The Promise of Resurrection Day

This past Sunday, usually called Easter Sunday, I scrolled through countless posts on social media of “He is Risen!” and “He is Risen indeed!” (I try to avoid the word “Easter” because it refers to an abominable pagan holiday that has nothing to do with the resurrection of Christ. But that is a subject for another blog.)

Resurrection Day is the day we celebrate the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, on the Sunday following his crucifixion. Christ’s resurrection is not only proof beyond any doubt that He was who He said He was—it’s also the promise of our own future resurrections, something which I think gets lost in all the church-sponsored egg hunts and Sunday brunches.

We tend to think of the afterlife as floating around in heaven as disembodied spirits, playing harps and maybe hoping for wings. Christ’s resurrection gives us a different story: we will be flesh and blood beings, more alive and real than we are in our perishable bodies today. That is the true hope of the gospel, the whole point of it. Not “going to heaven” when we die, but resurrection in a “new Heaven and new Earth.” Yet we rarely talk about it. Why is that?

Paul talked about it a whole lot. Read I Corinthians 15, for a start. 

So if the message that is preached says that Christ has been raised from the dead, then how can some of you say, “There’s no resurrection of the dead”? If there’s no resurrection of the dead, then Christ hasn’t been raised either. If Christ hasn’t been raised, then our preaching is useless and your faith is useless.  1 Corinthians 15:12-14

Did you see that word “useless?” Without the hope of resurrection, we got nothing.

The Jews have a complicated relationship with the concept of resurrection. The Pharisees generally believed in the resurrection of all the dead upon the arrival of the Messiah, whom they claim has not come yet. The Sadducees did not believe in resurrection at all, but they disappeared entirely after the destruction of Jerusalem by the Romans in AD 70. 

The Old Testament refers to the afterlife as “Sheol” or “Hades” —a dark underworld where the souls of the dead reside, very similar to the Greek concept of death. It’s not heaven, nor is it hell, for hell doesn’t appear in the OT at all. It’s just the realm of the dead.

There are several resurrections mentioned in the OT, however, like those performed by prophets Elijah and Elisha, so the idea of bringing people back to life was accepted, albeit extremely rare. Christ’s resurrection was quite different. He was resurrected into an eternal body, one that would never die again. Yet he was real flesh and blood—He could walk through locked doors, appear and disappear at will, but He could also talk, breathe, and eat food like a regular human. This is the resurrection we are promised when He returns.

Does this seem too fantastic to be true?

Maybe that’s why we don’t talk about it much. A disembodied spiritual existence in heaven seems more palatable than real flesh and blood bodies being formed from dust. It’s funny how we discount the miracle of our first birth—the conception, the sperm and the egg, the absolute phenomenal growth of a few little cells into a fully formed human, just because we have figured out how that works. We’ve seen it with our microscopes. We’ve even recreated it in labs.

But no one saw Christ’s resurrection. We don’t know how it happened, how it even could have happened, the mechanics of it, which makes it all much more difficult to believe. Paul tries to explain what’s going on. 

But someone will say, “How are the dead raised? What kind of body will they have when they come back?” Look, fool! When you put a seed into the ground, it doesn’t come back to life unless it dies. What you put in the ground doesn’t have the shape that it will have, but it’s a bare grain of wheat or some other seed. God gives it the sort of shape that he chooses, and he gives each of the seeds its own shape. 

All flesh isn’t alike. Humans have one kind of flesh, animals have another kind of flesh, birds have another kind of flesh, and fish have another kind. There are heavenly bodies and earthly bodies. The heavenly bodies have one kind of glory, and the earthly bodies have another kind of glory.

 It’s the same with the resurrection of the dead: a rotting body is put into the ground, but what is raised won’t ever decay. It’s degraded when it’s put into the ground, but it’s raised in glory. It’s weak when it’s put into the ground, but it’s raised in power. It’s a physical body when it’s put into the ground, but it’s raised as a spiritual body. If there’s a physical body, there’s also a spiritual body. 1 Corinthians 15: 35-40,42-44

Paul goes on the describe our human, mortal bodies as tents, temporary homes:

'We know that if the tent that we live in on earth is torn down, we have a building from God. It’s a house that isn’t handmade, which is eternal and located in heaven. We groan while we live in this residence. We really want to dress ourselves with our building from heaven— since we assume that when we take off this tent, we won’t find out that we are naked. Yes, while we are in this tent we groan, because we are weighed down. We want to be dressed not undressed, so that what is dying can be swallowed up by life. Now the one who prepared us for this very thing is God, and God gave us the Spirit as a down payment for our home. 2 Corinthians 5:1-5

And when will this happen? When Christ returns. 

'For since we believe that Jesus died and was raised to life again, we also believe that when Jesus returns, God will bring back with him the believers who have died. We tell you this directly from the Lord: We who are still living when the Lord returns will not meet him ahead of those who have died. For the Lord himself will come down from heaven with a commanding shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trumpet call of God. First, the believers who have died will rise from their graves. 

1 Thessalonians 4:14-16

Christ was the first to experience this new resurrection.

But in fact Christ has been raised from the dead, the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep. But each in his own order: Christ the firstfruits, then at his coming those who belong to Christ. Then comes the end, when he delivers the kingdom to God the Father after destroying every rule and every authority and power.  1 Corinthians 15:20,23-24

This is what makes Christianity different from every other religion. This is the hope and promise of the gospel of Christ. Yes, there are people whose lives are changed by Christ, but there are also people whose lives are changed by many other religions and organizations as well. Yes, Christianity gives us a moral framework within which to live, but so do many other schools of thought. Yes, Christianity promises an afterlife, but so do other faiths. What makes Christianity different, and true, is the promise of the Resurrection, which happened on a Sunday after Passover over two thousand years ago. How do we know it’s true? Because of the evidence of Christ. The four gospels tell us all about the many witnesses, over three hundred, who saw Him, touched Him, and ate with Him in the six weeks following his crucifixion. They name names. This is hard evidence. It really happened. The apostles gave their lives because of it. Two thousand years later, His Name is still the Name above all Names.

Revelation finishes the story for us:

Then I saw thrones, and people took their seats on them, and judgment was given in their favor. They were the ones who had been beheaded for their witness to Jesus and God’s word, and those who hadn’t worshipped the beast or its image, who hadn’t received the mark on their forehead or hand. They came to life and ruled with Christ for one thousand years. The rest of the dead didn’t come to life until the thousand years were over. This is the first resurrection. Favored and holy are those who have a share in the first resurrection. The second death has no power over them, but they will be priests of God and of Christ, and will rule with him for one thousand years.  Revelation 20:4-6

This is more than a prophecy. It is a promise. It’s why we say “He is Risen!” with joy in our hearts. Because He rose, so will we.

Gina Detwiler is the author of the YA Supernatural Forlorn series and co-author of the bestselling The Prince Warriors series with Priscilla Shirer. She also wrote The Ultimate Bible Character Guide and the Ultimate Bible Character Devotional. Find out more at www.ginadetwiler.com