Question 42:
What benefits do believers receive from Christ at the Resurrection?
Answer: At the
resurrection, believers are raised up in glory; they shall be openly
acknowledged and acquitted in the day of judgment, and made perfectly blessed in
the full enjoyment of God to all eternity.
Day 1: Raised
Up to Glory
Philippians
3:20-21, 1 Corinthians 15:42-43, 1 John 3:2
Last
week we saw the benefits granted to the believer by Christ at death. This week we will look at the next great event
of the resurrection of the dead in Christ or rapture. Philippians 3:20-21 gives us a good start for
it speaks to our present citizenship and looks beyond to the resurrection. We saw in our study of 1 Peter that we are
merely pilgrims on this earth enduring for a short time until we make it home
in heaven.
In
contrast, Paul reminds them that they are citizens of heaven. This is fitting since the Philippians were
proud Roman citizens (Acts 16:21).
Citizenship is politeuma in
the Greek and speaks to a governing body or commonwealth that we obviously get
our word politic from. This is a
present, active, infinitive meaning that this very day we are citizens of
heaven, not something to come, but a current reality. Of course, heaven (Greek is ouranos = where God dwells) is a home
that we have never been to but eagerly await the return of Christ to bring us
home. The expression eagerly wait is apekdechomai in the Greek, which means
to give unremitting attention to and to patiently wait for. This is also given as a present, active,
infinitive meaning we long to see the return of Christ our Savior (Greek is soter meaning savior, deliverer,
preserver) and Lord (Greek is kurios
meaning master, owner, sovereign).
When
He comes our lowly (Greek = tapeinosis)
bodies will go through a great transformation (Greek is metaschematizo meaning to change the figure of, to transform, a
future, active, indicative). The great
transformation ends in our bodies being conformed to the glorious body of
Christ. The word for conformed in the
Greek is ginomai, which speaks to
creative power, to miracles, to bringing into existence. So the same power that brought the worlds
into existence will conform our bodies to that of Christ. The last phrase is full of creative
descriptions of Christ’s work to transform us: “according to the working (Greek
energeia = working of superhuman
power) by which He is able (Greek dunamai
= to be capable, strong, powerful, to have power by virtue of one's own ability
and resources) even to subdue (Greek hupotasso
= to arrange under, to subordinate, to cause to obey) all things to
Himself.” All of the creative power of
God is at work to transform our bodies to be like Christ’s.
1
Corinthians 15:42-43 gives us a brief description of what our new body will be
like. At the resurrection of the dead,
our corruptible (Greek phthora =
perishing) bodies will be transformed to incorruption (Greek aphtharsia = immortality, incorruption,
perpetuity, purity, sincerity, imperishable).
Christ will transform our dead corrupted bodies into ones that will
never die or be tainted by sin. Also,
our bodies that are now a dishonor (atimia)
or shame to God in the grave will be raised in glory (doxa = splendor, brightness).
And the body which died in weakness (astheneia
= infirmity, weakness, frailty, sickness) will be raised in power (dunamis = strength, power, ability,
moral stability).
One
last comment here is to note the hope of those who sleep in Christ Jesus will
be raised into a spiritual body in glory, no longer suffering the infirmities
of the natural body. The Greek for
raised is egeiro and has a range of
meanings of awakening the dead, to arouse, to awake, to produce, to
appear. The same word was used of Christ
command Jairus’ daughter to arise from the dead (Luke 8:54). As we ended last week with the bodied buried
in a variety of ways, God is able to assemble these remains whether in ashes,
in dust, in the excrement of lions to a glorious body in the image of Christ.
Discuss the following with your family:
1.
Talk to your
children about all the infirmities of our present bodies and how our new bodies
will be free from all sickness and pain and sorrow.
2.
A question was
raised in one of last week’s family worship lessons of what will we look like
when we receive our new bodies. We find
the answer in 1 John 3:2. First, John
says that it is not yet revealed what we should be. This leads me to believe that it will be
different from the revealed resurrected body of Christ that John himself
saw. Remember Jesus still had not come
in all of His glory. Perhaps even on the
Mount of Transfiguration John only saw a glimpse of Christ’s full glory. Second, whatever Christ is, we will be, short
of deity. Remember out of 1 Corinthians
15:42-58 our bodies will be: incorruptible, powerful, glorious, spiritual,
heavenly, immortal, and victorious. In
His image we will be resurrected distinct from the natural man, Adam.
