Resurrection of the Dead (addendum)

Hebrews 6:1-3 - Therefore leaving the principles of the doctrine of Christ, let us go on unto perfection; not laying again the foundation of repentance from dead works, and of faith toward God, Of the doctrine of baptisms, and of laying on of hands, and of resurrection of the dead, and of eternal judgment. And this will we do, if God permit. [Emphasis added are mine]

If you could say Jesus had a weakness, what would it be?

Turn to Matthew 26…

Matthew 26:41 - Watch and pray, that ye enter not into temptation: the spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak.

Jesus flesh, his body, was just like ours in every way. Scriptures tell us He was tempted in every manner, yet he was found without sin (Heb. 4:15). He sweated like us, hungered like us, and thirsted like us. His body had daily needs as our body has daily needs. So if we could say he was weak in any area, it was His flesh, but His Spirit was willing.

The Spirit of God in Him was what made Him strong. The Spirit enabled Him to overcome the temptations that His flesh experienced. It enabled Him to never sin because He walked completely and totally dependent upon the Spirit of God to do what God wanted Him to do.

John 12:24 - Verily, verily, I say unto you, Except a corn of wheat fall into the ground and die, it abideth alone: but if it die, it bringeth forth much fruit.

One of the things I have said before is that we can’t do anything for God until we die first. Our will or our self has to be put to death - denied. It has to go under so that we can be born again in the Spirit to do that which God wants us to and enables us to do by His Spirit.

Romans 8:3 - For what the law could not do, in that it was weak through the flesh, God sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin, condemned sin in the flesh:

Even though the law was perfect, it could not justify us. The problem wasn’t the law, but the flesh being incapable of fulfilling the perfect law. The problem was sin in the flesh (Romans 7:17 ,18). God dealt with that. He sent His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh so that all of the sins of the world would be put upon Him and He would pay the penalty for us. Sin was imparted to the one who was found without sin. Therefore sin was condemned in the body of His flesh (Romans 8:3). God had to do something with sin because the law said the penalty of that sin was death. Jesus Christ paid the penalty in the body of his death.

Ephesians 2:1-6 - And you hath he quickened, who were dead in trespasses and sins; Wherein in time past ye walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience: Among whom also we all had our conversation in times past in the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind; and were by nature the children of wrath, even as others.

But God, who is rich in mercy, for his great love wherewith he loved us, Even when we were dead in sins, hath quickened us together with Christ, (by grace ye are saved;) And hath raised us up together, and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus: [Emphasis added are mine]

We have to realize that before we came to God, we were dead! Spiritually, we were dead and considered dead in God’s eyes. We were separated from God. We did not live according to the Spirit and could not even if we tried our very best. Our intimacy and communion with Him was non-existent (dead).

So what happens when we get baptized? Our old man and our old life, the factory of sin that does nothing but produce sin, is put to death. Paul said you were dead, but he also said we have been quickened – we have been raised up and made alive in Him. We were dead (spiritually) in our mortal body.

Paul received the revelation that Christ lived in him. It is the only reason that he could speak and do all the things he did because he had been quickened in Christ and lived solely for Him. So while we were dead, we were walking according to the world. In God’s eyes we are dead if we are serving Satan. To be spiritually dead is to do according to the spirit that works in the children of disobedience. Its not talking about physical death, but a spiritual death – a separation from the only being that can ever give us life – God. God is eternal life. Separate and apart from Him, we are walking as dead men serving a lying spirit.

We must understand that at one point in our lives we were dead in our sins. Yet while we were sinners, Christ died for us that we may have abundant life in Him. The whole purpose of being born again is to reestablish the communion, communication, fellowship with God that was lost in Eden. When that takes place, then we can serve God in Jesus Christ because we are spiritually alive in Him.

He has (past tense) raised us up (He has already done it) together with Him and made us sit together in heavenly places with Him on His throne. If Christ Jesus is above all powers, rulers, principalities and wicked spirits in high places, then where are we seated? We are seated above all powers, rulers, principalities and wicked spirits in high places. And yet when we go through our life we worry about this and that and get preoccupied with this and that, we fail to consider what is the truth. Is what I am seeing real, or what I am not seeing that I read in the word and receive by the Spirit of Truth, truth? I don’t see myself sitting together with Christ Jesus, but that is what it says.

