Resurrection: June 2023
Table of Contents
Resurrection
The purpose of God in relation to man cannot be properly understood apart from the incarnation of the Lord Jesus Christ, nor can the mystery of our Lord’s humiliation as a man be duly recognized apart from the majesty of the glory of His resurrection and ascension as a man to the throne of the divine Majesty on high. As risen from the dead, death “hath no more dominion over Him”; He “dieth no more.” He is the Man ascended to heaven, established in glory and honor above angels and above all in the creation of God. The angel hosts and the spirits of the just see the glory of the Man Christ Jesus in heaven and behold in Him a witness to the glory which shall presently beam forth upon the men He has redeemed. To His glory each redeemed member of His body shares in His victory over death, for each has received “life more abundantly,” having His resurrection life and the indwelling of the Spirit of God.
Faithful Words for Young and Old, Vol. 25 (adapted)
Victory Over Death
“As yet they knew not the scripture, that He must rise again from the dead” (John 20:9).
Resurrection from the dead is victory over death and the grave. It is a mystery which again and again was found to be beyond the thoughts of the disciples. As they came down from the hill after the transfiguration and afterward, as they are together on the road to Jerusalem, they betray their unskillfulness in that mystery and show that their minds had never dwelt in the light of it. And yet it was found in Scripture. The sign of Jonas the prophet, among other witnesses, had told it, for according to it the Son of Man was to be but three days in the heart of the earth. Resurrection generally was understood, but this special form of it was not.
A Resurrection of Doom or of Victory?
Resurrection, however, in its common character, or resurrection at the last day, is but a coming up to judgment. It is not victory, as the Lord’s resurrection was and as the resurrection of the just is destined to be. It is rather defeat, or the sealing of the doom of the ungodly. And these truths or mysteries (when thus rightly divided) make us see that the action of even such a loving soul as Mary Magdalene in this chapter is, in one sense, but a poor thing, while the anointing of Mary of Bethany in John 12 becomes, by contrast, in our sight, a very blessed thing. There was divine intelligence in it. That anointing tells us that she knew the secret of her Lord’s victory over death. The breaking of the box of spikenard was her way of celebrating that victory before it was accomplished, just as the inscription on the cross was God’s way of anticipating and celebrating the same.
Christ’s Preeminence and Power
The saints will share this triumph with their Lord, but still the conquest and the day is all His own. He is the firstfruits of the harvest, the firstborn from the dead. He is to have the preeminence in this, as in everything. And this preeminence is strikingly and finely seen, as in a figure, when we look into the empty sepulcher of this chapter.
The clothes which had been wrapped about the body of the Lord were there, and there also was the napkin which had been about His head. Nothing that had bound Him was not loosened. His rising had done this. It was not so when Lazarus rose, for there was no victory over death in the body of Lazarus. But here, in the garden of the sepulcher, there was the resurrection of One who could not be holden of it (Acts 2:24). From Lazarus the grave clothes are loosened, but here, the resurrection had loosened them.
And more than this, there is no symptom of struggle here. The clothes are laid aside in order. There is no disturbance. The victory had evidently been gained without a struggle. Indeed, it had been already achieved at Calvary, when the Surety gave up the spirit. The victory has now rather to be declared than to be gained. Still, however, in all this wondrous scene, we may find the Lord in the place of preeminence, for, as we read, the napkin which was about the head is seen lying in a place by itself. All the grave clothes are there. The body had been freed from head to foot. But still, the napkin which was about the head lies in a place by itself. It is thus preeminent and distinguished, even in the midst of other glories, other spoils of glorious war, and witnesses of complete and easy victory. And just so, after this pattern, is it in the mystery. The gates of hell shall not prevail against the church, the body of Christ. It shares the life of the Son of God, and the gates of hades cannot prevail. But all this virtue which belongs to her comes from her having that life. It is all found there and there only. But as for Him, it was not possible that He should be holden of it. The body may share the triumph, and so it shall, but the life and power, which secure and win the day over death, are all His.
Seen of Angels
Angels learn their lessons by sight, as we read, “Seen of angels,” and again, “Which things the angels desire to look into.” And together with this, as they look and learn the lesson, there is no moral hindrance in them. This is their place in the school of God. They are not personally interested in the lesson, as we are; they are spectators merely. But then, their power of vision is perfect — not dimmed by any moral depravity.
According to this, they are seen in this chapter. They learn the mystery of the resurrection — resurrection from the dead or life in victory—by sight, but they learn it at once. They do not learn their lesson, as we do. They learn it as admiring spectators; we learn it through our necessities and mercies. They may learn it more quickly than we do, but they cannot learn it after a method so dear and grateful to Him who is the common Teacher.
Mary at the Tomb
These distinctions we further get in this beautiful chapter. The angels learn the resurrection of the Lord from the sight of the empty tomb. They sit there, and they gaze, and they wonder and worship, knowing the mystery at once and without effort, at the sight of the place where the Lord had lain, but poor Mary Magdalene is dull, and others of us still more dull, for Satan and nature have a blinding power in us, but Satan and nature do not stand in the way of angels. Our Mary has to learn the lesson with a rebuke, but still she learns it as one who was personally concerned in it, and that gives her an interest with Him who was teaching the lesson, beyond all that angels could awaken. She was as one in a wreck whom a gracious Deliverer was rescuing; they were but as the admiring crowd on the beach. The divine Deliverer may get His praise from them, but she is His prize.