3.
A possible word
picture that may help is that of the caterpillar and butterfly. The caterpillar lives, then sleeps in a
cocoon (like a grave), then emerges as a more beautiful creature.
Day 2: Openly
Acknowledged and Acquitted
Matthew
10:32
Today
we look at a very important part of the grace of God upon the believer. The pinnacle of our confession of Christ is
that instead of condemning us, God will openly acknowledge us as His children
and acquit us of the ultimate penalty of sin.
We are looking at a passage in the tenth chapter of Matthew where Jesus
is giving His disciples some general teaching.
Some of the teaching was given for their immediate benefit concerning
going into the cities of
In
fact in these last section of verses (24-42), Christ places a dividing line
upon the inhabitants of the earth which is summed up in verse 28 of whom we
should fear: temporally unjust man or eternally just God. We look at verse 32 that divides those who
confess Christ before men against those who deny Christ before men (verse
33). Verses 34-39 that follow expound
upon the nature of Christ’s and subsequently our ministry as one of separation
(reference verse 34 and Hebrews 4:12-14).
This surprises many in the world (and church) who have this vision of a
“cosmic Jesus” who is here to attend to all of the needs and desires of all of
humanity. This is really a
misinterpretation of John 3:16-17, where Jesus states the reason for His first
coming. Obviously, His Second Coming
will be one of judgement separating the sheep from the goats (Matthew
25:31-46). The balance of John 3:18-21
establishes again the context of Christ’s separation of those who “hate the
light” verses those who “do the truth.”
In
Matthew 10:32, it is obviously important that we understand the nature of the
confession that Jesus is speaking of here that we by God’s grace would be
counted with the “sheep.” The word in
the Greek for confesses is homologeo
which literally means to say the same thing as another, agree with another, and
to do so openly and freely; it is the opposite of denying. Our confession is to be in Christ. This is emphasized
in the Greek with the insertion of the preposition “en.” The verse also
emphasizes the public nature of the confession being “before men.” Thus, there are no true silent, private
confessions (the essence of our sharing the Gospel in word and deed is the
confession of Christ, James 2:14-26).
Romans
10:9-13 expounds upon the nature of our confession of Christ. It must be verbal (“with your mouth”) and
must consume the entirety of our being (“believe in your heart”). The belief is to the resurrection of Jesus or
that the finished work of Jesus is sufficient to cover our sins. Obviously, we must see our sinful condition
before we can make such a confession (in fact, seeing our wicked condition and
being repentant goes along with the confession, Acts 2:38-39). We have a problem though because our hearts
are “desperately wicked” (Jeremiah 17:9).
The solution is the essence of Jesus’ discourse with Nicodemus in John
3: you must be “born again.” It takes an
act of God to change our hearts of stone into hearts of flesh (Ezekiel
11:19). Matthew 25:31-46 shows that this
confession goes beyond mouth confession to a life changed into the servant
nature of Christ Himself.
The
rest of Matthew 10:32 carries a wonderful promise to those who confess Christ before
men, He will confess them before His Father in heaven. The nature of Christ’s confession is given in
Revelation 3:5, “He who overcomes shall be clothed in white garments, and I
will not blot out his name from the Book of Life; but I will confess his name
before My Father and before His angels.”
The word for confess here in Revelation is of the same root as that in
Matthew 10:32, but with a different prefix: exomologeo. This word means in addition to professing and
confessing, to acknowledge openly and joyfully.
Thus Christ will confess (exomologeo)
to His Father that our profession (homologeo)
in Him is true. With our names firmly
etched in the Book of Life we see the escaping of eternal damnation and the
enjoyment of all the benefits life eternal in the new life to come (Revelation
20:11-15, 21:22-27, actually all of Chapters 21-22).
Discuss
the following with your family:
1.
The Gospel is at
the heart of our discussion today. It is
a good opportunity to again share the Gospel with them. Perhaps today will be the day that God does a
work in their own hearts!
2.
Pray for the
grace of God to be upon your children.
