23 The Resurrection

The Resurrection By Prof. Norman Fox, New York

“For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so them also which sleep in Jesus will God bring with him.”— 1 Thessalonians 4:14. When God created the spirit of man, he created it in union with a material body. This being so, the question may arise whether that union will not be perpetual; whether though the body go down into the grave, it shall not be raised again to exist with the spirit forever. That the body shall live again has been the belief of the Church through all the ages. Hardly the smallest sect has taken exception to the formula, “I believe in the resurrection of the body.” It has ever and universally been felt that if the Bible plainly teaches anything at all, it teaches that the body which is laid in the grave shall yet be raised therefrom.

I. It is true that the Bible nowhere contains the exact phrase “the resurrection of the body.” And there has appeared here and there the doctrine that the rising from the dead of which the Scriptures speak is not the rising again of the very body which was laid in the tomb; that though the spirit in the future will have a body, it will not be the body which now we wear. The idea is that in addition to—perhaps enclosed in—this covering of flesh and matter there is a more ethereal frame in which the spirit is clothed at death, leaving this present body behind in the grave, like the skin of the worm which the ascending butterfly has cast off—useless, worthless, never to be inhabited again. This doctrine is simply the doctrine of immortality in a bodily form; it denies any resurrection but such as takes place at the moment of death. But this teaching can never find general acceptance as the Bible doctrine of the rising from the dead. For—

1. Regarding certain ones it is expressly revealed that the body in which they enter the future state is the body of the present time. When Jesus ascended from the Mount of Olives, when Elijah was caught up in the chariot of fire, when Enoch was taken as he walked with God—in each of these cases there ascended not merely some ethereal frame, the material body being left behind, but in each case there ascended that same body of flesh and bone in which the years of life had been spent. We are told (1 Thessalonians 4:17) that when the Lord shall descend from heaven and the dead in Christ shall rise, those who are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air — caught up, of course, in the bodies in which they there stand — and so shall they ever be with the Lord. Now if—as of course must be the case—all bodies of the future saints shall be alike, then must all wear the bodies of the present time—”changed,” of course, as Paul explains to the Corinthians (1 Corinthians 15:52) — but still the same bodies which they wore on the present earth.

2. According to the teaching we are now considering, the saints who have passed from earth have already fully attained the rising from the dead. But in the Bible teaching this rising is yet to take place. It is not until “the last trump” that “the dead shall be raised” (1 Corinthians 15:52); not until “the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout” that “the dead in Christ shall rise.” (1 Thessalonians 4:16.) In many passages the time of the rising is given as still in the future. This raising, therefore, can be nothing less than the rising of the body from the grave.

3. If the saints attain the rising from the dead when this present body dies, then Jesus rose from the dead the very moment he died on the cross. And how, then, does Scripture always say that he rose on the third day? But if Jesus did not rise from the dead until his body rose from the grave, then those that sleep in Jesus will not have risen till their bodies rise from the tomb.

4. The idea that the resurrection is simply existence after the death of the body leaves no force whatever to Paul’s argument based on the rising of Christ’s body. “If Christ,” he says, “be preached that he rose from the dead, how say some among you that there is no resurrection from the dead?” (1 Corinthians 15:12.) Now the existence of Christ in a body which had risen would be no proof at all of the continued existence of those whose bodies had not risen. To prove that these were still in being, he should have cited the appearance of some departed one whose body was still in the tomb. The case of Jesus is just the case which would prove nothing regarding the continued existence of those whose bodies were still lying in the grave. “If there be no resurrection from the dead,” says Paul, “then is Christ not risen.” Now it would not be admitted that if there was no existence after death for those whose bodies were still in the tomb, one could not be still in existence whose body had been restored to life. The Apostle’s argument is: if there be no rising of the body from the grave, then is Jesus’ body not risen from the grave; but if Jesus’ body be risen from the grave, how say some among you that there is no such thing as the rising of the body from the grave? The whole line of argument which the Apostle employs shows that the rising from the dead of which he was endeavoring to convince the Corinthians was not simply the existence of the spirit after the death of the body, but the rising to life again of the body itself.

