#087 Resurrection of the Dead

#087 Welcome to Episode #087 of Way of the Bible podcast. This is our seventh of eight episodes in our eleventh mini-series entitled, Mystery of Christ | Galatians to 2 Thessalonians. On this episode we’re going to overview the topic of resurrection. What is it and why is it significant.

What we will be examining today are passages from both the Old and New Testaments that speak of a coming resurrection of all who have fallen asleep, or put another way, have died. The passages we will be looking at are not exhaustive but are a sufficient sampling to help us understand what God has said about this coming reality.

Resurrection is different than resuscitation. Resuscitation is merely the revival of life into the same mortal physical body that will eventually die again as is the cursed course of this world. Death came into the world as a result of Adam disobeying God’s clear command given in the Garden of Eden found in Genesis 2:16-17 – And the LORD God commanded the man, saying, “You may surely eat of every tree of the garden, 17 but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die.”

Paul tells of the significance of this disobedience by Adam in Romans 5:12 – Therefore, just as sin came into the world through one man, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men because all sinned. While we can choose to ignore this reality, truth is whatever death is we’re all going to experience it unless we’re snatched away by the Lord when he descends from heaven to call his church home. 

We have many examples of resuscitation in both the Old and New Testaments when prophets raised people from the dead. All of those so raised eventually died again and were buried. The one who was in the grave the longest before his resuscitation was Lazarus. John 11:39 - Jesus said, “Take away the stone.” Martha, the sister of the dead man, said to him, “Lord, by this time there will be an odor, for he has been dead four days.”  

What is interesting, is that in the scripture’s death is not annihilation but rather spoken of as being asleep with the soul of a person traveling to a holding place until the resurrection. In the Old Testament this holding place was referred to as Sheol and it had two compartments (hot and cool) separated by a chasm that couldn’t be crossed. 

In the New Testament, while the hot side of Sheol is still being populated and occupied, the scripture’s indicate Jesus emptied the cool side of Sheol and took those there into a place Jesus called paradise. Paul speaks of the destination of those who die in Christ in 2 Corinthians 5:8 – Yes, we are of good courage, and we would rather be away from the body and at home with the Lord. So wherever Jesus is, upon our falling asleep there will we be also; forever with the Lord.

We will see in the texts covered today that the resurrection we are speaking is typically associated with God’s final judgment of a person. Solomon spoke of this coming judgment as his concluding remark in the book of Ecclesiastes. Ecclesiastes 12:13-14 – The end of the matter; all has been heard. Fear God and keep his commandments, for this is the whole duty of man. 14 For God will bring every deed into judgment, with every secret thing, whether good or evil. The entirety of scripture is replete with similar warnings.

Our resurrection bodies will be individually and uniquely assigned as are our fingerprints and genetics. And fitted to eternally inhabit our destiny of either glorification with God in the eternal state or eternal destruction away from the presence of God in the lake of fire. 

With all that as a brief introduction, let’s