Sunday School | The Chair Passage of the Resurrection

Introduction

We're in the midst of a long, multi-year comprehensive doctrine survey. We're walking through all ten primary areas of theology, beginning with theology proper. Caleb is need of the best Love Caleb. Wait, I can't even see it now. All right, Caleb, love Caleb Meyer. So theology proper—the doctrine of the Father—and then Christology—the doctrine of the Son—and then the doctrine of the Spirit. And then all these things we walk all the way down through church, Bible, End Times, salvation, sin, man, all the stuff. And we are in the midst right now of our study of Christology—the second person of the Trinity.

In particular, we take that and we break that down into ten sections. Do you remember them? The ten areas of Christ's life that we're seeing his ministry through. I'm putting you on the spot. Do you have any of them? Death and resurrection, very good. Remember all ten and be remembered the others. We're looking at the work of Christ through the lenses of his—what's the very first one? His incarnation, his teaching, his miracles, his obedient life, his death and resurrection. Resurrection is where we're at right now. What's after that? His ascension to reign as king, yes. Giving of the Spirit, his intercession for sinners, and eventually his return to raise the dead and restore all things.

Okay, and today we're still on resurrection with a sneak peek to his return to restore all things because what you might recall is last week. When we began to look at the resurrection, we began—we started our little survey on Christ's resurrection, not in the Gospels where his resurrection actually happened, but in what I would suggest to you is the chair doctrine of the resurrection—the chair passage of the resurrection. Do you know the idea of a chair passage? Chair is kind of used as a metaphor; it's a word for this, and it means authority, right? The throne, the seat. So the chair of the department is the head of the department, right? You familiar with this language or the first chair in an orchestra—the lead?

Catherine says, okay, yeah, so hang on. So that's true. Romans 8 very good. Romans 8 does talk about his resurrection. Lots of places talk about his resurrection, lots and lots of places. But probably we're gonna get the medius chunk of theology about the resurrection in what we would again call the chair passage or the seat of the doctrine resides, and we looked at it last week. Do you remember what it is? Probably the most important passage on the resurrection of Christ. Okay, it is 1 Corinthians 15. Now, 1 Corinthians 15 is where we find it, and that whole chapter is about resurrection. Right? And it has probably the earliest creed about the resurrection. If you have your Bible, you can turn there; last week, we double-clicked on one phrase in 1 Corinthians 15, and that phrase was “According to the Scriptures”—that he was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures.

So that kind of sent us on a rabbit trail down to the Old Testament with the recognition that the return, the resurrection of the Messiah, was not some surprise anomaly but it was predicted, so much so that Jesus was talking to the disciples and he's like, how do you not get this right? And John even reflects, man, we were so dumb. We didn't understand that the Messiah had to rise from the dead. Right? To chase that down, we looked at some of these passages where it's anticipated, predicted—I would say. Among the most important is probably Isaiah 53. Where after the suffering of the soul, he will see the light of life. But the one that the New Testament loves to quote was a psalm—do you remember which psalm it was? Psalm 16.

Psalm 16 is quoted a couple of times; Peter quotes it, Paul quotes it. And they saw that Psalm 16 wasn't it that they're like y'all should have seen this coming? Because Psalm 16 anticipates that somebody—not everybody—somebody is not going to have their body decay. Everybody else's bodies will decay—but somebody's won't, right? And that's ultimately going to be the Messiah. That's what happens to Jesus. Now, in that, some—in 1 Corinthians 15—and not only does it teach us that Christ's resurrection is according to the Scripture, that it's anticipated, it was predicted, it's all part of the plan, but it also says that as the resurrected one, Christ is something else. Okay, take a look at 1 Corinthians 15. So we're all kind of down. It's a long passage; this is really what we want to go after.

Look at chapter 15, verse 20. And it says, but Christ has indeed been raised from the dead, and then he uses a funny little term—the first fruits of those who have fallen asleep. As Paul is using the term “first fruits” here, what does that mean? He was the first fruits in the sense of what? First one to do it, yes. But there's more than just the first one to do it. We're all gonna be raised, right? So he really is the sample, and I think the illustration I used with you guys is he's the sample scoop of ice cream at Blue Cow, right? And whatever is true of this spoonful of ice cream, he's the spoonful of ice cream. He's the first fruits. He's the sample. If you like the way that tastes, you're gonna like the way the whole scoop tastes because what's true of this will be true of that. And if he is our first fruits of resurrection, his resurrection anticipates our resurrection. That the funny thing about Jesus is not that he was raised from the dead—everybody is going to be raised from the dead—is going to be the most common thing across humanity. What's weird about him is that he did it so early, right? He's first. He's early. But the end times have begun. You're living in the end times because the resurrection has started. From the time of the first one raised from the dead, to the time that we are all raised from the dead, this is the eschaton. This is the final age, and you're living in it right now. What he started, you will complete. He will raise you from the dead.

