1.
‘I believe in the resurrection of the body’
Apostles’ creed: ‘I believe in the resurrection
of the body’.
How
does that work – particularly when Paul makes it clear in 1 Cor
15 that our resurrection body will not be a totally different body, but will have some form of continuity with our
present body? Bodies decompose, some people are cremated, some have their ashes
scattered, and people can even share molecules!
a.
Denial
of the bodily resurrection
Greek
dualist philosophy: matter was evil, & the goal was for the human spirit to
escape the inferior, material existence. (This is incompatible with the
incarnation.)
18th
century enlightenment: elevate science above scripture. Comes from the modernist
desire to eliminate all the supernatural from the bible: miracles, prophecy,
angels, even Jesus’
resurrection. Logical conclusion: salvation is purely in this earthly existence.
Yet
the bible clearly teaches a bodily resurrection.
b.
Bodily
resurrection in the Bible
God
gradually revealed this doctrine during OT times, as there was originally a belief
that everyone went to Sheol. Some glimmers of hope begin to appear in
the psalms (e.g. Ps
Jesus’
day: bodily resurrection believed by Pharisees but not Sadducees. Jesus affirms
a resurrection of the dead to the Sadducees in Matt 22:31-32. He also teaches
it in John 5:24-29
Paul
in 1 Cor 15:12-19 argues that if there is no such
thing as a bodily resurrection, then (logically) Jesus has not been
resurrected. And since J’s death & resurrection
are what has saved us, our faith is futile & we are still in our sins .
What will the
resurrection body be like?
Paul’s
answer contains two competing principles:
(i) Continuity (1 Cor
(ii)
Difference (1 Cor
2.
What about beforehand?
Where does someone go right now? They are not with their body!
Paul
in his early letters tells us that we won’t be given our resurrection body
until Jesus’ second coming (1 Cor
Yet
several year later, in a different context, Paul
implies that as soon as we die we are with Jesus. 2 Cor
5 – Paul equates being absent from the body with being present with the Lord. Also
Phil 1:23-24.
This
lines up with Jesus’ parable about the rich man & Lazarus (Luke
a.
Soul
Sleep
An unconscious, dreamless ‘sleep’ between death & the second coming. This view is based on Paul’s language when he refers to the dead in Christ
as having ‘fallen asleep’ (1 Th
b.
Intermediate
state
From
the evidence of the thief on the cross – ‘today you will be with me in paradise’ – a disembodied and therefore
imperfect existence with God for the
believer. Unbelievers, by contrast, go to Hades
(the word for ‘land of the dead’ in Greek mythology). This idea of the
intermediate state has been the usual interpretation of the church down through
the centuries.
c.
Timelessness
As
soon as we die, we are taken out of this world and its dimensions, into a
spiritual existence. We are thus also taken out of the bounds of time (the
fourth dimension), just as God is. From our perspective here on earth, there is
a period of time between a person’s death & their getting a resurrection
body at Jesus’ second coming. From their perspective,
though, they will be instantly with God
with their resurrection body for
eternity, because once you step out of a time bound existence there simply
isn’t any time to pass!
Even
though this imports a twentieth century concept into the first century, it does make sense of the three scriptural
factors we have to take into account: the resurrection body is given at Jesus’ second
coming; there is no time at which a believer is not consciously with God; the
ambiguity in 2 Cor 5 which hints at being immediately
with the Lord, but also alludes to our resurrection body.
3.
How many resurrections?
This will not be covered in
the sermon, but is here for your interest.
There
is a passage in Rev 20:4-6, connected with the 1000yr reign of Christ
(millennium) which talks about two resurrections.
Rev 20:4-6 ‘I saw thrones on which were seated those who had
been given authority to judge. And I saw the souls of those who had been
beheaded because of their testimony for Jesus and because of the word of God.
They had not worshiped the beast or his image and had not received his mark on
their foreheads or their hands. They came to life and reigned with Christ a
thousand years. (The rest of the dead did not come to life until the thousand
years were ended.) This is the first resurrection. Blessed and holy are those
who have part in the first resurrection. The second death has no power over
them, but they will be priests of God and of Christ and will reign with him for
a thousand years.’
There
are essentially two ways of looking at it, depending on your end-times view.
The debate is over the nature of the first & second resurrections (physical
or spiritual) and the first & second deaths.
a.
Futurists
(‘Premillennial’ view)
Futurists
believe the events in Revelation are yet to occur & look forward to a
future 1000 year reign of Christ on earth. They take both resurrections to be physical
resurrections:
First death is our physical
death. Everyone dies.
First resurrection is physical
resurrection of the righteous dead when Jesus comes back.
Second resurrection is the physical
resurrection of everyone else, at the end of Jesus’ 1000 year physical reign on
earth.
Second death – is spiritual,
an eternal separation from God in hell.
This
view believes both resurrections should be of the same type, and so interprets them
in this way (although note that the two deaths are of a different type). But
this interpretation – a
two stage resurrection of the dead either side of a 1000 year
reign – then becomes the key to their end times view, & the rest of Scripture
has to fit this scheme.
b.
Preterist & Idealist (‘postmillennial’ & ‘amillennial’)
By
contrast, the other viewpoints start with the rest of scripture, & try to
make these verses fit. This is done by making the first resurrection spiritual.
Here’s how it works:
First death – physical AND
spiritual. Everyone dies physically. AND everyone has died spiritually – been
separated from God – by sin.
Second resurrection – physical,
since everyone is physically resurrected, & occurs at the end of the
millennium.
The
first death & second resurrection are common to all of humanity. Everyone
dies, everyone sins, everyone is raised on the last
day. The only difference is whether you take part in:
Second death – spiritual,
eternal separation from God in hell.
If
you have only been resurrected, or ‘made alive’ physically, then you cannot
stand at judgement day, & will suffer the second death.
The
only way to avoid the second, eternal death is if you have already taken part
in:
First resurrection – a spiritual resurrection,
when you have been united with Christ at conversion.
Other parts of the Bible suggest
this. E.g. at the time John is writing to his church, the Christians have already been made alive in Christ.
1 John
Ephesians also refers to
our being made alive & raised up in the heavenly realms in the past tense
at conversion:
Eph 2:4-6 But because of his great love for us, God, who is
rich in mercy, made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in
transgressions - it is by grace you have been saved. And God raised us up with
Christ and seated us with him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus’
John’s gospel also has a
similar pattern to Revelation of the spiritually dead being made spiritually
alive:
John 5:24-25 ‘whoever hears my word and believes him who sent
me has eternal life and will not be condemned; he has crossed over from death
to life… a time is coming and has now come when the [spiritually] dead will
hear the voice of the Son of God and those who hear will live.
This
is followed 2 verses later by a reference to the second resurrection:
John 5:28-29 ‘a time is coming when all who are in their graves
will hear his voice and come out - those who have done good will rise to live,
and those who have done evil will rise to be condemned.’