5. And that the body of the present is to be the body of the future is declared in Scripture in so many words. It is that which is sown in weakness which is to be raised in power, the corruptible which shall put on incorruption, the mortal which shall put on immortality. (1 Corinthians 15) We read (Php 3:21) that Christ “shall change our vile (our lowly) body that it (the same) may be fashioned like unto his glorious body.” And in other places do the Scriptures plainly declare that as the Saviour shall exist forever in the body which he wore when on earth, so the bodies of his saints shall be raised from the tomb to exist with their spirits forever.

II.—But the idea of the restoration of this present body suggests difficulties which are indeed great. It decays, and its substance passing off in gases is diffused throughout the whole atmosphere; consumed with fire, it ascends in smoke and is dispelled to the four corners of the heavens, or its indistinguishable ashes are trampled into the sod; cast into the sea, it is dissolved by the waters and wafted throughout the entire globe. Now it is not strange that to the humblest faith the question should arise, How can a body thus destroyed be ever restored?

He were a wise man indeed who should say how it could be done. But he must be a wiser yet to say that it could not be done. What man has so measured the power and skill of the one who created both spirit and body as to say just where his might and wisdom cease? And that God should restore this present body is no more incredible than many other things which we believe he has done or will do.

1. We read that Elijah was caught up into heaven; that the body of Jesus ascended on high; that the bodies of the saints who are alive at Christ’s coming shall be caught up to meet the Lord in the air. If we believe the Bible at all, we must believe fully in these things. But explain to me just how, under the workings of gravitation and other natural forces, all these things can take place. Surely it is just as difficult to believe that at Christ’s coming the bodies of the living saints shall be caught up in the clouds as to believe that the bodies of the dead in Christ shall be raised to be caught up with them. If we allow that the one is not impossible, how shall we say that the other may not take place?

2. We read that God formed man’s body out of the dust of the ground. Do you believe that statement? Tell me, then, how he did it; how from inert clay could be formed the quivering muscle, the vivid nerve, the eye, the ear, the hand. But God did this thing; nay, he repeats that mighty miracle every day. In the dust of the ground is planted a corn of wheat. It sprouts, it grows; you have the full corn in the ear. What is that head of wheat? It is that dust of the ground which God has transformed into grain. You make that wheat into bread and eat that bread, and it becomes a part of your muscle and of your bone. What is that muscle? what is that bone I It is merely that dust of the ground which God has made into your body. Death and resurrection are among the very commonest events of every-day life. You wipe from your brow a drop of perspiration. What is that drop of perspiration? It is death; it is so much of the substance of your body which has been destroyed and Las passed away. You eat a morsel of food, and that loss is repaired. What is that eating of food and the incorporation of it into your physical frame? It is resurrection. That part of the body which was destroyed is restored. And Bo death and resurrection are going on within us all the time. Did you ever think of it ?—that every time you eat a morsel of bread there takes place within your body as wonderful an event as when the body was first formed from the dust—as wonderful an event as shall occur when the dead of all the ages shall arise to life again. Now if God formed this body in the beginning out of the dust of the ground, if in part, at least, he repeats that great miracle every day of our lives, can he not in the end of time once more raise up that body from the dust?

3. Again. We read that Jesus was raised from the dead. We read also that there was a restoration to life of two children — one by Elijah and the other by Elisha; also of the man that was laid in Elisha’s grave; also of Jairus’ daughter, the young man at Nain and Lazarus, by the Saviour; also of Dorcas, by Peter, and Eutychus, by Paul. Now if all these were raised up from death, why may there not be a general resurrection?

