Resurrection from Beginning to End
Death is an enemy (1 Cor 15:26). In fact, death will be the last enemy defeated when Christ comes again in all His glory. Christians celebrate the first fruits of victory over death, when we reflect on the death, burial, resurrection, ascension, and enthronement of Christ.
The biblical answer to death is resurrection. In essence, resurrection comes in two phases. The first is the resurrection of the soul, which is a spiritual resurrection called, “regeneration.” Regeneration is wholly a work of the Spirit of Christ (Jn 3:1–8; 1 Pet 1:3). It is the beginning of a new life, which is in the Spirit…spiritual (Jn 6:63).
The second resurrection for the born again believer will be a bodily resurrection on the day of the Lord Jesus’ return to judge the living and the dead (Jn 5:28–29; Acts 10:42; 2 Tim 4:1; 1 Pet 4:5). The union of body and soul for the believer in Jesus will be glorious, that is, a glorified body/soul. This resurrection life is an indestructible life, and therefore, it is an eternal life.
Death visited man in the garden of Eden, where he died spiritually, and subsequently with a bodily death. From the point of Adam’s spiritual death, all of his seed has been still-born. The body man occupies has a temporary existence. It flourishes and then fades.
If the natural course of sin and death prevail (Rom 3:23; 6:23; Heb 9:27), then both the body and soul are eternally damned under eternal judgment (Mt 25:41, 46; Jude 7; Rev 20:14–15). Only a supernatural altering of this course can change a man’s eternal destiny. Man deserves hell because he has earned hell, through the inheritance and wages of sin.
Death is a permanent end, but God has given us clues to His glorious resurrection work, by having the sun die into darkness each night, only to be raised again each new morning. A second picture of this is in the death of everything in the frozen dark winter, only to be warmed and illumined each new spring.
Death is no longer the terrifying prospect of permanent darkness because the second Adam has come into the world. He has defeated death for His people by taking upon Himself all their sins (1 Pet 2:24). Death is the end of sin. So for those who have been baptized into Christ’s death (Rom 6), and buried with Him, there is an end to sin. The Christian has died to sin, but he is alive in Christ (Eph 2:5; Col 2:13).
The fleeting life of the body remains, and it causes the Christian to redeem the time (Eph 5:16; Col 4:5), knowing there is a day when her labors will end. Natural man fights death by trying to reverse the fade into death. He that is spiritual is the fragrance of a rose. The aroma visits some, as a rose in a garden on a bright spring day; while the aroma for others is the smell of a funeral parlor.
Jesus Christ’s death on the cross is His victory over death (Jn 16:33). Taking our sins with Him, by becoming sin to be judged and punished (2 Cor 5:21), He demonstrates the end to sin and death by resurrection (1 Cor 15).
Resurrection life is life in Christ (union with Christ). It begins with regeneration by the Spirit of Christ. It is abundant like spring, filled with spiritual blessings (Jn 10:10; Eph 1:3). It is the life of the inner man, ever-growing, despite the corruption of his outward appearance (2 Cor 5:1; Eph 4:21).
Resurrection life is the true identity of the Christian. He is a man made new in the image of the living Christ, who died, was buried, but rose again from the grave on the third day. He lives forevermore as the first fruits of the resurrection from the dead. The Christian is being ripened for the day of harvest, a day of hope manifested, a day of promises fulfilled, a day of completed resurrection. O what a day!
David Norczyk
Spokane Valley, Washington
March 26, 2022
