The truth of Christianity consists in the revelation of the Father in the Person of the Son, and that there is a divine Person on earth, the Holy Spirit, and a Man in heaven, the Lord Jesus Christ. All blessing for the Christian rests on the great work of redemption accomplished by the Lord Jesus on the cross, but we never could have received the divine blessing procured for us through the death of Jesus apart from His resurrection from among the dead. One of the great truths of Christianity is that there will be the raising from the dead of all who have died. The fundamentalists among the Jews believed in the resurrection of the dead, but it was not until the Son of God came into the world that the great truths connected with resurrection were revealed.
The Valley of Dry Bones
What Ezekiel saw in the valley of dry bones was an amazing vision, and he was told that it concerned “the whole house of Israel” (Ezek. 37:11). The dry bones represented the nation of Israel buried among the nations that had led them captive, but the Lord assured the prophet that the time would come when the nation would be restored to the land of Israel again. It is not the presentation of the raising of individuals from the dead, a truth clearly taught elsewhere, but rather of the national resurrection of God’s people Israel who, on account of their sins, had been scattered and buried among the nations of the earth.
In Isaiah 18 another aspect of the restoration of Israel to the land of promise is given, but there it is not the whole house of Israel, but only a small part of it. Indeed, this is probably what has taken place in our day, when the Israelis have been set up as a nation through the help given by Britain and America. Regarding the restoration of the nation, it is prophesied concerning the individuals “And many of them that sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake, some to everlasting life, and some to shame and everlasting contempt” (Dan. 12:2). Not all who come back from the captivity among the nations will have divine blessing, for some it will be the judgment of God, as seen in Zechariah 13:8, where only one third are left.
Prophecies of Christ’s Resurrection
There are many types, figures and prophecies in the Old Testament that bring before us the death and resurrection of Christ. Adam was put into a deep sleep before he received his helpmeet; Isaac was laid upon the altar before he was given back as in resurrection; Joseph went into the dungeon, and into the pit, before he came forth to be the Saviour of the world; Samson was held in the city of Gaza before rising at midnight to ascend to the top of the hill before Hebron with the doors of the gate of the city upon his shoulders; David went down into the valley of Elah and conquered the giant, bringing back his head and his sword in his hand; Benaiah went down into the pit on a snowy day and slew the lion, and came up victorious; Elijah crossed the Jordan and went up to heaven; Elisha crossed with him, then returned to accomplish his mighty works; and Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of the whale before entering upon his great mission. These, and many more pictures from the Old Testament Scriptures bring this great truth before us.
On the day of Pentecost, Peter recalled to those who heard him the prophecy regarding Christ’s resurrection in Psalm 16, “Thou wilt not leave my soul in hell, neither wilt Thou suffer Thine Holy One to see corruption. Thou hast made known to me the ways of life” (Acts 2:27-28). Psalm 110, “Sit Thou at my right hand, until I make thine enemies Thy footstool,” Isaiah 52 and 53, with many other Scriptures direct our thoughts to the resurrection of the Son of God. Many of the Old Testament prophecies could not be fulfilled if Christ were not raised. All the glorious Messianic prophecies are based on Christ risen from the dead.
While on earth, the Lord plainly foretold His resurrection, recalling Jonah’s three days in the belly of the whale, and telling His hearers that He would also be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth. He also recalled what was spoken of Himself in Psalm 110; said to the Jews when they asked Him for a sign, “Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up” (John 2:19); and frequently told His disciples that He would be crucified, and rise again the third day (Matt. 16:21; 17:23; 20:19). Even the enemies of the Lord recalled what He had said about His rising again (Matt. 27:63).
Witness to the Resurrection
How unassailable are the proofs of the resurrection which the Apostle Paul presents at the beginning of 1 Corinthians 15! Apart from the Apostles, there were the five hundred brethren who had seen the Lord together, most of them alive when the Apostle wrote. As to the appearance of Jesus in resurrection to the apostles, Luke wrote, “To whom also He showed Himself alive after His passion by many infallible proofs, being seen of them forty days” (Acts 1:3). Among the apostles who saw the Lord alive were Matthew and John, who have written of the resurrection in the Gospels that bear their names. Simon Peter too, in his First Epistle, writes of “the resurrection of Jesus Christ: who is gone into heaven, and is on the right hand of God…” (1 Peter 3:21-22).
Paul had not known the Lord on earth, yet he saw Him risen from the dead, and seated in heaven, even as he writes, “And last of all He was seen of me also, as of one born out of due time” (1 Cor. 15:8). The risen Christ only appeared to chosen witnesses, but He will yet appear to all the nation, but Paul anticipated that day, for he also was chosen to be a witness to the risen Christ.