This is the difference — a difference of no small value in the reckoning of grace, in the calculations of a heart “that delighteth in mercy” and finds more joy in the recovered sheep than in the 99 which went not astray.
And the Lord, pleased with such disciples of His grace, is seen in this chapter to be patient and gracious in teaching this lesson of the empty tomb, or the mystery of resurrection from the dead, whether to the slow-hearted disciples, to Mary in the garden, to the company gathered within the closed doors at Jerusalem, or to the distant Thomas eight days afterward. And He teaches it so as to fill their spirits with the lesson, and this is learning mysteries indeed, or with a divine witness. Magdalene follows Him in spirit to heaven; the disciples, receiving His risen life, go forth to publish it, and Thomas worships Him in His glories, in the conviction and satisfaction of His illuminated heart.
Thus, after these ways, we see the differences. There are before us Mary of Bethany, the disciples of this chapter, and the angels.
Mary of Bethany
Mary of Bethany had already known this mystery of life in victory, or resurrection from the dead, and had in spirit practiced or lived that lesson. She anointed the Lord at the Passover, even then, while on His way to His burial, anticipating His resurrection, or waving Him before God as the sheaf of firstfruits. She looked on Him as already at the other side of death and the grave and anoints Him for His living and eternal glories. She talked of life in the midst of death, of the victory of the Son of God, before He had met the enemy to fight the battle. With her box of spikenard or her ivory palace, she had greeted or gladdened the consecrated king and priest of God. The disciples learn it with slowness of heart, some more, some less, under the patient teaching of their divine Master. But they learn it as needing it for themselves.
Thus is it with these different classes in the school of God. But as the moral of all this, I may add, that better is it to live our lessons than merely to learn them; better like her of Bethany to practice them in the power and experience of our souls than to be gathering them up again and again from the words of our divine Teacher. But still, such is His grace and the joy He finds in His own mercy. It is, in His account, better that we learn His lessons as sinners than as angels—better to learn the wonder of the empty sepulcher, the mystery of life in victory or resurrection from the dead through our own necessities and mercies than as mere spectators.
Angels may safely learn the great things of Christ by sight, as they learn one of them, as we have seen in this chapter. They have no school of conscience to go to, no personal necessities, in the midst of which to discover and gather up the mercies of God. But we cannot learn the same lessons at all (at least, in God’s account), if we learn them not in the conscience, through our necessities and our mercies, not as angel-spectators, but as interested sinners — as those who know they cannot face eternity but from the lessons which they learn at the empty tomb of Jesus.
The Answer to Faith Since the Beginning
The truth that has been from the beginning is learned there, and that is, the victory of the Son of God for us sinners. Because of this, the blood of old on Noah’s altar and the still earlier lamb of Abel wrought with God as they did. Because of this, the sprinkled lintel sheltered Israel in the place of death and in the day of judgment. And because of this, through all generations, the faith of sinners has found peace with God. The resurrection from the dead tells us that the seed of the woman, though bruised in the heel, had crushed the enemy’s head. It speaks of the mystery of life in victory, life regained for sinners, the presence of God restored to us in peace and liberty.
Nothing but resurrection from the dead could have done this. Had not Christ risen, we should be yet in our sins. A resurrection at the last day, again I say, is defeat. Look at it in Revelation 20. It is not worthy to be called a resurrection. It is the guilty one brought up to judgment. But a resurrection like Christ’s is victory, and the resurrection of 1 Corinthians 15 is such. It is before the last day, at “Christ’s coming,” and it is a resurrection from the dead, as His was, for it is only “of those that are His.”
May we wait for this, dear brethren!
Present Testimony, Vol. 6 (adapted)
The First Resurrection
There is perhaps no point on which the church at large has more widely departed from those habits of thought, feeling and expression which characterized apostolic Christianity than that of the place given to death on the one hand and to resurrection on the other. With the apostles and with Christians of their day, death was, so to speak, left behind. Resurrection, or rather the coming of Him whom they knew as “the Resurrection and the Life,” was the one object of their joyful, triumphant hope.
What makes death really terrible is the fact of its being God’s righteous sentence upon mankind as sinners, and also its connection with that eternal death which for unbelievers it is both the type and portal, and its import as the expression of slavery to Satan who “had the power of death” against all who were his slaves.
The first Christians knew how death had been borne for them by Christ and so had been robbed of all its terrors. The sentence against their sins had been executed on Jesus; the entrance to eternal death had thus been closed against them by Him whom they knew as their Deliverer from “the wrath to come.” As to Satan, the resurrection of Christ was to them the demonstration that through death He had vanquished him that had the power of death.
A Conquered Foe
Death was thus regarded by these Christians as a conquered foe. They were accustomed to speak of Jesus as the One “who hath abolished [annulled] death, and hath brought life and immortality [incorruptibility] to light through the gospel” (2 Tim. 1:10). Consciously partakers of the risen life of Christ — Christ risen being, in fact, their life — they looked back to His death for them as having discharged every claim upon them, whether of the law or of divine justice or of Satan or of death. Being thus one with Christ in His life and partaking of His victory, they joyfully sought to manifest “the power of His resurrection” in dying practically to themselves, sin, the world, and all hopes or thoughts of any rest or portion here.
Did sin present its enticements? How shall we, that are dead to sin, live any longer therein? Did the flesh plead for indulgence? “Therefore, brethren, we are debtors, not to the flesh, to live after the flesh” (Rom. 8:12). From where is this inference drawn? From the statement which immediately precedes it: “If Christ be in you, the body is dead because of sin; but the Spirit is life because of righteousness.”
