The Resurrection to Life and Death
By C. L. Taylor
EVER since sin entered this fair world, death has claimed its victims. One by one men have passed from the living to the dead, and so constant has been the funeral knell that life has seemed but little more than a journey to the grave. But in the dark and heavy clouds that have hovered over the world, there has been a bright rift, and thru this God has caused to shine upon the pathway of all His children the glorious rays of hope. Tho none have ever returned from the dark prison-house into which death forced them, still men have been made to know that the grave is not the finale of the story; beyond the tomb lie the realms of life. That the resurrection of the dead has always been the great hope of the church of God, the Scriptures clearly teach. Abraham grasped the great truth (Heb. 11:17-19), Job rejoiced in it (Job 19:25-27), David lived in it (Ps. 17:15), and Isaiah heralded it to the world (Isa. 26:19). And when Jesus had come and the wondrous fact had been worked out, the resurrection of the Christ became the very key-note of the good news which men carried to their fellow men. Acts 2:23, 24; 3:14, 15; 4:10; 10:39, 40. Paul, the great apostle to the Gentiles, declared it the basis of his faith and hope (Acts 24:14, 15; 26:6-8), and instructed the believers that should the truth of the resurrection be taken away, there was no hope either for this world or the world to come (1 Cor. 15:12-19). Suffice it to say that Jesus announced Himself "the Resurrection and the Life" (John 11:25), and that by virtue of the authority given Him by the Father, the hour would come when "all that are in the graves shall hear His voice, and shall come forth" (John 5:25-29). He made it clear that the time of the resurrection should be "at the last day" (John 6:39), and that both righteous and wicked should be included (John 5:28, 29). The apostle Paul also speaks after the same manner. By inspiration he tells us that the dead shall be raised at the coming of the Lord (1 Thess. 4:15-17), at the last trump (1 Cor. 15:51, 52), and that "as in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive" (1 Cor. 15:22). The Resurrection and the Gospel.
The Gospel of Christ of which the resurrection is but a component part is intensely practical, and God intends that man shall know the fulness of its blessedness in his every-day experience. He would therefore have all men to know the truth of the resurrection as present truth, take it into their lives, and thus make it possible to enjoy even now the crowning blessing of the resurrection work which will come at the last day. In other words, the Bible would lead us to see that the resurrection of the dead at the last day will be but the outcome, the natural result, as it were, of the present life choice and work. God's great desire for all men is that here and now they may know His power, even as that power wrought in raising Christ from the dead. Eph. 1:17-20. For himself, the apostle Paul's chief wish was: "That I may know Him, and the power of His resurrection, . . . if by any means I might attain unto the resurrection of the dead." Phil. 3:10, 11. To him the power of the resurrection was like a great ladder which must be mounted and climbed in order that the climax of the last great day might be attained. This is even more beautifully introduced by the same writer in his letter to the Corinthians. He has spoken of that great day of resurrection and life, when God shall bring to pass "the saying that is written, Death is swallowed up in victory. O death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory" (1 Cor. 15:54, 55), and then adds, "But thanks be to God, which giveth us the victory thru our Lord Jesus Christ" (verse 57). In Jesus Christ God gives to men now "the victory" over death and the grave. To receive Christ as our personal Saviour from sin is to receive Him as God's power over all that sin is or that sin can produce. In breaking the power of sin He breaks the power of death, for sin is "the sting of death."5 He Broke the Bonds and Took the Keys.
Jesus died and rose again. When He came from the tomb He brought with Him the "keys of hell and of death." Rev. 1:18. The grave and death no longer have any power against Him, nor against them who believe into Him. "The gates of hell [the grave] shall not prevail against it [the church of Christ]." Matt. 16:18. Death and the grave, the great enemies of the human race, have no terrors for the children of God, because in Christ they have passed from death unto life. 1 John 3:14. In the glorious work of conversion, they have found the resurrection life—everlasting life—which belongs to the world to come. In the light of this wonderful truth, read the words of Paul to the Romans: "Know ye not, that so many of us as were baptized into Jesus Christ were baptized into His death? . . . That like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life. For if we have been planted together in the likeness of His death, we shall be also in the likeness of His resurrection. . . . Now if we be dead with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with Him; knowing that Christ being raised from the dead dieth no more; death hath no more dominion over Him." Rom. 6:3-9. What a blessed assurance and glorious fact is this! By the choice of faith, man can and does lay hold upon "the resurrection of life," and can and does know its tremendous worth thru-out the entire time of his pilgrimage here below. But will not the child of God die? Yes, he may die and go into the grave; but it is a grave thru which the Man of Life has passed. It is, therefore, only a place of sleep, the temporary home in which the disciple of the Master awaits the call of the trump. His life is hid with Christ in God, and thus when Christ appears he shall appear with Him in glory. Col. 3:3, 4. Of such ones Jesus can say, "Whosoever liveth and believeth in Me shall never die." John 11:26. "The righteous hath hope in his death." Prov. 14:32. Because the Lord Jesus has taken from death its absolute power, and has bequeathed to His believing followers the power and life virtue of His own resurrection, He says of each departed saint, as He did of the maid of long ago, "not dead, but sleepeth." Matt. 9:24. Plainly, then, the resurrection of the last day will come as a fitting result, as it is indeed the climax to a life of faith and well-doing. It will be the crowning act of love and life performed by our Father in honor of man's choice of Him who is "the Resurrection and the Life." It will come as the logical sequence of the new life begotten of the Spirit; for He who "raised us up [raised us from our death in sin, Eph. 2:1] together and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus," did so "that in the ages to come He might show the exceeding riches of His grace in His kindness toward us thru Christ Jesus." Eph. 2:6, 7. Thus the spiritual resurrection from sin to righteousness is but a preparatory work which calls for the physical resurrection to life at the last day. How Will It Be with the Wicked?
