We need a good understanding of death and resurrection and life after death before we can know how to live this present life. So while we are dealing with eschatology (which is the study of final things) it will be good to open our hearts and see what Paul, under the anointing of the Holy Spirit, had to say about it. All of I Corinthians, chapter 15 is dedicated to resurrection. In verses 1 through 19, Paul tells of the resurrection appearances of Christ and presents a positive argument supporting the resurrection.
Beginning at verse 20, Paul says, But now hath Christ been raised from the dead, the firstfruits of them that are asleep. This does not mean that before Christ, no one had ever come forth from the dead, but as far as we know, they were reanimated or were translated; no great transition which we know as resurrection took place. Christ was the firstfruits, the first one to come forth from the dead in resurrection life. There were people who were raised from the dead, such as the widow’s son, the daughter of Jairus, and Lazarus, but this was not resurrection in the final sense. They represent three incursions of Christ entering into the realms of death to bring forth and reanimate, but they lived and apparently died again. The prophecies in the book of Revelation indicate that one man who was translated without seeing death must return again in human form and suffer death.
There is no Scriptural foundation for the belief that every man has to die. Hebrews 9:27 says, … it is appointed unto men once to die, and after this cometh judgment; but in Christ there is the opposite promise: … and whosoever liveth and believeth on me shall never die. John 11:26. At some time we must come into the experience known as resurrection—and resurrection is not reanimation only; it is a coming forth in another kind of body, one that is eternal and functions in a different manner.
There is a soulish body, but there is also a spiritual body which we will have in resurrection. What takes place in the miracle of resurrection is far more than reanimation. An individual does not come forth reanimated to live exactly as he did before; he will not function as he did in this life. There may be certain similarities in appearance, but all of the corruption, the fading away of youth, and that aging process is removed in the body of spirit as it exists now in the body of soul.
For since by man came death, by man came also the resurrection of the dead. For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ shall all be made alive. But each in his own order: Christ the firstfruits; then they that are Christ’s at his coming (parousia). Then cometh the end, when he shall deliver up the kingdom to God, even the Father; when he shall have abolished all rule and all authority and power. For he must reign, till he hath put all his enemies under his feet. The last enemy that shall be abolished is death. I Corinthians 15:21–26.
Notice that: The last enemy that shall be abolished is death. Christ will come forth, then they that are Christ’s at the parousia, and then on to the end. This indicates that what we call the final resurrection takes place in at least two subsequent episodes but actually implies that there could be more. I believe that there will be many events of resurrection that will occur, until the sea and the earth give up their dead and the great judgment takes place followed by the second death (Revelation 20:14).
Christ is to put everything in subjection under his feet. But when he saith, All things are put in subjection, it is evident that he is excepted who did subject all things unto him. And when all things have been subjected unto him, then shall the Son also himself be subjected to him that did subject all things unto him, that God may be all in all. I Corinthians 15:27–28.
The whole purpose of Christ as Lord is that He reigns until everything is put under His feet and the devil is out of the picture. Somewhere along the line, the entire spirit world is brought under judgment: everything is brought under subjection and judgment. Finally, even death itself is made subject to Him and is destroyed.
Only the Father is not made subject to the Son. He put all things under the Son; and when the Son brings everything under subjection to Himself, He delivers it over to the Father. The purpose is that all living creatures and created things may come back unto the Father, that God may be all in all. Everything began in God—In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth— and when the ages have run their course, everything returns to God.
Paul continues, Else what shall they do that are baptized for the dead? If the dead are not raised at all, why then are they baptized for them? why do we also stand in jeopardy every hour? I Corinthians 29, 30. Might the doctrine of baptism for the dead have some possible shadow of Scriptural background here? This certainly is the Scripture upon which it is based. The Bible does not teach that any person can be baptized for another. If you want to accept and believe in vicarious baptism, why not accept Christ’s baptism? He was baptized to fulfill all righteousness for us.