Okay, so far so good. So, in order to establish that more richly, what I want to do is look at the Old Testament and the New Testament talking about the general resurrection. It's not just Messiahs who rise from the dead. It's not even just Christians who rise from the dead. Everybody is going to be raised from the dead—are you with me? Okay.

The Old Testament Perspective

Now, we looked at one passage last week as a sample of these things that anticipated. Do you remember what it was? The one that we saw—not about Jesus' resurrection—that was Psalm 16, as a 53. But we took just a sneak peek into the idea that we're all gonna be raised. Do you remember where that was? Say again. It was Daniel. Remember where? Daniel 12. All right, go to Daniel 12. This is, depending on how you look at it, you know, three or four, I think, pretty clear statements that anticipate that we're all getting raised.

Take a look at Daniel 12. We'll hit this one; we'll hit this one around. I want to spend a little more time on some of the others. So Daniel 12, verse 2, says this:

And many of those who sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake.

That's a metaphor for dead, okay? Many of those who sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake, and watch what happens because there’s a huge split. Some to everlasting life, and some to shame and everlasting contempt. And those who are wise shine like the brightness of the sky above, and those who turn many to righteousness like the stars forever and ever. All those who are in the grave, all those who are dead, all those under the dust, all those under the sea, will be raised. And then, there will be a massive split. This is essentially what you see in Matthew 25, where Jesus describes the sheep and the goats, and like all the nations will be gathered before him.

If you ever thought about that, it's not just all the people who are alive at the moment he comes back. It's everyone who has ever been alive, will be raised from the dead, and there will be the greatest division in human history. You've always heard, all your life, there's two kinds of people in the world—X and Y. There really are—those that will live forever and those that will not. Okay, we're gonna talk more about that in about two years. Okay, well, we finally get to end times, but we don't want to get too far ahead of ourselves.

Here's something someone mentioned—I forget who it was, but someone mentioned doesn't Job say something about this last week? And Job does talk about this, which is interesting because Job's probably the earliest book in the Bible. It's like super old; we kind of put it in the middle of it, but it's set like super, super, super old. So go to Job, look at Job 19. Job has three different, like really weird prescient moments about the Messiah that are pretty stunning. His insight is profound, and it's a little bit on brand because some of the guys who suffer the most have the greatest insights, which is a curious thing. So we’re gonna go to Job 19.

Listen what he says. He says:

I know that my redeemer lives, and at the last, he will stand upon the earth. After my skin has been destroyed, yet in my flesh I shall see God.

That’s an anticipation. He's Job, early, early, early, and he knows I'm going to die, but that won't be the end of the story. After my flesh is destroyed, I'm gonna stand on the earth and see him with my own eyes. That’s Resurrection language. Okay, so we see it in Job 19.

Isaiah's Prophetic Vision

And then Isaiah. Okay, now Isaiah talks about this stuff, or Isaiah suffers an enormous amount, and he has, I would probably say—I know you guys, you guys can disagree with me—I think Isaiah probably has the most insight of any Old Testament prophet, the most foresight, the most prescience. Would anybody want to challenge that? Maybe Jeremiah or something? I think it's Isaiah. I think it's Isaiah.

So take a look, go to Isaiah 25. Now, this is gonna take a little bit—you gotta peer into this, you gotta look into this more deeply. But in Isaiah 25, I'll start in verse 6. Isaiah is anticipating something that has not yet happened, even today has not yet happened. He says:

On this mountain, the Lord Almighty will prepare a feast of rich food for all peoples—a banquet of aged wine, the best of meats, and the finest of wines.

Already, when you hear that, does that make you think of anything else? The Lord is preparing a banquet, a feast. What's that make you think of? The wedding feast. What does that make you think of? Someone? Okay, John, who wrote Revelation, loves Isaiah. He's gonna mine Isaiah a lot. You're gonna hear all kinds of clips from Isaiah in Revelation; nearly every verse in Revelation is itself a quote, citation, allusion to something in the Old Testament. And Isaiah is a place he loves to go.

