Foundations Of The Christian Life
Chapter 33: - Death And Resurrection.


Author's note:
Recently I have been busy and haven't posted to this blog as often as I would have liked. To cover this lack I am posting this post as a draft so you can see where I am thinking of going with it. However it is definitely not in its final form. I will return to it.


A. THE CHRISTIAN VIEW OF DEATH.


The Hebrew idea of man is important here. They see man as an animated body not an incarnated soul. The "incarnated soul" idea is from Greek philosophy and has its roots in a religious philosophy including reincarnation.

Man is spirit, soul and body. Man is not man without any of these three.

The Bible depicts "soul" as the result of "spirit" and "body" coming together (Genesis 2). Thus when the spirit leaves the body, in death, the soul dies, i.e. it ceases to exist. The spirit, coming from God, is eternal, but the soul is not. Hence "souls" will be resurrected along with the body.

(1) Death Came by Sin.

When God created man, he made him with the POTENTIAL to live eternally, but also with the POTENTIAL to die. Man was not created eternal. This is the meaning of the Garden of Eden story. The tree of Life granted eternal life, but one had to have continuous access to it. (Genesis 2&3). Man was created by God into a perfect situation in which there was no DEATH in man's personal life experience. However we should assume that in the animal world and vegetable world the processes of growing old and dying were existent. Physical death in the animal kingdom was not unknown to Adam, so he had some idea what God meant when he warned Adam of possible death through disobedience.

It is hard to imagine that there was no death at all, though this view is held by many Godly Bible teachers and may be considered to be the normal evangelical position. However I contend this was not the case - rather there was death before the fall - but not in the life of man. For instance, it is hard to imagine that insects did not die. Most insects have a limited life span of only a few days. If insects had not died before the Fall it would not have taken very long for them to be living in numbers impossible for other animals to dwell with. So it would seem that death was part of God's plan for creation, at least for some aspects of creation. If you have never considered this possibility before you may need to stop and think a bit about different aspects of life in the animal world - insects, "creeping things", plankton, and so on. It doesn't take long to realise that death is part of the natural cycle and without death operating some lifeforms would reproduce so quickly as to overwhelm others. Once the idea that death is part of creation is accepted then it is not difficult to see that this would probably be true for the whole animal and vegetable realm. Thus God's words to Adam "in the day you eat of it you will surely die" would have meaning. Adam could see what death was to some extent.

Man was created physically mature, but morally he was immature. He had not learned to make choices between good and bad. There was the potential of bad in existence - God knew that Lucifer was soon to rebel and became the agent of DEATH. DEATH waited in the wings to invade the universe, only man could let it in as he was made to be priest of creation before God.

Adam was given the choice - eat of the tree of life, and live eternally, or eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, and let DEATH into his personal existence.

It may be that God created man mortal at the beginning - this is not clear from the story - but it is clear that man was not created immortal in the sense of eternal, as the Greeks thought. Immortality was resident in the tree of life, and not in the man. It may be true that man could have died even without the Fall, but as a result of the Fall death took on a whole new nature and became DEATH.

Romans 5:12. "Death entered through sin".

It is usually taught, from this passage, that death was foreign to Adam's experience and only entered the world through Adam's sin. Some teachers even include the animal world in this freedom from death. However that is not necessarily what is meant here. The prospect of death through disobedience had to have some meaning to Adam for it to be a real deterrent, indicating he had some idea of what it was about. This passage could mean a variety of things:

(i) Death did not exist on earth before the Fall - even in the animal kingdom.
(ii) Death became certain for man because of Adam's sin, until then it was only a possibility.
(iii) Physical death - already a real possibility - took on a whole new horrible meaning, including eternal separation from God. It became DEATH.


(2) Sin Means Man is Already Dead.

Because of sin, man is already dead, cut off from God, and destined to DEATH. So all mankind are, in fact, dead before their bodies even die.

Ephesians 2:1.

However to cap this off Christ came as the Last Adam (1 Corinthians 15:45) - the last of the race of Adam - and he died, putting to death the whole of the Adamic race.

2 Corinthians 5:14.

All people out of Christ are already dead, even if their bodies live. Physical death does not change anything fundamentally about your condition, but it only alters the SPHERE of your existence, we step from time into eternity at death.

Non-Christians are already living in Hell, the fact of that will only become clearer with physical death.


The Christian, likewise, has died (Romans 6:6) but because of the resurrection of Christ has passed from DEATH into LIFE. Life has taken on a new element and has become LIFE. We are already living in the kingdom of God, the fact of that will also become clearer at death.


(3) What Happens at Physical Death?

On physical death the non-Christian apparently goes to SHEOL, or HADES, which is a place of waiting. In it is torment as they await judgement (Luke 16:19-24). The torment comes from the realisation of truth - there will soon be a judgement.

Prior to Christ's resurrection Believers also went to Hades, but apparently there was a division, for them Hades was a place of rest. This area of Hades is now, apparently, uninhabited.

Hades (or Sheol) and Hell are not the same. The KJV translates them the same when they are not. Hades will be cast into Hell after the final judgement (Revelation 20:14) so logically it cannot be the same.

In Jewish belief (Enoch 22) Sheol was a place beneath the Earth consisting of four large pits. Three were dark, for the unrighteous, one was light for the righteous.

Psalms 16:10; 18:5; 86:13; 139:18
Proverbs 15:11 15:24 23:14 27:20.
Isaiah 5:14 14:9,15 28:15.

However it is a spiritual place not a physical one. We are not intended to think of it as a place underground, rather it exists in the spiritual realm somewhere.