When Christ went down to the Jordan River, John said, I have need to be baptized of thee, and comest thou to me? Jesus then said, Suffer it now: for thus it becometh us to fulfil all righteousness. Matthew 3:14, 15. Christ was baptized for everyone who did not have an opportunity to follow in full obedience. He went to the cross and died for them. These are vicarious experiences. Anyone who did not have an opportunity to be baptized in water, on his deathbed could look back to Christ’s obedience to baptism and say, “Thank You, Jesus; You were baptized to fulfill all righteousness for me.” So Paul was referring to a practice that had come up; he was not authorizing it, he was just reasoning from it. He said, “If there isn’t any resurrection, as some of you are prone to think, then why are you being baptized for the dead?”
Then he went on to give another argument for the resurrection: why do we also stand in jeopardy every hour? I protest by that glorying in you, brethren, which I have in Christ Jesus our Lord, I die daily. If after the manner of men I fought with beasts at Ephesus, what doth it profit me? If the dead are not raised, let us eat and drink, for tomorrow we die. I Corinthians 15:30–32.
Although not recorded in the Bible, many stories indicate that the apostles and ministries who went forth had an immunity. Some of them were brought into situations where they would have died, but the Lord preserved them because it wasn’t their time. The Romans were not able to take an apostle wherever they could and put him to death. An account has been given that the Apostle John was put into boiling oil, yet he came out without a blister. Also, he was sent to the Isle of Patmos with no apparent means of sustenance, but he went through the exile and came back to write the Gospel of John. Jesus had that same immunity: at Nazareth, where He began His ministry, they tried to lay hold upon Him but He passed through their midst and was gone (Luke 4:30).
The things that took place in the lives of some of the apostles were fantastic. When they believed and walked together as a Body, they had a real immunity, when it was in the mind of the Lord; and when the people were not praying and believing, immunities were slow in coming. In saying, “I die daily,” Paul meant that he was continually living with death. He had fought with beasts at Ephesus: II Timothy 4:17 records that he had faced lions. Peter was chained in prison and the Angel of the Lord turned him loose. The early apostles could have been killed many times, though these were hinted at only a few times in the book of Acts.
That was the way they lived and it is the way we are to live. For too long we have been defeated by circumstances. We should come into that same immunity. Death should not be a thing that happens to us automatically—when it is God’s time for us to die, we die; but if death is not God’s will for us, we enter into resurrection life. There is something to look forward to other than just expiring and breathing our last. Let us look for victory concerning immunities and the release from death.
Be not deceived: Evil companionships corrupt good morals. Awake to soberness righteously, and sin not; for some have no knowledge of God: I speak this to move you to shame. But some one will say, How are the dead raised? and with what manner of body do they come? Thou foolish one, that which thou thyself sowest is not quickened except it die: and that which thou sowest, thou sowest not the body that shall be, but a bare grain, it may chance of wheat, or of some other kind; but God giveth it a body even as it pleased him, and to each seed a body of its own. I Corinthians 15:33–38.
There is the key. When a seed is planted, part of it dies. When a little chicken is hatched, the shell is useless; it has served its purpose. The same will apply to this body as we now know it in the transition of the human spirit and soul entering into another form of existence or another body. Another resurrection will come forth, because inherent within each human spirit is the prediction of what it will be, as definitely as an apple seed, when planted, brings forth an apple tree and determines the kind of apple it is to bear. What we have attained in our spirits, when they go to God and when our bodies are laid away to rest, predetermines what kind of bodies we shall have.
There will be many different bodies in the resurrection. All flesh is not the same flesh: but there is one flesh of men, and another flesh of beasts, and another flesh of birds, and another of fishes. (All kinds of flesh are different.) There are also celestial bodies, and bodies terrestrial: but the glory of the celestial is one, and the glory of the terrestrial is another. There is one glory of the sun, and another glory of the moon, and another glory of the stars; for one star differeth from another star in glory. So also is the resurrection of the dead. I Corinthians 15:39–42a.