We need to ask God to give us a revelation of this that we may walk in it because when the storms and violent winds come our way, we can walk in victory. We will walk on the water as Peter did with Jesus. We will walk with smile on our face, without worry because we know who we are and where we are in Christ Jesus our Lord. The words we read in the scriptures are not here so that we can read a good book. They are written and shared unto us to impart life to us. They are to impart the abundant life that He promised us. This is a present reality thing. This is not something to look forward to in the future. The resurrection of the dead is in the future, but this is the resurrection that gives life to our mortal body now is the life of Christ in us now!

Colossians 2:11-14 - In whom also ye are circumcised with the circumcision made without hands, in putting off the body of the sins of the flesh by the circumcision of Christ: Buried with him in baptism, wherein also ye are risen with him through the faith of the operation of God, who hath raised him from the dead.

And you, being dead in your sins and the uncircumcision of your flesh, hath he quickened together with him, having forgiven you all trespasses; Blotting out the handwriting of ordinances that was against us, which was contrary to us, and took it out of the way, nailing it to his cross;

He circumcised us with the circumcision not made with hands. In the Old Testament they cut the foreskin off – something done by hands. But God did something that could not be done by hands. It was not done by hands. It was done spiritually by His Spirit. When you were baptized and you were raised, God did a circumcision without hands in circumcising your heart.

We were dead, but now we are alive! How did he raise us up to serve Him?, By giving us the blessed Holy Spirit so that we can walk and serve Him alive. Handwriting of ordinances refers to the law. He took the law and nailed it to the cross. His body paid the penalty for our sins. He paid the price for us. He died so that we might live.

We were dead, but he substituted our death with His death and gave us His life. He did the work of salvation and we received that by obeying the gospel. There is no need for us to die anymore for our sins. There isn’t any reason for us to die, day in and day out. We need to deny ourselves, but not die. He died for us.

Paul writes in one of his letters the he dies daily. You will hear different churches in different places that teach the need to “die daily”. But they take that phrase and pull it out of its context. I am telling you today that according to the scriptures we already died. We don’t need to die again because we already died with Christ.

When Paul said I die daily he was saying that he placed his life on the line every single day for the gospel of Jesus Christ. He was whipped, imprisoned, shipwrecked, stoned to death, and in peril by all manner of men. It wasn’t because he was dying daily because of his sin or because he was so defeated because of sin in His life. Paul lived above that. He had a revelation which God wants us to receive and walk in. Rise above the old man because the old man is dead and buried. Walk in the newness of life to serve God with all our heart, without any baggage and without any burden of past deeds.

It says Christ suffered once and for all for sin. He died in our place and resolved the issue of sin in our lives. He suffered for our sins - the just (meaning Him) suffered for the unjust (which was us). Why did he do this? That He might reconcile us to God. God was in Jesus and put to death in the flesh, but God didn’t die, His flesh died. His humanity, what was in common with us, died. But the body of Jesus was quickened again by the Spirit of God and in three days that Spirit entered Him again and did something to that body and made it alive. We call it the quickening.

We have to realize that He suffered once – not twice, not three times for our sins. For us who are born again, death is in the past. Baptism or burial is in the past. Resurrection in the Holy Spirit is past, because He did the work. We obtained what He did for us by faith and obedience to His gospel. All that we wait for now concerning the resurrection is the finished product – the glorification of our mortal body – the manifest perfection of Jesus Christ in us.

We need to do realize that we are seated with Christ in heavenly places and as He is above these things, so we are above these things. We do not have to walk as the old man did. If we don’t receive this revelation we will continue to walk in sin. We will continue to think we inevitably must fail and so we expect failure. But if we have our mind renewed by the word of God to what this word is saying, we will realize we don’t have to sin. This is a resurrection that we have and experience and walk in now.

1 Peter 3:18 - For Christ also hath once suffered for sins, the just for the unjust, that he might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh, but quickened by the Spirit:

Here we see Peter and Paul are saying the same thing. They never contradict each other because this is the Word of God and the Word of God does not contradict itself. Ephesians and Colossians state that we were dead and we were raised. Peter confirmed Jesus died and was quickened by the Spirit. In like manner, we die once and are quickened by the Spirit.

