The resurrection of the dead. (Part 2)

Resurrection Day is the Coming Again of Jesus

The resurrection of Christians is going to take place the day that Jesus returns. As certain as his first coming to Bethlehem is the fact that he is coming a second time. This truth, like the truth of the resurrection of the dead, is a wonderful hope for the Christian. Jesus is coming again. We have his word for it. He told his disciples, “I will come again.”

It was confirmed to the disciples after they had watched Jesus ascend to Heaven:

They were looking intently up into the sky as he was going, when suddenly two men dressed in white stood beside them. ‘Men of Galilee,’ they said, ‘why do you stand here looking into the sky? This same Jesus, who has been taken from you, will come back in the same way you have seen Him go into heaven’. (Acts 1:10-11)

Many Christians will be alive when Jesus comes and they will be changed immediately. No-one knows when the Lord Jesus will return, although Jesus taught his disciples about certain conditions which would be in the world at his coming. He taught that his coming would be sudden, it would be unexpected, that he would come, ‘as a thief in the night’. When he comes there will be a shout, the voice of the archangel and the trump of God. It is going to be gloriously noisy!

When Jesus was teaching this truth, he said, be watchful and be ready. “Therefore keep watch, because you do not know on what day your Lord will come…so you also must be ready, because the Son of Man will come at an hour when you do not expect him” (Matt 24:42-4). The best thing to do is to live and work as if Jesus was coming today. John wrote, “Everyone who has this hope purifies himself, just as He is pure” (1 John 3:3).

The best thing to do is to live and work as if Jesus was coming today.

I read of a missionary who went away for a weekend's meetings. He told his wife he would return on Monday on the one train that came each day. On Monday she spruced up her two little boys and went to the station to meet Dad. The train came, but no Dad. They came back again on Tuesday and again the boys were all cleaned up. The train came, but again, no Dad. Back they came on Wednesday, and this time Dad came. One of the little fellows said, “Dad, we’ve been waiting for you for three days.” Looking down at them, he said, “Yes, I see it’s kept you clean!” Let's be ready! Let's be clean!

Resurrection Day is Reward Day

There is a very important truth linked with the doctrine of resurrection of the dead, and that is that we are accountable. One day Jesus was teaching in the house of one of the rulers of the Pharisees. He was encouraging his listeners that, when they had a feast, they should not invite people who would return their hospitality, but invite those who could not invite them back. Then he said: “And you will be blessed. Although they cannot repay you, you will be repaid at the resurrection of the righteous” (Luke 14:14).

At the resurrection we are going to be asked by the Lord to give an account of how we lived as Christians. This is an incentive to live holy lives. We are going to appear at what Paul called, ‘the judgment seat of Christ’. There are applications for this teaching, which should affect our lives in various ways:

• We should live in the fear of God: Paul wrote, “For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, that each one may receive what is due to him for the things done while in the body, whether good or bad” (2 Cor 5:10-11).
  
• We should stop judging others: We will never be asked to give an account of how other people lived, but how we lived. “’As surely as I live,’ says the Lord, ‘Every knee will bow before me; every tongue will confess to God.’ So then, each of us will give an account of himself to God” (Rom 14:11-13).
  
• We should live and work sincerely and with the right motive: “Whatever You do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord, not for men, since you know that you will receive an inheritance from the Lord as a reward. It is the Lord Christ you are serving” (Col 3:23-24). This reminds us of the importance of avoiding dead works, and to live with faith toward God by the power of his Spirit, with the purpose of glorifying God.

At the resurrection we are going to be asked by the Lord to give an account of how we lived as Christians. This is an incentive to live holy lives.

The Rewards

Rewards are going to be given in that day. Paul wrote, “If what he has built survives, he will receive his reward” (1 Cor 3:14). Some of these rewards are described as ‘crowns’:

• An incorruptible crown. “Do you not know that in a race all the runners run but only one gets the prize? Run in such a way as to get the prize. Everyone who competes in the games goes into strict training. They do it to get a crown that will not last, but we do it to get a crown that will last forever” (1 Cor 9:24-25).
  
• A crown of righteousness: Towards the end of his life Paul wrote to Timothy. “I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith. Now there is in store for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous Judge, will award to me on that day — and not only to me, but also to all who have longed for his appearing” (2 Tim 4:7-8).
  
• A crown of life. There will be reward for those who have overcome temptations. James writes, “Blessed is the man who perseveres under trial, because when he has stood the test, he will receive the crown of life that God has promised to those who love him” (Jam 1:12). What an encouragement to endure the trials and testings and persecutions. Resurrection day will be reward day.
  