For a description of Hell see Chapter 16.

At the time of Christ's resurrection the Believers in God rose From the dead and went to be with Christ in heaven (Matthew 27:51-53). Christ was like a seed of wheat planted in the ground (John 12:24). When he died he went to Sheol and made a proclamation of freedom (1 Peter 3:19). When he rose he took with him all of those who could respond to his call of freedom, these were the first fruits of the resurrection (1 Corinthians 15:21-23).

Christians at death now go to a place of waiting, under the altar in the throne room of heaven (Revelation 6:9-11). There they are "asleep" (1 Corinthians 11:30) - not meaning a state of unconsciousness, but it is a place of restricted activity because they do not yet have their resurrection bodies. In Biblical thought, man IS spirit, soul AND body. Man is not man without a body. Thus there is a sense in which we must understand the dead saints awaiting the resurrection as being in an intermediate state. They cannot function as human beings in the life to come until they receive their resurrection bodies.


(4) What of the Future?

There will be a future resurrection of the dead body - both for the Christian and the non- Christian (Revelation 20:4-6). This will be followed by judgement; the righteous going to Heaven, the sinner to Hell.

This raises the question: What is the nature of the body we have in the next life?

B. THE RESURRECTION - WHAT KIND OF BODY?


Is the resurrection body physical, or is it some sort of ghostly apparition?


(1) Christ the Pattern.

1 Corinthians 15:21-23.

Christ is the first fruits, he is the pattern we are to follow.

John 20:19ff.


(a) His body was recognisable as his own, and still bore the marks of this life.

Hence this is not a reincarnation. Reincarnation is not a scriptural teaching, it is the Satanic counterfeit of the truth of the resurrection. Reincarnation denies the continuity of our consciousness, hence of our guilt and liability to judgement on the "other side" for things done in this life. It denies Heaven and Hell, suggesting only that if we try hard enough we will come back as a better being or get to share in the "Great Light" of perfection.
It denies the Atonement of Christ, in that it teaches that if we try harder we will make it into a better life.

(b) He Breathed.

John 20:22.

How else could he talk?

(c) The disciples could touch him.

John 20:27.

(d) He ate and drank.

Luke 24:13ff.
John 21.

It does not actually say that Christ ate on these occasions, but the symbolism of his actions requires that he did so. What we see in John 20 is a form of Peace offering, or Covenant Sacrifice, which the worshipers of a God shared with their God. Normally the portion for God would be burnt, but here God in the person of Jesus is present to eat it, in fact he provides it.

(e) The difference between the old and new body.

This new body does not seem to be limited to the confines of time and space. He could step in and out of the spiritual realm (he did not walk through doors!). Hence he could travel long distances in no time at all (Luke 24:28ff).

We are left with a concept that the “Spiritual body” belongs to a realm that is actually more real than the sphere we live in. The spiritual realm is not “airy-fairy” but has a reality that is so much greater than what we know that it incorporates our present reality. Thus Christ can eat the physical food of this world, breathe the physical air of this world, etc. In other words the spiritual reality is greater than our reality and includes our reality in it.

Illustration: From set Theory in Maths.

The best way we could understand the relationship between the present reality and the reality of God is to understand our sphere as a subset of the total reality of existence.


(2) The Teaching of Paul.

1 Corinthians 15:35-57.

Briefly Paul's argument is this:

(a) To get the new you have to let the old die, yet what rises from the dead is not the same as what died. Yet in a sense it is the same - there is a continuing relationship. The relationship is like that of a seed to the harvest it produces. We can see that it is the same but it is much more.

(b) Every form of life has been given a body, suitable for its purpose and sphere in life.

(c) Our present earthly body is physical, perishable, weak, dishonorable, earthly, made of dust. It is corrupted by sin and cannot be renovated. Yet it is suitable to life on earth, being earthy.

(d) Our resurrection body will be:
- Imperishable - not subject to death and decay.
- Glorious - radiating God's life.
- Powerful - not limited by its dimensions.
- Spiritual - not meaning here "a spirit", but a body suitable for living in the spiritual realm. Man is not, nor will he be, pure spirit like the angels. Man is by nature and function a physical being. His resurrection body will also be physical.
- It will be like Christ's.

(e) The relationship between the present body and the future body is like the relationship between the seed and the harvest. There is a clear similarity, i.e. the resurrection body can be recognised as being the same person as the present physical body, but there is also a vast difference between them – just as the harvest is greater than the seed.

2 Corinthians 4:16-5:5.

We are preparing it now, like a house we are building. What we do in obedience to God builds it (1 Corinthians 3. Revelation 19:5,6).




What about those who haven’t died before Christ comes?


This is the exact opposite of the question Paul was answering in I Thessalonians 4,5. There the issue was, “What about those who have died, will they miss out on the Coming of Christ?” Paul’s explanation of the events there gives the answer.

1 Thessalonians 4:13-18.

(i) Christ will come bringing with him those who have died “in him”.
(ii) As Christ descends these dead will be resurrected.
(iii) Those of us alive at his coming will be “caught up” (Greek: raptured) to be with him in the air.

1 Corinthians 15:51-52.




MEMORY VERSE.

RESURRECTION.

ROMANS 8: 11.


IF THE SPIRIT OF HIM WHO RAISED JESUS FROM THE DEAD DWELLS IN YOU,
HE WHO RAISED CHRIST JESUS FROM THE DEAD
WILL GIVE LIFE TO YOUR MORTAL BODIES ALSO
THROUGH HIS SPIRIT WHICH DWELLS IN YOU.