Class Notes: 3/24/2010

The doctrine of Resurrection part 2

Since we are approaching the observance of Resurrection Sunday aka Easter it is appropriate for us to take some time to review some of the doctrines related to his resurrection that is recorded in Mark 16:2; Luke 24:1-6; and John 20:1;

When we ran out of time last time we were discussing 1Cor 15:54; that explains that because of Jesus' victory that was validated by his resurrection that death has been swallowed up and destroyed.

This means that there will be no death in the eternal state. Death is abolished with the possession of the resurrection body.

So this quote is reference to the strategic victory of our Lord Jesus Christ in his first advent in Hypostatic Union.

The sign of our Lord's strategic victory was His resurrection, ascension, and session at the right hand of the Father. 1Cor 15:55-56;

v 55 quoted from Hosea 13:14, "O death, where is your victory? O death, where is your sting?" The only victory is God's victory of resurrection. Death has no victory!

The sting of death is given in verse 56"The sting of death is sin, and the strength of sin is the Law;"

"Sin" here, the imputation of Adam's original sin at physical birth that results in real spiritual death and subsequent physical death. This is in compliance with God's warning to Adam that is found in Gen 2:17, "The day you eat from this tree, dying you shall die."

This is "sin" in the singular so the sting of death is the old sin nature. The fact that believers commit personal sins after salvation does not prevent them from going to heaven and receiving a resurrection body.

It's like being physically alive but unhealthy or sick. Sin is a spiritual equivalent to physical sickness when believers commit sin, spiritually they aren't well, but they are still born-again and therefore spiritually alive and going to heaven.

The power of sin is the Mosaic Law that defines and reveals personal sin: 1Tim 1:8-10;

1Cor 15:57; informs us of the grace of God in resurrection.

There could be no greater monument to the grace of God than resurrection. Verse 57 says literally, "but grace belongs to God." This is an idiom, so is translated "but thanks to God who gives to us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ."

Notice that this is a victory that God gives to us. It's not a victory we earn or deserve. Believers can earn a victory by becoming a mature believer through the execution of the protocol plan of God. But this a victory that the believer does not accomplish; it's a gift. The resurrection body is a monument to God's victory.

There are two victories: The first victory is the victory over death for every believer in Jesus Christ whether they have advanced in his plan or not. The second victory is the victory of resurrection.

This victory illustrates grace, because resurrection, like physical death, is God's work on behalf of all believers. Therefore, resurrection is totally divorced from any form of human merit or human achievement or even the believer's legitimate advance in the PPOG. The believer's resurrection is God's victory and comes from God's grace.

This is another reason why no Old Testament believer was resurrected. Until our Lord went to the cross and achieved the strategic victory in his unglorified humanity in Hypostatic Union, no one could be resurrected.

TLJC could not be resurrected until He became true humanity at the virgin birth. In other words, God could not give a victory that had not yet been won.

The unglorified humanity of TLJC in Hypostatic Union died physically on the cross, was resurrected by the omnipotence of God the Father and omnipotence of the Holy Spirit, and he ascended, and was seated at the Father's right hand.

At that point, the victory was complete. His was the strategic victory of the angelic conflict so at this time He has a victory to give not only to us, but also to all the Old Testament saints at the Second Advent.

The believer with positive volition to the word of God through post-salvation renovation of their thinking can have control over their life in time as a function of their own volition. All believers have the option to execute the protocol plan of God through their positive volition.

But this control through his positive volition ends at the point of their physical death. No believer has any control over the time or manner of their physical death, or over the time or manner of their resurrection. These are dependent upon the wisdom, omniscience, sovereignty and grace of God.

So while the believer has control over whether they will advance in God's plan in time or not, they have no control over the time, place, and manner of their physical death, or the time of the Rapture of the Church.

The victory is the resurrection of the Church Age believer at the Rapture. It is patterned after the resurrection of the humanity of Jesus Christ.

The victory is given to every believer, regardless of their spiritual status or any personal sins or failure. No personal sin or failure can eliminate any believer from resurrection.

The carnal believer, the reversionist, and the cosmic believer who fail to advance in God's plan will all receive a resurrection body at the exit resurrection along with the mature believer who is an invisible hero.