Divine Power Displayed in Resurrection
Divine authority is evinced in the Son of Man having judgment committed to Him, but divine power is displayed in resurrection, whether as seen in Christ raising the dead on earth, in His own resurrection, or in the raising of all the dead in the first and final acts of raising the dead. Paul tells us that Jesus is “declared the Son of God with power…by the resurrection of the dead” (Rom. 1:4); and that the “exceeding greatness” of God’s power was made known “when He raised” Christ from the dead (Eph. 1:19-20). This was the power seen in raising the daughter of Jairus, the widow of Nain’s son, and Lazarus from death and corruption.
Results of Christ’s Resurrection
Having entered into death, the Son of God came out as the victor, leading “captivity captive,” and ascending “up far above all heavens, that He might fill all things” (Eph. 4:8–10); Col. 2:15). Through death, the risen Christ annulled “him that had the power of death” (Heb. 2:14), and “abolished death, and has brought life and immortality to light through the Gospel” (2 Tim. 1:10). The risen Son of Man has said, “I am He that lives, and was dead; and, behold, I am alive for evermore, Amen; and have the keys of hell and of death” (Rev. 1:18).
All the blessing brought to the saints of God depends upon the death and resurrection of Christ, whether it be justification or salvation (Rom. 4:25; 10:9), or all that we enjoy “in Christ” in the heavenly places, for although all these blessings were in the counsel of God for us, they have been secured to us through Christ entering into death and rising again. The Apostle Peter also brings this before us where he writes, “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, which according to His abundant mercy has begotten us again to a lively hope by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead“ (1 Peter 1:3).
The Resurrection of Life
The patriarch Job gives us to see the hope of saints of old in resurrection, where he says, “And though after my skin worms destroy this body, yet in my flesh shall I see God” (Job 19:26). David had the same hope for himself, where he writes, “As for me, I will behold Thy face in righteousness: I shall be satisfied, when I awake, with Thy likeness” (Psalm 17:15). These saints seem to have had light beyond their dispensation, nevertheless it was light from God on which their souls rested in faith.
When the Lord Jesus came, the bright light of the truth of resurrection shone clearly in His words, “Marvel not at this: for 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 have done evil unto the resurrection of judgment” (John 5:28-29). This plainly shows that the resurrection is divided in two parts, that of life and judgment. In Luke 14:14 the Lord had spoken of “the resurrection of the just,” which clearly implied that this was distinct from the resurrection of the unjust; and in Luke 20:35, the Lord speaks of this resurrection as “from among the dead,” clearly teaching that when the just are raised the unjust are left behind for a season. Paul also distinguishes the resurrection of the just from that of the unjust (Acts 24:15).
Concerning the resurrection of life, the Apostle Paul in 1 Corinthians 15 shows the great change that shall take place for the saints whose bodies are raised, “It is sown in corruption; it is raised in incorruptibility: it is sown in dishonour; 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” (verses 43-44). The bodies of the sleeping saints, and the bodies of the living saints, will both be brought into the likeness of Christ’s “glorious body” (Phil. 3:21).
In Revelation 20:5-6 the Apostle John writes of the first resurrection, and those who have part in it are the saints who, during the tribulation after the church has been taken to heaven, “were beheaded for the witness of Jesus, and for the word of God.” These faithful saints evidently are raised to join the redeemed in heaven, while their brethren who have escaped death pass into the earthly blessing of the millennium. So that the divine order is, “Christ the firstfruits; afterwards they that are Christ’s at His coming” (1 Cor. 15:23); then those saints of Revelation 20.
The Resurrection of Judgment
This is clearly what is brought before us in the Scripture just referred to, “But the rest of the dead lived not again until the thousand years were finished” (Rev. 20:5); and we see them in verses 12 and 13 of this same chapter being “judged every man according to their works.” This is the fulfilment of what the Lord spoke of in John 5:29, “the resurrection of judgment.” So that the day will surely come when not one dead body will remain in this world, every one will be raised, either to have part in the resurrection of the just and of life, or in the resurrection of the unjust or of judgment.
Knowing the Scriptures and the Power of God
The infidel Sadducees thought they had given the Lord a most difficult question to answer when they told them their story of the woman who had had seven husbands (Matt. 22:24–28). How very enlightening was the answer of the Lord! Abraham, Isaac and Jacob though dead are reckoned as out of death by the God of the ages, with whom a day is a thousand years, and a thousand years as a day. They are even now in God’s presence, as Luke 16:22–31 shows, and God views them as already raised out of death and before Him. How good then for us to know the Scriptures, and to know the divine power that raises the dead.
R. 8.3.68