Though the word "resurrection" may not be found in the Old Testament scriptures, the doctrine of the resurrection of the body was clearly taught, and the fact known. Our Lord went back to the books of Moses, when meeting the Sadducees, who denied there was any resurrection, to establish the doctrine from Scripture. He said, "Now that the dead are raised, even Moses showed at the bush, when he calleth the Lord the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob. For He is not a God of the dead, but of the living: for all live unto Him." Luke 20:37, 38. Job also said, "Though after my skin worms destroy this body, yet in my flesh shall I see God." Job 19:26. Abraham accounted also that God was able to raise up Isaac from the dead. (Heb. 11:19.) In Psa. 16, the resurrection of our Lord—the path of life after death—was plainly foretold. "My flesh also shall rest in hope. For Thou wilt not leave my soul in hell [hades]; neither wilt Thou suffer Thine holy One to see corruption. Thou wilt show me the path of life." vv. 9-11. We know that His flesh saw no corruption, and that "He rose again the third day according to the Scriptures." 1 Cor. 15:4. People in Old Testament days were also acquainted with the fact of resurrection, for not only was the prophet "revived, and stood upon his feet," when a man was let down and touched his bones in the sepulcher, (2 Kings 13:21), but "women received their dead raised to life again," as, for instance, the widow's son and the Shunamite's son.
Our Lord taught more than the truth of the resurrection of the body. He distinguished between "the resurrection of the just," or "of life," and "the resurrection of damnation," or judgment, and, in the original, we see clearly that He set forth the doctrine of resurrection from among the dead. He said, "They which shall be accounted worthy to obtain that world, and the resurrection from [from among] the dead." Luke 20:35. He Himself is spoken of as "the firstborn from [from among] the dead" (Col. 1:18), because others are to be raised from among the dead. This distinction has been overlooked by many.
The mystery brought out in 1 Cor. 15:51, refers to the living saints when the Lord comes, because it begins with "We shall not all sleep.”
C.H. Mackintosh