II Corinthians 5:14-16 - For the love of Christ constraineth us; because we thus judge, that if one died for all, then were all dead: And that he died for all, that they which live should not henceforth live unto themselves, but unto him which died for them, and rose again. Wherefore henceforth know we no man after the flesh: yea, though we have known Christ after the flesh, yet now henceforth know we him no more. [Emphasis added are mine]

Paul concludes that Jesus died once for all men. Since that is true, then we’re all dead in Him that we should live for Him. This is the finality of this whole question. We don’t need to die daily anymore to our sin or to ourselves. We should consider ourselves dead because He died in our place. We are dead to sin (Romans 6:2,11). Some people don’t realize this. He died in our place for us, so that we don’t need to die as He did, paying the penalty of sin.

Previously, when we were dead God called us dead in our trespasses and our sin. The whole reason He died in our place was not so we could die too, but that we could live for Him. It’s an exchange. He died so we could live for Him. So, I don’t know Him according to His flesh (His death) anymore. I know Him according to the eternal living Spirit that is living in me causing me to walk in His ways (His Life).

John 5:18 -30 - Therefore the Jews sought the more to kill him, because he not only had broken the sabbath, but said also that God was his Father, making himself equal with God.

Then answered Jesus and said unto them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, The Son can do nothing of himself, but what he seeth the Father do: for what things soever he doeth, these also doeth the Son likewise. For the Father loveth the Son, and sheweth him all things that himself doeth: and he will shew him greater works than these, that ye may marvel.

For as the Father raiseth up the dead, and quickeneth them; even so the Son quickeneth whom he will.

For the Father judgeth no man, but hath committed all judgment unto the Son: That all men should honour the Son, even as they honour the Father. He that honoureth not the Son honoureth not the Father which hath sent him.

Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that heareth my word, and believeth on him that sent me, hath everlasting life, and shall not come into condemnation; but is passed from death unto life.

Verily, verily, I say unto you, The hour is coming, and now is, when the dead shall hear the voice of the Son of God: and they that hear shall live. For as the Father hath life in himself; so hath he given to the Son to have life in himself; And hath given him authority to execute judgment also, because he is the Son of man.

Marvel not at this: for the hour is coming, in the which all that are in the graves shall hear his voice, And shall come forth; they that have done good, unto the resurrection of life; and they that have done evil, unto the resurrection of damnation.

I can of mine own self do nothing: as I hear, I judge: and my judgment is just; because I seek not mine own will, but the will of the Father which hath sent me. [Emphasis added are mine]

When God speaks to us, He accommodates Himself to our thoughts and language. For example, in Jonah 3:10, it says that God repented. Now, God doesn’t make mistakes. Repent means to turn away as if you were doing something wrong to go do something right. Repent only means to change one’s mind or turn away. So, how can God repent? He doesn’t make mistakes, so why would He need to repent? So when it speaks to us that God repents, we understand that God turned from doing something He planned to do. However, we understand that in His infinite wisdom, He really didn’t change His mind about anything.

He knows exactly what He will do and when He will do it. He has declared the end from the beginning. He has written it as it is going to happen. He didn’t say, “Whoa, I’m going to erase it, let me rewrite this story.” He didn’t change in the middle and say “Whoa! I wasn’t expecting this. Let me change this around.”

In Exodus 3:8, God says he came down to deliver the Israelites from the Egyptians. Well, God is omnipresent isn't He? He is everywhere. What does that mean He came down? God is simply accommodating Himself to our language for our understanding.

So here He is saying that the Son can do nothing unless He sees the Father doing it. He is showing that He was a man absolutely dependent on God. So much so that He could not do anything unless He saw the Father doing it. This is subtly expressing Who was living through Him - the Spirit of God Himself, but reading Paul's second letter to the Corinthians he explicitly states it was God in Christ (2 Corinthians 5:19). This is what He was saying here. The Father (the Spirit) was living His life through Him. He was an example to us of how we should be dependent upon the Spirit of God.

