THE RESURRECTION
[p. 430] THE RESURRECTION
It is to be noted, that resurrection is left for the end of this epistle. Whereas it is referred to immediately in the second epistle to the Corinthians; 2 Corinthians 2:9. This, no doubt, was because of the state of things at Corinth when the first letter was written.
Here it is treated in its full bearing in regard of death as opposed to God, rather than involving the special privilege of Christians now, as in Colossians. It is a question of God’s power which the existence of death challenged, and that we could not know anything beyond the grave was also challenged. “How say some among you that there is no resurrection of the dead?” So the apostle takes occasion to show how the moral universe must be established in resurrection.
It is presented therefore in relation to the general testimony of God rather than showing the special position of Christians now. In Colossians it is: “Ye are risen with him through the faith of the operation of God, who hath raised him from the dead”, Colossians 2:12. But here it is a question of the testimony as Paul preached it in its full bearing. “But I make known to you, brethren, the glad tidings which I announced to you, which also ye received, in which also ye stand, by which also ye are saved ... unless indeed ye have believed in vain. For I delivered unto you, in the first place, what also I had received, that Christ died for our sins, according to the Scriptures; and that he was buried; and that he was raised the third day, according to the Scriptures”. I think it is well to see that he is dealing with the thing, as you might say, in its entirety. It is the subject itself being dealt with, and the effect should be that they were “Steadfast, unmoveable always [p. 431] abounding in the work of the Lord, forasmuch as ye know that your labour is not in vain in the Lord”.
The burial of Christ clears the ground entirely of the man who was offensive to God in view of a new beginning for God; He having in grace taken the place of man according to the flesh. It reminds us of 2 Samuel 21, where all the bodies of the offenders had to be buried. It was after the burial that God was entreated for the land and was propitious. As if man has to learn what it says in the Psalms.
“They die, and return to their dust”, Psalm 104:29. Speaking, I suppose, in irony of man’s natural origin; he has to return to his dust, to the source of his being as regards his body, a very humbling thought. Christ has died vicariously, and was buried and has submerged the offending man; “but now is Christ risen from the dead”.
It suggests Genesis 6, “The end of all flesh is come before me”, Genesis 6:13. All flesh was submerged. If He was buried, all flesh was removed from before the sight of God — nothing left of man according to the flesh. Crucifixion would be the character of His death which was public; but burial is putting wholly out of sight. Abraham said: “That I may bury my dead out of my sight”, Genesis 23:4. It is a remarkable statement. Though he loved Sarah, yet as dead she should be out of his sight. There is no revival of that kind of man so “God giveth it a body as it hath pleased him”. It is a question now of resurrection.
Resurrection is not resuscitation. The triumph of God has been secured in a Man. The Man who comes out of death first is the Man who glorified God on the earth. Resurrection involves that what comes up pleases God. The going down refers to what displeases, hence His burial is part of His vicarious work and the coming up is on account of what He is: “Christ the firstfruits” is the Man who glorified God on the earth. In Christ’s resurrection something [p. 432] is introduced the like of which had never existed before. Lazarus, also, and the young man of Luke 7, and others were signs. They did not set forth the new order of man; they were brought back to the natural life. In Christ we see a Man invading the whole domain of death, and bringing everything that Satan had plunged into it out of death, so that even the wicked dead will have to say to that Man. A Man will dispose of everything for God, both those who are of His order and the wicked.
A complete triumph for God has been secured in a Man. It is really a world out of death we come into. It is well to take account of the fact that Christ had glorified God on earth before He died vicariously. His burial is the counterpart of His vicarious death. “Christ the firstfruits” — He begins the new order of things, and all are brought up according to that, so the development of the teaching is: “As is the heavenly, such are they also that are heavenly”. Only “It is raised in incorruption ... it is raised in glory ... it is raised in power ... it is raised a spiritual body”. All these are details emphasising the character of the resurrection; but the fulness of it is: “As is the heavenly, such are they also that are heavenly”. Thus we are made to correspond with Christ. “What and if ye shall see the Son of man ascend up where he was before?”, John 6:62. He came from heaven and went to heaven.
There is a connection with Leviticus 23. There we have Christ the firstfruits; without that there could be no place for the feast of weeks, or Pentecost. The one necessarily depends on the other. The sheaf was waved before Jehovah by the priest. It is Christ out of death, and afterwards the “two wave loaves”. God virtually says, “This is what I am going to populate My universe with”. Here we have “afterward they that are Christ’s at his coming”. It is a question of kind of order — the grain of wheat.