So this is the wedding banquet of the Lamb, okay? The Lord will prepare a feast of rich food for all peoples—cup of aged wine, the best of meats, and the finest of wines—on this mountain, he will destroy the shroud that unfolds all peoples. You want to guess what the shroud is that unfolds all people that he will destroy? Death. Look at the next line:

The sheet that covers all the nations. He will swallow up death forever.

This is again, it's Isaiah 25. This is now you might think all it means is that people who are alive won’t ever get unalived. But he means more than that. He means to people who used to be alive, who have been killed, will be un-killed. Right? And he goes on; you'll hear this in Revelation.

He will swallow up death forever. The Sovereign Lord will wipe away the tears from all faces. You've read that in Revelation. He's stealing it from Isaiah 25. He will remove the disgrace of his people from the earth. The Lord has spoken.

Now, that's Isaiah 25, and it's about this blessed time of living in the resurrection. Then, in the next chapter, in Isaiah 26, he makes it more explicit: that it’s not just that those who are already alive get to stay alive, but those who used to be alive become no longer dead. Look at 26.

Go to 26, still part of that grand vision. He and Isaiah says:

We were with child; we writhed in pain, but we gave birth to wind. We have not brought salvation to the earth; we have not given birth to the people of the world.

What he's describing there is obvious. Well, what does that sound like? What does that language sound like? We writhed in pain, but there was no baby. What’s the emotion? Grief. Disappointment. You said we were gonna live forever, and this is a train wreck. Okay? This is Isaiah's view—this grand vision—and then they’re like, yeah, but look around, because it's not that great.

To which the vision continues. In verse 19, he says:

Your dead will live; their bodies will rise. You who dwell in the dust, again like the language of Daniel, you who dwell in the dust, will wake up and shout for joy. Your dew is like the dew of the morning. The earth will give birth to her dead.

You get it? Everybody's gonna be raised from the dead. Now, we could do this more—I think maybe for the most, I’ll see if I have time. I think we might come back and look a little more in Isaiah, Isaiah 34 and 35, do a similar thing. We can see that image if we have time; I'm not sure we will. But Isaiah is deeply interested in helping us understand that everything's about to change. You can see it in Daniel 12, you see it in Isaiah 25 and 26, you see it in Job 19. I hope that's enough to at least lay the foundation. I'm not making this up. There is a rich anticipation in the Hebrew Scriptures that the earth will give birth to its dead.

Can you believe me on that so far? Okay.

New Testament Teachings on Resurrection

Once that's landed, then you got to see how do the New Testament writers talk about this. The New Testament writers, who thought about this, who talked about this—their Bible was the Hebrew Scriptures. What did they think and believe, and how did they teach this? We're gonna start with the king of all things and see what Jesus actually says.

Okay, probably for my money, Jesus’s most important comment on this is in John. So find your way forward—go to John chapter 5. And as Jesus is teaching, you guys, sometimes Jesus will say something that's new, but not very often. Right? What Jesus is almost always doing is he's just correctly teaching the Pentateuch, drawing from the Psalms, explaining what the prophets had said. There’s not a lot of new material. He's just explaining it. So here’s how he does this:

John 5:24
I tell you the truth; whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life and will not be condemned. He has crossed over from death to life.

Is that familiar? Is that one of these, like, it was that ever in your memory verses? Right? So we've crossed over from death to life. But now he's going to double down on how he's going to develop this. He says:

John 5:25
I tell you the truth: A time is coming, and has now come, when the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God, and those who hear will live.

For as the Father has life in himself, so he has granted the Son to have life in himself, and he has given him authority to judge. Because he is the Son of Man.

Now, at this moment, I want you to pause. When he says “a time is coming,” and “it has now come,” when the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God, what do you think that means? He's saying this in about 30 AD. Time is coming, and has now come, when the dead will hear the voice of God. What do you think that means there? I'm gonna give something else a shot at this, and then you guys can tell me.

What do you think it is? Okay. Okay, so the Lazarus story is funny. Do you guys think that Lazarus, after he died and was resurrected—what happened to him after that? You think he died again? He's dead, right? We all agree with this. Okay, so what that tells us is that his resurrection was not the resurrection—that it was a foreshadowing. It was an anticipation. I mean, it's the same thing. He calls to him, “Come out.” So there was something in there, and John puts it center in his story on purpose—I think it's such a big deal. But your resurrection is going to last longer than his resurrection. I don't know—how long did he live after that? Another 30 years? 40 years? Maybe he got an infection the next week; I don't even know. But you're going to be raised from the dead—not you, don’t get me wrong; you don’t get another 70 years. You get another hundred quadrillion gazillion, right? And never ever, ever gonna stop.

