Selie Visa
What does the Resurrection of the Dead mean? Let's begin with the question, "Did Jesus leave behind his decomposing dead body inside the tomb?"
Resurrection denotes the concept of God literally raising the body and soul after death to a new and eternal life, not to a previous immortal life.
Resurrection is not resuscitation
The New Testament authors make it clear that the concept of resurrection is not resuscitation. Jesus’ resurrection is not like the resuscitation of Lazarus and Jarius’s daughter. These two are resuscitated and will have to die again. They are not resurrected.
A graphic event of dead men raised to life
The tombs broke open and the bodies of many holy people who had died were raised to life. They came out of the tombs, and after Jesus’ resurrection they went into the holy city and appeared to many people. (Matthew 27:52 & 53)
The miracle of resuscitation must not be confused with the cosmic miracle of resurrection.
A few references in the Old Testament
Multitudes who sleep in the dust of the earth will awake: some to everlasting life, others to shame and everlasting contempt. Those who are wise will shine like the brightness of the heavens, and those who lead many to righteousness, like the stars forever and ever. (Daniel 12:2–3)
But your dead will live, LORD; their bodies will rise- let those who dwell in the dust wake up and shout for joy -- your dew is like the dew of the morning; the earth will give birth to her dead. (Isaiah 26:19)
“The LORD brings death and makes alive; he brings down to the grave and raises. (1 Samuel 2:6)
Some references in the New Testament
For if we have been united with him in a death like his, we will certainly also be united with him in a resurrection like his. (Romans 6:5)
Paul recounts the appearances of the risen Lord to different people and himself in 1 Corinthians 15:3-9.
But Christ has indeed been raised from the dead, the first fruits of those who have fallen asleep. For since death came through a man, the resurrection of the dead comes also through a man. For as in Adam all die, so in Christ all will be made alive. (1 Corinthians 15:20-23)
The resurrection of Christ-- the first fruits of those who are dead
In 1 Corinthians 15 we understand that it is not only our spirits that will resurrected. Some of the Corinthians said broadly, "There is no resurrection of the dead," although apparently, they had no intention of denying that Christ had risen. Accordingly, Paul proceeds to show them that the resurrection of Christ, although great difficulties surround the subject, was bodily. This bodily resurrection of Christ holds in the Christian creed. The doctrine of Christ's death and resurrection is the foundation of Christianity. Remove this, and all our hopes for eternity sink at once. And it is by holding this truth firm that Christians stand on the day of trial and are kept faithful to God.
By the resurrection of Christ Paul meant His rising from the grave with a body glorified or made fit for the new and heavenly life He had entered. Paul did not believe that the body he saw on the road to Damascus was the very body that had hung upon the cross, made of physical matters. He affirms in this chapter that flesh and blood, a natural body, cannot enter upon the heavenly life. It must pass through a process that entirely alters its material.
Paul, therefore, speaks of the body of Christ as the type into the likeness of which the bodies of His people are to be transformed.
The body of flesh and blood, which was taken down from the cross and laid in the tomb, was transformed into a spiritual body miraculously.
1 Corinthians 15:42-55
So will it be with the resurrection of the dead. The body that is sown is perishable, it is raised imperishable; it is sown in dishonor, it is raised in glory; it is sown in weakness, it is raised in power; it is sown a natural body, it is raised a spiritual body. If there is a natural body, there is also a spiritual body. So it is written: "The first man, Adam, became a living being"; the last Adam, a life-giving spirit. The spiritual did not come first, but the natural, and after that the spiritual. The first man was of the dust of the earth, the second man from heaven. As was the earthly man, so are those who are of the earth; and as is the man from heaven, so also are those who are of heaven. And just as we have borne the likeness of the earthly man, so shall we bear the likeness of the man from heaven. I declare to you, brothers, that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God, nor does the perishable inherit the imperishable. Listen, I tell you a mystery: We will not all sleep, but we will all be changed-- in a flash, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, the dead will be raised imperishable, and we will be changed. For the perishable must clothe itself with the imperishable, and the mortal with immortality. When the perishable has been clothed with the imperishable, and the mortal with immortality, then the saying that is written will come true: "Death has been swallowed up in victory." "Where, O death, is your victory? Where, O death, is your sting?"
This scripture passage repeats that on the day of the second coming of Christ the transmutation of the earthly body of Christ into a glorified body will be repeated in the case of His followers in the twinkling of an eye. The tomb was empty, the corpse or dead body of Christ was not in it. Therefore, as we partake in the death of Christ, we will also partake in the same way as His bodily resurrection. If this doesn't happen, our faith in Christ, his death, and resurrection will all be in vain.
Some would ask how bodily resurrection can be possible
A body starts to decay immediately after death. The first law of thermodynamics states that energy can be changed from one form to another, but it cannot be created or destroyed. The total amount of energy and matter in the Universe remains constant, merely changing from one form to another. Water changes into vapor when heated or into ice when cooled. Similarly, our physical bodies may decay or go up in smoke. However, the constituents or elements that make up the body are constant and present in the atmosphere or the earth.
Besides the human body is mostly water, about 70%. So, how difficult will it be for an all-powerful God to unite the spirit with existing matters of the body? Did He not create the universe and everything in it out of nothing?
I want to know Christ -- yes, to know the power of his resurrection and participation in his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, and so, somehow, attaining the resurrection from the dead. (Philippians 3:10-11)
The resurrection of the material body alongwith the soul is the hope of every believer.
