Bodily Resurrection

"But if it is preached that Christ has been raised from the dead, how can some of you say that there is no resurrection of the dead? If there is no resurrection of the dead, then not even Christ has been raised. And if Christ has not been raised, (then) our preaching is useless and so is your faith. More than that, we are then found to be false witnesses about God, for we have testified about God that he raised Christ from the dead. But he did not raise him if in fact the dead are not raised. For if the dead are not raised, then Christ has not been raised either. And if Christ has not been raised, (then) your faith is futile; you are still in your sins. Then those also who have fallen asleep in Christ are lost. If only for this life we have hope in Christ, (then) we are to be pitied more than all men. But Christ has indeed been raised from the dead, the firstfruits 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. But each in his own turn: Christ, the firstfruits; then, when he comes, those who belong to him. Then the end will come, when he hands over the kingdom to God the Father after he has destroyed all dominion, authority and power. For he must reign until he has put all his enemies under his feet. The last enemy to be destroyed is death." (I Corinthians 15: 12-26 NIV)

The apostle Paul clearly believed and taught the bodily resurrection of the dead. It is a truth taught in many places in the bible, in both Testaments. There either is such a thing as bodily or physical resurrection or there is not. Christians and bible believers affirm faith in the fact of resurrection. It is a core and fundamental belief of their religion. Without a physical resurrection, the bible and Christianity are false. Without a physical resurrection, the gospel is no gospel and the faith and religion of Christians is "vain" and worthless.

The resurrection of Christ from the dead proved the doctrine of a bodily resurrection to be true. It disproved the belief that the body has no part in the inheriting of eternal life and immortality.

There is a difference between the resurrections of Lazarus, Jairus' daughter, and others whom Christ and the prophets and apostles resurrected from the dead, and the resurrection of Christ and of the saints at the return of Christ.

"Women received back their dead, raised to life again. Others were tortured and refused to be released, so that they might gain a better resurrection." (Hebrews 11: 35 NIV)

But those who were resurrected, in the Old Testament, by the prophets, died again. The life they received after their resurrection was not immortal. On the other hand, the life that the resurrected Christ, and the saints at his return, received (or will receive), is immortal, so that they are incapable of dying again. Lazarus died again, as did the daughter of Jairus, and as did Tabitha, whom the apostle Peter raised from the dead. (See Acts 9: 36-40)

"But some man will say, How are the dead raised up? and with what (kind of) body do they come? Thou fool, that which thou sowest is not quickened, except it die: And that which thou sowest, thou sowest not that body that shall be, but bare grain, it may chance of wheat, or of some other grain: But God giveth it a body as it hath pleased him, and to every seed his own body. All flesh is not the same flesh: but there is one kind of flesh of men, another flesh of beasts, another of fishes, and another of birds. There are also celestial bodies, and bodies terrestrial: but the glory of the celestial is one, and the glory of the terrestrial is another. There is one glory of the sun, and another glory of the moon, and another glory of the stars: for one star differeth from another star in glory. So also is the resurrection of the dead. It is sown in corruption; it is raised in incorruption: 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. There is a natural body, and there is a spiritual body. And so it is written, The first man Adam was made a living soul; the last Adam was made a quickening spirit. Howbeit that was not first which is spiritual, but that which is natural; and afterward that which is spiritual. The first man is of the earth, earthy; the second man is the Lord from heaven. As is the earthy, such are they also that are earthy: and as is the heavenly, such are they also that are heavenly. And as we have borne the image of the earthy, we shall also bear the image of the heavenly. Now this I say, brethren, that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God; neither doth corruption inherit incorruption. Behold, I shew you a mystery; We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed, In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump: for the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed. For this corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality. So when this corruptible shall have put on incorruption, and this mortal shall have put on immortality, then shall be brought to pass the saying that is written, Death is swallowed up in victory. O death (Hades), where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory? The sting of death (Hades) is sin; and the strength of sin is the law. But thanks be to God, which giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ." (I Corinthians 15: 35-57 KJV)

Having dogmatically affirmed the fact of a physical or bodily resurrection, and having emphatically affirmed that the body shares in the promised eternal life and immortality, Paul next addresses two other questions pertaining to the doctrine. They are

1. "How are the dead resurrected?"
2. "What kind of body is the resurrected body?"

From both the sections from I Cor. 15 it is seen that the resurrection of the dead is typified by several things in nature. First, a reaping or harvesting of fruit is a type of resurrection. The fruit orginated from a seed. The mysterious process of a seed becoming a fruit or mature plant is an illustration of the resurrection of the bodies of the dead. Second, the resurrected body of Christ (and the believer) is quite different from the body he possessed prior to his glorious transformation, and yet, in some sense, was still the same body. In what way is the resurrected body of Jesus (and the believer) different from the body he had prior to its death and resurrection, versus in what way it was the same.