The Lord’s death was not from weakness. He died in the vigour of manhood; but, then, He felt it: “Take me not away in the midst of my days”, Psalm 102:24. It was a surrender. The “much fruit” from the “corn of wheat” would include all the redeemed. The full result of His death would be seen in all that are His. When the Sadducees raised the question of the resurrection the Lord said: “Ye do err, not knowing the Scriptures, nor the power of God”, Matthew 22:29. Then He cites that passage in Exodus 3: “I am the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob. He is not the God of the dead, but the God of the living”, Matthew 22:32. The revelation He made to Abraham involved this, and then He made a covenant with him, namely, that of circumcision. The sign of circumcision in the body which typically involves the Holy Spirit. The presence of the Holy Spirit gives the certainty of resurrection. The Old Testament saints did not have that. “For we are the circumcision, which worship God in the Spirit, and rejoice in Christ Jesus, and have no confidence in the flesh”, Philippians 3:3. The Holy Spirit is the power by which we are to be raised, so that we already have the victory. It is not only that we shall have it; but we have got it. “Thanks be to God, which giveth us the victory”. The truth of resurrection is taken up here only with the saints. It does not refer to the wicked dead here. Resurrection, as it is dealt with here, carries with it a moral thought; it is not resuscitation. The wicked dead shall be brought back; but the principle, of resurrection brings in a new order of things — that which is of God.
The first burial in Scripture is in the light of resurrection. Abraham bought a field in which to bury Sarah. It was bought in the light of resurrection. Isaac, Jacob, and Joseph had that spot in view. It is interesting that Isaac (as typifying Christ risen) was introduced before burial is mentioned.
First, we have in Genesis 17: “I am the almighty God; walk before me, and be thou perfect”. (Genesis 17:1) Then Isaac is brought in on that principle — God’s almightiness. Then he is raised from the dead — received back in a figure. There is the idea of a new order of things in Isaac. The man out of death comes into view, and then the burial of Sarah.
Death is looked at as an enemy as it affects the saints of God. It is a penalty in regard of the wicked. It was a penalty on man as having sinned. Viewed as a penalty it is not an enemy, it is God’s servant; but as Satan uses it against the people of God it is an enemy. It is dealt with in this chapter in regard of those who are touched by the power and life of Christ. “For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive”. That brings in the idea of headship. It does not include the wicked dead. “For all live unto him” in Luke 20:38, refers to those who had faith.
Resurrection is the annulling of death for us. When I am taken out of death it has no power over me; in fact, Colossians and Ephesians teach that it has no power over us now; but it is annulled literally when you are taken out of the grave. An unconverted man is afraid to die; death is God’s penalty on him. After the redeemed are taken out of death the wicked are still retained there. For them hades and death are a penalty.
No one really understands death save those who have the Spirit. You understand the consequences of death. You see it first of all as a penalty; but then you see it also as in Satan’s possession which he uses against the people of God and against God. This chapter shows that the saints get the victory from that point of view. The wicked dead never get victory. We have a figure of it in Goliath who had a sword, a figure of death, and he wielded it over the Israelites for forty days, typical of the period in [p. 435] which Satan held men in terror by death. David took it out of Goliath’s hand and used it against him. Scripture teaches us that death is ours now; 1 Corinthians 3:22.
Although Satan had the power of death, he could use it only as God permitted him. He was not permitted to touch Job’s life; Job 2:6. Satan has put many men to death; the martyrs witness to this.
Resurrection as power applies to the wicked dead also: “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. But there is nothing new in them. They are simply brought back to be consigned to what is called “the second death”
— the lake of fire. Death is ours now in the sense in which you can apply it against the flesh; besides, it may be the means of our departing to be with Christ. “The last enemy that shall be destroyed is death”. A condition of things will be brought to pass in which death will never have a footing again. Now, through faith, those “who through fear of death were all their lifetime subject to bondage”(Hebrews 2:15) are delivered. Primarily death was a penalty. “In the day that thou eatest thereof thou shall surely die”, Genesis 2:17. So that it says: “Death reigned from Adam to Moses, even over them that had not sinned after the similitude of Adam’s transgression”, Romans 5:14.
It is thus seen extending over the whole race of men; but in the Jordan it is seen in a condensed form as acting against God. It was an enemy — it was between the people of God and the land of promise. It is in connection with the land we see the full idea of the enemy and there it disappeared. The Red Sea did not disappear. Death remains on the earth today as it always did, emphasised sometimes more than at other times; but when you come [p. 436] to the Jordan the thing disappears — it is cut off out of sight; in fact, when the people came to the Jordan there is no water in it at all; that is what has come to pass for faith, so that we have the victory now. The nearer you get to death the more you realise it is so.