The difference is that the mature believer in addition to resurrection will receive escrow blessings for eternity at the evaluation that follows the exit resurrection.

1Cor 15:57; "Through our Lord" means the Lord belongs to every believer. He is our Lord whether we take advantage of the opportunity that God has provided or not.

Just as Jesus Christ was resurrected at the end of the dispensation of the Hypostatic Union, so the royal family of God will be resurrected at the end of the Church Age.

This establishes precedent between the two Christocentric dispensations. The resurrection of Jesus Christ therefore becomes the pattern for the resurrection of the Church Age believer.

Phil 3:20-21; states that Grace is illustrated by the resurrection or Rapture of the Church.

Just as the grace policy of God has provided everything the believer needs for time, the grace of God provides everything the believer needs for dying, for death, and for the resurrection.

What God provides for each Church Age believer in time God also supplies for each Church Age believer in the eternal state. The permanent link between them is the resurrection, the official way whereby we enter into the eternal state.

If we happen to die physically before the exit resurrection, our soul and spirit are absent from the body and face to face with the Lord in a state of perfect happiness in an interim body until the resurrection occurs.

Resurrection does not depend on any form of human merit nor any form or system of human achievement. This means no believer earns or deserves a resurrection body but all believers receive a resurrection body exactly like that of our Lord.

This means that resurrection is strictly the grace of God, strictly the Lord's victory. It is never the believer's victory. That's why 1Cor 15:57; says, "Thanks be to God who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ."

At their death or the resurrection, the believer's control of their life for the purpose of executing the protocol plan of God, terminates on earth. This potential for control only occurs as long the believer brings positive volition to available Bible doctrine while they are alive on the earth.

The believer however, has no control over the time and manner of death, or over the time and manner of the resurrection. The believer has no say in when the Rapture will occur. All the believer can do is to recognize the immanency of the Rapture.

The believer's victory is related to the privileges of their heavenly citizenship (their poletuma) in time that is provided by God for the execution of the protocol plan of God that results in the glorification of God when believers become invisible heroes.

Resurrection is strictly the grace of God, It is the Lord's victory, never the believer's.
Resurrection is the Lord's wise and perfect decision, and man's speculations regarding when it will occur are irrelevant and a waste of time.

The Rapture is imminent because there is no prophecy that must be fulfilled before it occurs.

In Titus 2:13; we are told that we have a right, under the principle of occupation with Christ, to be "waiting with anticipation for the blessed hope, for the resurrection, even the appearance of the glory of our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ".

We are told in Rev 22:7,12,20; that our Lord is coming soon. These verses were written around A.D. 96 and teach the doctrine of the immanency of the Rapture, the fact that there is no prophecy in the church age and that the next event in prophecy is the exit resurrection.

So the believer must anticipate resurrection, and at the same time live their life as unto the Lord under the principle of occupation with Christ, the priority solution to life.

Death and resurrection are never under the control or the merit of the believer. The victory in death is the Lord's victory, for salvation through personal faith in Jesus Christ has removed the sting of death and has neutralized the power of the grave.

The victory of resurrection is the fact that every believer, regardless of their status in time is resurrected simultaneously at the Rapture of the Church.

There is no victory in resurrection unless you have personally believed in Jesus Christ.

1Cor 15:58;. that provides believers with a challenge in application of the doctrine of resurrection states: "Therefore, my beloved brethren, become stabilized, not distracted, and excel in association with the work of the Lord (the power of God that was deployed in the Hypostatic Union that has been carried forward into the Church Age) at all times, because your labor for the Lord is not in worthless."

The Greek word "ginomai" that is translated "be" in the NASB or more accurately "become" means to become something you were not before. Even though we have no control over our death, burial, and resurrection, we do have control over our lives now in time.

This means that we have the opportunity to use our free will to execute the protocol plan of God. God has made unlimited divine resources through the portfolio of invisible assets available for us to execute the protocol plan of God.

To "become stabilized" means all believers have the right to use their own volition to execute and fulfill the plan of God. You have the right to learn Bible doctrine, to utilize your portfolio of invisible assets, to use the omnipotence of God all to the glory of God.