• A crown of glory. Reward is promised to pastors and elders who properly care for his flock. “And when the Chief Shepherd appears, you will receive the crown of glory that will never fade away” (1 Pet 5:4).

We do not serve the Lord merely for a reward. The greatest privilege on earth is to live and work for him, but it is just like his loving heart to bless in that coming day. So let us live with resurrection day before us. Not only will there be rewards but there will also be loss of reward. “If [anyone’s work] is burned up, he will suffer loss; he himself will be saved, but only as one escaping through the flames” (1 Cor 3:15).

The teaching on the judgment seat of Christ is clearly summarised in the words of an unknown poet:

When I stand at the judgment seat of Christ, and he shows me his plan for me,

the plan of my life as it might have been, had he had his way, and I see

how I blocked him here and checked Him there, and would not yield my will,

will there be grief in my Saviour’s eyes, grief, though he loves me still?

He would have me rich, but I stand there poor, stripped of all but his grace,

as memory runs like a haunted thing through the years I cannot retrace.

Then my desolate heart will well nigh break, with the tears that I cannot shed;

I will cover my face with my empty hands, and bow my uncrowned head.

Lord, of the years that are left to me, I yield them to thy hand,

Take me, melt me, mould me, to the pattern thou hast planned.

Resurrection day will be reward day – but there will also be loss.

Application

• Praise God for his grace that saved us.
  
• Thank God for the glorious prospect of spending eternity with him, with changed bodies, sinless bodies, healthy bodies, never-get-old bodies, a body like his glorious body.
  
• Let us realise that it is here on earth that ‘we lay up treasure in heaven’.

Questions

1. What is the significance of the resurrection of Jesus?
2. What would your answer be to a person who said that death ended everything?
3. In view of the judgment seat of Christ, would you like to finish as you are now?
4. If not, what adjustments do you think you should make? When is the best time to make these adjustments?

This article is part of a series. Click here for previous instalments.

Resurrection of the dead (Part 1).

Christians do not live merely for time but also for eternity. They have a hope for the future which is certain by receiving eternal life through faith in the Lord Jesus Christ.

The next foundational truth assures us that there is going to be a resurrection day. Jesus said, “Do not 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” (John 5:28-29).

Paul boldly asserts, “If there is no resurrection of the dead, then not even Christ has been raised. And if Christ has not been raised, our preaching is useless…For if the dead are not raised, then Christ has not been raised either…But Christ has indeed been raised from the dead, the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep” (1 Cor 15:13-16, 20).

Resurrection of the Dead in the Old Testament

God’s power and ability to raise people from the dead was manifested in the Old Testament. Elijah was used of God to raise the widow of Zarephath’s son from the dead (1 Kings 17:20-22) and Elisha raised the Shunammite’s son (2 Kings 4:8-37).

There was that amazing funeral recorded in 2 Kings 13, when a party of men went to bury a friend. While they were doing this they saw a party of raiders coming towards them. With no time to dig the grave, they threw the body into a nearby grave where Elisha was buried. As soon as the corpse made contact with the Prophet’s bones, he was revived, and ran and joined the burying party!!

God’s power and ability to raise people from the dead is manifested throughout Scripture.

One of the oldest books in the Bible is Job. Through all his troubles he also had the great hope of the resurrection day. He said, “I know that my Redeemer lives, and that in the end he will stand upon the earth. And after my skin has been destroyed, yet in my flesh I will see God” (Job 19:25-26).

Resurrection in the New Testament

It is recorded that Jesus raised three people from the dead: Jairus’ daughter; the widow of Nain’s son and Lazarus (Matt 9:23-25; Luke 7:12-15; John 11). There is a remarkable story related in very few words of what happened when Jesus died and rose again:

And when Jesus had cried out again in a loud voice, he gave up his spirit. At that moment the curtain of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom. The earth shook and the rocks split. The tombs broke open and the bodies of many holy people who had died were raised to life. They came out of the tombs, and after Jesus’ resurrection they went into the holy city and appeared to many people. (Matthew 27:50-53)

What a story! What surprises in Jerusalem! What power in the resurrection of the Lord Jesus! We also read of Peter being God’s instrument to raise Dorcas from the dead (Acts 9:36-4). A young man called Eutychus fell asleep while Paul was preaching. He fell from an upstairs window and was killed. Paul prayed for the young man and he was restored to life (Acts 20:7-12). This story is a warning not to fall asleep during the preaching! There may not be a Paul present!

