The Resurrection
 From
the beginning of time human beings have been intrigued
by life after death. Early civilizations have all had
questions regarding the destination of the soul after
death, and complex rituals were contrived to insure
some sort of paradise for the deceased. The ancient
Egyptians were famous for embalming the bodies of the
dead and burying them with weapons, food and other items
that would be essential for their lives in the hereafter.
Those pagan beliefs and rituals came into being after
the race had distanced itself from God and had thus
developed idolatrous religions that filled the vacuum
that formed when God was dismissed from their cultures.
Adam and the godly line of his descendants through Seth
had a concept of truth that quickly became foreign to
Adam's rebellious and idol-worshipping descendants through
Cain.
The Old Testament has some things to say about the resurrection.
Job, the main character in the book by his name, was one of
those ancients who had a better idea of the truth concerning
death and the resurrection of the body. Job said that he knew
he would one day see God with his own eyes, even after his
body had undergone corruption (Job 19:26,27). Though he did
not fully understand all that would be involved in the resurrection
of his body, yet he believed in it without reservation. That
he had been taught the truth of the resurrection can not be
questioned, and his faith was based solely on that teaching.
An angel "with human appearance" (Dan 10:18) had
quite a message for Daniel from God, and in the course of
the message Daniel was told, And many of those who sleep
in the dust of the ground will awake, these to everlasting
life, but the others to disgrace and everlasting contempt
(Dan 12:2 NASB). Like Job, Daniel did not understand all that
would be involved in this great matter, but he believed what
he was told.
In order to get a good handle on what the resurrection is
all about it is necessary for us to understand what happened
to Jesus. He is the first-fruits of the resurrection (1 Cor
15:20,23), and everything having to do with our own resurrection
is based upon His.
The Resurrection of Jesus
Easter. This word exemplifies the resurrection of Jesus Christ
as no other. For centuries Christians have celebrated Easter
with special early Sunday morning services, egg hunts, chocolate
bunnies, wicker baskets lined with make-believe grass and
all sorts of things having to do with the holiday. Of those
things mentioned above, the Sunday morning assembly is the
only one that has anything to do with our Lord's resurrection.
The inclusion of rabbits and eggs in the celebration is a
practice steeped in paganism; something most Christians do
not enjoy talking about very much. I am not on a crusade to
eliminate the eating of eggs and chocolate rabbits at Easter,
but I feel very strongly that those things have usurped the
place of the empty tomb.
Jesus was born of a virgin in Bethlehem and died on a cross
at Jerusalem. He was the lamb of God in human flesh, the unsurpassed
satisfaction of God's righteous judgment and is the one-and-only
way to obtain salvation. After His death he was placed in
a borrowed tomb where His bloody and beaten body lay for three
days. On the morning of the third day He rose from the dead
bodily. And this is the crux of it all. Jesus did not rise
spiritually. A spiritual resurrection is an absolute impossibility
because a spirit does not die. The tomb was empty. Period.
The Romans did not steal His body, nor did His disciples.
Had that been the case His decaying body would have been produced
immediately after the first sermon declaring His resurrection.
It is true that the disciples would not have died for a lie,
and this is offered as credible evidence that they did not
remove the body. But, more important to note is that only
a risen Savior could have been the catalyst for 12 men to
go from being scared cowards fearful of their own shadows
to 12 men whose hearts blazed with the truth that He was alive.
They saw Him, they touched Him, they had meals with Him and
they witnessed His ascension. There can be no other reason
for their dedication and martyrdom - He was alive and they
knew it! What they saw and touched was not a spirit or some
apparition!
So, what kind of body did Jesus have after He was raised
from the dead? His was a physical body, but not like ours.
Though He could, and did, eat food, He did not do so out of
need for nourishment. He demonstrated to His disciples that
His immortal body was capable of existing in this self-same
world with all the features God intended the sinless body
to have. Jesus appeared and disappeared at will as was demonstrated
that same day at Emmaus and in the room where the eleven were
meeting. In essence, Jesus had a resurrected body that was
not limited by time, space and mortal/physical demands.
It was in that same body that Jesus was lifted up into heaven;
an event witnessed by His disciples. He still has such a body
today. It is somewhat difficult to fully comprehend such a
condition, but the problem lies not in the fact of the matter,
but in our inability to understand it. For example, consider
1 Timothy 2:5, For there is one God, and one mediator also
between God and men, the man Christ Jesus (NASB, emphasis
mine). At this very moment Jesus is at the right hand of Glory
functioning as our intercessor, and doing so as a man. When
John saw the glorified Jesus he described Him as "a Lamb,
as if slain" (Rev 5:6). Some expositors believe this
to mean Jesus will carry the scars of the crucifixion for
ever. Jesus will also have a physical body when He comes to
reign in glory on the Throne of David, and He will be seen
by all the world in the process.
