Death and Resurrection

The arrival of Jesus at the end of the present age will result in the resurrection of the dead and the end of Death - 1 Corinthians 15:24-28. Certain members of the Corinthian church were denying the future resurrection of believers. Paul responded by stressing the necessity for resurrection, and by appealing to the precedent of the death and resurrection of Jesus.

We will be raised bodily when Jesus arrives, and his appearance at the end of the present age will terminate death itself. Death will no longer occur in the everlasting kingdom of God.

The promise of resurrection was especially relevant to the recipients of the Book of Revelation, many of whom faced the possibility of martyrdom. Believers who remain faithful in their testimony, “even unto death,” will receive everlasting life in the New Heavens and New Earth. Despite the efforts of the Beast and the Dragon to kill the saints, death will not have the last word (“Blessed are they who die in the Lord from now on” – Revelation 2:10, 6:9-11, 14:13, 22:12-14).

[Sun Shine Photo by Andrew Seaman (Nebraska) on Unsplash]

Paul also revealed something new in 1 Corinthians. Believers who remain alive when Christ returns will be transformed and receive immortal bodies. They will not experience death.

• “Then the end, when he will deliver up the kingdom to God, even the Father, when he will have abolished all rule and all authority and power. For he must reign until he has put all his enemies under his feet. The last enemy that will be abolished is death. For he put all things in subjection under his feet. But when he says, All things are put in subjection, it is evident that he is excepted who did subject all things unto him. And when all things have been subjected to him, then will the Son also himself be subjected to him that did subject all things unto him, that God may be all in all” – (1 Corinthians 15:24-28. Verbal allusion to Psalm 110:1).

The Apostle classifies death as an “enemy,” and an eschatological one at that. Death will not be eliminated completely until the return of Jesus and the consummation of God’s kingdom. Paul does not view death as simply a natural process and certainly not as the “doorway” to the next life.

Death was never what God intended when He created man, and he is grieved by the death of every man, woman, and child. Death is the result of sin and the curse placed on Adam and his descendants because of our transgressions – (“Have I any pleasure in the death of the wicked, says the Lord Yahweh, and not rather that he should return from his way, and live?” – Ezekiel 18:23. Compare Genesis 3:17-19, Romans 5:12-21).

However, God did not abandon us to death and the grave forever. He broke the curse and sentence of death by sending His son to ransom us from the enslavement of death. Jesus accomplished this by suffering an undeserved death for us, and his Father vindicated him by raising Christ from the dead. In this way, the Nazarene secured our future resurrection from the dead. We continue to die, but death will not be the end of the matter:

• “For the Son of Man also came not to be served, but to serve, and to give his life a ransom for many” – (Mark 10:45. The passage alludes to Isaiah 53:12. Compare Philippians 2:6-11 and Titus 2:14).

• “Since then the children are partners in flesh and blood, he also himself in like manner partook of the same; that through death he might nullify him who possessed the tyranny of death, that is, the Devil, and might liberate all those who through fear of death were all their lifetime subject to slavery” – (Hebrews 2:14-15).

• “And they sing a new song, saying, You are worthy to take the book, and to open the seals of it, for you were slain and purchased for God with your blood men from every tribe, and tongue, and people, and nation, and you made them a kingdom and priests for our God. And they are reigning on the earth” – (Revelation 5:9-10. Compare Exodus 19:5-6).

RESURRECTION IS NOT OPTIONAL

In 1 Corinthians, Paul describes several events that must precede the ‘Parousia’ or “arrival” of Jesus. He begins his larger argument with the rhetorical question:

• “If Christ is proclaimed that he has been raised from among the dead, how say some of you there is no resurrection of the dead?” – (1 Corinthians 15:12).

Resurrection is necessary. Each of Paul’s arguments supports this proposition. The basis of our future resurrection is the past death and resurrection of Jesus of Nazareth. He overcame death for his people for all time:

• “For I delivered to you, first of all, that which also I received, that Christ died for our sins, according to the scriptures, and that he was buried, and that he has been raised on the third day, according to the scriptures” – (1 Corinthians 15:3-5. Compare 2 Timothy 1:9-10).

Our future resurrection from the dead is inextricably linked with Christ’s past resurrection. If we do not rise, then Jesus was not resurrected. And if God did not raise him from the dead, then we will not be resurrected either, and our hope and faith are pointless:

• “But if there is no resurrection of the dead, neither has Christ been raised. And if Christ has not been raised, then is our preaching void, your faith also is void. Indeed, and we are found false witnesses of God, because we witnessed of God that he raised Christ, whom he raised not up, if so be that the dead are not raised. For if the dead are not raised, neither has Christ been raised. And if Christ has not been raised, your faith is empty. You are still in your sins. Then they also who have fallen asleep in Christ have perished. If we have only hoped in Christ in this life, we are of all men most pitiable” – (1 Corinthians 15:13-19).