Did the world invite to an easier path? The cross of Christ was that in which they alone gloried, and by it they were crucified to the world and the world to them. Was there the danger contemplated of Old Testament ordinances resuming their power over the mind? “Wherefore if ye be dead with Christ from the rudiments of the world, why, as though living in the world, are ye subject to ordinances?” (Col. 2:20).
The Christian Position
In brief, their whole position and walk was that of dead and risen men. “If ye then be risen with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ sitteth on the right hand of God. Set your affection on things above, not on things on the earth. For ye are dead, and your life is hid with Christ in God. When Christ, who is our life, shall appear, then shall ye also appear with Him in glory. Mortify therefore your members which are upon the earth” (Col. 3:1-5).
The Christians were still on earth, it is true, and they had evil tendencies which needed to be put in the place of death. God in His grace having identified them in life and glory with Christ Himself, as risen and ascended, it became their privilege to mind those things only to which they were thus introduced, reckoning themselves dead to all besides. This led necessarily to a path of self-renunciation which seemed madness to those who were not in the secret of their resurrection hopes. Indeed, the Apostle himself says, “If in this life only we have hope in Christ, we are of all men most miserable” (1 Cor. 15:19). But resurrection was their hope. Christ, the firstfruits, had risen, and they knew that they should not always be left here.
We Shall Not All Sleep
It was not that they calculated with certainty on death in the literal sense. “We shall not all sleep,” says the Apostle, “but we shall all [that is, whether asleep or awake] be changed” (1 Cor. 15:51). Resurrection was what they counted upon. They might fall asleep [die] as some of their brethren had done already, but whether or not, the world was to them already stamped with the character of death. That for which they looked was the communication to their bodies of the life already enjoyed by their souls in their oneness with the risen and ascended Christ.
They waited for the appearing of Christ, the Resurrection and the Life, when mortality would be swallowed up of life. They knew it was for Him that their departed brethren were waiting. And though the apostles and early Christians esteemed it better to depart and to be with Christ, absent from the body and present with the Lord, they did not look upon death, and their individual happiness after death, as the object of their hopes. Much less could it be the object of their fears.
Death as a Servant
Death was theirs, and they so knew this that instead of regarding death as an officer of justice having absolute power over them, they were able to view it as a servant which might be employed by their Lord to withdraw them from the conflicts and sorrows of the present scene and to rest with Himself till the moment of His coming. But it was for that moment they looked and waited. It was to see Him and be perfectly conformed to Him, in body as well as in spirit, that He might be thus, according to God’s eternal purpose, the firstborn among many brethren.
It was this living expectation that made the apostles and early Christians what they were. It was by this they were inspired with courage, armed with fortitude, endued with meekness, and made glad to lose what others lived to obtain. It enabled them to rejoice with exceeding joy amid afflictions which seem rather severe to the natural mind. They had the sentence of death in themselves that they should not trust in themselves, but in God who raises the dead.
Present-Day Uncertainty
Why does the Christianity of the present day so little resemble theirs? Why the uncertainty and lack of confidence of which almost universal complaint is made? Why the fear of death, the shrinking from the cross, the love of pleasure and of ease, and dread even of the world’s censure, which so characterizes us in these days? No doubt there has been a great departure from the simplicity of Christ. The Holy Spirit being grieved, the general tone of Christian character and experience is impaired, and the power of divine truth as a whole greatly diminished. There exists a solemn need for self-scrutiny and self-abasement in all these respects.
While admitting this and praying that it may please God to press the sense of it on our souls, may we not also inquire whether the truths by which the first Christians were so powerfully influenced are held by us? Or if undoubtedly they are held as to the general theory, whether they are held by us in the same relations and proportions as by the apostles and their fellow-Christians of that day?
The church has its existence by virtue of the death and resurrection of Jesus. The life by which it is animated is His life, as risen from the death He underwent for our sins, by the infinite efficacy of which death those sins are put away. In Ephesians 1-2, where the Holy Spirit unfolds a truth beyond even this, this truth is most strikingly developed. The truth there specially revealed is that of the association of the church with Christ, not as risen only, but as ascended also. But ascension implies resurrection, and our participation in Christ’s resurrection is, moreover, expressly declared.
The Exceeding Greatness of His Power
“The exceeding greatness of His power to usward who believe” is “according to the working of His mighty power, which He wrought in Christ, when He raised Him from the dead, and set Him at His own right hand in the heavenly places” (Eph. 1:19-20). “God, who is rich in mercy, for His great love wherewith He loved us, even when we were dead in sins, hath quickened us together with Christ, (by grace ye are saved;) and hath raised us up together, and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus” (Eph. 2:4-6).
Thus even now is the church partaker of the resurrection-life, as well as of the heavenly exaltation of Jesus. The life has not yet been communicated to our bodies and therefore it is in spirit, not as yet actually that we are in heavenly places. “Flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God; neither doth corruption inherit incorruption” (1 Cor. 15:50). The resurrection of our bodies will place us actually where our oneness with Christ by the Holy Spirit now places us spiritually — in the heavenly places whither our risen Lord has ascended and where He has sat down.
It is surely of all importance to have such a testimony that the resurrection of the church is on a principle common with that of her glorified Head. And it is by virtue of her association with Him in life, in inheritance and in glory!