No two stars have the same glory. And the glory that the body is to have is predetermined by the thing within the spirit that is to be brought forth in resurrection form. Why must we have a body at all? Because we are made in the image of God and through eternity we shall be a triune being in expression: spirit, soul and body.
The Word refers to the spirits of believers who have gone to be with the Lord as sleeping. This does not mean that they are not fully aware of things that are going on, because Hebrews 11 says that we are encompassed with a great cloud of witnesses who are very perceptive of what is going on, and are witnessing everything, for they are removed only by a plane of spirit, not distance. Heaven is not a million light years away; heaven is all about us. We cannot see or talk with the cloud of witnesses, but they are removed only in plane of spirit. These individuals are referred to as sleeping because they are not free to express themselves as complete individuals in that spirit realm.
There must be the spirit, soul and body in order to give the greatest force to an individual. Those whom God will bring with Him when He comes will enter into whatever kind of resurrection body is essential for them to function on whatever plane their spirit had attained before they died. So it may be that as the glory of the stars differ one from another, there will be a great deal of difference in individuals in the resurrection of the dead.
It is sown in corruption; it is raised in incorruption: it is sown in dishonor; it is raised in glory: it is sown in weakness; it is raised in power: it is sown a natural body; (the Greek is “psychical”; the word we use is “soulish” because it comes from “psuche”, or soul. Thus, it is a sown a soulish body🙂 it is raised a spiritual body. If there is a natural (soulish) body, there is also a spiritual body. So also it is written, The first man Adam became a living soul. (Everyone who is born in Adam’s race as a body which is primarily dominated by the soul, not by the spirit.) The last Adam became a life-giving spirit. I Corinthians 15:42b–45. When we come into the resurrection of Christ we will have a body that directly responds to the spirit, just as the body now responds to the soul. There is a body of the soul and there is also a body of the spirit.
The soulish body feels and reacts on the emotional level. It is limited in time, space, and ability to move from one place to another. The spirit body will be absolutely unlimited and could be a million miles away instantly, and tune in immediately to anyone, anyplace. Jesus appeared suddenly in the midst of the disciples. The doors were locked, but no walls could hold Him out. They thought He was a ghost. “No, handle Me and see; a ghost hath not flesh and bones as you see Me have.” He asked them for food, so they gave Him some fish, which He ate in their presence (Luke 24:36–43). He had body, but it was strangely not limited, as all living things are that we know.
Paul said, “We long not to be unclothed, but to be clothed upon with the body which is glory from God,” as though we could clothe our spirits with a body of spirit apart from entering into the process of death as we have known it. For we know that if the earthly house of our tabernacle be dissolved, we have a building from God, a house not made with hands, eternal, in the heavens. For verily in this we groan, longing to be clothed upon with our habitation which is from heaven: if so be that being clothed we shall not be found naked. “To be found naked” means a spirit without a body. We do not want to be disembodied spirits; we do not want to be naked in that sense.
For indeed we that are in this tabernacle do groan, being burdened; not for that we would be unclothed, but that we would be clothed upon, that what is mortal may be swallowed up of life. Now he that wrought us for this very thing is God, who gave unto us the earnest of the Spirit. Being therefore always of good courage, and knowing that, whilst we are at home in the body, we are absent from the Lord (for we walk by faith, not by sight);… II Corinthians 5:1–7.
When home in this body, we are absent from the Lord; we walk by faith and not by sight. The implication is very plain. When we put on that other body, we shall see Him. The eyes of that body can see; our spirits can see. With that body we shall live in the realm of spirit, just as in this body we live in a limited human world as we know it.