I have met two people who witnessed God’s power in raising the dead, and there are accounts of this happening in times of revival.

The Future Resurrection

The Bible teaches about the certainty of future resurrections: the resurrection of the just, and the resurrection of the unjust. The terminology used is, ‘the resurrection of the just’; ‘the resurrection of life’; ‘the resurrection of the last day’; ‘the resurrection of the dead’ (Luke 14:14; John 5:29; John 11:24; Acts 23:6). Paul, writing to the Thessalonians, assured them:

For the Lord himself will come down from heaven, with a loud command, with the voice of the archangel and with the trumpet call of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first. After that, we who are still alive and are left will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And so we will be with the Lord forever. (1 Thessalonians 4:16)

The Bible teaches about the certainty of future resurrections: the resurrection of the just, and the resurrection of the unjust.

Believers Shall Rise Again

• First: “Blessed and holy are those who have part in this first resurrection. The second death has no power over them, but they will be priests of God and of Christ” (Rev 20:6).
  
• To eternal life: “Multitudes who sleep in the dust of the earth will awake: some to everlasting life, others to shame and everlasting contempt” (Dan 12:2).
  
• To be glorified with Christ: “When Christ who is your life appears, then you also will appear with him in glory” (Col 3:4).
  
• With incorruptible bodies: “So will it be with the resurrection of the dead. The body that is sown is perishable, it is raised imperishable; it is sown in dishonour, it is raised in glory; it is sown in weakness, it is raised in power; it is sown a natural body, it is raised a spiritual body” (1 Cor 15:42-44).
  
• With a body like Christ’s body: “But our citizenship is in heaven. And we eagerly await a Saviour from there, the Lord Jesus Christ, who, by the power that enables him to bring everything under his control, will transform our lowly bodies so that they will be like his glorious body” (Phil 3:20-21).

What a glorious hope for the Christian! What comfort when Christian loved ones die knowing we will meet again! There is a resurrection day!

Resurrection - A Glorious Hope

Yes, this teaching gives wonderful hope to the child of God. Before a person becomes a Christian, they are “without hope and without God in the world”. But once we believe the situation is changed “you who once were far away have been brought near through the blood of Christ” (Eph 2:12-13).

Hope is the confident looking forward to something which is certain, with absolute assurance. When Paul was arrested and brought before the Sanhedrin he said, “I stand on trial because of my hope in the resurrection of the dead” (Acts 23:6).

Don’t miss one of the important reasons for this teaching. Life is punctuated by difficult circumstances and problems but there are better things to come. Peter used this truth to encourage and to comfort persecuted saints. They were being hunted, living in caves and suffering deprivation, and to use Peter’s words, “suffering grief in all kinds of trials”. This was one of his opening statements in his letter to them:

Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. In his great mercy he has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, and into an inheritance that can never perish, spoil or fade, kept in heaven for you. (1 Peter 1:3-4)

Life is punctuated by difficult circumstances and problems but there are better things to come.

The truth of the resurrection of the dead has been the hope of millions who have been martyred down through the centuries. Jesus told his disciples, “Do not be afraid of those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. Rather be afraid of the one who can destroy both soul and body in hell” (Matt 10:28).

Resurrection day is going to usher God’s people into a new era. Then it is going to be ‘forever with the Lord’. It is going to be the entry into an imperishable inheritance, kept, or reserved, in Heaven for you. We are going to see what Jesus meant when he said to his disciples, “In my Father's house are many rooms; if it were not so, I would have told you. And if I go to prepare a place for you, I will come back and take you to be with me, that you also may be where I am” (John 14:2-3).

What is it going to be like? In one way it is indescribable. Paul said, “No eye has seen, no ear has heard, no mind has conceived what God has prepared for those who love him” (1 Cor 2:9). We do not have a lot of information about Heaven, but we have enough. The Bible tells us something of what is there, and something of what is not there. The greatest thing is that HE is there. We shall see him and we shall be like him. Anne Cousin, anticipating this in the last century, wrote these words:

The Bride eyes not her garment,
But her dear Bridegroom’s face;
I will not gaze at glory
But on the King of Grace.
Not at the crown He giveth
But on His pierced hand.
The Lamb is all the glory
Of Immanuel’s land.

Next week: The return of our Lord Jesus and the judgment seat of Christ.

Repentance from dead works.