W. Trotter
"That I May Know Him"
In Philippians 3:10, Paul expresses the wish “that I may know Him, and the power of His resurrection.” But the Apostle’s longing was not only to “know Him.” In the Greek Testament, there is no period, not even a comma, after “Him.” It reads: “To know Him and the power of His resurrection and partnership of His sufferings.” Another has said: “The essence of knowing Christ consists in knowing the power of His resurrection.” Every Christian knows that Christianity has its root and foundation in the death of our blessed Savior. But if it had been possible that death could have held the Savior in his power, death, instead of being the foundation of joy and the certainty of salvation, would have been the source of a black despair which nothing could have dissipated. It is the resurrection which throws its bright beams even into the dark tomb of Christ — that tomb which seemed to mean victory for the adversary. It is resurrection which explains the reason of that momentary submission to the power of the devil and subjection to the necessary judgment of God.
The Foundation of Christian Hopes
It is by resurrection and the glory which shall follow that the foundation and hopes of the Christian are bound together. It is by resurrection that justification and that which is the power of the Christian’s life — sanctification—are united. Not only is He raised again for our justification, but in Christ risen, we are in Him as risen and sanctified in the power of a new life.
So we may see that Paul found in the resurrection not only the evidence of the foundation of his faith (Rom. 1:4) and the proof of the accomplishment of the satisfaction for sin (1 Cor. 15:17), but much more. The resurrection was to Paul, as it was to Peter, the object and source of a living hope, the power of life within. So, he sought to know the power of His resurrection.
Except for John, in Revelation, Paul is the only one of the apostles of whom it is recorded that he saw the Lord Jesus Christ in His resurrection glory: “a light from heaven, above the brightness of the sun” (Acts 26:13). Did he not, then, know “the power of His resurrection”? Yes, surely, more and better, perhaps, than any other living man, but he wanted to know that power still more and still better. It was the sight of the God of glory (Acts 7:2) that kept Abraham true and faithful for a hundred years (Gen. 12:4; 25:7), and that sight taught him something of “the power of His resurrection.” And it was the sight of “the Lord of glory” (1 Cor. 2:8) in resurrection that also taught Paul something of “the power of His resurrection.”
A friend of mine told me that when he first came to China, he preached “Christ died for our sins,” and souls were saved, but the new Christians did not stand. In his anguish he searched himself and his preaching and realized that he had not preached “and He rose again the third day.” Now he preached not only the death of his Lord, but also His resurrection. As many, or more, were saved, but now they stood firm and true. They, too, learned something of “the power of His resurrection.”
Paul never forgot that sight on the Damascus road of the Lord of glory, in His resurrection power and glory. But that sight only gave him a deeper longing to know better “the power of His resurrection.” “As we look off unto Jesus, and with unveiled face behold the glory of the Lord [His resurrection glory], we are changed into the same image from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord” (2 Cor. 3:18).
But there is more in this one amazing sentence: “To know Him and the power of His resurrection and partnership of His sufferings.” Having seen the Lord in glory, the Apostle understood the path which led Him there — a path of suffering and death, and he longed to follow Him even in that path, if need be, in order to be where his Lord is and in the glory with Him. The two are inseparable.
Conformed Unto His Death
“Being conformed” is a remarkable word and tells of a process that is going on continuously. As we gaze on our suffering Savior, we are gradually conformed to His death. This is the only place in the New Testament it appears as a verb. But as a noun we meet it again in two other passages: Romans 8:29 and here in Philippians 3:21 (JND): “We await the Lord Jesus Christ [as] Savior, who shall transform our body of humiliation into conformity to His body of glory.” Surely that should be motive enough to make the glories of this world fade, that our deepest longing may be that day by day we are “being conformed to His death.”
The opening words of verse 11 — “If by any means” — tell us of the difficulty. I do not think they are intended to suggest the slightest doubt in Paul’s mind as to his arrival at that resurrection. Rather, he is prepared to tread any path that is necessary to arrive at it, including the path that leads through death.
Resurrection From Among the Dead
When Christ arose, His was a resurrection from among the dead. That resurrection morning He came out from the grave, while all around were thousands of graves untouched by resurrection. He came “out from the dead ones” around Him. And this is a sample of the resurrection on which Paul had fixed his eyes. This is the resurrection Paul longed for, if by any means he shall arrive at it. “That I may know Him, and the power of His resurrection, and the fellowship of His sufferings, being made conformable unto His death” (Phil. 3:10).
G. C. Willis (adapted)
How Are the Dead Raised?
1 Corinthians 15:35
The apostle here turns from warning to meet objections in the shape of questions physical, as our Lord met the social difficulty raised by the Sadducees. These he quickly exposes in their true character. Our wisdom is to know the scriptures, and so His mind, without a question of His power to give them effect.
“But some one will say, How are the dead raised? and with what body do they come? Fool, what thou sowest is not quickened unless it die; and what thou sowest, thou sowest not the body that shall be, but a bare grain, it may be of wheat, or of some one of the rest; and God giveth to it a body as he pleased, and to each of the seeds its own body” (1 Cor. 15:35-38 WK). The apostle here administers a reproof which would be deeply felt by those who piqued themselves on their wisdom, yet were foolish enough to overlook the analogies of nature before their eyes, which refute the assumed likeness between the body as it is, and as it shall be. “Fool, what thou sowest is not quickened unless it die.” Death, therefore, was no barrier to the resurrection, but its antecedent. There may be change, as shown afterward, but there is no resurrection unless death be first. There is dissolution in death, but not annihilation. There is disorganization in death previous to another mode of being. But the seed dies as such in order to pass into a plant; and so he adds, “and what thou sowest, thou sowest not the body that shall be, but bare grain it may be of wheat or of some of the rest, and God giveth it a body as he pleased, and to each of the seeds its own body.”