1 know that some declare that in the case of Jesus and Lazarus and the others who have been raised from the dead, the usual corruption of the body did not take place. But I know not on what grounds this assertion can be based. As to the text —” Nor suffer thine holy one to see corruption”—it can have no broader meaning than the correlative passage, “Thou wilt not leave my soul in hell.” But as the Saviour was left for the time being within the gates of death, Bo we must suppose a corresponding temporary abandonment to the power of death, which includes corruption. In the case of Jesus, of Lazarus, and of the others that were raised from the dead, I see no reason to suppose otherwise than that corruption commenced as hi the usual case. Now when death has struck down one of our dear ones, it may be two or three days before we are compelled to bury our dead out of our sight; but we must suppose that in each case the destruction of the tissues of the system commences the moment the breath leaves the lips. Therefore in the case of Jairus’ daughter, who was raised immediately — say within half an hour of her death—as well as in that of Lazarus, who had lain so long in the grave that the prudent Martha feared to have the tomb unclosed, we must suppose that the body was restored to life after a portion of its fabric had been destroyed and had passed away into the atmosphere. Now such a partial restoration is just as difficult to understand as one where the component parts are all dispersed and separated. If the cue has taken place, then may the other take place also. But suppose we allow that in the case of these resurrections there had been no dissolution of any part of the body, the matter remains still the same. If God could for three days keep in place all the particles of matter composing the body of Jesus, so that the body could be raised again, why could he not (if such a thing were necessary), keep at hand each of the particles of matter composing each of the bodies of all the thousands of the dead to restore those bodies to life in the end of time? Adopt what scientific theory you please regarding the cases of resurrection which have already occurred, and the question still remains, Why, if certain bodies have been restored to life, may not the bodies of the countless dead all live again? The case of which Matthew speaks in his account of the crucifixion is one of especial interest in this connection. He tells us that when Jesus yielded up the ghost “the graves were opened and many bodies of the saints which slept arose and came out of the graves after his resurrection, and went into the holy city and appeared unto many.” When Jesus died graves were opened, showing that in his death the power of death was broken. After his resurrection— not before, for he was the first born from the dead — the bodies of these saints came forth out of their tombs and entered into the holy city, the city of Jerusalem, and as Jesus showed himself to his disciples, so these appeared unto the living. Who were these sleeping saints? I have sometimes thought they were men of old who had looked with especial longing for the coming of the Messiah; men who had climbed the mountain-tops of faith, and while the world around them was still slumbering in darkness their eyes had caught from afar the beams of the rising sun. How long had these saints been sleeping? It were at least more natural to suppose that they were the ancient dead whose forms had gone back centuries before to their native dust. And what became of these risen bodies? Did they, like the body of Lazarus, go back to the grave again, or may we suppose that this was their final resurrection, and that when Jesus ascended up on high these risen saints ascended with him as first fruits and trophies of his conquest, to grace his triumphal return to his Father’s throne? But casting aside all surmises, this much of historic fact remains: that when Christ arose “many bodies of the saints which slept arose and came forth out of their graves” with him; and if we believe this, must we not believe in the possibility of a general resurrection, as well as in the fact that the rising from the dead is the rising again of the very body that was laid in the tomb? This whole topic is covered by the argument of Paul to the Corinthians: “If Christ be preached that he rose from the dead, how say some among you that there is no resurrection of the dead?” If you believe that Christ’s body rose from the tomb, how say you that there is no such thing as a body’s rising from the tomb?” For,” he says,” if the dead rise not, then is Christ not raised.” If it be absolutely certain that the grave will not give up its dead, then our Saviour,” who died and was buried, is still sleeping within its iron portals. If human science can make it certain that the dead form cannot rise again, then it can do what Pilate’s guard could not do — it can keep the Saviour’s body within the tomb. On the other hand, if our faith can say with Paul, “But now is Christ risen from the dead,” then can we believe that the dead in Christ shall rise with him. When Jesus himself burst through the bars of the tomb, he left behind him a path broad enough for all the armies of his saints to come forth after him.

III.—But many of the difficulties connected with the doctrine of the Resurrection disappear of themselves on a little reflection.

1. This question, for instance, is sometimes brought forward: The body dies—it decays, and its substance passes into some plant, which is eaten by and becomes part of the body of some other person, who in turn dies, and this same matter enters the system of still a third. Now, how can you say that in each case the same body shall arise when the same particles of matter went to make up more than one body? This question proceeds on the assumption that, in order to have the same body, you must have the same particles of matter composing the body. But is this assumption correct? You have the same body to-day that you had yesterday, have you not? But the particles of matter composing your body are not the same now as they were then. By action—by thought, even — there is a continual waste of the tissues of the system, which waste food is required to repair. For every ounce of food incorporated into the system of a full-grown man to-day there must have been just so much waste of the system since yesterday. Thus the particles of matter composing our bodies are changing — changing all the while — never for two successive moments precisely the same — and physiologists tell us that in the course of seven years or so there is a complete change — that the man of fifty-has had the particles of matter composing his system entirely changed something like seven different times. And yet you say that all the while it is the same body. It is the same body, because the animating principle is ever the same. Now, if the animating principle of your body has let go some of the particles of matter which it held to itself yesterday, and has taken to itself in their place others from the food which you have eaten to-day, and, notwithstanding this partial change of component particles, you say it is still the same body—what matters it though the complete change be instantaneous instead of gradual? If, lying in the grave, the animating principle of your body suffers every particle of matter now composing it to escape, and then, by and by, aroused by Jehovah’s voice, it arises and takes to itself, not as now from food and drink, but, as in the beginning, from the dust of the earth — not as now, in seven years’ time, but in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, it takes to itself enough, though entirely different particles of matter, to rebuild the frame — the body with which it lay down and the body with which it arises are the same body in precisely the same sense as the body you have now is the body you had yesterday, or last week, or ten years ago.