Dead Works - Definition

The first of the elementary truths in Hebrews 6 is repentance from dead works. The writer does not say repentance from sin, but from dead works. The Bible speaks of three kinds of works: the works of the flesh, the work of the devil, and the work of God. There is only one work which lives and lasts forever and that is the work of God. What, then, is a dead work?

A dead work is anything a Christian ever does which is not initiated by God. If it is not initiated by God it will not be energised by God, and if not energised by him, will produce nothing for his glory.

Before a person becomes a Christian they are reliant on themselves, their own talents or abilities, or dependent on others. However, when God in his wonderful grace saves, we are totally dependent on him. What a simple but vital truth this is. How many mistakes and heartaches could be avoided if this truth were applied. Wrong plans, wrong financial decisions, wrong relationships and many wrong activities could be prevented by seeking God’s will and doing it.

Jesus is ‘the author and finisher of our faith’. If we ever want him to finish anything we do, we must ensure he begins it. Dead works can never produce life. One day Moses left the palace and saw an Egyptian and an Israelite fighting. With false zeal Moses slew the Egyptian and as a result had to flee the country. From a wrong motive King David ordered a national census of his troops which resulted in 70,000 men dying. As a result of impatience, Abraham married Hagar with Ishmael as the result.

If we ever want Jesus to finish anything we do, we must ensure he begins it.

Jesus, the Perfect Example

The Lord Jesus never did a dead work because in everything he did he was completely reliant on his Father, God. He said, “I tell you the truth, the Son can do nothing by himself; he can do only what he sees his Father doing, because whatever the Father does the son also does” (John 5:19).

Jesus would neither be pushed by people or by circumstances. When he attended a wedding at Cana, with the embarrassing situation of the hosts running out of wine, his mother Mary said to him, “they have no more wine”, to which he replied, “why do you involve me? My time has not yet come.” What did Jesus mean? He was saying that his Father had not yet told him to act.

A few minutes later the time did come and he performed his first miracle, not when Mary tried to push him but when God initiated his action. Later his brothers, who at that time did not believe in him, tried to persuade him to go to Jerusalem where all the crowds were gathering. Again he said, “The right time for me has not yet come”. He did go to Jerusalem - not when his brothers decided, but when God decided.

Why did Jesus not hurry to Bethany when he heard that his good friend Lazarus was sick? Did he not care? Of course he cared, but the circumstance did not dictate his action - only the revealed will and timing of God.

Repentance

We must ask ourselves, therefore, whether there are any dead works in our lives or whether we are doing anything which God did not start. Our activities, when initiated by him, will have his blessing, his power, his peace and the fulfilling of his purposes.

I suppose one of the most common dead works is worry or anxiety. I remember some years ago how the Holy Spirit convicted me of this particular dead work. I was involved in a national outreach programme and was facing many difficulties. I thought I was being very spiritual and ‘taking the burden’. I was meditating in Philippians 4:6, “Do not be anxious about anything…” The Lord showed me I was not taking the burden - but was worried to death. I had trespassed from the realm of God-given concern to anxiety. I had to repent and confess my sin of disobedience. If God says, “do not be anxious about anything” and I am anxious for something, I have sinned.

We must ask ourselves whether there are any dead works in our lives, or whether we are doing anything which God did not start.

There is only one way to get rid of sin and that is by confession, so I confessed my sin to the Lord. He forgave me and quickly brought the answer to the situation. Repentance is a change of mind and a change of attitude which leads to a change of action. For example, are you worried about anything? If so, you have been thinking wrongly, perhaps thinking you could solve the problem by yourself. A change is needed which involves the acknowledgment that without him we can do nothing, leading to a change of action as the psalmist exhorted, “Commit your way to the Lord. Trust also in him, and he will bring it to pass” (Ps 37:5, NKJV).

The word ‘commit’ means ‘to throw or to roll’. How wonderful it is to throw to him that situation which caused us to worry and trust him to resolve it. There is a wonderful promise in Proverbs 3:6, “In ALL your ways acknowledge him, and he will make your paths straight.” All our ways: our personal life, marriage, children, relationships, work, service, everything - acknowledge him…he will direct.

Questions

1. How would you define a ‘dead work’? Give some biblical or personal examples.
2. What action should be taken to ensure that God initiates everything we do?
3. Can you think of any 'dead works’ in your life and what should you do now?
4. In what ways is Jesus the perfect example of doing the works of God?

This article is part of a series. Click here for previous instalments.