The Conditionalist Faith of Our Fathers, vol. 1

VII. The Resurrection Provision Pivotal in Christ’s Teaching

In both the private and the public teaching of Jesus the resurrection was set forth as pivotal—both for Himself and for His followers, with the latter contingent upon the former. More than that, the resurrection of all who have died is emphasized. But there are two resurrections, Jesus declared—that of the “good,” unto “life”; and that of the “evil,” unto damnation” (John 5:29). All the dead will hear the resurrection call of our Lord (John 5:25). Thus, “All that are in the graves shall hear his voice, and shall come forth” (John 5:28, 29). And all will come forth (1 Corinthians 15:22) as surely as all men die the first, or natural, death. The determination of which resurrection—that of the “just” or the “unjust”—is conditional, just as immortality is conditional. But not the fact and certainty of a resurrection; that is absolute and universal. CFF1 230.1

1. CHRIST’S RESURRECTION PREREQUISITE TO OURS

Resurrection was necessary for Jesus Christ. If He had remained the prey of death, He could not have opened the way to immortality for man, and the plan of redemption would have been aborted. Moreover, Christ’s resurrection was a bodily resurrection, just as is to be that of His faithful followers. It was actual, and real—albeit a glorified, spiritual body. When the disciples saw Christ after His resurrection, the record is: CFF1 230.2

“They were terrified and affrighted, and supposed that they had seen a spirit [pneuma, here “a spirit being”]” (Luke 24:37). CFF1 231.1

But Jesus said: CFF1 231.2

“Behold my hands and my feet, that it is I myself: handle me, and see; for a spirit [pneuma] hath not flesh and bones [“body,” Luke 24:3], as ye see me have” (Luke 24:39).

It is only the risen and living Saviour who can and will raise to eternal life all who have become united to Him by faith (1 Corinthians 15:42-44; Philippians 3:21). Indeed, He declares from Heaven: CFF1 231.3

“I am he that liveth, and was dead; and, behold, I am alive for evermore, Amen; and have the keys of hell [hades, the grave] and of death” (Revelation 1:18). CFF1 231.4

These keys He will use on the resurrection morn. Our sole hope of immortality is bound up with this supernatural, consummating act of resurrection. There is no immortality apart from the resurrection assured by Christ’s resurrection, and bestowed upon us at the time of Christ’s return (1 Corinthians 15:52, 53). Clearly, then, the safety and assurance of those who are “in Christ” is bound up with the resurrection as the consummation of life, and the sole exit from death and the grave. CFF1 231.5

“This is the Father’s will which hath sent me, that of all which he hath given me I should lose nothing, but should raise it up again at the last day” (John 6:39; cf. John 6:40; John 11:25; John 14:6; Colossians 3:4). CFF1 231.6

2. RESURRECTION IS OF THE WHOLE PERSON

Jesus left to Paul and to John the unfolding and development of many great truths centering in and about the resurrection. But He laid the complete groundwork therefor, and established the certainty. He declared the truth that the resurrection is a bodily resurrection. The definition and the nature and the actuality are fixed by Christ’s own resurrection. It cannot signify one thing for Christ and another thing totally different for us. CFF1 231.7

Both Old and New Testaments alike speak of the person as being buried. “David ... is both dead and buried, and his sepulchre is with us unto this day” (Acts 2:29). Said the angels at Christ’s tomb, “Come, see the place where the Lord lay” (Matthew 28:6). The Lord Himself lay there until the moment of resurrection. They laid Jesus in the tomb. They “took him down, and wrapped him in the linen, and laid him in a sepulchre” (Mark 15:46). “There they laid Jesus” (John 19:42). Jesus was in the grave. CFF1 232.1

3. CERTITUDE OF RESURRECTION RESTS ON CHRIST’S INFALLIBLE WORD

Jesus predicted not only His own death on the cross but His triumphant resurrection from the dead, His return to His Father, and His coming again for His followers, that they might be with Him forevermore (John 14:3). Declaring Himself to be “the way, the truth, and the life” (John 14:6), and repeating His prediction, “I will come again, and receive you unto myself” (John 14:3), He added, “Because I live, ye shall live also” (John 14:19). He likewise said: CFF1 232.2

“I am the resurrection, and the life: he that believeth in me, though he were dead, yet shall he live: and whosoever liveth and believeth in me shall never die [the second death]” (John 11:25, 26). CFF1 232.3

The second death is the only real death, eternal death, from which there is no awakening. The first death is but a sleep, from which there is a certain and a universal awakening. CFF1 232.4

Again and again Jesus says of all who believe on the Son that they may have “everlasting life” now, in Christ, and three times asserts, “I will raise him up at the last day” (John 6:40). So the certitude of the resurrection rests upon the formal and inviolable promise of the Son of God: CFF1 232.5

“This is the will of him that sent me, that every one which seeth the Son, and believeth on him, may have everlasting life: and I will raise him up at the last day” (John 6:40). CFF1 232.6

His resurrection becomes the unbreakable pledge of our own. If Christ was not raised, there would be nothing to guarantee a life beyond the grave (1 Corinthians 15:13-23). Buried in the profound slumber of she’ol (or hades), the saints would never awaken from that heavy sleep, apart from the resurrection. CFF1 233.1

4. NOT UNINTERRUPTED SURVIVAL BUT RESURRECTION

Let there be no confusion, then, over the issue of uninterrupted survival. CFF1 233.2

“Fear not them which kill the body, but are not able to kill the soul: but rather fear him which is able to destroy both soul and body in hell [Gehenna]” (Matthew 10:28). CFF1 233.3

This categorical statement, that God is able to destroy both soul and body in hell, rules out the thesis of innate indestructibility or indefeasible immortality of man. Though one be slain by human hands, God will raise him up, soul and body, at the resurrection day. This was the argument that Christ used to silence the Sadducees—not the uninterrupted survival of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, but resurrection (Luke 20:37, 38). So the resurrection is the second of the two fundamental truths of the gospel—next to, following upon, and joined inseparably to, the atoning death of Christ. CFF1 233.4