You can only glorify God by executing the protocol plan of God on the earth in time. When believers do this, they are stabilized.

The word translated "immovable" in the NASB is the Greek word " ametakinetos" that means to be persistent and "not be distracted," shows how we are to become stabilized.

Distractions that cause instability come from the people or things that we put ahead of Bible doctrine.

To " abound" or "excel" means to be outstanding and to become an invisible hero. This means the believer has personal impact, national impact, international impact, and angelic impact.

It is called "your labor" or "your toil" because you use your volition during this time on earth. Your volition determines your control or lack of control over your life. "Your labor for the Lord" is composed of the decisions you make for the PMA of Bible Doctrine; not your Christian service.

It is your daily positive decisions, your determination of what is important in your life, the importance of Bible doctrine, the daily perception of Bible doctrine that results in your spiritual growth.

God's omnipotence is deployed in resurrection.

Christ died twice on the cross so that we might be born twice. He died spiritually to provide salvation. He died physically because His work was finished.
Our first birth is natural generation, in which God the Father creates human life and imputes it to the soul at birth.

The second birth is regeneration, when God the Holy Spirit creates from His omnipotence a human spirit for the imputation of eternal life by God the Father.

In both the first and second births, the omnipotence of God is involved. This anticipates the principle that the power that sustained the humanity of Christ on the cross and enabled him to have the endurance to bear our sins, is the same power made available to us for the fulfillment of the protocol plan of God.

The power that resurrected Christ from the dead is the same power that is delegated and made available to every Church Age believer for their fulfillment of the protocol plan of God.

The omnipotence of God is delegated, distributed and made available to every Church Age believer for use in obtaining tactical victory in the angelic conflict that occurs as believers function in the PPOG by functioning in the unique life and the lifestyle of wisdom that results in spiritual maturity and glorification of God in the invisible war that is the intensified stage of the angelic conflict.

The royal family of God is designed and empowered to glorify God. This becomes the highest destiny ever given to any group of believers in any time of human history.

In physical death, our Lord Jesus Christ had a trichotomous separation. His body went into Joseph's tomb. His human spirit went into the presence of God the Father in the third heaven. His human soul went into the Paradise compartment of Hades where all the Old Testament believers resided until the resurrection of Christ.

Today, when believers die, the soul and spirit goes into the presence of the Lord in heaven, accompanied by Christ who indwells them. Paul describes this as being "absent from the body and face to face with the Lord."

Being face to face implies that we have a recognizable interim body in heaven until the exit resurrection. At this time there is no splitting up of the soul and the spirit in the death of the believer. But our Lord's physical death was unique.

When the work of salvation was finished on the cross, our Lord said to the Father, "Father, into Thy hands I dismiss My spirit," Luke 23:46; and His human spirit went into the presence of the Father.

He said to the dying thief in Luke 23:43; "Today you shall be with Me in Paradise." His soul went into the paradise compartment of hades.

Luke 23:53; states that Our Lord's body was in the tomb and remained there for three days and three nights.

Psa 16:10; prophesied, "You will not leave my soul in hades."

This is restated in Acts 2:27;

In Eph 4:9-10; Paul states that "His soul ascended out of hades."

While He was in hades, according to 1Pet 3:18-21; the Holy Spirit guarded the soul of our Lord while he made victorious proclamation to the fallen angels that are confined there.

Both God the Father and God the Holy Spirit were agents of his resurrection.

God the Father's role is described in Eph 1:20; Col 2:12; 1Thes 1:10; Rom 6:4; and 1 Pet 1:21;

God the Holy Spirit's role is described in Acts 2:24; Rom 1:4; Rom 8:11; and 1Pet 3:18;

The omnipotence of the Father sent our Lord's human spirit from heaven to His body in the tomb. Simultaneously, the omnipotence of the Holy Spirit returned His human soul from Hades to His body.

Now rejoined in the resurrection body, our Lord walked through the stone. Later on, an angel rolled away the stone so that the world could see and verify the resurrection.

This is what the disciples found while it was still dark early on that Resurrection Sunday morning.

The power that resurrected Christ was made possible from the omnipotence of God the Father and the omnipotence of the Holy Spirit.