The answer is in asking, concerning a corn seed, for instance, and concerning the full stock of corn that issued from it, "in what way is the stock of corn (final product after complete transformation) the same as the seed versus how it is different?"

Certainly the seed was transformed (metamorphisized) in the process. Jesus called "germination" a dying and resurrection. Springtime is a time of coming to life, when seeds that have been buried in the ground and have "died," germinate and are resurrected and transformed.

"And Jesus answered them, saying, The hour is come, that the Son of man should be glorified. Verily, verily, I say unto you, Except a corn of wheat (seed) fall into the ground and die, it abideth alone: but if it die (or 'germinate'), it bringeth forth (begets or produces or transforms into or is resurrected) much fruit." (John 12: 23, 24 KJV)

The adjectives used to describe the non-resurrected body are these:

"weak" (impotent or sickly), "this corruptible," "natural (animal or fleshly) body," "earthly," "dishonorable body," "mortal," "flesh and blood."

The adjectives used to describe the resurrected body are these:

"strong" (potent or perfectly healthy), "incorruptible," "spiritual," "heavenly" and "celestial," and "honorable" and exceedingly "glorious," and "immortal," and not composed of "flesh and blood" as it is now known and constituted.

"The same day came to him the Sadducees, which say that there is no resurrection, and asked him, Saying, Master, Moses said, If a man die, having no children, his brother shall marry his wife, and raise up seed unto his brother. Now there were with us seven brethren: and the first, when he had married a wife, deceased, and, having no issue, left his wife unto his brother: Likewise the second also, and the third, unto the seventh. And last of all the woman died also. Therefore in the resurrection whose wife shall she be of the seven? for they all had her. Jesus answered and said unto them, Ye do err, not knowing the scriptures, nor the power of God. For in the resurrection they neither marry, nor are given in marriage, but are as the angels of God in heaven. But as touching the resurrection of the dead, have ye not read that which was spoken unto you by God, saying, I am the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob? God is not the God of the dead, but of the living. And when the multitude heard this, they were astonished at his doctrine. But when the Pharisees had heard that he had put the Sadducees to silence, they were gathered together." (Matthew 22: 23-34 KJV)

The denial of the resurrection of the dead was part of the "leaven" or "corruption" that Jesus identified with the sect of the Sadducees. (See Matthew 16: 12) He also "laid the axe at the root of the trees" in his destruction of their materialistic view of the world and of their religion, which disallowed the possibility or worth of a physical or bodily resurrection, by saying - "you err not knowing the scriptures or the power of God." These two things, the testimony and the omnipotence of God, uprooted their falsehoods regarding the resurrection. All their theological and philosophical objections against the doctrine of a physical resurrection were overthrown by these two things of which they were grossly ignorant. What has God said about the resurrection? Does the bible teach it? Did not Jesus show that it was taught in the Old Testament? Did he not teach it himself? Was he himself not raised?

Does not the power of God solve all difficulties that the depraved and unbelieving mind brings against the doctrine of the resurrection? Did not Paul ask rhetorically and interogatively, to the unpersuaded king, "why should it be thought a thing incredible for God (omnipotence) to raise the dead?" (Acts 26: 8)

"But what things were gain to me, those I counted loss for Christ. Yea doubtless, and I count all things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord: for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and do count them but dung, that I may win Christ, And be found in him, not having mine own righteousness, which is of the law, but that which is through the faith of Christ, the righteousness which is of God by faith: That I may know him, and the power of his resurrection, and the fellowship of his sufferings, being made conformable unto his death; If by any means I might attain unto the resurrection of the dead..." For our conversation is in heaven; from whence also we look for the Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ: Who shall change our vile body, that it may be fashioned like unto his glorious body, according to the working whereby he is able even to subdue all things unto himself. (Philippians 3: 7-11, 20, 21 KJV)

"Our vile body" is descriptive of the body that is dwelled in during this life, and before death and the resurrection. It dies because it too is corrupted, like the soul, mind, and heart, because of sin. The New Testament thoroughly destroys Sadduceeism and Gnosticism. Salvation is not freedom from the body, but freedom to the whole man, body, soul, and spirit.

"Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, which according to his abundant mercy hath begotten us again unto a lively hope by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead." (I Peter 1: 3 KJV)

If Christ did not come forth from the grave, being the same, yet different body, that was put to death, then the hope and faith of the Christian is "dead" and "vain." But, the hope of the Christian is not "dead," but "living," and that "by" or "on account of" the "resurrection of Christ."

"And this is the will of him that sent me, that every one which seeth the Son, and believeth on him, may have everlasting life: and I will raise him up at the last day." (John 6: 40 KJV)

"Jesus said unto her, I am the resurrection, and the life: he that believeth in me, though he were dead, yet shall he live." (John 11: 25 KJV)

Friend, do you believe in the resurrection of Jesus and of the dead? Would you desire to be included in the "resurrection of the just"? Such is promised to all those who believe in Christ and who follow him.