What Springs Up Differs From What Was Sown
What springs up differs widely from what was sown, yet each seed issues its own plant. There is such a thing as species, and this fixed from the first, as God pleased. “Natural selection” is not only contrary to fact but senseless, yet none the less the idol of modern materialists. No doubt there is a germ or principle of life; but what does the objector know of it? If he is utterly unacquainted with this even in the seed, is he in a position to cavil as to the body?
“Every flesh [is] not the same flesh, but one [is] of men, and another flesh of beasts, and another flesh of birds, and another of fishes. [There are] both bodies heavenly and bodies earthly; but different is the glory of the heavenly, and different that of the earthly: one [the] sun’s glory, and another [the] moon’s glory, and another [the] stars’ glory; for star differs from star in glory. So also [is] the resurrection of the dead” (1 Cor. 15:39-42 WK). The apostle shows how vain is the assumption of a condition for the body in resurrection similar to the present state, from the diversity even of flesh in the present animal world. There is no monotony in God’s creation. The flesh is palpably different in men, cattle or quadrupeds, birds, fishes. How unreasonable then, if that ground be sought, to take for granted that the body must be at all like what it is now in a condition so distinct as resurrection! Far more sensibly might one conceive the most striking difference.
Heavenly Bodies – Earthly Bodies
“There are both bodies heavenly and bodies earthly,” and the glory of the one differs from that of the other; and not only this, but the heavenly ones, sun, moon, stars, vary from each other, as do those below. Yet the object is not to prove different degrees of glory in heaven, as thought by many ancients and moderns, but rather to contrast the risen with the natural state. “So also is the resurrection of the dead.” This is made plain from what follows. They are quite wrong who make the glory to be exclusively heavenly or earthly. Both will be found in the kingdom of God (See John 3:12).
“It is sown in corruption, it is raised in incorruption; it is sown in dishonor, it is raised in glory; it is sown in weakness, it is raised in power; it is sown a natural body, it is raised a spiritual body: if there is a natural body, there is also a spiritual” (1 Cor. 15:42-44 WK). The body of the believer is sown in dishonor, corruption, and weakness; so all see; but what do we believe? It is raised in incorruption, glory, and power — not a mere ethereal or airy body, but a body instinct with spirit life, as once with animal life from the soul, yet not a spirit, but a spiritual body, not limited by earthly conditions, but capable either of passing through a closed door, or of being felt, able to take food, though needing none, if we may judge from Him who, risen as the great Head, and pattern and power, declared that a spirit has not flesh and bones, as they saw He had.
The suitability of this for heaven is apparent. “If there is a natural or soulish body, there is also a spiritual.” As surely as there is the body which we have now, suited to the earth and the life that now is, there is also a spiritual body, which we shall have when the Lord Christ comes to raise those that are His (See 1Cor. 15:20-23). God, who constituted the one for the sphere of responsibility and trial, will certainly adapt the other to the conditions of glory, where the eternal life which is now exercised in scenes of sorrow, itself in faith, hope and love, will then enjoy the unclouded rest of God on high.
A Quickening Spirit
Now the apostle comes to the decisive proof of scripture, and the personal test of Christ. “So also it is written, The first man Adam became a living soul; the last Adam a quickening Spirit: yet not first [is] the spiritual, but the natural, afterward the spiritual; the first man out of earth made of dust, the second man out of heaven: such as he made of dust, such also those made of dust; and such as the heavenly [one], such also the heavenly [ones]; and even as we bore the image of the [one] made of dust, we shall bear also the image of the heavenly [ones]” (1 Cor. 15:45-49 WK). It is the way of the apostle, and indeed of the inspired in general, to trace up all to the sources. Adam and Christ are before us, the first man Adam made only a living soul, the last Adam a life-giving spirit. Thus, as usual, first is seen man failing in his responsibility, then the obedient, suffering, victorious Man.
It is to be noticed too that the great occasion when scripture shows us the Lord become a quickening Spirit was when He rose from the dead. Then, not before, did He breathe on the disciples, and say, Receive ye the Holy Ghost. It was not the new birth merely, but life more abundantly, because in the power of resurrection; and this quite falls in with the doctrine of the chapter, which looks neither at incarnation nor at ascension, however important, nor here at His death, though this be sacrificially and in moral power the foundation of all for us as well as for God’s glory.
Such was the order, and this the triumph, not yet in our resurrection, but on His who will raise the sleeping saints at His coming. It is not that Adam had not an immortal soul, or that Christ could not lay His life down; but the one at the beginning became a living soul, the other, after having been manifested in the end of the ages for putting away of sin by His sacrifice, a life-giving Spirit as risen. “Out of heaven” is no more inconsistent with this, than “out of earth” with Adam’s being made a living soul, but each, on the contrary, most suitable.
Such as the Earthly
And now we can go a step farther in each case. Such as was the dusty one (Adam), such also the dusty ones (the race); and such as the heavenly One, such also the heavenly ones (Christians); and just as we bore the image of the dusty one, we shall bear also the image of the heavenly One. We were, and are, naturally the family of the first man, and bore his image (cf. Gen. 5:8); we, as now in Christ, shall also bear the image of Christ in the day that is coming. God has predestined us to be conformed to the image of His Son, that He should be First-born among many brethren. It is not a question of any transforming us meanwhile according to the same image by the Spirit, which is true and momentous day by day; it is that full and final conformity which cannot be till Christ consummates salvation, and transforms our body of humiliation into conformity to His body of glory, according to the working of His ability even to subdue all things to Himself.
