CHRIST OUR RESURRECTION
Lesson #42
Revelation 20:6
Believers live in hope of the resurrection. With Paul, every believer might declare, "If in this life only we have hope in Christ, we are of al men most miserable" (I Cor. 15:19). In making that statement the Apostle does not mean that: (1.) The believer’s life in this world is a sad, morbid existence; or (2.) It is really more delightful and pleasurable to live in this world without faith in Christ; or (3.) Were it not for the hope of eternal glory the saints of God would prefer not to live as they do in obedience and submission to their heavenly Father. We do not serve our God for gain! Paul simply means that if there were no such thing as eternal life in Christ, no eternal bliss of life with Christ in glory, and no resurrection of life at the last day, then believers would be the most miserably frustrated people in the world. We would never have that which we most earnestly desire. We would never enjoy that for which we are most ambitious. We would never see the end of our hope. We would never embrace Christ, or be embraced by Christ. We would never see our Redeemer. A more distressing thought cannot be imagined. Nothing could be more cruel and miserable than to live in hope of seeing Christ, being like Christ, and spending eternity with Christ, only to die like a dog! "If in this life only we have hope in Christ, we are of all men most miserable." What a horrible thought! What a tormenting supposition! But it is not so! We live in hope of the resurrection (Job 19:25-27). The believer is calm in sickness, peaceful in sorrow, at ease in trial and affliction, confident in bereavement, and serene in death because he lives in hope of the resurrection. This is not some foolish philosophy. It is not a mere religious tranquilizer by which he is enabled to cope with the trials of life. This is the clear, calm, confident assurance of the believer’s heart. It is the necessary, inevitable result of faith in Christ, who declares, "I am the resurrection and the life, he that believeth on me, though he were dead, yet shall he live: and whosoever liveth and believeth in me shall never die" "(John 11:25-26).
The hope of the resurrection is much more than belief in a point of orthodox doctrine. It is a matter of faith and hope in a Person, the Lord Jesus Christ. Christ is himself our Resurrection. He is the Resurrection and the Life of all who trust him. Though believers do die physically, we shall never really die. The death of the body is, for the believer but an elevation in life. And even these bodies shall be resurrected with Christ at the last day (John 5:28; Phil. 3:20-21)."Blessed and holy is he that hath part in the first resurrection: on such the second death hath no power." As we saw in our previous study, this hope of the resurrection is based upon three things: The representative resurrection of God’s elect with Christ, the spiritual resurrection of every believer in Christ, and the revelation of God concerning the resurrection.
THE REPRESENTATIVE RESURRECTION OF GOD’S ELECT WITH CHRIST
We live in hope of the resurrection, because we know that God’s elect have been resurrected with Christ representatively. "God who is rich in mercy, for his great love wherewith he loved us, even when we were dead in sins, hath quickened us together with Christ, (by grace ye are saved/) and hath raised us up together, and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus" (Eph. 2:4-6). The new birth, our spiritual resurrection, is the result of our having been resurrected with Christ representatively, even as our ultimate glorification will be the result of our having already been glorified in Christ our Representative (Rom. 8:30).
When the Lord Jesus Christ arose from the grave he arose, not as a private individual, but as a public representative, as the Representative of God’s elect. All that Christ, the God-man, has done and experienced, all of God’s elect have done and experienced in him, by virtue of our representative union with him. His obedience to the law of God was our obedience (Rom. 5:12, 18-21). His death as a penal sacrifice for sin was our death (Rom. 6:6, 7, 9, 10, 11; 7:4). His resurrection was our resurrection. In all things Christ is our Representative.
The resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead is an indisputable fact of revelation and history upon which we rest our souls. If any could disprove the resurrection of Christ, he would disprove the gospel. "If Christ be not raised, your faith is vain; ye are yet in your sins" (I Cor. 15:17). But no one can ever disprove the resurrection of Christ. It is one of the most well-attested facts in history (I Cor. 15:1-8).
The bodily, physical resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ necessitates the resurrection of all who are in Christ. That which has been done for us representatively must be experienced by us personally. Otherwise, the representative work of Christ would be meaningless. All believers are members of Christ’s mystical body, the church (I Cor. 12:12, 17). If one member of the body were lost, the whole body would be maimed. If one member were lost, the head would not be complete (Eph. 1:22-23). Our bodies of flesh must be fashioned like unto his glorious body (Phil. 3:21). Christ was raised as the firstfruits of them that sleep (I Cor. 15:20). If he is the firstfruits, the full harvest must follow. All those saints whose bodies sleep in the earth shall be raised from death to life; even as Christ was raised from death to life.
Christ is the second Adam. As we have born the image of our first covenant head, Adam, we must also bear the image of the second (I Cor. 15:21-23, 47-49). Otherwise, his headship would be meaningless.
Our Lord Jesus Christ has obtained the victory over all that could hinder the glorious resurrection of his people. He put away our sins by the sacrifice of himself. He took satan into captivity by his death upon the cross. He delivered us from the curse of the law by being made a curse for us. He spoiled death, hell, and the grave by his triumph over them. By all of this he has delivered his people from the fear of death (Col. 2:13-15; Heb. 2:14-15).
We are also assured of the resurrection because the covenant engagements of Christ as the Surety of God’s elect require their resurrection (John 6:37-40). In that great and glorious resurrection day, our great Savior will present all the host of his redeemed ones holy, unblameable, and unreproveable to God his Father (Eph. 5:27), saying "Behold, I and the children which God hath given me" (Heb. 2:13). Then "There shall be one fold and one shepherd" (John 10:16).