“All that are in the grave shall hear his voice, and shall come forth”, John 5:28,29. Individual identity will remain in the glorified state. The principle in regard to the condition of the man inwardly, applies to the outward, that is, the thing as to its character, for instance, now that you are born of God, you are inwardly “as is the heavenly”. That refers to us as Christians already; but still we are known here on the earth as the same persons; there is now no physical change; our identity remains. So, as regards the body, all that it shall he evidently comes out of heaven. “Raised in incorruption” — “raised in glory” — “raised in power” — “raised a spiritual body”. All that does not come out of the earth, it comes from heaven; but it is a question of the character of the thing. You will be recognisable as the same person. It is not that the body is brought down and formed at that moment; it is changed by the power of God; but yet it will be “our house which is from heaven”, 2 Corinthians 5:2.
If it were a matter of God creating a new set of bodies in heaven, that would not convey the idea — that would take us back to the original thought of creation. The idea is power — what God can do. The body of humiliation is under divine power, transformed like unto His glorious body and “according to the working of the power which he has even to subdue all things to himself”, Philippians 3:21. The subduing is being effected now in a moral way in the souls of the saints and the consummation of that will be when we get our new bodies.
“But God giveth it a body as it hath pleased him, and to every seed his own body”. (1 Corinthians 15:38) God does it instantly. “We shall all be changed, in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye”. So yon can understand the word: “The exceeding greatness of his power”, Ephesians 1:19.
The body in which we are raised could not be identical in a material sense, because it is to be spiritual in contrast to the natural; but identity conveys the thought that the same features are there, so that you are recognisable. The Lord after His resurrection said: “Behold my hands and my feet, that it is I myself: handle me, and see”, Luke 24:39, and yet it was a spiritual body.
It is all set forth in the Lord. He is the pattern of what follows, only we must always guard that He did not see corruption. It is marvellous that God can do all this in a moment. “In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye”. The question as to what bodies Moses and Elias appeared in is easily solved by the knowledge of God. This is the solution of all these problems; the Lord met the Sadducees: “Do ye not therefore err, because ye know not the Scriptures, neither the power of God?”(Mark 12:24) We cannot naturally understand how Enoch was translated that he should not see death, nor in what body he was taken to heaven; but the knowledge of God in one’s soul sets us at rest about it.
Moses and Elias were recognisable. As we grow old resurrection is more appreciated. You come to the top of a hill, so to speak, and then you see over and down, from a natural point of view, and it is an immense thing to apprehend the truth of resurrection. Of course, it should be seen at the outset, but I think it becomes greatly accentuated as we grow old. When the ark went into the Jordan it was two thousand cubits beyond the people; but the nearer they got to the river the more they perceived the water was gone.
John 5 distinguishes between quickening and raising: “For as the Father raiseth up the dead, and quickeneth them; even so the Son quickeneth whom he will”, John 5:21. If you take it in its application to us at the present time, as in Colossians, we are said to be “risen with him through the faith of the operation of God, who hath raised him from the dead ... . And you, being dead in your sins and the uncircumcision of your flesh, hath he quickened together with him”, Colossians 2:12,13. Being raised with Christ through the faith of the operation of God gives you a new footing or status; quickening gives you the inward power viewed in the order in which they occur literally “at the end”. In Ephesians 2 we have quickening, and then raising up; this latter, however, goes further than resurrection.
Verses 20 - 28 come in parenthetically as showing the full bearing of resurrection and then the end: “When all things shall be subdued unto him, then shall the Son also himself be subject unto him that put all things under him, that God may be all in all”. That is what, I suppose, we may call the final, fixed order of things. The mediatorial kingdom is brought to an end so that God rests. He is all as the Object of the hearts of His creatures and in all as life.
In verse 28 the Spirit turns from speaking of the Lord as Christ, to the Son. It takes you back to John 5, where divine Persons are acting together: “My Father worketh hitherto, and I work”. (John 5:17) Now the Father has given all things into the hands of the Son, so it becomes a mediatorial system and He works until all is brought to God, when there is no disturbing element.
Verse 35 introduces the question, “How are the dead raised up?” The apostle enlarges his answer so as to show the character of the body as it comes up and then he says: “Behold, I show you a mystery”; he opens up the mystery to the saints: “We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed, in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump”.