RESURRECTION, The, J. T. Oliphant The Christian hope earnestly expects the vile bodies of men now in their graves, sleeping the sleep of death, to be awakened from the dead and made to live. For God has said: “Thy dead men shall live, together with my dead body shall they arise.” Again, “The hour is coming when all that are in the graves shall hear his voice, and shall come forth; they that have
done good, unto the resurrection of life; and they that have done evil, unto the resurrection of damnation,” John 5:28. By these words of our blessed Savior, we learn three things, viz:
1st. The dead will be raised to life.
2nd. The time in which they are raised from their graves.
3rd. Who will be raised.
Hearing God, who cannot lie, in his Word say, all in their graves shall hear his voice and come forth, we believe him, and fondly expect it will be so. “Some have erred, saying the resurrection is passed.” Erred as to the time. The time of resurrection from the graves is not in the past, but future; the hour is coming. There is such an hour, or set time, and it will be here with certainty. The persons who being dead shall live, are they that have done good, and they that have done evil. “The just and the unjust.” The righteous, and the poor ungodly of all mankind will be included in the resurrection.
To further prove abundantly by God’s own word in the blessed Bible, that resurrection of the bodies of the dead is truth, read Dan. 12:2, “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.”
Also, Acts 24:14, “And have hope toward God which they themselves also allow, that there shall be a resurrection of the dead, both of the just and unjust.” This was Paul’s hope explained. The enemies of his faith also “allowed,” or admitted the truth of his hope in that one particular. (Compare Acts 23:6).
Paul again asserts and affirms this hope before King Agrippa. Acts 26:6 to 8. And he asked him the forcible question, viz; “Why should it be thought a thing incredible with you, that God should raise the dead?” God is almighty. “Nothing” good in his sight “is impossible with him.”
Considering who and what God is, what is incredible or in any way inconsistent with the nature of things ? God is sufficient as a cause, to produce that effect. God made all dust out of nothing, and formed man out of that dust. By reason of man’s sin he dies, and now returns to the dust from whence he is taken. The same God that made man have one existence, can make him to have a second living existence. And surely God, who has made both angels and men, is able to reproduce the bodies of all dead men, some to one state (of life), and some to another state (of damnation).
When God tells us by his Bible that his purpose is: there shall be a resurrection both of the just and unjust; then who dares or has any right to deny it, or to even disbelieve that word? And so “make God a liar,” 1st John 5:10.
Annihilation of all men, old and young, us and our children, is a thought so dreadfully withering to our minds, that to sensible, thoughful men and women, it is unbearable. Then how dreadful, aye, how miserable life would be, if no hope carried us beyond the grave! To have no sure prospect of meeting, seeing and associating with any of our fathers, mothers, children, and loved kindred whom we have buried in the grave, and with them buried our present happiness of their company.
O! how intolerable it would be to endure by any of us! Yet, more sad would it be that no soul of man would ever see and rejoice in the heavenly glory of its Maker above! None to live among angels and learn the bliss of God and godliness? Who is able to rejoice in non-resurrection? If there is no resurrection, then Jesus is yet dead. Death holds forever Jesus and all now sleeping in the earth and sea, so that we have no living Savior and High Priest to remove our sins and save us, if resurrection is not true. “But now is Christ risen from the dead, and become the first fruits of them that slept,” 1st Cor. 15;20. So there is some resurrection done now. Jesus body is already raised. And John saw with this Lamb, Jesus, (Rev. 14:1-4) standing on the Mount Zion, with a hundred, forty and four thousand redeemed from the earth. “These were redeemed from among men, being the first fruits unto God and to the Lamb.”
Now, dear reader, consider these first fruits. God has received them up in heaven to himself from the earth. “First fruits of them that slept,” of all the dead. Read your Bible and answer this question; Did God ever receive an offering of first fruits from the vineyard, orchard, or wheat field in the hands of a high priest in Moses’ tabernacle or Solomon’s temple, and not preserve, mature, and save the crop from which that offering was taken? No. The first fruits received, then the crop was safe, and harvested in due time in good maturity. In that was seen the principle of the resurrection. The law of first fruits (Ex. 22:29; and Prov. 3:9,10), is the law of the resurrection.
So God having received the body of Jesus and those of a hundred, forty and four thousand of his church as first fruits of all the dead; this secures and makes safe the “harvest that truly is great of gathering in the entire crop remaining in the field” (the world). And just so sure as his crucified body was raised from the new sepulcher, with nail prints in its hands and a spear-wound in its side, and so exhibited to Thomas and the rest of his disciples, and afterward it was received up from Mount Olivet to heaven, even so sure will the bodies of all saints be raised like his.
Jesus is the pattern like unto which all saved must be fashioned. Yes, even our poor bodies. For it is written, Phil. 3:20,21, “For our conversation is in heaven; from whence also we look for the Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ; who shall change our vile body that it may be fashioned like unto his glorious body,” etc. Mark, our vile body is the thing he shall change. Change the vile or sinful body to a glorious body. Into a body all filled and clothed with glory. Not glory of earth, nor of stars and planets, but the glory of our ever blessed Jesus in heaven. Also Rom. 8:11.
O what a change to be made in a vile human body! God can make it easily, I suppose. I have thought it would be no difficult work to the omnipotent, eternal, ever blessed God to make this change in our bodies, for he will do it so quickly. To him it is the work of a moment. The entire change can be made by him in the twinkling of an eye. Strange it is that what is done by him so very quickly and hence so easily, should be so very difficult to men to even believe.
