The Resurrection Promise

NOTE: THIS IS A PREVIOUSLY PUBLISHED WORK WHICH WILL BE TAUGHT ON JANUARY 25^TH AT VFO, MISS. IT HAS BEEN REVISED AND EDITED FOR CONTENT.    --TR

Jesus Christ commanded his disciples, before His ascension into the Heavens, to baptize and make disciples of all nations, in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. (Matthew 28:19)

When we are baptized, we symbolize the death to our old lives of sin, being buried with Christ, who knew no sin, and we are submerged in the waters. (Romans 5:8) For while we were yet sinners, Jesus Christ died for us. Then, as I understand it, we symbolize our resurrection to a new life, a life hidden in Christ, (Colossians 3:3) as we are raised up from the water to emerge as a new creature. That’s what Christ did; He fulfilled all righteousness known to mankind (Matthew 3:15) when he entered into the rite of baptism.

But even further is the symbolism of our future resurrection, the resurrection from sleep that those who have passed on will experience when Christ returns. This is a spiritual, yet physical resurrection that we—dead or living--will witness as Christians when Christ returns to rule and reign over all the earth for a thousand years! This is at the core of my belief, and this is what I am passing on to you; Christ is, indeed coming back! And we, too, will join with Him if we are truly God’s children.

I was listening to Pastor Tom read about Heaven last night, and it gave me a lot of food for thought. So, I looked into resurrection, and found some very helpful, tangible verses of scripture that support that premise and are even believed by some of the Old Testament Patriarchs, who did not receive the promise, but lived by faith, nevertheless. (Hebrews 11:39)

The first scripture was found in Psalms Chapter 16, Verse 10-11. It doubles for both our belief as Christians, as well as the prophetic statement of the Son of God, declaring, “For thou wilt not leave my soul in hell; neither wilt thou suffer thine Holy One to see corruption. 11) Thou wilt show me the path of life; in thy presence is fullness of joy; at thy right hand there are pleasures for evermore.”

Because as heirs we, too are not to suffer corruption because of the reconciliation of our soul to God the Father by the sacrifice of Jesus Christ!

As you can see, Jesus Christ is the one referenced as “Thine Holy One”. And indeed, at God’s right hand are “pleasures for evermore”, for who sits at the right hand of the Father? Jesus Christ! It is a privilege to know Him; He is all the fullness of joy that we need. Observe and seek His marvelous miracles, and believe!

Christ said that some of us would be only able to believe by referring to the miraculous, which He performed.

How little and meager sometimes is the faith of man! “Doubting” Thomas said that he would not believe until he touched the scars in Jesus’ hands, placed his hand in the wound in His side. The same goes for us at times. Sometimes we even balk at the idea of doing something good, unable to believe that God would want us even to perform it!  

Further, it was also said “blessed is he who believeth in me and has never seen me.” That in itself requires a measure of faith which God alone can bestow. If you have that faith, thank God for it! It is Heaven-sent. And so you and I are truly blessed today.

David then said in Psalm 17:15, proving his belief in life beyond the one we are experiencing, “As for me, I will behold thy face in righteousness; I shall be satisfied, when I awake, with thy likeness.”

The very semblance or appearance of being asleep was a term used by Jesus on occasion when He spoke of the time when people in His day had passed on. (To Jesus, who was able to wake any expired individual by merely speaking their name, it was surely true.) For a sleeping person, there is nothing to be known or experienced; they are asleep. They, for all practical purposes, are dead. But to be absent from the body is to be present with the Lord! This means that the spirit lives, even when the body has expired. Jesus also told the Jews that He was a God of the living, not of the dead. Jesus even declared David alive and well, which really puzzled the Scribes and Pharisees!

The Greeks during Paul’s day believed that the body was an imprisonment for the soul, and that upon death the soul was “released” from its prison, that only the “real person” lives forever. But scripture supports the fact that, upon the resurrection of the Son of God, the body, a “glorified one”, was reunited with the spirit. Jesus was able to both to eat and to be seen after He had risen from the dead. This means that the body and soul are not permanently separated, because Jesus Christ was the first fruit of all who have been saved for God’s purpose in eternity. In short, Jesus Christ has opened the life gate, or the way to eternal life for us all, once for all!  This is an elementary point to most Christians, but I felt it important to repeat such a marvelous truth! And upon Christ’s return, we too will be united with a “glorified body”.

1 Corinthians 15: 46- 58 speaks of our resurrected bodies in more detail. In that passage, verse 51 states, “We will not all sleep, but we will all be changed.” Verse 52 states further: “In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump: for the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed.” (KJV)

But let us go back to Psalms, in Chapter 49. The NIV states in Verse 7-9 that, “No man can redeem the life of another or give to God a ransom for him – the ransom for a life is costly, no payment is ever enough – that he should live on forever and not see decay.” Going further, David declares in Verse 13, “This is the fate of those who trust in themselves (death), and of their followers, who approve their sayings.”