But the Lazarus thing is anticipation. What do you think he means when he says, “This is a moment—and has now come—when the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God”? What do you think that means? Eric?

He's stealing your thunder, bro. Probably, okay. Probably he doesn't mean it literally; probably what Jesus is doing at that moment—now Jesus loves to combine the figurative and literal—he does it all the time. So he's gonna help me. I can't think where he's doing this—I know I’m talking about. He all the time will do some illustration, then it’ll have a deeper fulfillment. He does it all the time. I can't think of a single one right now. You know what I’m talking about. He does. This is a very common thing for him to say.

Yeah, yeah, but there's—oh, man—I should’ve probably thought about this. I didn’t know you were gonna say that, so I couldn’t anticipate what he’s gonna say. Where?

What is he to help me? I can't think of a single one right now. You know what I’m talking about. He does. This is a very common thing for him to say.

Gil, go ahead.

But is it him basically saying, like, claiming this because he is the Messiah, so he can say—it's definitely a messianic claim. And in particular, he's claiming the messianic role of judge. So when he says this, he's gonna say, “I tell you the truth”—the time is coming and has an outcome—when “the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God”—Eric, I believe it's the stealing your thunder.

It’s the spiritually dead at this moment—those who hear will live, those who come forward in faith. For as the Father is the one who has life in himself, so he has granted the Son to have life in himself, and he’s given him authority to judge because he's the Son of Man.

That’s all that—like that—that he has the ability to distinguish between people's, but now, now, look what happens in verse 28. They’re kind of like freaked out by this. He’s like, “You really do that? Because it’s gonna get stronger,” and he says:

Don't be amazed at this, for a time is coming when all who are in their graves will hear his voice and come out; those who have done good will rise to live, and those who have done evil will rise to be condemned.

And once again, it’s very Daniel 12—there will be a resurrection of all, but there will be two very different expressions of this. Everyone is raised; everyone will be judged. The verdicts will be grossly divergent. That’s what he's saying.

Next, in Matthew 22, it says this, and we won't look at all these, but in Matthew 22:23, it states that same day, the Sadducees, who say there is no resurrection, came to Jesus with a question. Do you remember this? Do you know the difference, theologically, between the Pharisees and the Sadducees? Has this been cast out for you guys? Zach, you remember?

Yes, the Pharisees believe, the Sadducees do not. I heard something over here, Lynette. Okay, so you could find it helpful to have a box to put your people in. The Pharisees, generally speaking, are the fundamentalist evangelicals, and that might be a problem, because you're like, wait—is that kind of like us? Yes.

Okay, so the Pharisees—they believe all—they're the jot and tittle. They are like, they’re right down the line on their morality and theology, but their hearts are dark. The Sadducees are the liberals; they don’t believe any of this stuff. They think it’s all metaphorical, all done. Okay, and so the Sadducees and, of course, neither one of them like Jesus. Which is, be forewarned. The conservative Jesus, all the time, he has a conservative one, and the liberals, and then there's the people who actually love me. It’s a different thing. So, it’s interesting whichever side you line up on, be wary. Okay? The Sadducees, and this is how you can remember it—the Sadducees did not believe in the resurrection. So, they were sad—you see? Okay.

You’ve already heard this. Okay, so the Sadducees come, and they don’t believe it, and then Jesus kind of gets into a contest with them to prove to them that God's the God of the living, not of the dead—that there is more to this life. Jesus teaches this very clearly. He does this in Luke 14, verse 13:

But when you give a banquet, invite the poor, the crippled, the lame, the blind. And you will be blessed, although they cannot repay you, you will be repaid at the resurrection of the righteous.

Now, something important happens right here. That's actually kind of key. The New Testament will talk about the future resurrection in two ways, and it’s not always obvious which way it's using the term. So, you have to be discerning, as you approach these. One way, it uses the language of resurrection in the future as everybody’s getting raised—those in Christ, those not in Christ—a general resurrection of all, which will then be further subdivided.

Sometimes you’ll get that explicitly. Other times, the talk is different. Now, can you guess what the other way it talks about the resurrection is? Just us—because this is the better one. I’ll show you. So, if you go to Romans, let’s see, over the bit—we’ll start with Philippians 3. This might be a little clearer. Philippians 3:10.