Plead to God on their behalf for their salvation. (1 Timothy 2:1-7) Let your children hear your pleas to God, and
may God by His mercy answer your prayer affirmatively.
Day 3: For All
Eternity
1
Thessalonians 4:17
We
continue in 1 Thessalonians 4 from last week.
We looked at verse 14 last week establishing the hope of resurrection of
the dead in Christ. If God could raise
His own Son, then certainly He can raise us, as well.
In
verse 15, Paul begins to lay out the events of what we know as the rapture of
the church. It is important to point out
first that Paul spoke under the authority of the word of the Lord. This was not Paul’s concoction, but a truth
of God that we can count on. Next we see
that those who are redeemed and still living will be changed as the dead in
Christ are resurrected. (Jumping ahead to
verse 16, we see that the dead in Christ will rise first out of their graves.) The living still have a corruptible body that
must be shed (die) in order to be changed into a new one.
In
verse 16, we see that the Lord Himself will descend (Greek is katabaino meaning to come down) from
heaven. He is obviously bringing the
souls of those who have fallen asleep with Him to inhabit their new
bodies. As we rise, the Lord coming down
will meet us. This event will be
announced by a shout. The Greek here is keleuma, which is a command, shouted out
as a stimulating cry as one would yell to start a horse galloping. The root of this same word is used in Matthew
25:6 of the bridegroom giving the midnight cry (keleuo) to summon his bride in the parable of the ten virgins. This event will also be announced by the
voice (Greek is phone meaning a
musical sound or speech) of the archangel.
Lastly, this event will be announced with the trump (salpigxa = trumpet) of God. Paul calls this the last trumpet in 1
Corinthians 15:52 (Note that this sounds a lot like the event described in
Matthew 24:27-31 and the seventh trumpet in Revelation 11:19. Though it is not central to this particular
catechism, this lesson may kindle discussions of pre-tribulation verses
post-tribulation rapture. Without any
detail, I will go on record as holding to the pre-tribulation view as the best
fit to scripture. We can debate the
details again over lunch Sunday.)
In
verse 17, our focal verse, we see that we who are living will be caught up with
the resurrected believers to meet Christ.
“Caught up” is harpazoto in the
Greek meaning seize, carry off by force, claim for one's self eagerly, to
snatch out or away. So we see a
deliberate act of Christ to snatch us out of our graves once and for all for
His own. It is given as a future,
active, indicative meaning that it is a factual future event that will be
exercised on our behalf.
Parenthetically, we get the word rapture from the Latin raptus, which is the translation of the
Greek word harpazoto. Of course, as we discussed on the first day,
our bodies will be changing (from 1 Corinthians 15:51 change is given as allasso in the Greek meaning to change,
to exchange one thing for another, to transform) as they are raptured. Paul in 1 Corinthians 15:52 gives us the
duration of this event: in a moment (Greek = atomos = smallest particle that cannot be cut in two) and in the
twinkling (Greek = rhipe = one blink)
of an eye. In other words, the
transformation will be so fast that the unredeemed left behind will miss it in
the blink of an eye.
Back
in 1 Thessalonians 4:17, we are given where we will meet Christ: in the clouds
(Greek = nephele) and in the air
(Greek = aer = earth’s
atmosphere). From this point to eternity
soul and body will always be with the Lord.
Always is given as pantote in
the Greek meaning at all times, always, forever. The verb “shall be” is given as a future
indicative meaning that it is a future even that is certain to take place. Thus, we can be comforted and comfort one
another with these words (verse 18) that the promise of Jesus in John 14:1-4
will come true and that the Father will answer the prayer of Jesus in John
17:24 in the affirmative.
Discuss
the following with your family:
1. You may want to look at Revelation 21-22 with
your family to see where we will spend eternity with Christ.
2. Paint
a picture in the minds of your children of this great event of graves bursting
open, trumpets sounding, the Lord shouting.
This is truly the pinnacle of our election to be the praise of His glory
forevermore. (You could even take a
field trip to the graveyard for such an illustration.)
Scripture:
Philippians 3:20,21; 1 Corinthians 15:42,43; Matthew 10:32;
1
John 3:2; 1 Thessalonians 4:17.