Question 52. How was Christ exalted in his resurrection?

 

Question 52. How was Christ exalted in his resurrection?

Answer. Christ was exalted in his resurrection, that he did not see corruption in death (for he could not be held by death), and that the same body in which he had suffered, with all its essential properties (without mortality and other common infirmities belonging to this life), was really united to his soul, and rose again from the dead the third day by his power; whereby he declared himself to be the Son of God, satisfying divine justice, conquering death and him who had the power of death, and being Lord of the living and the dead. All that he did as a public man and as the head of his church was to justify believers, give them new life by grace, overcome them against their enemies, and assure them that he would raise them up from the dead at the last day.

 

Jesus Christ says that he is the life that came down from heaven. Regarding the word resurrection, from the perspective of the flesh, we believe that the dead flesh is reunited with the spirit and resurrected, but from the perspective of the spirit, it means that he was originally a life from heaven, and after being trapped in the earth for a while, he is resurrected as a life from heaven. Since Jesus Christ is the life from heaven, the flesh died and was resurrected as a life from heaven. However, if you insist that the flesh was resurrected, it is because you are seeing it with the eyes of the flesh.

In Luke 20:35-36 it says, "But those who are accounted worthy to attain that age and the resurrection from the dead neither marry nor are given in marriage, nor can they die any more, for they are equal to the angels and are children of God, being children of the resurrection." And in Matthew 22:30 it says, "For in the resurrection they neither marry nor are given in marriage, but are like the angels in heaven." Angels are spirits. So resurrection means that dead spirits return to the spirit of life.

There is a scene where Jesus resurrects the dead. Jesus resurrected Lazarus, the son of the widow of Nain, and the daughter of Jairus, the synagogue leader. If the resurrection is like the resurrecting of the dead, then these people should have immortal bodies since they were resurrected. However, they are not resurrected bodies. This is because Jesus clearly said that they are the first fruits of the resurrection.

In 1 Corinthians 15:21-23, it says, “For since by a man came death, by a man also came the resurrection of the dead. For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ all will be made alive. But each in his own order: Christ the firstfruits, afterward, at his coming, those who belong to Christ.”

Therefore, before Jesus was resurrected, there was no one who was resurrected. John 3:13 “No one has ascended to heaven except He who came down from heaven, the Son of Man who is in heaven.” Who is the “He who came down from heaven, the Son of Man”? The fact that he came down from heaven means that Jesus was born of the Holy Spirit in the incarnation. Only Jesus who was born of the Holy Spirit is the first fruit of the resurrection.

Jesus raised the dead while he was alive. He raised Lazarus, the son of the widow of Nain, and the daughter of Jairus, a synagogue leader. However, when Jesus raised Jairus' daughter, he said, "Talithakum" ("Child, arise"). That is why it is said that her spirit returned. Luke 8:44-45 "Jesus took her by the hand and called to her, 'Child, arise.' Her spirit returned, and she got up immediately. And Jesus commanded that they give her something to eat." We do not call the resurrection of three dead people.

It is said that Jesus' spirit left him after he died on the cross. Matthew 27:50 "And Jesus cried out again with a loud voice, and yielded up his spirit (pneuma)." 1 Peter 3:18-19 "For Christ also suffered once for sins, the just for the unjust, that he might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh, but made alive in the Spirit; in which spirit he went and made proclamation to the spirits in prison."

In order for the resurrection to be the return of the dead body, at least the dead body must first be restored to life, and the spirit must enter the body like Jairus' daughter. Then, in the end, we will be in the same state as Jairus' daughter, and Jesus is the first fruit of the resurrection. Therefore, the Bible tells us that the resurrection is not the return of the body received from the parents.

The apostle Paul speaks of the resurrection body as a spiritual body. In 1 Corinthians 15:35-38, “But who will ask, ‘How are the dead raised? With what kind of body do they come?’ Foolish one! What you sow is not made alive unless it dies. And what you sow, you do not sow that body that will be, but a bare grain, perhaps of wheat or of some other grain. But God gives it a body just as he has chosen, and to each seed its own body.”

The farmer sows the seed, but he sows the form of the future. He sows the seed thinking that the seed will later become fruit. The seed coat dies (disappears) and the germ inside it grows and changes into a different form.

1 Corinthians 15:42-44 "So is it with the resurrection of the dead. It is sown in corruption, it is raised (en aphtarsia) in imperishability. It is sown (eigeiretai) in dishonor, it is raised (en aphtarsia) in glory. It is sown in weakness, it is raised in power. It is sown a natural body, it is raised a spiritual body. If there is a natural body, there is also a spiritual body."

En aphtharsia (ἐν φθορᾷ) means in eternal life, and egeiretai (ἐγείρεται) means to arise. In eternal life, the spirit arises. Soma pneumatikō, translated as spiritual body, is the body of the spirit. The resurrection tells us that it is not a physical body but a spiritual body.

1 Corinthians 15:50 "Now this I say, brethren, that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God; neither does the perishable inherit the imperishable."

In John 6:63, it says, "It is the Spirit who gives life; the flesh profits nothing. The words that I have spoken to you are spirit and life."

Galatians 2:20 "I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me."

In this way, through numerous Bible verses, it speaks of spiritual resurrection. To summarize the resurrection, we can say that it means that the spirit trapped in the body dies, but the spirit comes back to life from the dead, and so it returns to its previous state by wearing a body (spiritual body) that comes from heaven, not from physical parents.

Second, is the resurrection of the saints in Christ a future resurrection that will occur after the death of the body, or is it a present resurrection?

Romans 6:5 says, "For if we have been united with him in a death like his, certainly we will also be in a resurrection like his." The unity with his death comes first, and the unity with his resurrection comes next.

John 11:23-26 Jesus said to her, “Your brother will rise again.” Martha said to her, “I know that he will rise again in the resurrection on the last day.” Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in me will live, even though he dies; and whoever lives and believes in me will never die. Do you believe this?”

When Martha's brother Lazarus died, Martha said that if Jesus had been at her house, he would not have died. In chapter 11, verse 22, Martha answered, "I believe that whatever we ask of God, he will give us." That's why Jesus said, "He will live again," but Martha was thinking of "living again" not as something present, but as a resurrection on the last day in the future after the death of the flesh. What Jesus wants is something present.

In verses 23-26 of chapter 11, Jesus said to Martha, "I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in me, though his spirit was dead, will live, and when his spirit is alive, he will receive the gift of faith from heaven and never die." If we look at this from the perspective of the flesh, it means, "He who believes in me, though his flesh dies, will live someday, and whoever believes in me while his flesh is alive will never die." The sentence structure is very awkward. The Bible speaks of the spirit, but believers think of the resurrection of the flesh.

In 2 Corinthians 5:17, it says, "Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new." This means that he died with the cross of Jesus and was resurrected with Christ.

John 6:48-50 "I am the bread of life. Your ancestors ate manna in the wilderness, and they died. This is the bread that comes down from heaven, so that one may eat of it and not die." The bread coming down from heaven signifies resurrection life, so that one may eat of it and not die. Immortality does not refer to the flesh, but has a spiritual meaning. In other words, it means being united with the resurrection of Christ and living eternally as a spiritual body.