2. To some, the rising of the same body suggests the perpetuation of the weaknesses and the imperfections of the body. One dies in infancy— will he rise to eternal weakness and helplessness? Another goes down to the grave decrepit with age — will he rise weak, tottering, decrepit? Here is one who has gone through life a twisted cripple — some of his limbs were wanting at his birth, perhaps —or he is blind, or he has never had his hearing — will he rise crippled, blind, defective? This by no means follows. When one lies before us helpless in the cradle, and after a few years stands forth a stalwart man — has he not still the same body? If the one bent with age should wash in the fabled fountain of youth and come forth young again, would he not still have the same body? When the eyes of the man born blind were opened — when the man received strength who had been lame from his mother’s womb — when the man’s withered arm was healed, had he not still the same body? For the weakness, the disease, the imperfection is no part of the body itself; these are not of the substance, but are only accidents of the body, and the body is the same though these all be done away, and the frame stand before us in strength and in perfection. As the soul of man is the same soul, though it be freed from all sin and made perfect in holiness, so the body may be the same body with all its imperfections done away. And with the doctrine of the resurrection should be joined the doctrine of the redemption of the body. For, though it is a glorious thought that the soul freed from sin should be made perfect in Christ Jesus, yet not in that alone will have come to pass that which is written, “Death is (completely) swallowed up in victory.” For the body —the primeval companion of the spirit — is still lying in the prison house of death. But as the body of our Lord was raised up from the grave, so shall the body of his disciple come forth from the tomb. And as all sin is cleansed from the mind, so every trace of the effects of sin shall be gone from the body. It shall arise, not as it went down into the grave, weak, emaciated, Marred and scarred by the power of the great enemy, but glorified, and thus made worthy to be the companion of the glorified spirit. The brow that was furrowed with care shall be fair with immortal beauty. The eyes that were dim with watching and with weeping shall kindle with undying radiance. The form that was bowed with trouble and with burdens shall be erect with immortal vigor, and the whole frame shall be transformed into the glory of God’s own image. When John in his wondrous vision beheld the risen Lord, it was not as the Lord once was, with visage marred more than any man, and his form more than the sons of men; it was not as the Lord appeared when he thirsted by the well of Samaria, or tottered beneath the burden of the cross. But “his head and his hairs were white like wool, as white as snow, and his eyes were as a flame of fire, and his feet like unto fine brass as if they burned in a furnace, and his voice as the Bound of many waters.” So, when the disciple shall rise to meet his risen Lord, he shall be changed into that same glory. As he went down into the grave in the likeness of the first Adam, he shall rise therefrom in the likeness of the second Adam. In weakness, in suffering, in pain and in death, he has borne the image of the earthy — in brightness, in beauty, in glory and in power, he shall bear the image of the heavenly. As the human form in its first creation must have been the perfection of beauty and strength, much more, created anew in Christ, shall it be the model of every physical glory and excellence.

IY.—But someone may inquire regarding the nature of the bodies of the risen saints. On this point no one can speak with any definiteness. The Apostle tells us that the bodies of those who are alive at Christ’s coming shall be “changed.” The body of Elijah must have undergone some change at his translation. The body of Jesus now in glory is, of course, different from what it was on earth. So the bodies of the rising saints shall undergo a transformation. Weakness shall gird itself with power— the corrupt shall become incorruptible — dishonor shall be arrayed in glory—and the natural body, the body which we possess in common with the brutes, shall become a spiritual body—one which we shall possess in common with the angels. But just in what this transformation will consist, it were vain to speculate. If, on the morning of creation, there had been presented a handful of the dust of the ground, not the loftiest angelic intellect could have described from it the form and properties of the man that was to be created therefrom. If there were brought before us from some distant land a seed which we had never seen before — a black and shriveled seed — not by placing it under the most powerful microscope; not though the keenest scalpel unwound the folds of its tissues; not though the most skillful chemistry analyzed its substance, could one describe the stately plant, the beautiful flower, the luscious fruit which should spring from that shapeless seed. No more by the widest range of surmise can we, from the body of the present, describe that body which shall be.