Eph 1:20; "which power He put into operation by means of Christ when He (God the Father) raised Him from the dead and seated Him at His right hand."

In Acts 2:31; Peter said, "He (David) looking ahead spoke of the resurrection of Christ, that He was neither abandoned in Hades nor did His flesh see decay."

Rom 6:4; "Therefore, we have been buried with Him (Christ) through baptism into death (baptism of the Spirit) in order that, as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, so we too might walk in newness of life."

2Cor 13:4; "For indeed He was crucified because of weakness (ours), yet He lives because of the power of God."

That is why Paul said in Phil 3:10; "that I may come to know Him and the power of His resurrection." Coming to know the power of his resurrection emphasizes the importance of the renovation of the believer's thinking after salvation.

Cognition of the resurrection includes understanding the divine omnipotence of the Holy Spirit and Bible Doctrine as the mechanics. The same divine omnipotence becomes the basis for the following two great events of history: the church age believer's execution of the protocol plan of God, and the exit resurrection.

Under the principle of kenosis, Christ did not use His own divine power in His resurrection. During the incarnation, our Lord voluntarily restricted the independent use of His own divine attributes, including His omnipotence, in compliance with the Father's plan for the incarnation and the strategic victory of the angelic conflict.

Christ could have used His own omnipotence at the cross; He could have delivered Himself and raised His own body from the dead. But instead, He depended upon the omnipotence of God the Father and the omnipotence of the Holy Spirit.

This is taught in John 10:17-18; "For this reason, the Father loves Me, because I lay down My soul that I might receive it again. No one has taken it (My life) from Me; but I lay it down from the source of Myself. I have the power to lay it down ( the omnipotence of the Holy Spirit sustaining Him in prototype divine power system); I have the power to receive it again. This mandate I have received from the Father."

Jesus Christ surrendered His human spirit to the Father in heaven and His soul to the Holy Spirit in Hades knowing that he would receive His soul and spirit again. "I have the power to lay it down." The humanity of Christ had the power to surrender His own life by means of the sustaining omnipotence of the Holy Spirit inside the prototype divine power system.

However, during his incarnation in unglorified humanity, the deity of Christ was still holding the universe together just as he always has. Col 1:16; Heb 1:3;

The power of God that was demonstrated during the Hypostatic Union emphasizes all three members of the Trinity, but only the omnipotence of God the Father and the omnipotence of the Holy Spirit were empowering the humanity of Christ. This same power has subsequently been given to every Church Age believer.

Our Lord had the power and authority to receive His life again. This authority or power came from the omnipotence of God the Father, who restored our Lord's human spirit to His body, and from the omnipotence of the Holy Spirit, who restored our Lord's human soul to His body.

At that moment, the human spirit and soul of our Lord rejoined His body in the grave through the agency of the omnipotence of God, and the humanity of Christ was resurrected.

In His resurrection body, He walked through the solid stone walls of His tomb. The resurrection body is designed so that it can pass through the space that is inside molecules.

So although Jesus Christ Himself had the power to bring Himself back from the dead, in obedience to the mandate of the Father, and in reliance upon the omnipotence of the Holy Spirit; our Lord in Hypostatic Union voluntarily restricted the independent use of His omnipotence and established the pattern for the successful fulfillment of the protocol plan of God in this Church Age.

Therefore, during the period of His physical death, Jesus Christ did not exercise His omnipotence to benefit Himself, to provide for Himself, to raise Himself from the dead, or to glorify Himself in any way.

The identical omnipotence of God the Father and omnipotence of the Holy Spirit that raised Christ from the dead is the same power that has been provided for us in grace to execute the protocol plan of God.

The omnipotence of God the Father is available to every believer through their portfolio of invisible assets.

The omnipotence of Jesus Christ is available to believers, because not only does He hold the universe together but at the same time perpetuates human history one day at the time.

The omnipotence of the Holy Spirit is available to believers through their residence, function, and momentum inside the operational divine power system. God has provided this omnipotence for every Church Age believer.

Never before in history has so much divine omnipotence been available to so many believers for the glorification of God through the execution of His will, His plan, and His purpose.

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