Belief in the resurrection of the body is the gospel's hope. Its foundation is Christ's own resurrection. In the great resurrection chapter, 1 Corinthians 15, the apostle Paul, without equivocation, says it is an essential of Christian faith. Here are Paul's words:

"But if there is no resurrection of the dead, then Christ is not risen, And if Christ is not risen, then our preaching is empty and your faith is also empty. Yes, and we are found false witnesses of God, because we have testified of God that He raised up Christ, whom He did not raise up-if in fact the dead do not rise. For if the dead do not rise, then Christ is not risen. And if Christ is not risen, your faith is futile; you are still in your sins. Then also those who have fallen asleep in Christ have perished. If in this life only we have hope in Christ, we are of all men the most pitiable" (1 Corinthians 15:13-19).

Taught in the Creeds

The creeds of the church reflect this. The Apostles' Creed has the terse statement, "I believe in the resurrection of the body." The Nicene Creed states, "and I look for the resurrection of the dead, and the life of the world to come. Amen." The Athanasian Creed declares: "For as the reasonable soul and flesh is one man, so God and man is one Christ; Who suffered for our salvation, descended into hell, rose again the thrd day from the dead; He ascended into heaven, He sits on the right hand of the Father, God, Almighty; From thence He shall come to judge the quick and the dead. At whose coming all men shall rise again with their bodies...." These confessional statements were not drawn from the air, but formed from the apostles' teaching. The Athanasian Creed at the beginning and in its concluding statement reminds us that these are not options of faith, but essentials, for the opening statement of this creed is, "Whosoever will be saved, before all things it is necessary that he hold the catholic faith; Which faith except every one do keep whole and undefiled, without doubt he shall perish everlastingly." The last statement in the creed is similar, "This is the catholic faith, which except a man believe faithfully he cannot be saved."

Our creeds also state that the resurrection of the dead is specific in meaning. Its meaning is bodily resurrection, and by "body" is meant the body that you have lived in through the course of life. Question 57 of the Heidelberg Catechism asks, "What comfort does the ‘resurrection of the body' afford you?"

The answer is direct as to what body means. "That not only my soul after this life shall be immediately taken up to Christ its Head; but also, that this my body, raised by the power of Christ, shall be reunited with my soul, and made like unto the glorious body of Christ." The Belgic Confession in Article 37-Of the Last Judgment, says this, "For all the dead shall be raised out of the earth, and their souls joined and united with their proper bodies, in which they formerly lived." The Westminster Confession and Catechisms contain similar expressions. I believe in the resurrection of the body, not because faithful fathers wrote them in creeds and confessions, but because they set forth what the Scriptures teach on the matter in the form of sound words.

The Scriptural Basis

In the Scripture's record of the resurrection of Christ there is a clear presentation of what kind of body He appeared in after He was raised from the dead. In Matthew 28:1-10 there is the account of Mary Magdalene and the other Mary leaving the empty tomb, in which the body of Jesus was laid, to go tell His disciples that "He is risen from the dead." On their way, they were met by Jesus who said to them, "Rejoice." The record continues, "So they came and held Him by the feet and worshiped Him." What explanation can we give? What were they holding onto? The air? An aura? A phantom? No, they were clinging to His body.

It is true that Jesus' disciples themselves had doubts as to what they saw when they saw Jesus after He was raised from the dead. That this is so is stated clearly in Luke 24:36-39, where we read, "Jesus Himself stood in the midst of them and said to them, ‘Peace to you.' But they were frightened and supposed they had seen a spirit." The disciples' terror and fright should not surprise us, for resurrection from the dead was, is, and will continue to be an event of astounding proportions. However, astonishment does not negate truth. What follows attests to the bodily resurrection, for Jesus said to them: "Why are you troubled? Why do doubts arise in your hearts? Behold my hand and My feet, that it is I Myself. Handle Me and see, for a spirit does not have flesh and bones as you see I have." How much more certain can the Scriptures be? The language of Jesus is specific-flesh and bones. His invitation to His disciples is, "Handle Me." In essence He is saying, be assured that this is My body, the same body that was beaten, bruised, crucified, dead and buried, but now raised from the dead.

