The resurrection of the Lord Jesus was clearly predicted in the Old Testament, one of the plainest references to this momentous event being in Psalm 16, "Thou wilt not leave my soul in hell; neither wilt Thou suffer Thine Holy One to see corruption" (verse 10). Resurrection was before Jacob when he charged his sons to bury him in the land of Canaan (Gen. 49:29), and before Joseph when he gave commandment concerning his bones (Gen. 1. 25). When the Sadducees sought to mock the truth of resurrection, the Lord Jesus told them they did not know the Scriptures, for this vital truth was made known by God when He said to Moses, "I am the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob" (Matt. 22:32; Ex. 3:6). Saintly men like Job (Job 19:26-27) and David (Psalm 17:15) spoke of their faith in being raised from the dead, and Martha expressed the faith and confidence of the saints of old when she said of her brother Lazarus, "I know that he shall rise again in the resurrection at the last day" (John 11:24), but it was from the lips of the Son of God on earth that it was first revealed that there would be two distinct resurrections.
In John 5 the Son of God had been speaking of judgment and of life, saying in verses 22 and 23, "For the Father judgeth no man, but hath committed all judgment unto the Son: that all men should honour the Son, even as they honour the Father," adding in verse 27 that the Father "hath given Him authority to execute judgment also, because He is Son of Man." As regards life, Jesus said, "For as the Father raiseth up the dead, and quickeneth them: even so the Son quickeneth whom He will" (verse 21), then in verse 24 we hear from the lips of the Son that the one who hears His word, and believes on the Father who sent Him has eternal life.
The judgment of which the Son speaks is yet future, and no doubt includes the judgment of the living (Matt. 25:31-46) as well as the judgment of the dead. In order that the dead may be judged there will be the resurrection of judgment of which the Lord speaks in verse 29. This is the resurrection of the wicked dead, of those who have neglected or refused the testimony of God in whatsoever age it has been given. More concerning this we shall hear when looking at the judgment of the great white throne (Rev. 20:11). The Lord plainly states that those Who will have part in the resurrection of judgment are "they that have done evil" (John 5:29).
Verse 29 also brings to light "the resurrection of life," and those who have their part in it are "they that have done good." According to God's standard "there is none that doeth good, no, not one" (Rom. 3:12), and this is true of men naturally, but as having been quickened by the Son of God, and having eternal life by faith in Him, we are God's "workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them" (Eph. 2:10). The resurrection of life will bring believers into the fulness of the blessing of eternal life, when they shall have eternal life in their spiritual bodies as well as in their souls, this latter being our portion even now.
All that are in their graves shall come forth at the call of the voice of the Son of God, but there will be a lengthy period between the resurrection of life and the resurrection of judgment. The time between them is not noticed here, but they are clearly distinguished, as are also the two classes, those who have done good and those who have done evil.
When in the house of one of the chief Pharisees, the Lord Jesus bade him call "the poor, the maimed, the lame, the blind," when he made a feast, for this would bring blessing to him since they could not recompense him, and he would also be "recompensed at the resurrection of the just" (Luke 14:12-14). Here is the explicit statement by the Lord of the resurrection in which the just, those who were righteous in the sight of God, would have their part. If we only had this Scripture we might think that there was not to be a resurrection of the unjust. In Acts 24:14 and 15, the Apostle Paul speaks of his believing that which was written in the law and the prophets, and of the hope that he shared with the orthodox of Israel, "that there shall be a resurrection of the dead, both of the just and unjust." So that there is not only to be the resurrection of the just, of which the Lord Jesus spoke in Luke 14, but also a distinct resurrection of the unjust, those who have not been justified by faith in God.
We have already seen that the Old Testament saints believed in the resurrection of the dead, but the Lord Jesus, in answering the Sadducees in Luke 20:35 spoke of "the resurrection from (or from among) the dead." This was something of an entirely different character, a fresh revelation from that which had been given in the Old Testament. Jesus had spoken of "this world," and "that world," this present world and the world to come, and those who were to be blessed in the coming world would be raised from among the dead, while the rest of the dead, those who were not to be blessed in the world to come, would remain in their graves until the time of their being raised to stand before God in judgment.
