The Resurrection

When you read something about "the resurrection," it usually tries to convince you that Christ raised from the dead, and then that’s it. Once you believe that, then you’re O.K. Well, there’s more to belief in the resurrection than that.

I’ve heard a lame presentation of the gospel that goes like this: "Even if there is no hell or heaven, wouldn’t it be better to believe in Jesus in this life? It makes our life so much better, plus, if there just happens to be a hell or heaven, then so much the better." That, my friend, is not the gospel but a Satanic knock-off. If you have been preaching this gospel or something like it, take this as a warning: "Knock it off!"

Now that you’ve been appropriately shocked, let’s see what I’m trying to say here. I am going to plainly state that if you don’t believe you will be personally resurrected, then your faith is essentially futile and has no efficacy, whether in this life or the life to come. You, of all men, are to be most pitied. You are on thin ice with God, and hold a religion that is of no value. You may feel a certain superiority in your belief system, believing yourself to be humble and willing to sacrifice everything you know on the outside chance that heaven (or hell) may exist, but you are not fully convinced. You are being mislead and in miserable condition.

There is a resurrection! As a matter of fact, there are two kinds of resurrection. We have the word of the Lord Jesus Christ on it. He said, "Do not marvel at this; for an hour is coming, in which all who are in the tombs will hear His voice and will come forth; those who did the good deeds to a resurrection of life, those who committed the evil deeds to a resurrection of judgment." John 5:28, 29. Hopefully, the reader is pursuing eternal life and is trying to avoid judgment. However, most people’s belief in the judgment and eternal life is full of holes. They have many theological theories about the judgment and eternal life, but they just don’t believe it. Their ability to gather information is pretty solid, but their faith is full of holes.

Many times, you will hear someone say, "I know all about Jesus, but I’m not sure I believe all of it. I have my personal opinions and I’d just rather not say definitively what I believe at this point." You’ve heard it said, and you have said it yourself. These same ambivalent people will, however, speak their opinions on everything disputable including the time of the rapture, the nature of angels, and millions of other subjects. Our Father doesn’t want us to be this way. He wants us to have faith in the undisputable things He has promised us. The most important thing is our resurrection into eternal life.

On this we should be immovable. If we are experiencing doubt on this, then we should spend the time to cultivate our convictions. This will be an area our enemy will always try to weaken us. We should be on continuous guard, praying always for grace from God to strengthen our weak faith. Never be cavalier or flippant about this matter of resurrection. Don’t be misdirected into doctrines that have no scriptural backing, nor have any goal of edification. God does not allow His precious truths to be trifled with, but will certainly turn the ungodly into hell. These warnings must accompany any encouragement to faith, or we make mockery of God’s holy commandments.

Our resurrection is of ultimate concern here. Many will believe in vain. They only go so far in the faith of Jesus Christ, then give up. In order to assuage their damaged conscience, they seek comfort from worldly sources and wind up twice the child of hell. It would have been better to have never believed in the first place.

Let us be believers and not just theologians. If we believe in the resurrection of Jesus Christ, then let us believe in the rest of it. We ourselves will be resurrected and will join our Lord Jesus at His coming. This is the rapture everyone seems so theologically tweaked about. In the unusual event that we are alive at His coming, we will not be resurrected of course, but nonetheless join the others in the air.

The nature of the resurrection is always disputed. As I said before, those who are shaky in their faith love to dispute such things, not really believing in the resurrection anyway. They are of the class Proverbs warns us about when it says, "A fool does not delight in understanding, But only in revealing his own mind." Does this sound harsh to the dull ear? Listen to what the apostle Paul wrote: "But someone will say, ‘How are the dead raised? And with what kind of body do they come?’ You fool! That which you sow does not come to life unless it dies; and that which you sow, you do not sow the body which is to be, but a bare grain, perhaps of wheat or of something else." He then goes on to explain the true nature of the resurrection, the main thrust of the whole concept. He does such an admirable job of it, I won’t try to reword it, but leave it to the reader to examine 1 Corinthians 15 for himself.

It is no wonder that the devil and his agents have polluted the meaning of 1 Corinthians 15, therefore. One of his most powerful agents, the Mormon church, defiles any true understanding of this chapter by introducing the concept of "baptism for the dead." In this passage of scripture we are reading about the necessity of faith in the resurrection. Paul is arguing against the natural tendency of the fleshly mind to twist this promise and shows the reader how stupid it would be to get baptized into Christ’s death if there is no promise of resurrection. Everyone got baptized in those days when they became a believer. It signified that one entered Christ’s death and, correspondingly, was washed clean of their sins. Paul and those of that time believed that there was the realm of the dead and the realm of the living. Nowadays, it’s hard to tell who is dead and who is alive, in accordance with far-eastern religious introductions.

However, if we believe that there is a big difference between being dead and being alive, then we with Paul can thank God that we were baptized into the realm of the dead when we were baptized into Christ. We died with Him on the cross. Our old man was crucified, almost two thousand years ago. If this is not true, then why in the world were we baptized as though we were dead, or as though we should die? The Greek in this passage (1 Corinthians 15:29) is traditionally translated literally, because no known Greek usage of the phrase "baptized on behalf of the dead" would automatically mean that it is a idiomatic phrase. However, Paul commonly refers to our baptism into death in other places and we should understand what this means.

Because so many do not understand that we have been baptized into the death of Christ, they do not believe that we will also participate in His resurrection. We are dead (Colossians 3:3). Period. But maybe we are not so dead. Maybe we do not believe that. Maybe we also have doubts about our own resurrection. The two doubts are related, my friend. As we live our lives of doubt, the power of the resurrection wains. As Paul so brilliantly said, "Therefore, my brethren, you also were made to die to the Law through the body of Christ, so that you might be joined to another, to Him who was raised from the dead, in order that we might bear fruit for God. For while we were in the flesh, the sinful passions, which were aroused by the Law, were at work in the members of our body to bear fruit for death. But now we have been released from the Law, having died to that by which we were bound, so that we serve in newness of the Spirit and not in oldness of the letter" (from Romans 7). You cannot bear fruit unless you are dead to the Law. You cannot be dead to the Law unless its just claims have been met. You must die, according to the Law. If you have not died, then what claims can you make on the resurrection?

There will be a judgment day. Those in their graves will be resurrected. Those that have done evil will be punished. Those that have done good will be rewarded with eternal life. "Do not marvel at this; for an hour is coming, in which all who are in the tombs will hear His voice and will come forth; those who did the good deeds to a resurrection of life, those who committed the evil deeds to a resurrection of judgment." John 5:28, 29. If you are not experiencing the resurrection life of Jesus today, then you feel the judgment coming and you are afraid. You can’t stand the subject. But if you know the power of His resurrection and know His love, then you can have confidence in the day of judgment (1 John 3:21 in context). This all comes by faith. And faith comes by listening to the word of God. We must first listen to His promises, and then we must believe them.

Just as we have borne the image of the earthy, we will also bear the image of the heavenly. Now I say this, brethren, that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God; nor does the perishable inherit the imperishable. Behold, I tell you a mystery; we will not all sleep, but we will all be changed, in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet; for the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised imperishable, and we will be changed. For this perishable must put on the imperishable, and this mortal must put on immortality. But when this perishable will have put on the imperishable, and this mortal will have put on immortality, then will come about the saying that is written, ‘Death is swallowed up in victory. O death, where is you victory? O death, where is your sting?’ The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law; but thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. Therefore, my beloved brethren, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that your toil is not in vain in the Lord. - from 1 Corinthians 15.