In John's gospel is the record of Thomas, who is well-known as doubting Thomas, because he doubted the disciples when they told him, "We have seen the Lord." Thomas' answer to the disciples recorded in John 20:25 was, "Unless I see in His hands the print of the nails, and put my finger into the print of the nails, and put my hand into His side, I will not believe." When Jesus appeared again to the disciples eight days later, Thomas was among them, and Jesus spoke directly to him, "Reach your finger here, and look at My hands; and reach your hand here, put it into My side. Do not be unbelieving, but believing." Thomas' doubt was erased, he confessed, "My Lord and my God!"

A Bodily Resurrection

Throughout Scripture, resurrection is inextricably linked to bodily resurrection. While resurrection is a New Testament word, the hope of resurrection of the body was implanted firmly in the minds of the Old Testament believers. In the eleventh chapter of Hebrews there is the wonderful presentation of the faith and hope of Old Testament personages, who, "not having received the promises saw them afar off," and were assured of them, and embraced them. There Abraham is spoken of that "By faith,...when he was tested, offered up Isaac...his only begotten son, concluding that God was able to raise him up, even from the dead, from which he also received him in a figurative sense." In this same chapter we also read that "Women received their dead raised to life again." Riffling through the pages of the Old Testament we read of Elijah, who raised to life again the son of the widow of Zarephath, and of Elisha who raised to life again the son of the Shunammite woman. What rejoicing these women must have expressed, but more to the point, returning to the eleventh chapter of Hebrews there follows, "Others were tortured, not accepting deliverance, that they might obtain a better resurrection." Better resurrection than what? Better than denying faith in God and continuing in life, for they so trusted God to raise them from the dead and take them to Himself into heavenly joy and glory.

The "Valley of the Vision of the Dry Bones" (Ezekiel 37:1-14) is an interesting portion of Scripture. It is acknowledged that this is imagery depicting the spiritual resurrection of the people of Israel. Paul writes of something similar in Ephesians 2, where he says, "But God, who is rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loves us, even when we were dead in trespasses, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved), and raised us up together, and made us sit together in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus." In Ezekiel's time Israel was spiritually dead. Yet even in this vision as Ezekiel is commanded to prophesy to these dry bones, indeed even this description of that spiritual resurrection there is the inclusion of the body: "Prophesy to these bones...Thus says the Lord God to these bones: ‘Surely I will cause breath to enter into you, and you shall live, I will put sinews on you and bring flesh upon you, cover you with skin and put breath into you, and you shall live.'" Yes, even in this imagery, this mere mention of dry bones returning to life there is a uniting of the body with soul. Indeed, to confess, "I believe in the resurrection of the body," there must first be a making alive the dry bones of dead men and women, and a hearing of the word of the Lord, and a response to His grace by faith and trust in Jesus Christ, as nothing short of this can instill in the heart the hope and assurance of the resurrection of the body. This cannot be emphasized too strongly, for it is God's power, by His Holy Spirit, that makes those who are dead in trespasses and sins alive with Christ, and the same God who raised up Jesus from the dead will also raise us up by His power.

A Glorious Body

Both the Old and New Testaments give expression of the hope of the resurrection of the body. It is in the gospels, and the epistles, and in the Law and prophets as well as the poets. The great confessions and creeds set it forth in language such as this body, or selfsame body. But now turning again to 1 Corinthians 15, Paul says (v. 35), "But someone will say, ‘How are the dead raised up? And with what body do they come?'" We then read of his analogy of the seed, and of different kinds of flesh, and of celestial bodies and terrestrial bodies, and of the different glory of sun, moon, and stars.