That’s really what happened when Adam and Eve were put out of the garden of Eden. The first man (of the earth) Adam became a living soul. The last Adam became a life-giving spirit. Howbeit that is not first which is spiritual, but that which is natural (the soulish came first); then that which is spiritual (the spiritual body comes later). The first man is of the earth, earthy: the second man is of heaven. As is the earthy, such are they also that are earthly: and as is the heavenly, such are they also that are heavenly. And as we have born the image of the earthy, we shall also bear the image of the heavenly. I Corinthians 15:45–49.
We have been conformed to the earth; we are earth-born people and we act that way. The spirit body will be of the heavens. If the person next to you drops something on the floor, you hear it, it is an earthly thing; but if the angels rejoice over one sinner who repents, you do not hear them rejoice. We do not hear the events that take place in the spirit world, but in the resurrection we are made alive to another existence in the heavenlies, just as we are now alive to this world.
Scientists argue that they do not believe in God, for they cannot see Him. They do not believe in the angels for the same reason. They are not supposed to see them. A soulish body alive to a world that does not see those things. But when we come into the other body, we will be alive to the place where the reality is. Here everything is deceptive and illusionary; the scene passes and we do not know whether it was real or not.
Now this I say, brethren, that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God; neither doth corruption inherit incorruption. Behold, I tell you a mystery: We shall not 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. I Corinthians 15:50–52. Some people will be alive until then; others will have gone on to be with the Lord; but when it takes place it will be a new day. When the Lord gives the command at the last trump all who are prepared in their spirits will come alive to God. As they have had bodies of soul, they will have spirit (or spiritual) bodies.
For this corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality. But when this corruptible shall have put on incorruption, and this mortal shall have put on immortality, then shall come to pass the saying that is written, Death is swallowed up in victory. O death, where is thy victory? O death, where is thy sting? The sting of death is sin; and the power of sin is the law: but thanks be to God, who giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. Wherefore, my beloved brethren, be ye stedfast, unmovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, forasmuch as we know your labor is not in vain in the Lord. I Corinthians 15:53–58.
The early church lived recklessly as they served God. They had a different attitude toward life and death. They had no instinct for self-preservation, they lived with all the courage they had because they knew they were tied down in the body of soul. Their attitude was, “So who wants to live forever this way? It doesn’t make any difference; let’s do the will of the Lord and serve Him with all of our hearts. We shall be immortal until our work is done; then who cares?” Nothing was going to stop them until they finished.
A hundred years ago, at the end of the pioneer era when life was hard in the United States, people had another attitude. In the old camp meetings they were singing: “In the Sweet By and By”; “Shall We Gather at the River?”; “On Jordan’s Stormy Banks”—all the songs were about heaven because their lives were rather miserable. They worked hard and looked for heaven as “pie in the sky.” They were not wrong, they just drew from the Scriptures what they needed. The early church’s view of life and death was entirely different from that of people a hundred years ago or of people today.
Today people are evasive; they do not want to face death. When loved ones die, they are whisked off to the mortuary. The word “death” is not used; the hairdresser and makeup artist are called in to make them look as if they were sleeping. Their bodies are dead! Why try to make them look as if they were still alive? The carcass of soul is gone forever—ashes to ashes and dust to dust—but the spirit of that individual, if he is a child of God, is waiting to be clothed upon with the body of spirit.
The thing for which we were created is far better than the limitations that we have now. Aches and pains are not possible in this other realm. No sorrow, no death, no suffering. Our bodies will respond to everything that our spirits wish to do. Can you imagine that fantastic existence? Imagine Jesus coming as He did through the walls. The stone of His sepulchre was not rolled away to let Jesus out—He was already out! It was to let the women in to see an empty tomb.
We are facing some marvelous things. How will we live?—with all our hearts for God! We will take care of our bodies, but only so that we can better serve the Lord. We are living in the day of the resurrection; and the first one mentioned in the Scriptures may take place within a decade. The end-time events dictate that it will follow in rapid sequence: only a few years. We’re right in it! What if some of us are killed serving God? We shouldn’t take such a serious attitude; we’ll see them in a few years. We act as if we were going to live forever. We are—but not in this body!