W. Kelly (adapted)
Resurrection From Among the Dead
In Philippians 3:11 (JND) we read, “If any way I arrive unto the resurrection from among the dead.” The point toward which the desires of the true Christian ever tend is resurrection glory. It does not matter to him by what way he is to reach that point. He longs to reach the glory “by any means.”
It may be that we find difficulty in the word “if,” as though it implied a doubt in the mind of the apostle as to his reaching the end in safety. We do not believe he had any such thought in his mind. The idea is simply this; he had the goal before him, and he was eagerly pressing toward it. His vision was filled with it, his heart was set on it, and as to the “means” by which he was to reach it, he was quite indifferent.
It may be interesting to observe that the word which is rendered “resurrection,” occurs, so far as we are aware, only in this one passage, and properly signifies “resurrection from among.” The word “anastasis,” or resurrection, occurs about forty-two times in the New Testament, and is applied to the broad fact of resurrection. But the word used here in the eleventh verse is morally linked with the expression in Mark 9:10 (JND) — “Questioning among themselves, what rising from among the dead was.” The disciples would have found no difficulty in the thought of resurrection as such, seeing that every orthodox Jew believed in it. But a “rising from among the dead” was something strange to them.
The Proper Hope of the Christian
Now, the proper hope of the Christian is not merely “resurrection of the dead,” but “resurrection from among the dead.” This makes a very material difference. It completely sets aside the idea of a general simultaneous resurrection. To speak of a resurrection from among the dead obviously implies that all shall not rise together. Revelation 20:5 teaches us that there will be 1000 years between the two resurrections, but it is of importance to see that the very word used by the Apostle to express that resurrection for which he was looking is quite different from that usually employed to set forth the general thought of resurrection. Why is this? Simply because he meant a special thing, and he therefore used a special word — a word which, as we have said, occurs only in this one place.
It is deeply solemn to remember that the Lord’s people will rise from their graves and leave behind them the ashes of the wicked dead to molder for 1000 years longer. This thought may seem to be foolishness to the natural man, but Scripture teaches it, and that is quite enough for the Christian. The resurrection of the church will be upon the same principle and partake of the same character as the resurrection of Christ; it will be “a resurrection from among the dead.” May our hearts be set upon that glorious goal!
C. H. Mackintosh
Eras of Resurrection
If we look at 1 Corinthians 15 as a whole, I may say there is an order in the parts of it, which it is edifying to discover and meditate. It might be entitled, “The story of grace and of glory in the light of the resurrection.” I am about to look, however, more particularly at verses 20-28. The apostle in these few verses proceeds to teach us the different eras of resurrection and things that are to take place both during them and after them. It is a scripture very rich and beautiful in its communications.
Christ the Firstfruits
In the first place, we learn that the Lord Jesus was all alone in the day of His resurrection. There was none with Him— not one. “Christ the firstfruits,” as we read here. His resurrection had qualities which were peculiar. It was a resurrection from the dead, a victorious resurrection, wrought out and won by Himself. But it was the only resurrection which had this quality or character in it. Resurrection was due to Christ. He was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father (Rom. 6:4). He Himself likewise could say of Himself, “Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up” (John 2:19).
He had the power of it in Himself, by virtue of what He was. This had been typified under the law, by the reaping of a sheaf at the beginning of the harvest (and before any of the new corn had been eaten) and by the waving of it, just as it was, before the Lord (Lev. 23:9-14).
Christ’s at His Coming
But Christ being called “the firstfruits” pledges a harvest. This is the significance of such a title. Accordingly, in due season the harvest follows and constitutes the second era in the series of resurrections. Thus we read, “Afterward they that are Christ’s at His coming” (vs. 23). And this is anything but solitary. Countless thousands shall be there, for all of them are “children of the resurrection” (Luke 20:36). They rise from the dead, or in victory, simply because “they are Christ’s,” as we read here. He had risen in His day just because of who He was and what He was; they now rise because of whose they are. “If the Spirit of Him that raised up Jesus from the dead dwell in you, He that raised up Christ from the dead shall also quicken your mortal bodies by His Spirit that dwelleth in you” (Rom. 8:11).
The Third Resurrection Era
This being accomplished in its season, then again in its season, we reach the third resurrection era, called “the end” (vs. 24). But here we have new thoughts suggested to us. This is a resurrection not worthy of the name, for it is not a victorious resurrection. It is simply a resurrection of the dead — those whose names are not written in the book of life. It is a judicial resurrection, a resurrection not to life but to judgment, as is exhibited by John in Revelation 20:11-15. The sunny seasons of resurrection at which we first looked are now succeeded by one which summons the dead to judgment and the lake of fire. Just as we ought to know the joy of anticipating the resurrection from the dead, we ought to feel what awful forewarnings Scripture gives us of the doom of those who do not, in this age of God’s grace, accept Christ as Savior. “The hour is coming, in the which all that are in the graves shall hear His voice, and shall come forth; they that have done good, unto the resurrection of life; and they that have done evil, unto the resurrection of damnation” (John 5:28-29).
The Kingdom Delivered to God
We have, however, much connected with this third resurrection season, for now the Lord goes on, by the Apostle, further to teach us what is to accompany the third and last of these eras. We learn that the Lord Jesus, having received a kingdom after the second resurrection era, will hold it and order it in a way to reduce every enemy in subjection to Himself, even death. Having been faithful to this great stewardship, He will deliver it up “to God, even the Father,” that “God may be all in all.” God Himself will then be displayed in a form of glory worthy of Himself and worthy of His eternity, when all stewardships in the hand of Christ have been fulfilled.
