‘Marvel not at this: for the hour is coming, in the which all that are in the graves shall hear his voice, and shall come forth; they that have done good, unto the resurrection of life; and they that have done evil, unto the resurrection of damnation.’ John 5:58, 29.
Q-38: What Benefits Do Believers Receive from Christ at the Resurrection?
A: At the resurrection, believers being raised up in glory, shall be openly acknowledged and acquitted in the day of judgement, and made perfectly blessed in the full enjoyment of God to all eternity.
I. The bodies of believers shall be raised up to glory. The doctrine of the resurrection is a fundamental article of our faith. The apostle puts it among the first principles of the doctrine of Christ. Heb 6:6. The body shall rise again; we are not so sure to rise out of our beds as we are to rise out of our graves. The saved body shall rise again. Some hold that the soul shall be clothed with a new body; but then it were improper to call it a resurrection, it would be rather a creation. ‘Though worms destroy this body, yet in my flesh shall I see God.’ Job 19:96. Not in another flesh, but my flesh. ‘This corruptible must put on incorruption.’ I Cor 15:53.
By what arguments may the resurrection be proved?
(1.) By Scripture. ‘I will raise him up at the last day.’ John 6:64. ‘He will swallow up death in victory.’ Isa 25:5. That is, by delivering our bodies from the captivity of the grave, wherein death for a time had power over them. ‘Them which sleep in Jesus, will God bring with him.’ I Thess 4:14.
(2.) Christ is risen; therefore the bodies of the saints must rise. Christ did not rise from the dead as a private person, but as the public head of the church; and the head being raised, the rest of the body shall not always lie in the grave. Christ’s rising is a pledge of our resurrection. ‘Knowing that he which raised up the Lord Jesus, shall raise up us also by Jesus.’ 2 Cor 4:14. Christ is called the first-fruits of them that sleep. I Cor 15: 20. As the first-fruits is a sure evidence that the harvest is coming, so the resurrection of Christ is a sure evidence of the rising of our bodies from the grave. Christ cannot be perfect as he is Christ mystical, unless his members be raised with him.
(3.) In respect of God’s justice. If God be a just God, he will reward the bodies of the saints as well as their souls. It cannot be imagined that the souls of believers should be glorified, and not their bodies. They have served God with their bodies; their bodies have been members of holiness; their eyes have dropped tears for sin; their hands have relieved the poor; their tongues have set forth God’s praise; therefore justice and equity require that their bodies should be crowned as well as their souls: and how can that be unless they are raised from the dead?
(4.) If the body did not rise again, a believer would not be completely happy; for, though the soul can subsist without the body, yet it has appetitus unionis; ‘a desire of reunion’ with the body; and it is not fully happy till it be clothed with the body. Therefore, undoubtedly, the body shall rise again. If the soul should go to heaven, and not the body, then a believer would be only half saved.
But some say, as the Virgin Mary to the angel, ‘How can this be?’ How can it be, that the body, which is consumed to ashes, should rise again?
It does not oppose reason, but transcends it. There are some resemblances of the resurrection in nature. The corn, which is sown in the ground, dies before it springs up. ‘That which thou sowest is not quickened, except it die.’ I Cor 15:56. In winter the fruits of the Barth die: in spring there is a resurrection of them. Noah’s olive-tree springing after the flood, was a lively emblem of the resurrection. After the passion of our Lord, many of the saints which slept in the grave arose. Matt 27:72. God can more easily raise the body out of the grave, than we can wake a man out of sleep.
But when the dust of many are mingled together; how is it possible that a separation should be made and the same numerical body arise?
If we believe God can create, why not distinguish the dust of one body from another? Do we not see that the chemist, out of several metals mingled together, as gold, silver, alchemy, can extract one from the other, the silver from the gold, the alchemy from silver, and can reduce every metal to its own kind? And shall we not much more believe, that when our bodies are mingled and confounded with other substances, the wise God is able to reinvest every soul with its own body?
Shall none but the bodies of the righteous be raised?