this world to resurrection glory. So profound is

his unconsciousness in death that on closing his eyes he opens

them at what to him is the next instant on the resurrection

morning.  

     This fact, as our next passage shows, formed an important

element in the apostle's hope. 

     We pass on to Philippians 1.20-27. The apostle speaks of

his expectation and hope that he will be ashamed in nothing, but

that in all boldness both always and at the moment Christ would

be magnified in his body, whether by life or by death. He is

ready to live or die, whichever brings greater glory to his Lord.

     To him, he says, to live is Christ. This is one of the

great, deep, heart-searching statements of the Bible. The

apostle was absorbed in the interests, and glory of his Lord. 

His whole life was devoted to them alone. For him to die was

gain. There were two reasons for this. One was his own 

personal gain in passing out of this toilsome and troublous world

and finding himself in an instant of time on the resurrection

morning, as he win do.  The other reason was the ultimate gain to

the Lord's cause and the increase of the Lord's glory that his

death would bring, if it proved to be God's purpose and way of 

witness for him.  He says that he is being pressed between the

two, his desire being fixed on "departing and being with Christ,"

as this is very much better.  The "departure" is his dissolution

in death (Greek analusai), but this will bring him instantly into

the presence of Christ with his loved ones and the whole church

about him in resurrection glory.

     The words "to depart and be with Christ" are represented in

Greek by two infinitives prefixed by a single definite article,

the effect being to bring together in a startling way two things

which are different and apart. Thus in the believer's experience

the moment after closing his eyes in death he is in his glorified

body in the eternal state. How much better, more joyous and more

triumphant is God's promise and God's purpose for His children

than the expectation that so many of them have of going at death

to heaven in a disembodied state, leaving behind their loved ones

on earth and obliged to wait for years or centuries as ghosts for

the final consummation. Some dread the idea of lying for years

in the grave. But they know nothing of this interval. They are

translated in experience to final glory and will awake to look 

in the face of Jesus just as they have been hoping to at death,

but with far greater glory, joy and wonder than possibly could be

the case if they were in a disembodied state. 

     Indeed we shall see from 1 Thessalonians 4.17 that the only

way of being with Christ is by resurrection. Here we may indeed

see the reason for the statements of the New Testament that "the

coming of the Lord draweth nigh." It is nigh to every believer,

who only has to wait for it till he closes his eyes in death.

Yet such was the devotion of the apostle's life that in spite of

this wonderful prospect before him he realized that to remain in

this world would be more necessary and more profitable for the

believers under his care, and he was content to do so.

     In the same epistle the apostle mentions again the great change 

that will take place at our resurrection (see  1 Corinthians 15.43,49,53).  

He speaks of the Lord Jesus Christ Who at His coming will change 

the body of our humiliation and fashion it like unto the body of 

His glory, and he says that it is for this Saviour that we look 

(Phil. 3.20,21).

     We pass on for a moment to 1 Thessalonians 4.16. We will

study the whole context when we come shortly to deal with the

predictions of the coming of the Lord. Here the apostle says,

"The dead in Christ shall rise first." This does not mean before

the dead out of Christ, but before the living believers are 

changed, even if it be only an instant before. At the end of

verse 17 we find the words "and so shall we be for ever with the

Lord." The words "together with them" a little earlier in the

verse make it clear that these final words apply to the dead as

well as the living.  Now the word "so" is Greek houtos, which

means "in this way." Its place here at the beginning of the

sentence makes it emphatic, so that the meaning of the sentence

becomes "And this is way that we shall be for ever with the

Lord," implying that there is no other way and leading us to

conclude that we shall not be with the Lord till the day of

resurrection.

     We conclude the references which occur in the apostle Paul’s

writings by looking at Hebrews 6.2, the epistle being included

in the Pauline corpus, if not directly by his hand. This is a

rather striking passage. The apostle lists six subjects which he

calls elementary principles of the Christian faith, which

believers are to leave behind and build upon. The fifth of these

is the resurrection of the dead. Now if this is an elementary

principle, part of the foundation, how much more would the

immortality of the "soul" be if it were an actual fact?  Yet

it is not mentioned among the fundamentals of the faith, just as

it is not mentioned anywhere else in Scripture, though it is

definitely contradicted in such passages as Ezekiel 18.4.

RESURRECTION IN THE APOCALYPSE

     Only two passages concern us here.  The first is Revelation

1.18. Here the Lord Jesus as He gives to the apostle the great

vision of Himself in His risen glory says to him, "I am He that

liveth and was dead, and behold I am alive for evermore." He

goes on to explain that as a consequence of His own resurrection

He has the keys of death and the grave. This means that He will

unlock the gates of death and the grave and let His people out of

them in resurrection.  The same thing is said of the Lord in

Psalm 68.20.

     Our last passage is the rather mysterious Revelation 20.

4-6. It remains mysterious because it has not yet been fulfilled

and therefore we cannot yet be certain of its meaning, though it

has caught the imagination of many who have dogmatized fiercely

upon it and contradicted each other. The quotations at the 

beginning of verse 4 from Daniel 7 make it probable that this is

a picture of the day of judgment with the saints judging the

world (Matt. 19.28; 1 Cor. 6.2,3). In any case the passage

deals with resurrection.

     Misunderstanding of the Scriptural meaning of the word

"souls" (Greek psychas) in verse 4 has caused some to regard

those here seen sitting upon thrones as being in a disembodied

state.  The word in fact leads us to the opposite conclusion. 

Here are the souls, the persons, the very selves, of the martyrs

living and reigning in resurrection and life.  This must be an

actual resurrection, because all are agreed that the  resurrection 

of the rest of the dead, who are the wicked dead, mentioned 

in verse 5, is their actual resurrection. The two resurrections 

referred to in verse 5 cannot be of a total different nature.  

The language would be forced and harsh. Thus there seems 

to be an interval of the period called in this chapter a thousand 

years between the resurrection of the just and that of the unjust.  

Here we see the saints risen and reigning.

END OF PART ONE, on the RESURRECTION, as taken from Basil

Atkinson's book called "Life and Immortality."

                   .......................

January 2001

All articles and studies written by or presented by Keith Hunt,

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