Though it is true that everyone will be raised, not all resurrections are equal, and sometimes the language of resurrection is really used in reference to the resurrection unto eternal life. So Paul will say in Philippians 3:10:

I want to know Christ and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of sharing in his sufferings, becoming like him in his death—and so, somehow, to attain to the resurrection from the dead.

Do you hear how he's being more singular in that? You could say, Paul—you don’t need to attain a resurrection from the dead; I know as well as you do that everybody’s gonna be raised from the dead. But that’s not what he means. He doesn't want to be part of the mass that is raised from the dead. He wants to be part of those who are raised with Christ—to live forever. Does this make sense?

Jesus is the first fruits, not of the resurrection—he’s the first fruits of our resurrection. You feeling this distinction? Everybody's gonna be raised from the dead, but only some will be raised to live forever. Some are raised for judgment, others for life. The most important thing in the world is to be united with Christ in his death so that you will be united with him in his resurrection.

Now I'll let that simmer while Laura Beth asked me something.

That's such a great question. It is. Okay, so Laura Beth points out that Daniel's language is like—it doesn’t seem like it's all—it seems like a whole bunch, but don’t tell me it’s a whole bunch if it’s every one person. I don’t know why it uses that language. Certainly, it is a plurality of people. I’m not actually dug in to see, like, is it a funny translation thing? Do you happen to know something about this?

Thinking maybe it's because people that are already alive—like, he comes back—they don't have to be resurrected or something like that? Oh—that’s a good point. Okay, so maybe, I don’t know if that’s the answer, but it is accurate. What's Noah pointing out? That it's not—I'm using language of all, and it’s not accurate because when Jesus comes back, it will probably be 8 billion people on the earth, and they’re not gonna be raised from the dead. And in fact, 1 Corinthians 15 talks about that. It says, "we will not all be raised, but we will all be changed, and in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet, the dead in Christ will rise first. Then we who are here, we’re gonna be like transformed," he says. He will transform our lowly bodies to be like his glorious body, whether our lowly body has decayed or never died. So, that actually is a pretty good answer—is not everybody dies. Maybe that’s what Daniel meant, but I’m not sure. It’s a great question.

You with me so far? It’s gonna be a resurrection—everybody—but some people, in particular. Here's how Paul talks about it in Romans 6. You can have the theology of Romans 6 behind your understanding of Philippians 3. When Paul says, “I want to take part in the resurrection,” he means the resurrection of Christ, and he connects that. Look at what he says:

Romans 6:3-5
Don’t you know that all of us who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? We were therefore buried with him through baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead, through the glory of the Father, we too may live a new life.

First time through this, just like what we saw Jesus doing—John 5. He's doing this metaphorically. You die when you’re baptized—you're dying to sin, and you come out of the water so that you might live to righteousness. It’s a metaphorical identification with his death and resurrection. But then, it goes from that metaphor to literal. He says in verse 5:

If we have been united with him like this in his death, we will certainly also be united with him in his resurrection.

And this is what we're longing for—what Paul is talking about. This is what he means with Philippians 3. We're all gonna die, most of us. Noah, you might be around—who knows, okay? We will all be raised, but some will be raised unto the newness of life, to live forever, in the world described in Isaiah 25 right here on this planet. We’ll get to that. We’ll get to eschatology. You’ve probably been trained to think that you’re gonna die, go to heaven, and then spend a hundred billion years in heaven happily ever after. Total nonsense. Totally false, not accurate. You are not gonna spend forever in some other place; you're going to spend forever right here. Heaven is a moment in time; heaven is a blip. Heaven is the interval between your death and his return. Maybe that blip lasts a thousand years, maybe longer—I don’t know how long. But the good stuff—that we're waiting for—that's not the good stuff—to get to go there. The good stuff is that he’s gonna fix it here, and we will be raised from the dead to live on a renewed earth. That’s the good stuff. Again, give me two years, and I’ll explain that to you. That’s what this is all about—or you look at this. You guys go to John 11. Again, I want you to see—like, they understood this. This was part of their world, and they saw this in John 11.

What’s John 11? Do you remember? Lazarus. Okay? And Martha’s sad, Mary’s sad, everybody’s sad because their brother’s dead. And in John 11:21, Martha said to Jesus:

Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died. But I know that even now, God will give you whatever you ask.