However, “each in his own order.” Jesus was the first fruits - He rose first – and the rest will follow when he arrives. That event will constitute the end, the final and total victory over death, and thereafter, “God will be all in all.”

The raising of the dead began with Jesus Christ. He is the first of many who will follow. He is the forerunner and the guarantor of our resurrection. Dead believers will participate in the same kind of resurrection as he did, only at the appointed time.

This process will conclude when Christ returns, and we are raised from the dead and receive immortal bodies. This same idea is found elsewhere in the New Testament. Indeed, it is derived from the teachings of Jesus. For example:

• “But now Christ has been raised from the dead, the first fruits of those who sleep. For since by man came death, by man came also the resurrection of the dead. For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ all will be made alive. But each in his own order: Christ the first fruits, then they who are Christ's at his arrival [‘Parousia’]” - (1 Corinthians 15:20-23).

• “And he is the head of the body, the church, who is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead; that in all things he might be pre-eminent” - (Colossians 1:18).

• “And from Jesus Christ, who is the faithful witness, the firstborn of the dead, and the ruler of the kings of the earth. Unto him who loves us, and liberated us from our sins by his blood” - (Revelation 1:5).

• “I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes on me, though he die, yet he will live” - (John 11:25).

THE ARRIVAL

Paul uses the Greek noun ‘Parousia’ in 1 Corinthians 15:24-28 for the “arrival” of Jesus, as he does in his two letters to the Church of Thessalonika - (1 Thessalonians 4:12-15, 5:23, 2 Thessalonians 2:1, 2:8).

The arrival of Jesus will result in the end of the present age, the complete subjugation of all his enemies, and the termination of death, both as a reality and a process. Death is the last enemy that must be destroyed. Only then will Jesus deliver his completed kingdom to his God and Father. Paul’s purpose is not to describe every detail of the events that will occur on the Day of the Lord. Specific subjects are introduced because they support his larger argument about resurrection.

In the conclusion of the fifteenth chapter of 1 Corinthians, Paul returns to the subjects of resurrection and the end of death. Note the similar comments of Jesus and those of Paul in 1 Thessalonians:

• “We will not all sleep, but we will all be changed <…> During the last trumpet, for it will sound and the dead will be raised incorruptible, and we will be changed” - (1 Corinthians 15:51-53).

• “For this we say to you by the word of the Lord, that we who are alive, who remain to the arrival of the Lord [‘Parousia’], will in no way precede those who are asleep. For the Lord himself will descend from heaven, with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trumpet of God. And the dead in Christ will rise first, then we who remain alive, who are left, will together with them be caught up in the clouds to a meeting with the Lord in the air” - (1 Thessalonians 4:15-17).

• “And then will appear the sign of the Son of Man in heaven. And then all the tribes of the earth will mourn, and they will see the Son of Man coming on the clouds of heaven with power and great glory. And he will send forth his angels with a great sound of a trumpet, and they will gather together his elect from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the other” - (Matthew 24:30-3).

The end of death will coincide with the arrival of Jesus. That day will mean the final overthrow of all God’s enemies. After that, there will be no more enemies to conquer, and death will be no more. The curse of Adam’s sin will be invalidated forever, and therefore, Christ’s resurrected saints will shout in triumph:

• “Death is swallowed up by victory! Oh, Death, where is your victory? Oh Death, where is your sting?” – (1 Corinthians 15:54-55. See Isaiah 25:8 and Hosea 13:14).

Resurrection does not mean the resuscitation of corpses. Our mortal bodies will be transformed into another kind of body, one equipped for life in the New Creation, a body that is no longer subject to disease, decay, or death. The evidence for this hope is the glorified body of Jesus Christ - (1 Corinthians 15:35-50).

The mystery revealed by Paul in 1 Corinthians is that believers who remain alive when Jesus returns will be physically transformed and receive immortal bodies. They will not die.

• “Behold, I tell you a mystery. We will not all sleep, but we will all be changed. In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet; for the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised incorruptible, and we will be changed. For this corruptible must put on incorruptibility, and this mortal must put on immortality” – (1 Corinthians 15:52-53).

DEATH AND HADES

God raised Jesus from the dead, making him “the firstborn of the dead,” according to the Book of Revelation. God appointed him as the ruler of the Cosmos, and he now reigns from the Divine Throne. His authority extends even over the realm of the dead, and this is because of his death and resurrection:

• “Fear not! I am the first and the last, and the Living One. And I was dead, and behold, I am alive forevermore, and I have the keys of death and of Hades” – (Revelation 1:17-18).

