As (physical) death is the separation of the soul and spirit from the body (James 2:26), resurrection is the reunion of the soul and spirit with the body (1 Kings 17:21-22; Luke 8:55). All who die, whether righteous or wicked, will experience resurrection, for death is a temporary condition. The grave is only a temporary custodian of the body, and Hades is only the temporary custodian of the soul and spirit.
While all who die will be raised, not all the dead rise simultaneously. There are two resurrections. The Lord said, “Wonder not at this; for an hour is coming, in which all that are in the tombs shall hear His voice, and shall go forth; those that have practiced good unto a resurrection of life, and those that did evil unto a resurrection of judgment” (John 5:28-29 – W. Kelly Trans.; Acts 24:15). The “first resurrection” (Rev. 20:4-6), also called the “resurrection of life” (John 5:29) and the “resurrection of the just” (Luke 14:14), is a resurrection of righteous persons only. The second resurrection, which is called the “resurrection of judgment” (John 5:29) and the “resurrection of the unjust” (Acts 24:15), is a resurrection of wicked persons who have died in their sins. There are a thousand years between these two resurrections.
The First Resurrection
The first resurrection is a resurrection “from among the dead” (Matt. 17:9; Phil. 3:11; Col. 1:18, etc. – J. N. Darby Trans.), because it is selective in that the righteous are called out “from among” the wicked. It will take place in three phases.
Christ has been raised from among the dead first as a sample of what is to come for the saints. He is “the firstfruits.” He is now in heaven in His glorified body (Phil. 3:21). Then, at His coming (the Rapture) the sleeping saints will be raised from among the dead. This are all the righteous from Abel (the first man to die) down to the last person who will die before the Rapture. Then it will be said, “O death, where is thy sting? O grave [Hades], where is thy victory?” (1 Cor. 15:55) “Death,” which has claimed the body, will not be able to hold it any longer. “Hades,” in which are the departed spirits, will lose its victory of holding them in that separate state. They will rise together with the saints who are alive on earth at that time to meet the Lord in the air (1 Thess. 4:15-18). Then, any who will have died in faith during the time of Daniel’s seventieth week (the Tribulation period) will be raised at the end of that seven-year period (Rev. 14:13). To summarize these three, there is:
Firstly, “Christ the firstfruits” (1 Cor. 15:23; Matt. 28:1-8).
Secondly, “they that are Christ’s at His coming” – the Rapture (1 Cor. 15:23; 1 Thess. 4:15-18; Heb. 11:40).
Thirdly, those who turn to God during the Tribulation period and are martyred (Rev. 6:9-11; 11:7-9; 15:2-4) will be raised at the end of the Great Tribulation (Rev. 11:11-12; 14:13).
The moment of the resurrection and the glorification of the saints is at the Lord’s coming—the Rapture. It has been called, “The moment for which all other moments have been made!” All the righteous who have died in past ages, from Adam to the last soul saved in the Church period, will see the Lord’s face for the first time together! Those in the disembodied state in Hades (Sheol) are not yet looking upon the Lord’s face, though their spirits are with Him in paradise. They are presently participating in the joys of heaven without their bodies. But when we are glorified together, we will all see His face for the first time. God has purposed that there should be one defining moment of joy and victory when our eyes meet His eyes for the first time. What a moment that will be!
Resurrection for the believer is the full and final aspect of his deliverance from the whole effect and consequence of sin (Rom. 8:11, 23; Eph. 4:30). The bodies of the living saints will “put on immortality,” and the bodies of the saints who have died will “put on incorruption” (1 Cor. 15:53-54). We will be “glorified together” (Rom. 8:17). The Bible speaks of it as being “clothed upon with our house which is from heaven” (2 Cor. 5:2).
The saints who have departed to be with Christ do not exactly receive “new” bodies at the Lord’s coming, though we often hear people saying that. To teach that the saints receive a new and different body at His coming, in a sense, denies the resurrection of the bodies they once lived in. If they get new bodies at the Lord’s coming, then their old bodies don’t really rise from the dead after all! Scripture is careful never to say that the resurrection body is new in that sense. When speaking of resurrection, it always says “changed” (1 Cor. 15:51-52; Phil. 3:21; Job 14:14). This defines what will happen at the moment of resurrection more accurately. That old body will be raised, changed, and glorified all “in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump” (1 Cor. 15:52).
When glorified, the saints will not have their ailments and old age, etc., but will be in “the dew of their youth” like Christ (Compare Psalm 110:3 with Philippians 3:21). Their fallen sin-natures will be eradicated forever, and they will sin no more (Heb. 11:40; 12:23 – “made perfect” 1 John 3:2).
Oftentimes people will speak of ones who have departed to be with Christ in the intermediate state as being in glory. We don’t mean to “make a man an offender for a word” (Isa. 29:21), but this is not quite accurate, for they are not glorified yet. The disembodied state is not glory. They will not be glorified until they are called away at the Lord’s coming (the Rapture). Christ is in glory now (1 Peter 1:21; 2 Cor. 3:18) and is waiting to bring His people into that condition of glory at His coming.
This is confusing to some because (in their thinking) if Christ is in the glory, and the departed saints are “with Christ” (Phil. 1:23), then they must be in the glory too. This misunderstanding comes from assuming that the conventional expression, “in the glory,” is a place where the Lord is in heaven. However, it is not a place, but a glorified condition. The Lord Jesus is in a glorified condition in heaven “with” the departed saints who are not yet in that condition.
All the dead who have their part in the first resurrection will live and reign with Christ in the heavens during the Millennium (Rev. 20:4-6). They will be both morally “like” Christ (1 John 3:2) and physically “like” Christ (Phil. 3:21). Scripture says, “If we have been planted together in the likeness of His death, we shall be also in the likeness of His resurrection” (Rom. 6:5).
The Second Resurrection
The first resurrection will take place before the Millennium, but the second resurrection will take place after the Millennium (Rev. 20:7, 11-15). The wicked dead will be raised together to stand before the “great white throne” and will receive their sentence of eternal judgment. All who partake in this resurrection, which comprises the rest of the dead, will be cast into “the lake of fire.” This is very sad and solemn.
Reincarnation—the belief of many eastern religions—which supposes that the souls of the dead return to earth in different forms to live again is surely a false thing (Heb. 9:27). To say that the Bible supports this notion is ludicrous. The reincarnation idea is that a person comes back as another person or animal. There are 10 or 12 people in Scripture who were raised from the dead, but they always came back in their own body and were the same person. Malachi 4:5-6 and Matthew 11:14 have been used to support the erroneous idea. The Lord spoke of John the Baptist as Elijah, but he was not speaking literally, but that John would come forth in his ministry in the same character and spirit as Elijah. Luke 1:17 confirms this, saying, “He shall go before Him in the spirit and power of Elias, to turn the hearts of the fathers to the children, and the disobedient to the wisdom of the just; to make ready a people prepared for the Lord.”
The Bible teaches that once a person dies, he does not return to earth to live again. It says, “It is appointed unto man once to die, but after this the judgment” (Heb. 9:27). It is an appointment that only the wicked keep, for all who have faith have been delivered from the judgment of their sins. The Lord said, “Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that heareth My word, and believeth on Him that sent Me, hath everlasting life, and shall not come into condemnation [judgment]; but is passed from death unto life” (John 5:24).
The Lord Jesus said of the dead, “Neither can they die any more” (Luke 20:36). This confirms that they can’t keep coming back to the earth to live and die over and over again. King David could say of his child that died, “Can I bring him back again? I shall go to him, but he shall not return to me” (2 Sam. 12:23). See also Ecclesiastes 12:7.