And Jesus said to her:

Your brother will rise again.

Again, she’s not shocked; she’s not surprised. She’s like, yeah. I know, but not for a long time, right? Martha says, I know that he will rise again in the resurrection at the last day. She’s read Daniel 12; she’s read Isaiah 25, and she’s like, well, yeah, yeah, yeah—that’s all true, but let’s just do it now, all right? And there’s this whole transformation.

Look at this. Go to 2 Timothy 2. I want to do as much as I can to persuade you that we're not making this up. Okay? 2 Timothy 2, verse 16. Paul says:

Avoid godless chatter, because those who indulge in it will become more and more ungodly. Their teaching was spread like gain­ing green among them are Hymenaeus and Philetus, who have wandered away from the truth, and check this out:
They say that the resurrection has already taken place, and they destroy the faith of some.

Now, imagine you’re a brand-new Christian and you're reading 2 Timothy for the first time, and you see this language. It says, “They say that the resurrection has already taken place.” What would you think that meant? What—yeah.

You guys aren’t quite as dumb as I want you to be. Be dumber. Okay? You’re a brand-new Christian. You read this. What would you think he's talking about? Jesus’ resurrection? Okay. You guys aren’t as dumb. I want you to be dumber. Yeah. What if you’re a new Christian? You read this. What would you think? I’m going to give you a shot. Anybody? What do you think?

I probably would have thought that, right? If I understood that, then the accusation is you missed it. Jesus already came back. He already raised the dead. Sucks for you. But you don’t get to take part in that. Right? That’s the accusation. So, Paul is saying in 2 Timothy 2:18, “They say that the resurrection has already taken place,” and it’s not—that’s not what he's talking about. Of course, the resurrection of Jesus Christ has already happened when this letter was written. Paul’s not referring to that. He's talking about something else that he simply calls “the resurrection.” And within that paradigm, yes, Gary?

If you understand that, then, the accusation is you missed it. If Jesus already raised the dead, then—so like, then the resurrection has already happened, and sucks for you. You weren’t part of it. Okay? That’s what they’re saying.

Paul is telling Timothy, “Hey, listen—there are people who know the resurrection is coming, but they claim it already happened. They say it’s already happened, but we know it has not yet.” For when it happens, nobody’s gonna miss it. It will be unmistakable—that second Timothy 2:18. Yes, sir?

Starting at verse 16, but that part is verse 18. Okay? And here’s one more, and this is a little discouraging, because I just told you guys that you’re too smart for your own good, but Hebrews 6 says this:

Therefore, let us leave the elementary teachings about Christ and go on to maturity. Not laying again the foundation of repentance from acts that lead to death, and of faith in God, instructions about baptism, laying on of hands, the resurrection of the dead, and eternal judgment—all that stuff. And God permitting, we will do so.

He puts the resurrection of the dead into that list. As if it’s basic, and we’re just moving on. So, he is just telling us that the whole New Testament, over and over, says that the resurrection of the world used to be common knowledge. And I would suggest that maybe that’s less true in our age. We have a tendency, even though we say it every time we say the creed, every time we talk about the resurrection from the dead, to morph it into language that means our spirit will go to heaven. And that’s not what it means. It means your body will live on the earth.

The Future of Resurrection

Okay, Scotty?

Yes, it is. So, it’s a funny thing. We all— we gotta stop there. I’m losing time, but, historically, Christians bury their dead. Today, we cremate our dead because it's cheaper. Basically, but it’s bad theology to burn a body. God can reconstitute your ashes; that’s not a problem. And if we bury you, and he waits long enough, you’re gonna be dust anyway. But the honor, historically, Christians would honor the body—they’d plant it like a seed because they’re anticipating resurrection. So, the embodiment of the human being—we don’t think of this as a discardable carcass. We think of this as a seed that will bear fruit into something else. That language is all straight out of 1 Corinthians 15.

So yes, historically, we have always honored the body by burying it. Whereas the Easterners would burn the body because who cares about that? Now, economically, that’s complicated. I’m not suggesting that if your spouse has died and was cremated, this will be okay. But there’s messaging in how we treat our body—that’s more consistent with the resurrection. When we bury, when we cremate—right? I’m not trying to pick a fight. That’s just historically accurate.

All for now. He was raised! He is the fulfillment of all the messianic promises—that he would be—and he is also the first fruits for you. You will be as well, and we will explore that in more depth when we finally get to eschatology. Good enough? All right, thank you.