The Great White Throne
At the same time as this delivering up of the kingdom and this great closing action, the third resurrection season will take place. The judgment shall take place before “the great white throne,” and the doom of the dead then judged is to be “the lake of fire.” And this action will be in full consistency with all that which accompanies it, because it will be an action of “the kingdom,” just as the casting of death itself into the lake of fire will be another action. All tells of the full subjection of that moment to Christ in everything and that He has been able to subdue all things to Himself. It is a fit time to lay power and stewardship aside and enter on God’s own eternity, when “a scepter of righteousness” will yield to “a dwelling” of “righteousness” (Heb. 1:8; 2 Peter 3:13).
But I must notice two or three things connected with this more particularly. Christ delivers up the kingdom. This will be the first time, in the whole course of the world’s history, that power has been given back to the hand that had committed it. One after another of the beasts of Daniel had his kingdom taken from him. Each one had been untrue to that which was entrusted to him, and the stewardship was taken away from him. There has never been an “enduring” kingdom, for there has never been a “faithful” kingdom. This we see in Isaiah 15-24 and in Jeremiah 25, where the cup of God’s indignation is sent from one people to another, till every land, every nation, including Israel, is made to drink of it.
Messiah stands not only preeminent, but alone in His kingdom. There will be no taking of the kingdom from Him, but He will deliver it up, as One that has been infinitely faithful, faithful to the utmost jot and tittle, to Him that appointed Him.
The Destruction of Death
There is a passing touch or stroke of beauty, which I must also notice, in the midst of the weighty communications of this scripture. It is this — that death is the only enemy which is specified as being destroyed or put under the feet of Christ. In a general way we learn that all enemies are to be subdued, but death only is named individually here.
There is a stroke of beauty in this, for the great subject of the whole chapter is resurrection. Other prophets will tell us of the subjection of other things to the scepter of the Lord Jesus in the day of His royalty. Daniel tells us that He is to break in pieces every other kingdom. The psalmist tells us of all creation owning Him in His universal Lordship. John can call Him, “King of kings, and Lord of lords.” But there is no one feature signalized here, but the destruction of death in the mighty sweep and sway of the kingdom of Christ. And again I say, there is a touch and stroke of beauty in that, as resurrection is the theme of the whole chapter.
All that has been for the Lord or from the Lord among His saints shall be owned in His day. All grace in them, all love, all service, all suffering for Him or for righteousness — all forms and measures of these things shall be accepted and honored. But so, I add, all learning of His mind shall have its acceptance with Him and its own proper joy in that day. It may be but small in comparison, but it will have its measure. Servants, lovers and martyrs shall be accepted then, but so shall disciples. I claim a place in that day when “every man shall have praise of God” (1 Cor. 4:5), for those who, in the midst of human mistakes and misjudgments, have learned and prized and held to the thoughts and principles of the divine wisdom and of the mind of God, in the progress of His dispensations.
J. G. Bellett (adapted)
The Sheaf of Firstfruits
Christ Himself is the Firstfruits of the new creation, where all is of God. If Christ, as the true Paschal Lamb, laid the foundation in His death for the glory of God, is it not in Christ risen up from among the dead that God displays His righteousness in power and glory! Therein, also, Christ is emphatically declared to be the fulfilment of the type as the Firstfruits in resurrection. The corn of wheat is a significant figure, being used by the Lord Himself, which as the sower He sowed to produce the wheat, to be duly reaped for the heavenly granary. In John 12 He unmistakably refers to Himself when answering Philip concerning the Greeks wishing to see Jesus. What was then before Him was the solemn moment of His cross and death, when He must be alone with God, for He, the corn of wheat, must die, if others were to be associated with Him, which He most definitely states. “Verily verily, I say to you, Except a corn of wheat fall into the ground and die, it abideth alone; but if it die, it bringeth forth much fruit.”
The Sheaf Accepted for You
This fact of itself is the death-blow to those that would propound the erroneous teaching of union with Christ incarnate, for clearly He was alone in His pure, holy, spotless life, as He was in death, where His desire was that the Father’s name might be glorified, as the Father would glorify Him. Yea, the corn of wheat dying points not only to the death of the cross, where all man’s need, even to his moral end, was met. Not this only but it was the direct highway for Christ to become the Firstfruits and the reality of what is presented in type in the wave-sheaf presented to Jehovah, to which is added “to be accepted for you.”
The Lord’s disciples were unaware when eating the last Passover with Him (Luke 22) that He was then to become the reality of the type given in the Passover — He was the Lamb of God. Also, they were ignorant respecting His resurrection as the Firstfruits, although He had plainly told them that the third day He would rise again, thus fulfilling the type of what was to happen the morrow after the Sabbath. Very early in the morning of what would henceforth be called the Lord’s Day, the loved ones ignorantly brought spices to embalm their Lord. But they found the stone rolled away from the sepulcher, and when they entered in, they found not the body of the Lord Jesus. At the tomb they were challenged, if not rebuked, by angelic voices saying, “Why seek ye the living one among the dead. He is not here but is risen.” The amazing truth that He who died and was buried had become the Firstfruits in the field of resurrection life was the living proof that all was over as to the cross and the grave, and that Christ the Firstfruits from the dead had once and forever triumphed over sin and Satan, death and the grave. Though Mary Magdalene vainly waited at the grave, hoping to find the dead body of her Lord, yet her devoted heart was rewarded by being the first to behold her risen Lord and Savior, though not to handle or have Him as heretofore.