Turning to the case of the wicked, to those who refuse the life which God proffers, we find that the same laws hold good. Having chosen death (Prov. 8:36), having sown to the flesh (Gal. 6:7, 8), having "done evil," to them the inevitable outcome is "the resurrection of damnation." John 5:29. They have sown only mortal, perishable seed, consequently there is for them no continuance. The harvest must be of the same nature as the seed sown. He who sows the wind must reap the whirlwind. Hosea 8:7. The character of the resurrection—whether to life or to death—is determined by the choice of man. To him who loves the truth of God this thought gives great and glad assurance. He may rest his full weight upon the immortal principle that having chosen Jesus Christ as his portion it is impossible for him to be bound by sin or any of its results. What was true of his Lord is true of him. Of Him who died on Calvary the speaker of the day of Pentecost said: "Whom God hath raised up, having loosed the pains of death; because it was not possible that He should be holden of it." Acts 2:24. God thru His prophet had promised to raise His Son on the third day. Hosea 6:1, 2. Jesus had received that promise. Mark 9:31. And, tho He died, the promise lived, and so when the third day, the time of fulfilment, came, the living word of promise went into effect and Jesus came forth a conqueror. God's promise, His word, made effective by the faith of His Son, broke the portals of death. The grave had no power in the presence of that faithful and faith-received word. Now our God has specifically promised to give all His people the resurrection to life. Do you make the promise yours? So surely as you do, so surely it will be impossible for the grave to bind you beyond the time that God has fixed for the trump to sound. And thus with the Lord Jesus you may say, "I have power to lay it [my life] down, and I have power to take it again. This commandment [this promise] have I received of my Father." John 10:18. What He did by faith was done that we might follow in His steps. Surrounded by sin and sorrow and death everywhere and always we may constantly have the precious enjoyments of the certainty of faith. It is for us to know that even in the laying down of our imperfect and mortal life for the Master's sake we are most surely taking it again, but in infinitely greater measure and in absolute, glorious perfection. Our resurrection is assured. The great controversy between truth and error will soon be over. The day of the Lord will soon dawn, when the resurrections of righteous and wicked will take place. Raised to life and immortality, the saints of God will join in the glad song of redemption, ascribing "blessing, and honor, and glory, and power," unto God and the Lamb (Rev. 5:13), and will acknowledge His justice and mercy, saying, "Just and true are Thy ways, Thou King of saints. Who shall not fear Thee, O Lord, and glorify Thy name? for Thou only art holy; for all nations shall come and worship before Thee; for Thy judgments are made manifest." Rev. 15:3, 4. Redeemed and exalted, they are supremely satisfied in rendering to Jehovah the perfect service of love which, from the days of eternity, He has claimed from all His creatures. They have been resurrected to an eternal life of obedience. "This is the first resurrection." Rev. 20:5. A thousand years later, the wicked come forth in the second resurrection. But why a resurrection for the wicked? Ah, they, too, must have opportunity to acknowledge God's justice. In order that sin may never again have place in the fair universe of our Father, the falsity of Lucifer's claims must be confessed by all who have directly engaged in the controversy. "For it is written, As I live, saith the Lord, every knee shall bow to Me, and every tongue shall confess to God." Rom. 14:11. As the multitude of the lost rise from their dusty beds, they behold the glory and exaltation and magnificent reward which has come to the redeemed as a result of obedience to God's commands; they behold also, in contrast, the awfulness of the results of their own course. And seeing all, they then and there in the presence of all the assembled inhabitants of the world, pour forth their unwilling confession to the righteousness of Him who sits upon the throne. That they might thus acknowledge the uprightness of the Almighty they have been resurrected; and having thus confessed and so performed a necessary part in forever settling the issue between God and His enemy, they go down in "the second death," that death from which there will be no awakening. Reader, where will you stand in that great day? Which resurrection do you choose? "Now is the accepted time."