Never trust in another human being for your soul to be saved; the fact that your parents lived a godly life, your husband or wife are Christian, will not guarantee your salvation. Christ is the only way. (Romans 5:7-9) Very rarely will anyone die for a righteous man, though for a good man someone might possibly dare to die. But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.

Christ even said that Moses, although trusted by the Jews, was unfortunately their accuser—in that he had given the commandments that condemned them, not to mention that he had passed on, as well! Death awaits us all, good or bad.

But David states good news next: In Psalms 49 verse 15, David asserts, “But God will redeem my life from the grave; he will surely take me to Himself.”

What faith! David knew the promise that God had made to extend not only David’s Kingdom, but also to give life hereafter to him, putting someone in his lineage on the Throne to rule and reign forever—Jesus Christ! David was indeed blessed and highly favored!

That’s the importance of Jesus’ sacrifice on the cross—because of His life and death and resurrection, we, too can feel as David did, thoroughly blessed to dwell in the House of the Lord forever and ever! What a promise, what an act of love God made when He sent His Son to be the ultimate sacrifice. Before the foundations of the world were ever formed, God knew that there would have to be a sacrifice for the sin of the man Adam and his offspring. It was all decided who that Lamb of God would be before the first man and woman were ever formed. David described it as costly, and the only one who could do it was Jesus! He alone is worthy and He alone can make our everlasting life possible, reconciling us to God the Father, through His sacrifice--in payment for our sin.

Jesus was able to lay down His life and to take it up again, and He is able to redeem us from death, and if you are a child of God, He has already sealed you and written your name in the Lamb’s Book of Life. I long for the day when we will all be united in the presence of God and His mighty angels! “For He shall receive me. Selah”. Psalms 49:15b (KJV)

Psalm 139:13-18 is a precious declaration about our lives and our ever-present help in time of need, about how God will provide for us and never leave us. “For thou hast possessed my reins: thou hast covered me in my Mother’s womb. I will praise thee: for I am fearfully and wonderfully made; marvelous are thy works; and that my soul knoweth right well. My substance was not hid from thee, when I was made in secret, and curiously wrought in the lowest parts of the earth. Thine eyes did see my substance, yet being imperfect; and in thy book all my members were written; which in continuance were fashioned when as yet there was none of them. How precious also are thy thoughts unto me, O God! How great is the sum of them! If I should count them, they are more in number than the sand; when I awake, I am still with thee.”

The NIV commentary states about this passage, “God’s character goes into the creation of every person. When you feel worthless or even begin to hate yourself, remember that God’s Spirit is ready and willing to work within you. We should have as much respect for ourselves as our Maker has for us.”

Feelings of worthlessness, self-loathing, insecurity, even self-consciousness, are all lies of the devil, planted in your conscious mind to be a stumbling block to your growth as a Blood-bought child of God.

Whether in life or after death, God will not separate Himself from His children. Jesus truly sticks closer than a brother, just what some of us need in our busy lives, the knowledge that God cannot lie or change His Mind and will be faithful--even if we falter. (Numbers 23:19) states it this way: God is not a man, that he should lie, nor a son of man, that he should change his mind. Does he not speak and then not act? Does he promise and not fulfill? For some of you who are confused, Jesus IS God. Remember that He is intimately involved in your life and is handling all of the things that are happening to you and around you. By His wondrous grace, God provided all that we would ever need--in both this life and the next!

Chapter 140 of Psalms also says simply, (Verse 13) “Surely the righteous shall give thanks unto thy name; the upright shall dwell in thy presence.” (KJV)

A tangible and promising verse follows, in Isaiah 26:19: “The dead men shall live, together with my dead body shall they arise. Awake and sing, ye that dwell in dust: for thy dew is as the dew of herbs, and the earth shall cast out the dead.” Those who suffered death during Old Testament times, before Jesus Christ lived and walked this earth, waited patiently for the redemption of their souls from Sheol. It has been said that they still wait in some cases, that they wait for the judgment of the White Throne to this day while others state that Jesus Christ has already opened up hell’s gates and delivered some and taken them on to heaven. Whatever the case may be, Christ is faithful and will not forget one soul to whom He has given the gift of life. That is a promise. That is the importance of what Christ has done!

The following verse of scripture says that waking from our sleep will take place, whether saved or unsaved. Daniel 12:2 asserts, “And many of them that sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake, some to everlasting life, and some to shame and everlasting contempt.” It is not clear as to whether all will rise at the same time or exactly when all of this will take place. But In verse 13, Daniel is told that he would rest, but would arise to “stand in thy lot at the end of the days.”

“…God does not reveal everything to us in this life. We must be content with the partial picture until he wants us to see more. He will tell us all we need to know.”

 “…Daniel was assured by God that he would rise from the dead and receive his portion in God’s eternal kingdom. Faithfulness to God has a rich reward, not necessarily in this life, but most certainly in the life to come.” (Commentary, NIV)

Going back to 1 Corinthians 15, I would like to interject here that the Bible defines what will happen to us in this way: (Verses 52-55) “In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump: for the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed. 53) For this corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality. 54) So when this corruptible shall have put on incorruption, and this mortal shall have put on immortality, then shall be brought to pass the saying 55) O death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory?”