Generally this causes no difficulty. It is not until Paul says, "It is sown a natural body, it is raised a spiritual body," then some latch onto that and suppose that it is not this selfsame body that is raised from the dead, but a spiritual body. However, a thoughtful look at this passage shows otherwise. In fact, all that Paul says here supports that it is the selfsame body. The analogy of the seed holds throughout. If you sow a wheat seed, it does not come forth as a seed, nor does it come forth as something other than wheat. In Galatians 6:6-8 Paul says, "Do not be deceived, God is not mocked; for whatever a man sows, that he will also reap. For he who sows to his flesh will of the flesh reap corruption, but he who sows to the Spirit will of the Spirit reap everlasting life." The emphasis in the Corinthian passage is not what is sown, but what comes forth. Of the grain, whether wheat or some other, it is said, "But God gives it a body as He pleases, and each seed its own body." This is evident in what we see all around us in the creation: to each seed its own body. If you plant corn don't expect wheat to spring forth, and if you plant wheat don't expect a corn crop, but you can expect something more than the mere grain (seed), and it will be something according to the will of God, in conformity to His word.

So it is throughout creation. All flesh is not the same, yet the same principle holds, God gives it a body as He pleases. We don't struggle with this in the created order. It's all around us. Do we give proper thought that the tiny fingers of a newborn infant can become the skilled fingers of concert pianist? Is the body that we die in the body that we were born with? The Scriptures give us the record of the birth of Jesus of Nazareth, born in a manger in Bethlehem, and of this selfsame Jesus answering scholars' questions in the temple at Jerusalem when He was twelve years old, and of His crucifixion when He was about thirty-three years of age, and of His being raised from the dead in the selfsame body after the third day, and of His appearing bodily to "Cephas, then by the twelve. After that He was seen by over five hundred brethren at once" (1 Cor. 15:5).

The whole of Paul's contrasts with regard to the body is rooted in his contrasts between the first Adam-man, and the last Adam-Jesus Christ. It is through Adam the first Man, by the Fall, that death came. It is through Christ, Man, the last Adam, that resurrection of the dead came (see 1 Cor. 15:21). The words "corruption," "dishonor," "weakness," and "natural" all pertain to the body that is yet subject to the last enemy to be destroyed, that is, death (see 1 Cor. 15:20-28). The words "incorruption," "glory," "power," and "spiritual" pertain to the resurrected body of the believer. It is the selfsame body with differences, but it is not a different body. It is a body that is incorruptible; it is glorious; it is powerful (victorious over sin and death); it is spiritual as it bears the image of the heavenly man. We can play around with the meaning of the English words, natural, spiritual, and soul, and with the Greek words psuche, psuchikos, and pneumatikov, in order to make the resurrected body an aura or a phantom, but the weight of Scripture on the resurrected body, beginning with Jesus' resurrection, is that it is the selfsame body. As Christ was prepared with a body to live our humanity, so also are our bodies by Christ are prepared for life in the new heavens and new earth, as "flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God; nor can corruption inherit incorruption." Indeed, the new heavens and new earth, the redemption of our bodies, the restoration of all things-this is the hope of salvation by grace through faith in our blessed Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ.

I believe that Jesus Christ on the third day rose from the dead. I believe that He rose with the selfsame body that was crucified, dead and buried. I believe in the resurrection of the body. I believe that this was the hope of the saints now gathered in the church triumphant, and it is the hope that is set before us by Christ Jesus. Spurgeon, on the necessity of believing the resurrection of the body, said this: "Now, will you believe this doctrine or not? If you will not, you are excommunicated from the faith. This is the faith of the Gospel; and if you do not believe it you have not yet received the Gospel. ‘For if the dead rise not, then your faith is vain, and ye are yet in your sins.' The dead in Christ shall rise, and they shall rise first." To this I would append, and they will rise in the selfsame body.

Rev. Neale Riffert, Sherman, TX
Pastor Emeritus, Grace Reformed
Church, Lancaster, CA