When the Lord Jesus rose from the dead He left the dead behind in their graves, showing what the resurrection from among the dead is, and in coming out of death He is proclaimed to be "the Firstborn from (among) the dead; that in all things He might have the pre-eminence" (Col. 1:18). Others had been raised from the dead by Elijah and Elisha, and by the Lord Himself on earth, but no doubt they returned to the grave in due course, awaiting with others the sound of the voice of the Son of God to bring them for ever out of the realm of death.
All the saints of God who lie in death, that is those whose bodies are in the grave, for they themselves are with Christ in the heavenly paradise, await the resurrection from among the dead of which their Lord is the Firstborn. The hope of the Christian is not to enter into death and to have part in the resurrection from among the dead, but rather to wait for God's Son from heaven (1 Thess. 1:10). It is also written in 2 Corinthians 5:4, "not that we would be unclothed, but clothed upon, that mortality might be swallowed up of life."
While it is the normal Christian hope to wait for the Son of God to "change our vile body, that it might be fashioned like unto His glorious body" (Phil. 3:21), the Apostle Paul for himself desired to pass through death so that he might attain to "the resurrection from among the dead" (verse 11). So great was the Apostle's love and admiration of His Master that he desired to have part in all that was possible that belonged to Christ. If Christ suffered, Paul would know "the fellowship of His sufferings"; if Christ died, he desired to be "made conformable unto His death." He knew that the Lord had sufferings in which none could share, but there were also martyr sufferings in which he could share.
There are different parts of the first resurrection, Christ being the firstfruits (1 Cor. 15:20). In the same chapter it is written, "For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive. But every man in his own order: Christ the firstfruits; after-wards they that are Christ's at His coming" (1 Cor. 15:22-23). Christ must have the pre-eminence in every sphere in which He is found, whether as coming into His creation, or as coming out of death into the resurrection world. He is the First-born from among the dead, and the firstfruits of them that slept.
The Old Testament saints will be raised with the bodies of the saints of this present Christian period at the rapture, but another company of saints will have part in the first resurrection, those spoken of in Revelation 20, who have been "beheaded for the witness of Jesus" during the great tribulation, and they with us shall live and reign with Christ a thousand years (Rev. 20:4). In regard to their living with Christ it is written, "This is the first resurrection. Blessed and holy is he that hath part in the first resurrection: on such the second death hath no power, but they shall be priests of God and of Christ, and shall reign with Him a thousand years" (Rev. 20:5-6).
Those who do not have part in the first resurrection, either at the rapture spoken of in 1 Thessalonians 4, or as raised after the tribulation as shown in Revelation 20, are "the rest of the dead," and they "lived not again until the thousand years were finished" (verse 5). Here is the very plain statement that a thousand years will intervene between the last part of the first resurrection and the raising of the rest of the dead for judgment.
The solemn fate of those who have part in the last resurrection is made known in Revelation 20:12-15. Heaven and earth will have fled from the face of Him that sits upon the great white throne, and "the dead, small and great, stand before God." Not a single person will lie in death in this solemn hour: the redeemed will be in heaven with Christ, the godly of earth will be preserved of God for the new earth, and the sea will have given up the dead which were in it, and all the unregenerate will stand before the great white throne to be judged "every man according to their works."
We are passing on swiftly to the moment when Christ shall come to take His own to be for ever with Him in heaven, to the resurrection of life, the resurrection of the just, the resurrection from among the dead, the first resurrection. All who will have part in the resurrection of life will owe it to the sovereign grace of God, and to the work of Christ upon the cross, a work that has made us meet to dwell with Him in heaven, for His blood has cleansed us from all sin, and God has created us in Christ Jesus to make us like His Son, and He will give us bodies like the body of Christ, to enable us to be at home in the Father's house.