The devil already knows, but just call the latter words an announcement of Victory! Christ has the key to hell and death! (Revelation 1:18) He said that all power was given him in heaven and on earth at the time that He was brought before His accusers and so, He did not have to suffer the cross, but He did! And that’s marvelous, miraculous, just the kind of love that we need! No one else has ever done it, and no one else ever will.

More information about Our Heavenly Dwelling lies in 2 Corinthians, 5: 1-10. It promises us that our heavenly dwelling(s) (bodies) will be permanent and perfect, while our present state causes us to groan, burdened, desiring that eternal dwelling place. In short, we long for immortality, walking by faith and not by sight.

In verse 10, the scripture states, “For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ; that every one may receive the things done in HIS body, according to that he hath done, whether it be good or bad.”

Death is the beginning of eternity in God’s Kingdom. However, from the moment we receive Christ and the Holy Spirit, our eternal life has begun. This hope is made to give us confidence and to spur us on to good works. 1 Corinthians 3:10--15 admonishes us to build our house on the Lord Jesus Christ and His ways. For as the scripture states, (10) “According to the grace of God which is given unto me, as a wise masterbuilder, I have laid the foundation, and another buildeth thereon. But let every man take heed how he buildeth thereupon. 11) For other foundation can no man lay than that is laid, which is Jesus Christ. 12) Now if any man build upon this foundation gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, stubble; 13) Every man’s work shall be made manifest; for the day shall declare it, because it shall be revealed by fire; and the fire shall try every man’s work of what sort it is. 14) If any man’s work abides which he hath built thereupon, he shall receive a reward. 15) If a man’s work shall be burned, he shall suffer loss; but he himself shall be saved; yet so as by fire.”

The latter I understand to mean that, if a person’s accomplishments are not done with the right heart, the person will survive, but will suffer losses—the destruction of their deeds--as a person who loses possessions while escaping a burning building. Still, one would have reason to rejoice--They would behold and dwell with the Most High forever! Do not tamper with the foundation that Christ has provided, however, and do not build with inferior materials. God wants your best.

The Holy Spirit has revealed to me that the motives in our hearts as to why and what we do are also materials that will either stand the test of God’s righteous requirements or no. Doing things in our own strength will not endure; only God’s spirit can make us righteous, anointed, called, and sanctified. “Turning over a new leaf” cannot bear the persecutions which come in life; only the Holy Spirit can!

Moving on to Philippians 3:21, Jesus promises here to transform our bodies into a “glorious body” like Christ’s. I like the KJV’s translation best; it proclaims as follows: “Who shall change our vile body, that it may be fashioned like unto His glorious body, according to the working whereby he is able even to subdue all things unto Himself.” When we wake from our slumber and “sleep”, even death, we will be like Him. (1 John 3:2, paraphrased)

(2 Corinthians 10:5) We, too, should practice subduing all thoughts which exalt themselves into submission to the command and the Sovereign power of Jesus Christ! Amen?

1 Thessalonians 4:13-18 gives those who are sorrowful and ignorant about the passing of friends and family, hope. God uses Paul’s pen to reveal a promise that, when Christ returns, all those who sleep in Him will return with him, and we will see them again. It also states that the dead in Christ shall rise first, then the “rapture” will occur and we who remain alive will meet Christ in the clouds of the air, to be united with Him forever. (I am paraphrasing)

Paul was writing this to comfort and to challenge the faith of those who had lost loved ones. And because Jesus came back to life, we can believe that we, too, will have new bodies and a new life, as He has, one that will never end.

“…God will turn our tragedies to triumphs, our poverty to riches, our pain to glory, and our defeat to victory. All believers throughout history will stand reunited in God’s very presence, safe and secure….” (NIV Commentary)

Finally, let me leave you with this verse of scripture: Revelation 20:  through Chapter 21: 4. It will give you more to think about in the areas of new life, new world, New Jerusalem, and promises a new earth, as well. According to this passage, not all of the dead will be raised at one time; some will not be raised until sometime after the end of the thousand years (Verse 5), while Christ rules the earth and the devil is contained in the bottomless pit.

After the thousand-year reign of Jesus Christ, the enemy will be loosed and will lay siege upon the encampment of the saints and the City of God, but God will rain fire and brimstone down and cast the devil into the lake of fire, where the beast and the false prophet are, and they shall be tormented day and night for ever and ever (Chapter 20: Verse 10).

And God will dwell with men, and there will be no more death, sorrow, crying, or pain. God will finally be re-united with man, as in the days of Adam and Eve. And the enemy will be no more. The peoples of the earth, both great and small, will then stand before the White throne judgment, and they will be judged according to what they have done. And so it will be. Amen, and amen.

Thanks be to God the Father and our Lord Jesus Christ, to whom all glory and honor belong! Blessed be the Name of the Lord! For He is Worthy! The greatest pleasure remains for those who choose to serve Him now; don’t put it off. God is calling you.