davidbowerkingwood

1. 1. a rising from the dead, or coming back to life
   2. the state of having risen from the dead
2. a coming back into notice, practice, use, etc.; revival, as of old customs”

The focus of the Bible is on the physical resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ at the time of his First Advent which is followed, in order, by the still future physical resurrection of the saints of the church, and later Israel.

Paul speaks to the question of the earthly body versus the heavenly body in 2 Corinthians 5:1-5 where it is written:

“5 For we know that if the earthly tent we live in is destroyed, we have a building from God, an eternal house in heaven, not built by human hands. ² Meanwhile we groan, longing to be clothed instead with our heavenly dwelling, ³ because when we are clothed, we will not be found naked. ⁴ For while we are in this tent, we groan and are burdened, because we do not wish to be unclothed but to be clothed instead with our heavenly dwelling, so that what is mortal may be swallowed up by life. ⁵ Now the one who has fashioned us for this very purpose is God, who has given us the Spirit as a deposit, guaranteeing what is to come.”

Your Resurrection Experience, Past and Future

While our spiritual resurrection is an individual experience associated with our new birth, our physical resurrection will be a group event held in three stages; the first stage was Christ at his First Advent, the second stage will be the church, at the Rapture, and the third stage will be Israel at the Lord’s return at the end of the Tribulation. There will be a fourth resurrection of the damned at the end of the Millennial reign of the Lord Jesus Christ but their destination will be the Lake of Fire.

As pointed out in the definition it is “a rising from the dead, or coming back to life.” In the last essay I covered the nature of your death in Adam and pointed out the unique roll the Holy Spirit played in bringing you back to life. Just as the Holy Spirit was instrumental in the First Advent of the Lord Jesus Christ, he is equally important in the new birth of ever believer in the Lord Jesus Christ as Savior and God. An additional fact is the indwelling of the Holy Spirit into each believer who is born again. ; this represents a departure unique to the Church Age.

An Interesting Parallel

In the last essay we considered the sequence of the spiritual versus the physical death of Adam and saw that hundreds of years passed between the two events. For us, as Adam’s descendants, our options require that we experience the new birth and become spiritually alive before we die physically if we are to experience the new birth at all.

Always be mindful that our spiritual selves are created in the image of God, while our mortal bodies are of the dust of the Earth and simply cannot share in the glory to come. When we are born again, by faith in Jesus Christ as Savior, our dead spirits are brought back to life; by definition we have been spiritually resurrected from the dead and eternally restored to life; for Christians, there is no second death!