Resurrection Revealed Part 15- The Resurrection in the Epistles—Part 2 by Beryl Ching FDTL Iss 47

continued from Part 14
General Resurrection (cont.)

A very precious passage which has been a comfort and encouragement to mourning Christians over the centuries, as it was meant to be, is 1 Thess.4:13-18.   In these verses Paul teaches the young Christians in Thessalonica that those who have died since they believed are not lost, and that there will be no difference between them and those who are still alive when Christ returns.   The fact that Paul speaks of the last trump is proof that he is not speaking of a saint’s death, but of that day at the end of time when all will be raised.  “He says that those who have died will not be left behind; those living will not precede the dead.”   In his comment on this passage Ladd adds, “The goal of the Christian existence is not ‘to die and go to heaven’, as it is often expressed, but rather, it is the resurrection of the body at the Second Advent of Christ.”  ¹

In the next chapter we see a reference to death as sleep, as we saw earlier. 1 Thess. 5:11, “(He) died for us, that, whether we wake or sleep, we should live together with him.” In other words, if we are alive when He returns, He will change us and take us with Him;  if we are dead in the grave, He will resurrect us with new resurrection bodies – and take us to be with Him.  In v. 23 it is not only our spirit and soul which are to be preserved blameless unto the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, but our bodies. Only resurrection could produce a “blameless” body.

Paul had to combat some wrong teaching on the resurrection. One of these teachings was that the resurrection had already taken place (2 Timothy 2:18). “They were evidently explaining the resurrection in a spiritual sense, equating it with regeneration, or the new birth.”²  This was a very disturbing teaching, unsettling some people’s faith, and Paul spoke very strongly against those who dared to do so.

The resurrection of the dead was a foundational faith (Heb.6:2). As we have seen, the apostles included teaching on the resurrection in their basic announcement of the gospel.   In the eleventh chapter of the same epistle, the author points out that the reason men and women of faith endured much persecution and even death, was their faith in the resurrection (Heb.11:35). In 1 Pet.1:11 we are told that the Spirit of Christ not only forecast the sufferings of Christ but the glories that should follow.   F. B. Meyer includes amongst these glories the Resurrection, as well as the Ascension, as also the Second Advent and the Millenial Reign.³   A. M. Stibbs, on the other hand, connecting the word “grace” in v. 10 with “glories” in v. 12, sees the sufferings of Christ as of necessity having to occur before the following glories which would come to not only Christ but to those who experience His saving grace.⁴

John has something to say about our future state in 1 John 3:2, where he states that when Christ appears, we shall be like Him.  How shall we be like Him?  As He had a new body when He arose from the tomb, so we can expect to have new bodies, like His.  “The resurrection of our bodies is a kind of coming out of the womb of the earth, and being born into another life”, says J.F.B. Commentary.

Jude, in verse 14, informs us of something not revealed in Genesis, that Enoch was a prophet, and had prophesied that the Lord would come with ten thousands of his saints. This infers resurrection.    “Enoch, before Job,had implied that ‘the saints shall live again’ (Jude 14…)⁵

Resurrection of Christ

The epistles constantly refer to the resurrection of Christ, stressing that it is an essential part of the Gospel message.   They also often connect our resurrection to His.

We turn to the first page of the epistles, and find the resurrection of the Lord mentioned, in Rom.1:4.   He was declared to be the Son of God by His resurrection from the dead.

In  Romans 4, the need is declared for us to believe on “him who raised up Jesus our Lord from the dead”, (v. 24), and the next verse tells us that that resurrection was for our justification – “was raised again for our justification” (v. 25).

In Romans 6:9 Paul says that Christ has been raised from the dead, and will not die again. His resurrection has proved that death has no authority over Him now. “Though Christ’s death was in the most absolute sense a voluntary act…that voluntary surrender gave death such rightful ‘dominion over Him’ as dissolved its dominion over us.  But this once past, ‘death hath,’ even in that sense, ‘dominion over Him no more.’ ”   ⁶

Paul gives an allegory in Rom.7 which relies on the resurrection of Christ for its meaning.  We are dead to the law he says, but alive to Jesus Christ.   The law is our old husband, but being dead to the law, we are freed from that old marriage to make a new marriage with “him who is raised from the dead” (v. 4).

In Rom.8 we are told that we need to have the Spirit of him which raised Jesus up from the dead dwelling in us, and then we can be assured that the same Spirit will also raise up our mortal bodies (v. 11). The same chapter assures us that we need have no fears of  condemnation by others, because Christ, who is risen from the dead, is seated at the right hand of God and intercedes for us (v.34).

In Rom 10:9 also, the necessity of believing on the resurrection of Christ for salvation is emphasised.  Two things are said to be necessary if we are to be saved – confession of the Lord Jesus with the mouth , and believing in the heart that He has been raised from the dead.

A slightly different aspect of Christ’s death and resurrection is expounded in Ro.14:9.  His death makes Him to be Lord of those who are dead, and His resurrection makes Him Lord of the living.

Paul gives us a report of several resurrection appearances of Christ, in his first epistle to the Corinthian church.   (1 Cor.15:5-8).   He says Christ was seen by Cephas (Simon Peter), and by the twelve disciples.  (Acts 1:3 says that He showed Himself to them “by many infallible proofs” for forty days.)   He then gives two occasions not mentioned in the gospels.    He tells of  500 believers who saw Christ at one time, and adds that most of them were still alive, and so obviously could testify to this fact.  However, the I.V.F. Commentary says about Matt. 28:16-18, “This appearance [to the Eleven and others on a Galilean mountain] is thought to be the same as that referred to by Paul in l Corinthians xv. 6 where he says, ‘he was seen of about five hundred brethren at once.’  If this is so, this is an occasion already mentioned in the gospels.

