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Jesus'
Resurrection was physical
The resurrection of Jesus is a fundamental and
essential doctrine of Christianity. The resurrection of Jesus is so
important that without it Christianity is false. Paul said in 1 Cor. 15:14, "and if
Christ has not been raised, then our preaching is vain, your faith also is
vain." Three verses later, in verse 17, he again says,
"and if Christ has not been raised, your faith is worthless; you are
still in your sins." Though there are many subjects with
which Christians may disagree and still be considered Christian, this is
not one of them. To deny the resurrection of Jesus is to deny the
heart of Christianity itself.
However, the problem in the resurrection isn't so
much in agreeing that Jesus rose, but in how He rose.
Unfortunately, cults attack the resurrection of Christ and reinterpret it
in different ways, thereby denying His physical resurrection. We
must ask if Jesus rose from the dead in the very same body He died in or
did His rise in a spirit body that was not flesh and bones? The
answer to this question is vital. It separates true Christians from
false systems. Therefore, here is the correct doctrine of Christ's
resurrection. I consider it so important, that it must be set off by
itself as a statement of truth.
Jesus rose from the dead in the very
same physical body that He died in. This resurrected body was a
glorified, spiritual body.
The above
statement is the correct doctrine of scripture. As such, it stands
against the Jehovah's Witness and the Shepherd's Chapel groups that state
that Jesus did not rise bodily, but spiritually. Neither group seeks
to deny the obvious biblical declaration of Christ's resurrection, but
they change the meaning of the resurrection so that it really didn't
happen. Did Jesus rise from the dead in the same physical body He
died in? Yes!
After the resurrection Jesus was able to eat (Luke 24:4243). He showed
people His hands and feet with the nail prints in them (Luke 24:51; John 20:27), and people even
grabbed His feet and worshipped Him (Matt. 28:9). After the
reports of Jesus' resurrection were spreading, Thomas, who was doubting
the resurrection of Christ, said, "Unless I shall see in His hands
the imprint of the nails, and put my finger into the place of the nails,
and put my hand into His side, I will not believe," (John 20:25).
Later, Jesus appeared to Thomas and said to him, "Reach
here your finger, and see My hands; and reach here your hand, and put it
into My side; and be not unbelieving, but believing," (John
20:27).
If Jesus' body had not risen, then He would not
have feet and hands with the same holes of the nails of the
crucifixion. Consider the following verses as further proof that His
very body was raised:
- "When therefore it was
evening, on that day, the first day of the week, and when the doors
were shut where the disciples were, for fear of the Jews, Jesus came
and stood in their midst, and *said to them, "Peace
be with you." 20And when He had said this, He
showed them both His hands and His side. The disciples therefore
rejoiced when they saw the Lord," (John
20:19-20).
- "And He said to them, "Why are you troubled, and why do doubts arise in
your hearts? 39"See My hands and My feet, that it is I
Myself; touch Me and see, for a spirit does not have flesh and bones
as you see that I have." (Luke
24:38-39).
It is obvious
that Jesus was raised in the same body He died in, with the same holes in
His hands and feet. We see that Jesus proclaimed He had flesh and
bones? Does a "spirit body" consist of flesh and
bones? Not at all.
I have heard it said that Jesus physical body
died but His spiritual body was raised. If this is so, then does the
spiritual body consist of flesh and bones as well as the physical
one? It makes no sense. Also, if Jesus did not rise
physically, then what happened to His body? Was it dissolved?
Was it moved somewhere? There is no biblical account of what
happened to Jesus' body other than that it was raised from the dead.
Therefore, His body was raised from the dead.
John 2:19-21
"Jesus answered
and said to them, "Destroy this temple, and
in three days I will raise it up." 20 The Jews
therefore said, "It took forty-six years to build this temple, and
will You raise it up in three days?" 21 But He was
speaking of the temple of His body," (John 2:19-21).
The
phrase "I will raise" is translated from the single Greek word
"egeiro." "Egeiro" is the future, active,
indicative, 1st person singular. The active voice in Greek
designates who is performing the action. In this case, since it is
first person, singular ("I"), Jesus is saying that He Himself
would perform the action of the resurrection. This is
precisely what the Greek says.
However, some still deny that Jesus rose from the
dead physically -- even when examining John
2:19-21. We can clearly see that Jesus prophesied that He would
raise up the temple of His body as is clarified in verse 21 by John the
apostle who states that Jesus was speaking of "the temple of his
body." Therefore, this should be conclusive proof that Jesus
rose from the dead in the same body He died in. Clearly, John 2:19-21 shows us that Jesus
predicted He would raise His very body -- and He did so. Is this
enough to put this issue to rest? You'd think so, but resistance
persists.
1 Cor. 15:35, 39, 42-44
35But someone will say, "How are the dead
raised? And with what kind of body do they come?. . .39All
flesh is not the same flesh, but there is one flesh of men, and another
flesh of beasts, and another flesh of birds, and another of fish. . .42So
also is the resurrection of the dead. It is sown a perishable body, it
is raised an imperishable body; 43it is sown in dishonor, it
is raised in glory; it is sown in weakness, it is raised in power; 44it
is sown a natural body, it is raised a spiritual body. If there is a
natural body, there is also a spiritual body.
Verse 44 above is used in an attempt to establish the idea that Jesus did
not rise physically, but spiritually. Of course, I've already
established above that Jesus was raised in the same body He died in, with
the same holes in His hands and feet. We also saw that Jesus
proclaimed He had flesh and bones (Luke 24:39). Again, does a
"spirit body" consist of flesh and bones? The scripture no
where declares such a thing.
Paul is not stating that there are two separate
bodies to each person, the physical and the spiritual and that after the
physical one dies, the second and different spirit body takes over.
Rather, when referencing the same body he states, "it is sown a
natural body, it is raised a spiritual body," (v. 44). The "it"
is referring to the same body in both clauses, not separate and different
ones. This same body becomes a resurrected body -- which is the
spiritual body He is referring to. In other words, the spiritual
body is the very same body he previously had, though it had been
changed into a spiritual one.
"For this
perishable must put on the imperishable, and this mortal must put on
immortality. 54But when this perishable will have put on the
imperishable, and this mortal will have put on immortality, then will
come about the saying that is written, "Death is swallowed up in
victory," (1 Cor. 15:53-54).
Our
perishable and mortal bodies put on the imperishable and immortal aspects
of the spiritual body which is the physically resurrected and changed body
of the believer. Jesus was simply the first fruits of this
resurrection (1 Cor. 15:20).
Therefore, we can see that our future resurrected bodies will be spiritual
bodies. But, those spiritual bodies are in fact physical, the same
bodies we have now, only glorified. Otherwise, there is no
resurrection.
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