The Resurrection Morning
Is it not a touching intimation and precious aspect of the presentation of the wave-sheaf? The Lord, in following Mary’s confession as Master, said, “Touch Me not, for I am not yet ascended to My Father” (adding also the truth of association with Himself as the fruit of His death). “But go to My brethren and say unto them, I ascend unto My Father and your Father, and My God and your God.” Not only was it the ascending to the Father after the Lamb was slain, but all the Father’s will in life and in death had been fully completed, so that He was raised by the power of God as by the glory of the Father. Thus is He presented as the wave-sheaf by whom His brethren are set apart and accepted. The application to Christ the Firstfruits is most positive in 1 Corinthians 15:20 and also to His own as associated with Him (vs. 23). Therefore is it that the dead in Christ who have fallen asleep will be raised and with the living be changed into His image, for the divinely-appointed order is, “Christ the firstfruits; afterward they that are Christ’s at His coming.”
The Risen Lord
When they waved the sheaf of firstfruits, they were to offer in that day, “a he-lamb without blemish, a yearling, for a burnt offering to Jehovah; and the oblation [meal offering] thereof: two tenths of fine flour mingled with oil, an offering by fire to Jehovah for a sweet odor; and the drink offering thereof, of wine, a fourth part of a hin. And ye shall not eat bread, or roast corn, or green ears, until the same day that ye have brought the offering of your God: it is an everlasting statute throughout your generations in all your dwellings” (Lev. 23:12-14 JND).
Thus the type is established in its true dignity in the risen Lord, with its presentation, acceptance and divine application, not omitting the accompanying sacrifice of the burnt offering, the meal offering, and drink offering. Such must be offered and accepted with the wave-sheaf before Israel could eat of the corn of the land, declaring beyond mistake Jehovah’s claim and portion first, which in the antitype is blessed and important. To whom should the Lord present Himself, but to His God and Father who gave Him? “I came forth from the Father into the world; again I leave the world and go unto the Father.” In the significant space of His life and death is accomplished the whole will of God. Who could estimate all His devotion, expressed in the burnt offering and the meal offering, as the One to whom it was rendered, with the drink offering in the joy and delight He had in doing it? Blessed be God, the acceptance and estimate rested with Him—not on the one hand with angels, nor on the other with those who share the eternal benefits of the wave-sheaf and the varied offerings, though it will be the theme and adoration of the redeemed throughout eternity. But God has His own delight and satisfaction in the Son Himself, and in all that He has done.
G. Gardner (adapted)
Resurrection in the Old Testament
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 Psalm 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” (vss. 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). Other people in Old Testament days were also acquainted with the fact of resurrection, for not only was a man “revived, and stood upon his feet,” when he was let down and touched the bones of Elisha in the sepulcher (2 Kings 13:21), but “women received their dead raised to life again” (Heb. 11:35), as, for example, the widow’s son and the Shunammite’s son.
C. H. Mackintosh
The Body Resurrected
The unconverted man hates the idea of bodily resurrection, for it means that the same body in which he has lived his Christless life is to be reunited to his lost soul, to be brought before the bar of God. Accordingly there is a determined, relentless effort on the part of the enemy today to rob souls of the simple truth of the resurrection of the physical body.
Even children of God have sometimes very hazy ideas about what kind of a body they will have in resurrection. But the simple truth for us to lay hold of is this: we shall have for eternity this very same body in which we have lived down here. God is not going to give us a newly created body, for, if He did, it would not be resurrection at all. Resurrection is the raising up again of that which existed before. It is true, the Christian’s body will be changed into the fashion of the body of Christ, (blessed be God) but it will be the same body renewed.
On the other hand, the wicked will not have their bodies renewed like unto His body of glory, but will be raised again in their bodies to be cast alive into the lake of fire, there to suffer the doom of the eternally lost.
“Marvel not at this: for the hour is coming, in the which all that are in the graves shall hear His voice, and shall come forth; they that have done good, unto the resurrection of life; and they that have done evil, unto the resurrection of damnation” (John 5:28-29).
The Young Christian, Vol. 25
I Am the Resurrection and the Life
John 11:25
Lightly tread, the day is breaking,
Dwell not on your sorrows now;
Soon shall cloudless morn awaking
Chase the sadness from your brow:
He is coming—
Heart and knee to Jesus bow!
Did not Mary lay her sorrow
Low before the Master’s feet?
Sore her wound, and dark her morrow,
‘Reft on earth of love so sweet:
With her burden
Thus she came her Lord to meet.
Ah! she knew not all the glory
Hid beneath that lowly guise;
Knew not that her heart’s sad story
Soon would end in glad surprise:
Resurrection
Burst upon her ravished eyes!
‘Tis the great I AM who standeth
Now beside that rocky tomb;
‘Tis His voice that loud commandeth
Lazarus from the dead to come! Thus His glory
Shines above the deepest gloom.
Precious Savior! through Thy dying,
Vanquished are the foe’s dark powers;
And, Thy name still magnifying,
Grace brings forth exhaustless stores:
At Thy coming,
Life and incorruption ours.
Eyes to see Thee, ears to hear Thee,
Voices tuned to heavenly lays;
Thus to dwell forever near Thee,
Learning all Thy wondrous ways;
To Thee rendering,
Adoration, worship, praise!
Author unknown