Q4. Firstborn from the Dead

[carol tuggle]

My assurance is the belief that Hod raised Jesus from the dead 

[Niyonka16]

Q4. What assurance do you have that you will be physically resurrected rather than experience disembodied immortality?

ANSWER: Our bodies will be raised not spiritually or ethereally, but physically and materially. Our souls will be reunited with our transformed physical bodies, brought back to life from the dead. If we look at the scripture, we see that scripture teaches this in many ways.

1. First, simply to speak of a "resurrection" of the dead is to imply physicality. That is what a resurrection is. The Bible has no categories for the concept of a resurrected body that remains dead and physically lying in a grave. (see Matthew 22:30-31; Luke 14:14; 1 Corinthians 15:52; 1 Thessalonians 4:16).
2. Second, Philippians 3:20-21 teaches us that Christ's resurrection body is the pattern of our resurrection body. Since Christ's resurrection is the pattern of our resurrection, we will therefore be raised in a physical body as well.
3. Third, our bodies are not going to be thrown away. They are going to be renewed, restored, revitalized. Romans 8:21-23 speaks of waiting for "the redemption of our bodies" (see verse 23).
4. Fourth, Jesus speaks of the resurrection as involving the coming forth of individuals out of their tombs, which clearly indicates a physical concept of the resurrection (see John 5:28-29).
5. Fifth, the Old Testament in Daniel 12:2, “And many of them that sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake, some to everlasting life, and some to shame and everlasting contempt,” which speaks of the resurrection as being physical. Likewise, we read in Job 19:25-27, "I know that my Redeemer lives, and at the last He will take His stand on the earth. Even after my skin is destroyed, yet from my flesh I shall see God; Whom I myself shall behold, and whom my eyes shall see and not another. My heart faints within Me".

What does it mean that Jesus is the "firstfruits" (1 Corinthians 15:20) and "firstborn" (Revelation 1:5) from the dead?

ANSWER: Paul describes (Christ)/Him as the "firstfruits" of those who have died, those who have “fallen asleep”. Paul's use of the term here means that Jesus was the first of the crop of "the dead" to be resurrected. His was the prototype for what lies in store for believers in the future (1 Corinthians 15:51; 1 John 3:2). In other words, that harvest has only just begun. As God raised Jesus back to life, He will collect all those who trust in Christ to life, as well, when the time comes. Jesus is the “firstfruits” symbolized and consecrated the entire harvest that was to follow, Christ's resurrection was the foretaste of the resurrection of all believers yet to come.

When Scripture refers to Christ as a firstfruits, it is teaching us that He was offered to God to sanctify the coming ingathering or harvest. Christ is the firstfruits of those of us who believe in this life. But it doesn’t stop there. The firstfruits always imply a future ingathering, a coming harvest that far exceeds the firstfruits. The firstfruits, therefore, are a pledge of a much larger harvest to come. Just as with the firstborn, not only is Christ the firstfruits of us, but we are the firstfruits of the rest!

“Firstborn” refers to the high, privileged position that Christ has as a result of the resurrection from the dead. Christ has gained such a sovereign position because He is the inaugurator of new creation by means of His resurrection. Jesus’ resurrection from death opens the way for all who trust in him to follow him in a resurrection like his when he returns. He is the firstborn of the resurrection plan. Second, being the “firstborn of the dead” means that Jesus is both the first to rise and the first in supremacy. He is the first to rise from the dead and thus the first of the new creation. He is also the inaugurator of the new creation and the rightful heir to it all.

Through the victory of His death and resurrection, Christ will ultimately triumph over all enemies, including death itself. Christians who have died physically will live eternally through their risen Lord. Christians have a sure hope that one day we will follow Christ into the resurrection and new creation, and, because we are in Christ, will reign with him as the firstborn of God, heirs of all things in heaven and on earth. When it says Jesus is the “firstborn” from the dead, means He sits as head of a new family over whom death has no power.