Resurrection
“A standing up, rising”
Summary
The resurrection is the revivification of the human body after death, a doctrine clearly revealed in the New Testament through Christ's own rising and His teaching about the future resurrection of all the dead.
☩Old Testament Intimations
The doctrine of bodily resurrection is not clearly articulated in the earlier Hebrew Scriptures. The first unambiguous passages appear in Isaiah 26:19 and Daniel 12:2, where it is declared that many who sleep in the dust shall awake, some to everlasting life and others to shame. By the time of Christ, the belief in resurrection was held by the Pharisees and the great body of the Jewish people, being disputed only by the Sadducees. The Jews connected resurrection so intimately with the future state that any argument proving the soul's immortality was considered proof of bodily resurrection as well.
☩Christ's Teaching
Jesus established the doctrine of resurrection as essential to Christian faith. In His debate with the Sadducees, He argued from Exodus 3:6 that God's calling Himself the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob proves they must live, for God is not the God of the dead but of the living. In John 5:28-29, Jesus declared that all who are in the tombs will hear His voice and come forth: those who have done good to the resurrection of life, and those who have done evil to the resurrection of judgment. Jesus connected resurrection inseparably with Himself, declaring, "I am the resurrection and the life."
☩The Resurrection Body
Paul addresses the nature of the resurrection body in 1 Corinthians 15, using the analogy of a seed that dies before new life emerges. The resurrection body will differ from the present body as the plant differs from the seed. It is sown in corruption but raised in incorruption; sown in dishonor but raised in glory; sown in weakness but raised in power; sown a natural body but raised a spiritual body. Christ will transform our lowly bodies to be conformed to His glorious body. The risen saints will not marry but will be like the angels of God.
Related Verses88 mentions
See Also
References
- 1.John McClintock and James Strong, "Resurrection," in Cyclopedia of Biblical, Theological and Ecclesiastical Literature, vol. VIII (Harper & Brothers, 1867–1887).
- 2.James Orr (ed.), "Resurrection," in International Standard Bible Encyclopedia, vol. IV (Howard-Severance Company, 1915).
- 3.James Hastings (ed.), "Resurrection," in Dictionary of the Apostolic Church, vol. II (T. & T. Clark, 1915–1918).
- 4.James Hastings (ed.), "Resurrection of Christ," in Dictionary of Christ and the Gospels, vol. II (T. & T. Clark, 1906–1908).
- 5.Philip Schaff and Johann Herzog (ed.), "Resurrection of the Dead," in The New Schaff-Herzog Encyclopedia of Religious Knowledge, vol. IX (Funk and Wagnalls, 1908–1914).
- 6.George Morrish, "Resurrection," in Morrish's Concise Bible Dictionary (George Morrish, 1898).