The Resurrection of Christians
It must be pointed out here that a number of Christians will
not undergo resurrection simply because a number of us will
be alive when Jesus comes for His church. But, what about
those who have died, and whose bodies have returned to the
dust of the earth? On this we can be quite sure. 1 Corinthians
15:50ff and 1 Thessalonians 4:13ff give us a detailed description
of what will happen.
This will not be a general resurrection - this will be a
family affair, for the dead "in Christ" will rise.
Next, those of us still alive will be changed in an instant;
a time frame too short to be measured. Those who have died
in Christ will rise from their graves with bodies like that
of our Lord. Those alive will have their mortal and sin-tainted
bodies transformed into bodies like His. Then, the entire
group of millions will blast off into the sky to meet the
Lord, and then be brought into the third heaven for a time
of seven years.
Bodies like His? Do I mean to say that ours will be bodies
immortal, incorruptible and free from both the inclination
toward sin, and its consequences? Absolutely. How do we know
this? God said so through Paul in Philippians 3:20,21. How
old will we be for eternity? What about those children who
died; will they remain infants for eternity? I don't believe
so, though there is nothing said specifically about those
matters. Adam and Eve were created/formed as adults; perhaps
that will lend some idea to what God will do. One thing is
for certain: God has in store for us immortal physical bodies
and a way of life that will go far beyond anything we might
imagine. Paul, who was taken up into the third heaven (2 Cor
12:1ff), leaves us with these words, but just as it is written,
"Things which eye has not seen and ear has not heard,
And which have not entered the heart of man, All that God
has prepared for those who love Him ( 1 Cor 2:9 NASB)."
Whatever we might be able to dream about in this life is a
long way from the reality that will be ours at that time.
How can a person add to that?!
The Resurrection of the Lost
The same word that can be used to describe the condition
of the body for the saved can also be used to describe the
condition of the bodies of those who will be lost: indescribable.
However, for the saved it will be a good and positive thing,
but for those who chose to not make Jesus both Master and
Savior while in this life, the word will be descriptive of
a situation too terrible to imagine. While the saved will
be alive, happy, joyful and in the presence of God and saved
loved ones on a pristine and regenerated earth, the lost will
be experiencing unbelievable suffering in a very literal lake
of fire in bodies susceptible to pain, yet strangely unable
to be consumed by the fire thus ending the suffering. This
is something too horrible to contemplate. The human mind is
totally incapable of comprehending this kind of terror. Lost,
alone, the fire, the screaming and wailing, the gnashing of
teeth in both pain and hopelessness, being conscious of never
any hope of ever, ever, ever escaping...how can this be pictured?!
It can't. But, our inability to picture this kind of fear,
dread and horror does not make it any less a fact.
God did not create the horror and pain of hell for humans
- it is for Satan and his host of evil minions who decided
to follow him in his rebellion against God. The love of God
produced the grace and mercy of God with the result being
the cross. For those who make Jesus their Master and Savior
the resurrection of their bodies will be the final phase of
their redemption - something too glorious to imagine. But,
for those who insist on being the the master of their own
souls and the captain of their own fates the resurrection
will be an event quite different - something too gut-wrenchingly
horrifying to imagine.
What we celebrate this time of year is not the renewal of
life, but the genesis of new life. What Jesus did upon His
own resurrection was not simply another start for the same
old life, but rather it was the unveiling of the start of
a new life. In this present world Christians live this new
life in their old bodies; they hurt, are attacked by disease,
are susceptible to pain and are so fragile. But, when Jesus
comes for His church at the rapture these old and decrepit
bodies will be cast aside like old, dirty, worn-out and thread-bear
cloaks with our souls and spirits being immediately encased
in a new, glorious, immortal and eternal body just like the
one Jesus has. And that is the significance of Jesus' resurrection;
the holiday we call Easter.
We focus so much on Christmas with all the hoop-tee-la that
goes with it, but without the last three days of Jesus' life
Christmas would mean nothing. It took more than a virgin birth,
and more than even an old rugged cross to pay the price for
our sin and win our redemption - it took an empty tomb. The
world is filled with religion: Muslims, Hindus, Buddhists,
humanists and the list could go on. But in each tomb where
their founders are buried lies the dust of their mortal bodies.
What makes Christianity unique is our Leader's victory over
death, thus the assurance of ours. Only Christians can go
to the tomb of their Leader, point to it and say, "It
is empty, for He has risen!"
|
