Redemption and Resurrection

Central to salvation in the Apostolic tradition is the bodily resurrection of the dead when Jesus arrives to gather his saints.

Foundational to our future salvation is the resurrection of the dead. That event will coincide with the future arrival of Jesus. Our resurrection is based on the past resurrection of Jesus, and our salvation will remain incomplete until he raises the dead, transforms those believers who remain alive, and gathers all his saints (“He will send his angels, and they will assemble his elect from the ends of the Earth to the ends of heaven”).

The Apostle Paul declared that if the same Spirit that raised Jesus from the dead dwells in us, then He that “raised Christ Jesus from among the dead will quicken even our death-doomed bodies.” The quickening and redemption of our bodies is connected to Christ’s past resurrection - (Romans 8:9-11).

[Photo by Marc Schulte on Unsplash]

We possess “death-doomed bodies” at present, not because they are physical, but because we have been condemned to bondage, decay, and death by sin. Even though we have the Gift of the Spirit, because of Adam’s transgression, we remain subject to death. We remain mortal.

If God is to redeem all that was lost, salvation must include the human body and the physical creation since the latter was also condemned to decay and death by Adam’s transgression. The Creator of all things will not abandon what he originally created and declared to be “Very good!” He will rescue and transform it.

The Spirit of God attests that we are “coheirs” with His Son. We, therefore, will be “glorified together with him.” Even the creation is “eagerly awaiting” that day since it also has been subjected to “vanity,” and so longs for deliverance.

On that day, the “creation itself will be freed from the bondage of decay into the freedom of the glory of the sons of God.” The possession of the Spirit is the “first fruits” and guarantee of this future resurrection life, therefore, we also “eagerly await the adoption, namely, the redemption of our body.”

In his Letter to the Romans, Paul writes about the bodily resurrection of believers and the New Creation, two connected events that he elsewhere links to Christ’s “arrival” or ‘Parousia’ – (Romans 8:15-23, 1 Corinthians 15:24-28, 1 Thessalonians 4:13-18, 2 Thessalonians 2:1).

RESURRECTION IS VITAL

In Corinth, some believers denied the future resurrection. Paul responded by pointing to the Gospel that he first delivered to the Assembly:

• “How that Christ died for our sins, and was buried, and that he has been raised on the third day” - (1 Corinthians 15:1-20).

If we are not resurrected, “even Christ has not been raised,” and if not, then the Gospel is void, the Apostles lied, and we are all “yet in our sins.” Paul once more bases our future resurrection on the past resurrection of Jesus. Just as God raised His Son from the dead, so he will raise believers at His Son’s “arrival.”

Christ’s resurrection was the “first fruits of those who have fallen asleep.” Just as death came through Adam, so the “raising of the dead came through one man, and in Christ, all will be made alive.” This will occur at the “arrival” or ‘Parousia’ of Jesus when he subjugates all his enemies, including the “last enemy, Death” – (1 Corinthians 15:20-28).

Resurrection does not mean the resuscitation of “death-doomed bodies” or corpses. Our present body is “sown in corruption but will be raised incorruptible.” It will be a body fitted for life in the Spirit, and we will exchange mortality for immortality.

Paul did not see the physical body as incompatible with the Spirit. The difference is the kind of body one has, whether a “body of the soul” or a “body of the spirit.” Just as we now bear the “image of the man of the earth,” Adam, so we will “bear the image of the man of heaven,” Jesus Christ.

When Christ does “arrive,” we who remain alive will be transformed, and those who have died will be raised from the dead, then together, we will receive “immortality<…> for whenever this mortal will clothe itself with immortality, then will be brought to pass the saying, Death has been swallowed up victoriously” – (1 Corinthians 15:50-57).

When the Thessalonians expressed grief over the deaths of fellow believers, Paul reminded them that they were not without hope. If we “believe that Jesus died and rose again, so God will bring with him those who have fallen asleep through Jesus.” He will descend from Heaven and the “dead in Christ will rise first.” Then both the living and newly resurrected saints will “meet” him as he descends from Heaven. As in Corinth, so in Thessalonica, Paul connects our future resurrection to the past raising of Jesus, and to his future “arrival.”

The consummation of the biblical doctrine of Redemption lies in the future. While our sins are forgiven when we repent and we become “heirs with Christ,” the final realization of that promise remains incomplete until Christ’s return when he will raise the dead and usher in the “New Heavens and the New Earth.”

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SEE ALSO:

• The Spirit is Life - (The Spirit of God imparts life, especially the everlasting life of which the Gift of the Spirit is the foretaste and guarantee)

• The Life-Giving Spirit - (Jesus grants the Life-Giving Spirit without which there is no enduring life. His words are spirit, and they are life)

• The Promise of the Father - (With the outpouring of the Spirit on Pentecost, the blessing for all nations promised to Abraham has commenced)

• Искупление и Воскресение - (Центральное место в спасении в апостольской традиции занимает телесное воскресение мертвых, когда Иисус приходит собрать своих святых)