We sometimes read detailed descriptions of the scenes of the resurrection. We are told just how bone shall come to bone, and how the new body shall take form. But it is safer not to go beyond the statements of the Scriptures — the sum of which statements is merely this: Jesus had a body like ours; that body, dying, was laid in the grave; that same body rose from the grave, and, ascending up on high, is now glorified at God’s right hand. So, though the bodies of his saints go down into the grave, they shall rise therefrom, and, glorified, shall ascend to meet the Lord in the air, to be forever with him. As to the details of the resurrection, it is not probable that we could understand them if they were all laid before us. But though many questions we might ask are left unanswered, the great truth itself stands clearly forth, that as Jesus now sits at the right hand of God in that form which was born of a woman, so, though our bodies slumber for a time in the grave, they shall arise, and in them shall we exist forever.

V.—The doctrine of the Resurrection conveys certain important lessons.

1. It teaches us the dignity of the human frame. Some schools of philosophy have regarded matter as inherently vile — as the seat of all sin and evil. On this idea many religionists have despised the body — subjecting it to neglects and tortures — thinking that the more the body was oppressed and trampled on the more completely was the spirit freed. So often in our own time do we hear of the cumbering clay, the burden of the flesh, as if the body were but a clog from which the spirit might well desire to part forever. But the doctrine of the resurrection teaches us that this body of ours is not in itself sinful; that it is only the abused servant of the wicked soul; that if the plague-spot of sin be upon it, it is merely the livery of its tyrant master, the reprobate mind. This human body God has thought fit to be the eternal dwelling place of the glorified spirit—nay, even the King of Kings and Lord of Lords has thought it not unworthy to be worn by him as the robe of his majesty on the great white throne of eternity. If, therefore, the eternal duration of the mind makes it worthy of culture—if its exalted destination renders it worthy of respect— then should the body also be honored and esteemed, tor it shall exist as long as the mind shall exist, twin sister of the spirit in the heirship of eternity.

2. The doctrine of the Resurrection lights up the darkness of the grave. As we recall the truth that the dead shall rise again, the thoughts of many a one go back to some sacred spot where precious dust is sleeping. But as the Saviour was destined to remain but three days in the tomb, so the bodies of the saints shall be left there only for a season. As we lay the pious dead to rest; as we look down into the awful chasm of the grave, we can even then begin to sing our song of triumph. “Exult not, O, grave, over thy victory, for soon it shall be rent from thy grasp. Only for a little while — but for a little while shalt thou retain the dear form we now surrender to thee.” For, as the stone was rolled away from the door of the Saviour’s sepulchre, so shall be rent the gates of the tombs where his loved ones are sleeping. The angels that watched by the sepulchre of Joseph of Arimathea, they hover above the spot where each of Christ’s saints is sleeping, and not one shall be left in the power of the tomb. From the drifting currents of ocean; from the confused trenches of the battle field; from the unmarked grave in the distant lands of earth, they shall all come up in glad answer at the call of their Lord. He knoweth his sheep by name, and the grave must give them back every one. “Wherefore, comfort one another with these words.”

3. The doctrine of the Resurrection sets forth the need and glory of redemption. I have been speaking merely of the resurrection of the dead in Christ, for it is their case alone to which the Apostle alludes in writing to their Thessalonian brethren. But there is a resurrection of the unjust as well as of the just— a resurrection to damnation as well as a resurrection to life. As for those who refuse all part in the redemption purchased by Christ, they must rise still in “the image of the earthy”—rise to a continuance of the pains which they have inherited as members of a sinful race — which they have increased by their own transgressions, and which must continue to increase as long as they continue to sin. On the other hand, redemption by Christ implies that these weak and suffering bodies of ours shall be delivered from the power of sin and pain, while evil passions and sinful habits— diseases of the soul—these, too, shall all be done away. Let us rejoice that this deliverance is offered us — let us hasten to accept it. And may the God of peace, that brought again from the dead our Lord Jesus, that great Shepherd of the sheep, through the blood of the everlasting covenant, make us perfect in every good word and work to do his will, working in us that which, is well pleasing in his sight, through Jesus Christ, to whom be glory forever and ever. Amen.