He then refers to a personal appearance to James. This would refer to the Lord’s brother, who by the time of the writing of this epistle was the leader of the church in Jerusalem. His last reference is to the appearance to all the apostles, which we may assume was the second appearance in the upper room when Thomas was present. Or it could refer to the appearance to all at the time of His ascension.  (Luke 24:50; Ac. 1:4).

Paul then adds a further appearance, “and last of all he was seen of me also…”  By this he was probably referring to the Lord’s coming to him on the Damascus Road.  It is noted that Paul saw a great light, which blinded him.  He also heard a voice, which made him say, “Who art thou, Lord?” The Lord told him, “I am Jesus…”  but there is no mention of Paul seeing a vision at this time  (Acts 9:1-6). Even in Acts  22:5-11 and Acts 26:12-18 he refers only to the light and the voice in narrating this story.  However, he may mean that Christ was shrouded by that light, so that he could not see the actual figure, but knew he was there, of course, because He spoke to Paul.  We note that Ananias, when he came to pray for Paul to receive his sight again, said, “the Lord, even Jesus, that appeared unto in the way as thou camest” (Acts 9:17), and also said, “God had chosen thee, that thou shouldst … see that Just One, and shouldst hear the voice of his mouth.  For thou shalt be his witness … of what thou hast seen and heard”  (Acts 22:14).    The use of the words “appeared”, “see” and “seen” seem to indicate that Paul did see more than we are told about earlier in chapter 9, either during the encounter on the road to Damascus, or in the vision which he saw of Ananias coming to him, or perhaps even during the three days when he was blind and fasting.   Presumably he was both fasting and praying during this time.  Then again, Paul did see Christ in a vision in the temple at Jerusalem, not a very long time after his conversion (Ac.22:17-21).  This vision is not mentioned in the narrative of Paul’s conversion, where we are told only that he had to flee from Damascus, and went to Jerusalem.    Schofield, however, in his listing of the post-resurrection appearances of Jesus, equates this appearance to Paul with that of the vision on the Damascus Road [p.281].  Paul strongly affirms, with these proofs, the resurrection of Christ, because the whole foundation of the Christian faith rests upon it.   As Arthur T. Pierson says:

“When a religion approaches a man and boldly says: ‘God bears me witness, both with signs and wonders, and with divers miracles’ it meets him with a challenge; it bids him dispute its claims if he dare, by first disproving its signs if he can.  But when a man has already become a disciple, for example, of Mohammed, he is disposed to receive his miracles as genuine without any witness but his word; and so the religious system instead of being based on these miracles as its proof, rather becomes the basis which supplies them with proof.  But Christianity starts by bidding us apply these severe tests.  If we can even disprove one miracle, the resurrection of Christ, St.Paul confesses that the whole structure falls;  “our preaching is vain; your faith is vain.”⁷

In the midst of trouble in Asia, Paul had the comfort that no matter what happened to him, he could trust in “God which raiseth the dead” (2 Cor. l:9), a comfort and encouragement to us today also.

In 2 Cor. 4:14 Paul says,  “…he which raised up the Lord Jesus shall raise up us also by Jesus, and shall present us with you.”   The fact that God raised up Jesus from the dead gives Paul confidence in the resurrection of all believers, including his own.”   He writes to the believers to instil in them the same assurance.

2 Corinthians 5:15 stresses that aspect of Christ’s resurrection which means that Christians should not live for themselves,  “but unto him which died for them, and rose again.”

The importance of the resurrection of Jesus Christ is given prominence in Gal. 1:1, where it is mentioned as part of Paul’s greeting to the church, God the Father being credited with that resurrection.

Again in the extended greeting to the Thessalonian church, in l Thess.1:10, it is part of Paul’s testimonial of the church that they have turned from idols to wait for “his Son from heaven, whom he raised from the dead, even Jesus…”

Though the words “resurrection” or “raised from the dead” do not appear in 2 Timothy 1:10,  the declaration that Jesus Christ has abolished death (“rendered death ineffectual” – The New Berkeley Version) and “brought life and immortality to light” necessitates resurrection, without which they could not be accomplished.

Paul reminds the young pastor, Timothy, that an essential part of his gospel was that God had raised Jesus Christ from the dead (2 Tim. 2:8).  It was in writing to Timothy, also, that Paul censured Hymenaeus and Philetus, whose chief sin was that they preached the resurrection was past already, so causing the loss of faith of some of the believers.

In all their thinking about the Lord Jesus, the early teachers had in mind that He had risen and it was God who had raised Him from the dead. It is even included in the benediction of  Heb.13:20,  “the God of peace that brought again from the dead our Lord Jesus…”

Peter does not lag behind Paul in advocating the resurrection of Christ. In commending the faith of those to whom he is writing, he says, “(you) believe in God, that raised him up from the dead…”  (1 Pet.1:21).

Beryl Ching, spent over 40 years on the mission field in India. Returning to New Zealand to “retire”, Beryl was for a long time secretary of the Conditional Immortality Association. ‘Resurrection as Revealed in the Old Testament and Confirmed in the New testament’ is the full title of her Thesis presented to the Faculty of the Freelandia Institute Biblical Theological College in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the Degree Master of Biblical Studies.

1. G.E.Ladd.  Bible Characters and Doctrines.  Scripture Union. Vol. 16, Study 29. [↩]
2. Ralph Earle. The Expositor’s Bible Commentary. [↩]
3. F.B.Meyer.   Tried by Fire [↩]
4. A.M.Stibbs.   1 Peter, Tyndale New Testament Commentaries [↩]
5. The J. F. B. Bible  Commentary, on Job 14:12. [↩]
6. The J. F. B. Bible Commentary. [↩]
7. Arthur T. Pierson.   Many Infallible Proofs,  p.98. [↩]