Resurrection Day. Jesus Christ has risen! All over the world church bells are tolling the wonderful news! ‘Jesus is Alive! The Tomb is Empty! Come and See!’
Job 21:32 gives us a different view of the relationship of the body and the tomb: once there, it stays there! Once dead, always dead. That’s true even for some people of faith in God.
I grew up in a wonderful, closely-knit Jewish community. People who study community and family need look no farther than Sinai Temple in Michigan City, Indiana in the 1950’s when I grew up. It was its own village. Funerals were attended by one and all. But at Sinai Temple there was never mention of resurrection. The ‘comforting’ words spoken were that the person lives on in the memory of his loved ones. Dust to dust.
Not all Jews believe that way. Maimonides, a famous Jewish scholar, considered bodily resurrection from the dead to be one of the 13 principles of Judaism. That conflict of belief about life after death was reflected in Acts 23:8. When Paul was being hassled to the point that he was in danger of serious injury he started a squabble among his accusers about resurrection. Pharisees did believe there was a resurrection, and the Sadducees believed there was not. By bringing up life after death a heated argument ensued between the two sides. The chief captain was worried that Paul would be torn apart so he had him removed from the room.
We needn’t take a vote to see if bodily resurrection is a fact. We just look to the Word of God and have the truth. Here are some scriptures to prove that, not only was Jesus Christ raised from the dead, so will we be at His final coming. Jesus said that we will be rewarded for good deeds at the resurrection of the just. (Luke 13:14). The Greek word for resurrection is anastasis, which literally means stand up again.
Jesus gives us more detail about the resurrection by telling us when the resurrection will take place. It will take place when the dead are already in the grave. (John 5:28 and 29) Imagine. Graveyards all over the world, silent, perhaps visited by a few faithful, and then WHOOSH! At the appointed time, dead people will hear the voice of Jesus and will come flying out of their tombs! Some will have resurrection of life (those who have done good) and some the resurrection of death (those who have done bad.)
Jesus gets a little more personal in discussing the resurrection. “I am the resurrection and the life. He that believes me, though he were dead, yet he shall live.” (John 11:25) That takes the guesswork out of what it means to do good or to do bad. It is obvious here that to do good is to believe in Jesus. To do bad is to doubt Him.
All the apostles witnessed Jesus’ resurrection; “Beginning from the baptism of John, unto that same day that he was taken up from us, must one be ordained to be a witness with us of his resurrection.” (Acts 2:31, 32) “He seeing this before spake of the resurrection of Christ, that his soul was not left in hell, neither his flesh did see corruption.” (Acts 2:31) “This Jesus hath God raised up, whereof we all are witnesses.” (Acts 2:32)
But what of our resurrection? “As we died with him on the cross (in terms of our sin nature dying in its power over us) we live with Him in His resurrection.” (Rom 6:5) For if we have been planted together in the likeness of his death, we shall be also in the likeness of his resurrection. It seemed preposterous to Paul that anyone would doubt our bodily resurrection.
(I Corinthians 15:12)
Jesus was the first. We are in Him, so it would follow, naturally, that we too are resurrected. “Now if Christ be preached that he rose from the dead, how say some among you that there is no resurrection of the dead?”
(1 Cor 15:12)We don’t doubt that we all died into sin through Adam, but so why do we doubt that we have been raised again through Christ. “For since by man came death, by man came also the resurrection of the dead. (1 Cor 15:21)
That seems to be our human nature. We are hard on ourselves. We are quick to think of our faults but slow to remember our virtues. It is torture for some of us to speak well of ourselves. As an example, there may be times in conferences where we are asked to list our flaws. We quickly fill the whole paper. But then, when asked to list of merits, we are stumped. We may think, scribble something and then cross it out. Sometimes we have to ask someone else, “Do you see any merits in me at all?” Similarly we can be hard on each other. We may be quick to pick out irritating habits in each other but slow to recognize virtues in each other.
Did that negativity slide into the arena of resurrection thinking? We know we’re sinners. But do we know we’ve risen? We know we’re going to die someday. But do we know we’re going to live again some day? We can’t gloss over the resurrection and understand it. Paul told the Philippians that we have to study the resurrection. We have to meditate on it. We have to get comfortable, not only with considering Jesus’ death and resurrection but also ours. “That I may know him, and the power of his resurrection, and the fellowship of his sufferings, being made conformable unto his death;” (Phil 3:10) “If by any means I might attain unto the resurrection of the dead” (Phil 3:11) “Not as though I had already attained, either were already perfect: but I follow after, if that I may apprehend that for which also I am apprehended of Christ Jesus. “ (Phil 3:12)
According to Hebrews 6:1 and 2 resurrection isn’t an ‘honors’ subject for the mentally elite. It’s not graduate school. It is entry level thinking. “Therefore leaving the principles of the doctrine of Christ, let us go on unto perfection; not laying again the foundation of repentance from dead works, and of faith toward God. Of the doctrine of baptisms, and of laying on of hands, and of resurrection of the dead, and of eternal judgment.”
Resurrection is a foundations course. Often colleges have placement tests in order to know where to place students so that they will succeed. For those students who have the most difficulty learning the coursework, there are foundations classes. We are expected to get ‘resurrection’ under our belts before we go onto higher spiritual learning.
Are we talking about after Jesus returns, after the New Heaven and New Earth? Not according to the writer of Hebrews. Heb 11:35 is part of the great faith-challenge section of the Bible where the writer puts ‘in our face’ models of greatness of the faith. Simply put, women received their dead raised to life again! Women’s loved ones were dead. They got up and lived!
This Resurrection Season let’s challenge ourselves to think, not only about the Resurrection of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, but on the Resurrection of our own lives. What does that mean to live in Resurrection? How would our perception of ourselves change if we no longer thought of ourselves as failures ready to happen but miracles about to break forth? What if we stopped thinking that everything we touch turns to stone, but that everything we touch turns to glory? What if we looked in the mirror and saw, not blemishes, double chins, or ‘bad hair’ but saw Jesus in our eyes? What would happen to our relationships if we knew we extended life? forgiveness of sin? What if we thought His life was in us? That is not blind speculation. That is truth. He is risen, and so are we.
Resurrection Day! Let's make it a reality!