Jesus raised up Lazarus because He saw the Father doing it – again accommodating Himself to our thoughts so we understand the Father was in Jesus raising up Lazarus from the dead. When the Judgment comes, Jesus is going to be the only one on the throne and everyone is going to see that Jesus Christ is Lord. All will acknowledge that He was/is God.

God has made this manifestation (the Son) the focal point of ministry – the Way, the Truth, the Life to get to the Father. You can’t get to the Father outside of Jesus Christ. You can’t go around Jesus. You going around Jesus is like you jumping over the wall to get to the outer court and He calls you a thief and a robber because you didn’t use the door (Jesus). Jesus is the Cornerstone laid in Zion.

Who are the dead? The sinners. Those who were serving Satan walking in the spirit of disobedience and they that hear shall live. The dead are those that are separate and apart from God living after Satan. Jesus says “and Now is” the time. That's why we are preaching the gospel to the dead. The dead need to hear the voice of the Son of God. Jesus is preaching to others through us. When the dead hear, they live because those that hear Him become doers of the Word. When we come to Jesus, through His body, we can receive eternal life.

John 6:63 - It is the spirit that quickeneth; the flesh profiteth nothing: the words that I speak unto you, they are spirit, and they are life. [Emphasis added are mine]

Quickeneth means to give life. The Holy Spirit in believers is what gives life because without the Spirit we are still dead. He doesn’t want you to stay dead, He wants to give you His Spirit - to give you life. These words that we speak are seeds that are planted in the hearts of people. God causes them to sprout and bring forth fruit in their time.

Romans 4:17 - (As it is written, I have made thee a father of many nations,) before him whom he believed, even God, who quickeneth the dead, and calleth those things which be not as though they were.

He called forth things that were not as though they were in the Creation. He spoke things that were not. There was no light. He just spoke it and then it was. All He needed to do was say the word. For those that are dead that hear, they need but obey and they shall live.

8:10 ,11 - And if Christ be in you, the body is dead because of sin; but the Spirit is life because of righteousness. But if the Spirit of him that raised up Jesus from the dead dwell in you, he that raised up Christ from the dead shall also quicken your mortal bodies by his Spirit that dwelleth in you. [Emphasis added are mine]

Again, Christ, by His Spirit (a.k.a. the Spirit of God) gives us life.

Mark 4:26 -32 - And he said, So is the kingdom of God, as if a man should cast seed into the ground; And should sleep, and rise night and day, and the seed should spring and grow up, he knoweth not how. For the earth bringeth forth fruit of herself; first the blade, then the ear, after that the full corn in the ear. But when the fruit is brought forth, immediately he putteth in the sickle, because the harvest is come. And he said, Whereunto shall we liken the kingdom of God? or with what comparison shall we compare it? It is like a grain of mustard seed, which, when it is sown in the earth, is less than all the seeds that be in the earth: But when it is sown, it groweth up, and becometh greater than all herbs, and shooteth out great branches; so that the fowls of the air may lodge under the shadow of it. [Emphasis added are mine]

This verse speaks of us receiving a revelation like a seed. It comes into your heart and it takes time to grow. The person who sows this seed (remember this is a parable) doesn’t know how the seed will grow. He just sleeps night and day. We don’t have to know how it will happen.

I pray this "resurrection now" is planted as a revelation in your heart. You may not understand it all now. It will grow a little here and a little there. The seed must first die in the ground of the heart and then bring forth fruit. If we receive this in our heart then let us wait and allow it to grow. Waiting for the blade, the ear, and the full corn of the ear. Let us cultivate this truth with faith and allow the Lord to cause the growth. The idea of the resurrection, is an overcoming life from sin. A life seated in the heavenly places with Christ Jesus. It is likened unto the Kingdom of God.

Luke 17:21 - Neither shall they say, Lo here! or, lo there! for, behold, the kingdom of God is within you.

This revelation is going to grow until it completely manifests for all people to see and taste of the fruit. They need to see that we are not just people that say we believe in Christ or a resurrected Christ. They need to see a living Christ in us and taste and see for themselves that Jesus is alive. This is something that if we allow God to do it in us, we can live a resurrected life now and attain to the resurrection of the dead.