• “And to the angel of the church in Smyrna write: These things says the first and the last, who was dead and lived” – (Revelation 2:8).

Jesus does not promise that his saints will escape death. Rather, he encourages the members of the Church of Smyrna to remain faithful. If they do so, they will inherit everlasting life and be spared from the Second Death, the Lake of Fire:

• “Fear not the things which you are about to suffer. Behold! The devil is going to cast some of you into prison, that you may be tried. And you will have tribulation for ten days. Be faithful unto death, and I will give you the crown of life. He that has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit is saying to the churches. He who overcomes will not be harmed of the second death” - (Revelation 2:11).

• “The rest of the dead lived not until the thousand years were finished. This is the first resurrection. Blessed and holy is he who has part in the first resurrection. Over these, the second death has no authority; but they will be priests of God and of Christ, and they will reign with him a thousand years” - (Revelation 20:5-6).

While the Beast is authorized to kill the Two Witnesses, “those who have the testimony of Jesus,” he will not have the final word on their fate. At the time of the seventh or last trumpet, God will raise them from the dead:

• “And after the three days and a half, the breath of life from God entered them, and they stood upon their feet; and great fear fell upon them that beheld them. And they heard a great voice from heaven saying to them, Come up here! And they ascended into heaven in the cloud; and their enemies beheld them. <…> And the seventh angel sounded; and there followed great voices in heaven, and they said, The kingdom of the world is become the kingdom of our Lord, and of his Christ: and he will reign forever and ever” - (Revelation 11:11-15. Compare Revelation 12:17, 13:7).

Neither Death nor Hades will have the final word regarding the saints. The Beast, the False Prophet, the Devil, and the Inhabitants of the Earth who gave homage to the Beast and persecuted the church will experience the Second Death - (Revelation 13:8, 14:9-11, 19:20).

• “And I saw the dead, the great and the small, standing before the throne; and books were opened: and another book was opened, which is the book of life. And the dead were judged out of the things written in the books, according to their works. And the sea gave up the dead that were in it. And death and Hades gave up the dead that were in them, and they were judged every man according to their works. And Death and Hades were cast into the lake of fire. This is the second death, even the lake of fire. And if anyone was not found written in the book of life, he was cast into the lake of fire” – (Revelation 20:12-15).

There are no literary links between the twentieth chapter of Revelation and 1 Corinthians 15:24-28. However, both passages end with the elimination of death. In Revelation, Death and Hades are thrown into the Lake of Fire.

The judgment scene at the end of the Book of Revelation is followed by the arrival of “the new heavens and the new earth,” and everlasting life for the faithful in New Jerusalem. Likewise, in 1 Corinthians, the return of Jesus means the resurrection of the righteous dead and their receipt of immortality, as well as the termination of death - (Revelation 21:1-8).

The original “curse” that condemned humanity to death was broken on the Cross of Calvary, and Cross is what the symbol of the “tree of life” in the Book of Revelation represents. The reality of death will be reversed for all those who have been redeemed by the Lamb when Jesus arrives to consummate all things – (Revelation 5:9-10):

• “He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit is saying to the churches. To him who overcomes, to him I will give to eat of the tree of life, which is in the Paradise of God” - (Revelation 2:7).

• “And he will wipe away every tear from their eyes. And death will be no more” - (Revelation 21:4).

• “And he showed me a river of water of life, bright as crystal, proceeding out of the throne of God and of the Lamb in the midst of the street. And on this side of the river and on that was the tree of life, bearing twelve fruits, yielding its fruit every month. And the leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations. And the curse will be no longer” - (Revelation 22:1-3).

Our resurrection is based on the past death and resurrection of Jesus. Regardless of what happens in this life, including martyrdom at the hands of the Beast, this same Jesus will raise us from the dead when he returns and grants us immortality.

[NOTE: Text that is printed in small capital letters represents quotations and verbal allusions of Old Testament passages]

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SEE ALSO:

• The Salvation of Yahweh - (The name ‘Jesus’ means “Yahweh saves.” In the man of Nazareth, the salvation promised by the God of Abraham has arrived)

• Good News For the Nations - (The Good News announced by Jesus of Nazareth offers salvation and life to the men and women of every nation)

• The Age of Salvation - (Jesus came “upon the last of these days” to provide salvation to men, women, and children of every nation, and life in the coming age)

• Mort et Résurrection - (L'arrivée de Jésus à la fin de l'âge actuel entraînera la résurrection des morts et la fin de la mort - 1 Corinthiens 15: 24-28)