What is the…
resurrection of the dead in the Bible

Scripture reveals that various dead people were resurrected by God in the past, although it was, by His choice, very rare.

• Widow’s son raised from the dead (1 Kings 17:17-24)
• The Shunammite’s son raised from the dead at Shunem (2 Kings 4:32-37)
• Elisha’s bones revived the dead (2 Kings 13:21)
• The raising of the widow’s son at Nain (Luke 7:11-18) / Where is Nain?
• Lazarus raised from the dead after 3 days in his grave (John 11:38-44)
• Jairus’s daughter raised (Matt. 9:23; Mark 5:23; Luke 8:41)
• At the very time of Christ’s death, tombs of saints dramatically opened and the dead bodies were raised to life, accompanied by a supernatural earthquake. The raised saints entered Jerusalem where they appeared to many people (Matthew 27:50–53).
• Tabitha (Dorcas) raised from the dead (Acts 9:36-43)

Future resurrection event

However, far more people with be resurrected in the future. The Bible teaches a future bodily resurrection of the dead—not merely the survival of the soul, but the raising and transformation of the body. This hope appears in both Testaments and is tied to God’s justice, the defeat of death, and the resurrection of Jesus as the “firstfruits.” The resurrection will be simultaneous, both of the just and the unjust (Romans 2:6-16; 2 Thess. 1:6-10).

Many of those who sleep in the dust of the ground will awake, these to everlasting life, but the others to disgrace and everlasting contempt [literally: abhorrence]. —Daniel 12:2 NASB

Your dead will live;
Their corpses will rise.
You who dwell in the dust, awake and shout for joy,
For your dew is as the dew of the dawn,
And the earth will give birth to the departed spirits. —Isaiah 26:19 LSB

The Old Testament man Job expressed confidence that after his body was destroyed he would still see God “in my flesh” with his own eyes (Job 19:25–27).

Do not marvel at this; for an hour is coming, in which all who are in the tombs will hear His voice, and will come forth; those who did the good deeds to a resurrection of life, those who committed the evil deeds to a resurrection of judgment. —John 5:28-29 NASB

Jesus Christ repeatedly promised to raise believers “on the last day” (John 6:39, 40, 44, 54). He told Martha, “I am the resurrection and the life. Whoever believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live” (John 11:25). He spoke of “the resurrection of the just” as a time of reward (Luke 14:14).

It will be a literal, bodily event that is essential to the Gospel, not optional or merely spiritual.

The qualities of the resurrection body will be different from those of the body laid in the grave (1 Corinthians 15:53-54; Philippians 3:21); but its identity will nevertheless be preserved. It will still be the same body (1 Corinthians 15:42-44) which rises again.

When a true Christian dies, the spirit goes immediately to be with the Lord (“absent from the body… at home with the Lord”). The body “sleeps” in the grave—a temporary repose, not soul-sleep or unconsciousness. Death for the believer has been transformed, because Christ took its sting. Those who have died in Christ have not missed anything and are not second-class.

The resurrection of Church-age saints occurs at the Rapture, which distinguishes it from Christ’s later return to Earth to judge and set up the millennial kingdom.

• It is imminent and signless.
• Christ descends from Heaven but meets believers in the air; His feet do not touch Earth.
• There is no judgment of the world in this event.
• It precedes the Day of the Lord, the Great Tribulation.

“For the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel and with the trumpet of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first.

Then we who are alive and remain will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and so we shall always be with the Lord.” —1 Thessalonians 4:16, 17 NASB

What will the resurrection body be like?

1. It is the same Earthly body, glorified—not a brand-new replacement. As with Christ’s own resurrection body, it will be tangible, recognizable, able to eat, yet also able to appear suddenly and pass through closed doors. Paul describes the change in 1 Corinthians 15:42–44:

   • sown perishable → raised imperishable
   • sown in dishonor → raised in glory
   • sown in weakness → raised in power
   • sown a natural body → raised a spiritual body

2. It will be spiritual (1 Corinthians 15:44), i.e., a body adapted to the use of the soul in its glorified state, and to all the conditions of the Heavenly state.

3. Glorious, incorruptible, and powerful (1 Corinthians 15:54)

4. It will be like the glorified body of Christ (Philippians 3:21).

5. Immortal (Rev. 21:4)

Christ’s resurrection

Christ’s resurrection secured and illustrated that of His people.

1. “Because his resurrection seals and consummates his redemptive power; and the redemption of our persons involves the redemption of our bodies (Romans 8:23).

2. Because of the true Christian’s vital covenant union with Christ (1 Corinthians 15:21, 22; 1 Thess. 4:14)

   Because of this union, God can justly treat Christ as if He were the sinner and treat the believer as if he or she were righteous. That is why Scripture can say believers were crucified with Christ, died with Him, were buried with Him, and were raised with Him (Romans 6; Colossians 2–3; Galatians 2:20). The legal basis for sharing in His resurrection is this representative oneness.

   What He did is counted as theirs: His obedience, death, and resurrection are imputed to them.

   Christ lives in the believer and the believer lives in Christ (John 15:4, 5; Galatians 2:20; Colossians 3:3, 4).

   Believers are members of His body, branches in the vine, one spirit with the Lord (1 Corinthians 6:17; 12:13).

   This union is what makes the legal benefits experiential: regeneration, new life, sanctification, and the future glorified body.

3. Because of His Spirit which dwells in us making our bodies his members (1 Corinthians 6:15; Romans 8:11)

4. Because Christ by covenant is Lord both of the living and the dead (Romans 14:9). This same federal and vital union of the Christian with Christ likewise causes the resurrection of the believer to be similar to, as well as consequent upon, that of Christ (1 Corinthians 15:49; Philippians 3:21; 1 John 3:2).” —Charles Hodge, Princeton Sermons: Outlines of Discourses Doctrinal and Practical