Why is only the believing so difficult to men of brains, common sense and scholarship? Let Jesus’s words answer, Matt. 22:29, “Ye do err, not knowing the scriptures, nor the power of God.” Ignorance of God’s power, and of the Bible, is why men live in error about this change.
Then in 1 Cor. 15:5,52, read how it is done, “Behold, I show you a mystery; we shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed, 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.”
To further disperse the clouds, fog and smoke of ignorance from our minds, and aid in ridding us of error on this subject, read 1 Thess. 4:13-18, “But I would not have you ignorant, brethren, concerning them which are asleep, that ye sorrow not, even as others which have no hope.” Remove the ignorance on this subject and it lessens sorrow about the dead. The light of truth as relates to when, and how, the dead will be made alive, increases hope in the soul. Hope saves from grief and sweetens even our tears. This rests on Jesus being raised. “For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so them also which sleep in Jesus will God bring with him.” Believe God did raise Jesus from the dead, and it will be difficult to believe those in him will not also be raised.
Christ is raised for us. Its effect must also be seen in us. “The Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God; and the dead in Christ shall rise first; then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air; and so shall we ever be with the Lord.”
All this is said to those in Christ, new creatures in spirit and born again. The new birth is a change, a miraculous resurrection of the soul. The body must be born again when it comes from the grave, even as Christ is “the first born from the dead.” Both the change of soul and body is a miracle of God’s power, and display of his reigning grace.
The natural soul and body must be made spiritual, to live and dwell in a spiritual world. Earth is a natural world; heaven is a supernatural or spiritual world; the glory of one is not the glory of the other; hence, those who live on earth must be changed in their state or condition, to another state, to live in and enjoy heaven. Fish could not survive in the open air, nor birds in the water, unless God who made change their state by recreation. So is illustrated (1 Cor. 15:39) that mysterious change God makes in men to fit them for his heavenly kingdom.
By his creative power, they “are created anew.” By the “renewing” power of his Spirit they are made “new creatures” for a new world, a new home. To effect this great work in us none but God our Savior is able. “Jesus is the resurrection and the life; he that believeth in him, though he were dead, yet shall he live.” He then is the fullness and power, the life and essence of the resurrection. Examples were given on earth showing forth this power in the resurrection of Lazarus of Bethany, the widow’s son, the ruler’s daughter, and, in fact, in all the miracles he wrought. He that changed water to best wine, is able to change an earthly body into a heavenly body. For we read, “As we have born the image of the earthy, (the first Adam) we shall also bear the image of the heavenly,” (of Christ). 1 Cor. 15:49.
Again, in verses 53,54, “For this incorruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality.” So when this is done, then what will be? “Death swallowed up in victory.” The last and all enemies destroyed. Yes, even death destroyed. “There shall be no more death,” Rev. 21:4. If there shall be no more death, and death is ever destroyed, then I ask, can there be any remaining dead: How death can be destroyed and the dead not released and raised, we cannot see.
By the fullness, power and grace in Christ, those who dwell in, and die in the Lord, shall also “in Christ be made alive.” For in him they possess eternal life. Not so of those out of Christ. Out of Christ, the wrath of God abideth on them. The law worketh wrath; it takes its due course on those out of Christ, out of the “hiding place, the “covert” of saints, and they have no shelter from wrath, no cloak or covering for their sins. Then how blessed is that soul whose “life is hid with Christ in God.” So that “when he who is our life shall appear, then shall we also appear with him in glory.” Here is seen “good hope and everlasting consolation given us through grace.”
Perhaps you often try to imagine in your minds the glory of the scene when Christ and the saints all appear in glory together. Survey his transfiguration on the mount. He is suddenly covered by a bright cloud, his countenance is as the sun, his garments shining exceeding white as no fuller could white them, then heavenly visitors with him. Let this scene aid our weak minds in looking for the glorious appearing of the great God and our Savior in this world, with his people, at his second coming, for he will come again in like manner as he ascended up from Mount Olivet in a bright cloud of glory.
Remember his promise, “I will not leave you comfortless, I will come unto you.” “Behold I come quickly.” Unexpectedly to most men on earth, he will come as a thief in the night. Many, unprepared for his coming, shall wail because of his sudden presence, to judge and reward all men. Paul certifies, “As it is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the judgment; so Christ was once offered to bear the sins of many. But unto them that look for him will he appear the second time without sin unto salvation.”
When he came before, he bore our sins in his body. When he comes again he will come without sin and make us like him; to make us sinless, immortal and all-glorious and heavenly, fit for a new home in heaven with God. Now, our sure and steadfast hope in Christ causes us to expect all this, will soon come to pass. We look for and greatly desire the glorious coming of Jesus, our adorable and blessed Savior, when we shall meet all redeemed souls of every age— patriarchs and prophets, apostles and saints, adults and infants, of all time; black and white, rich and poor, the sane and the idiot, are all to be changed, resurrected. God’s grace will be honored and glorified in its sovereign power, and impartial goodness in saving and resurrecting a mighty host which no man can number, out of every nation, kindred, tongue and people under heaven, to stand with him on Mount Zion. “And so shall they ever be with the Lord.”
The use to be made of this subject, as we learn from the words of Paul, is to “comfort one another with these words.’ You will often be in trouble. These truths will comfort you. Comfort the bereaved and desolate. Let them be used on all occasions, these words are soothing and consoling. Another use is to prompt us to active obedience to God.
In 1 Cor. 15, last verse, it is said, “Therefore, my brethren, dearly beloved, be ye steadfast, always abounding in the work of the Lord, forasmuch as ye know that your labor is not in vain in the Lord.” This encouraging doctrine should be used to enforce a steadfast obedience at all times. Good works are not lost if resurrection is truth.