THE SPIRITUAL RESURRECTION OF EVERY BELIEVER IN CHRIST
We live in hope of the resurrection, because we have experienced the resurrection of Christ in regeneration. The new birth is nothing less than a resurrection from the dead. It is a spiritual resurrection. This is the resurrection of which John speaks in Revelation 20:6. "Blessed and holy is he that hath part in the first resurrection: on such the second death hath no power." Like all other people, God’s elect are born in spiritual death and deserving of eternal death. In regeneration, God the Holy Spirit, by invincible, irresistible grace gives them life in Christ. He raises them from death to life. Never in the Scriptures is the new birth attributed to the freewill of man, or even to his faith. It is the work of God the Holy Spirit. Only the omnipotent God can give life to dead sinners (John 3:3-8). The new birth is always spoken of in the Scriptures as a resurrection (John 5:25; 11:25-26; Eph. 2:1-4). It is not a decision, but a resurrection. It is not a reformation, but a regeneration. It is not a new start in life, but an entirely new life!
The Word of God gives numerous illustrations of the new birth, this spiritual resurrection, by the power of God. Ezekiel’s description of the deserted infant, cast off, polluted in its blood, naked in its loathsomeness, and dead, but raised to life by the word of God’s power in the time of love, is a vivid picture of the new birth (Ezek. 16:1-8). The prophet’s vision of dry bones, caused to live by the preaching of God’s Word and the power of God’s Spirit (Ezek. 37:1-14), is certainly intended by God to be an illustration of our regeneration by the power if the Holy Spirit through the preaching of the gospel. But there is not a clearer, more instructive picture of the believer’s spiritual resurrection in Christ than the story of the resurrection of Lazarus in John 11. Five things are revealed about Lazarus and his resurrection which are reflected in the spiritual resurrection of every believer.
1. HIS CONDITION - Lazarus was dead (John 11:14); and so were we when the Lord God came to us with his saving grace. God could have prevented Lazarus’ death and could have prevented our death in Adam; but he allowed it that he might glorify himself in delivering us from death to life by the power of his grace (John 11:4; Eph. 2:;7).
2. HIS CALLING - The Lord Jesus "cried with a loud voice, Lazarus, come forth. And he that was dead came forth" (John 11:43-44). Someone said, "There was such power in the Savior’s voice that when he cried, `Come forth,’ had he not specified, `Lazarus, come forth,’ the whole cemetery would have been emptied!" Our Lord’s call to Lazarus was a personal, particular, and powerful call. He called Lazarus. He called Lazarus alone. And Lazarus came forth. He was raised from the dead by the effectual power of the Savior’s voice. There is a general call in the gospel that goes out to all men indiscriminately whenever the gospel is preached; and all who hear are responsible to obey. But dead sinners cannot and will not "come forth," they will never live before God, until God the Holy Spirit calls them by the effectual, irresistible, life-giving call of his sovereign power. At God’s appointed time, in "the time of love," he will call every chosen, redeemed sinner. When that time comes, when he calls, the dead shall live. "It is the Spirit that quickeneth; the flesh profitteth nothing" (John 6:63).
3. HIS CONVERSION - "He that was dead came forth, bound hand and foot with graveclothes: and his face was bound about with a napkin. Jesus saith unto them, Loose him, and let him go" (John 11:44). As the graveclothes that bound Lazarus had to be taken away, so conversion always follows calling. When sinners come to Christ and are taught of him the graveclothes of ignorance, superstition, tradition, religion, and fear fall away.
4. HIS COMMUNION - When the Lord Jesus was in Bethany, "Lazarus was one of them that sat at the table with him" (John 12:2). Saved sinners, being raised from death to life in Christ by the power and grace of God, live in communion with Christ. Their communion is sometimes interrupted by their sin, or by the Savior hiding his face from them for a season in loving chastisement (Song of Sol. 5:2-8; Isa. 54:7-10); but he will not forsake his own, neither will he let them forsake him (Jer. 32:38-40). In the tenor of their lives, believers walk with Christ. They live in the Spirit (Rom. 8:9, 14), in blessed communion with the Son of God.
5. HIS CONFLICT - Because of Lazarus many others believed on the Lord Jesus Christ. Therefore, the Jews sought to kill him (John 12:10-11). And anyone in this world who lives with Christ and serves him will be the object of the world’s scorn and persecution. "In the world ye shall have tribulation" (John 16:33). "Yea, all that will live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution" (II Tim. 3:12).
THE REVELATION OF GOD CONCERNING THE RESURRECTION OF OUR BODIES
There shall be a resurrection of life at the second coming of Christ (I Cor. 15:35-44, 51-58; I Thess. 4:13-18). The Word of God does not teach a secret rapture of the church, but a glorious resurrection of the just. The fact is, God’s elect never really die. Our Lord said, "whosoever liveth and believeth on me shall never die" (John 11:26). For the believer, the death of the body is only a temporary thing. When Christ comes again our bodies shall be raised in immortality, made like unto his glorious body (Phil. 3:21).
Immediately following the resurrection of the just, there shall be a resurrection of the damned (John 5:28-29). When Christ comes: the dead in Christ shall be raised; then the saints who are living on earth at the time shall be translated (glorified); and then the wicked shall be raised to judgment. Believers shall be raised by virtue of their union with Christ in order to be judged (declared justly righteous) and rewarded with all the fullness of everlasting glory. The wicked, the unbelieving, shall be raised by the power of Christ in order to be judged (declared justly condemned) and have the sentence of God’s wrath executed upon them. The righteous shall be raised in love to a great wedding feast. The wicked shall be raised in wrath, to everlasting condemnation. Soon, you and I will stand before the living God in judgment. "Prepare to meet thy God!"