Our Faith In The Resurrection

Minister:
Date: AM
Text: Psalm 16:9b; Lord's Day 22
Psalters: 222, 38, 281, 32
  1. The resurrection as such.
    1. The resurrection of the body is the wonder of grace whereby God calls our mortal bodies out of the dust of this dying life, through the power of Christ?s resurrection, to make them like our Lord?s glorious, risen body.
    2. Faith in Christ risen is the faith which believes in the glorious resurrection.
    3. Already now we experience, by faith, the resurrection: our hearts are raised in regeneration.
  2. The intermediate state is the state of the soul after physical death and before the resurrection of the body.
    1. Prior to the resurrection of the body is the resurrection of the soul.
      1. Death brings about the separation of the body and the soul.
      2. Scripture teaches that the believer?s communion with Christ is intensified (Ps. 73:24; Luke 23:43).
    2. The resurrection of the soul is immediately after physical death (Luke 16:22; 23:43).
      1. This we know with certainty, but its exact nature is unknown to us who are still only earthly.
      2. We do know that the saints? greater communion with Christ is not yet as it will be (cf. Rev. 6:9,10).
    3. Holding these truths from Scripture, we reject other teachings.
      1. We deny complete annihilation at death, as taught by Jehovah Witnesses and Seventh Day Adventists.
      2. We deny ?soul sleep,? i.e., an unconscious state after death until the resurrection of the body.
      3. We deny Rome?s purgatory.
  3. The resurrection of the bodies takes place when Jesus returns (John 5:28,29; I Thess. 4:16,17).
    1. While we see the body die and be buried (turns to dust), it shall be raised (though it has a different form).
    2. The form of our resurrected bodies will be such that they will be perfectly fit to glorify God forever.
      1. II Cor. 5 compares our present body to a tent, but our glorified body to a building, eternal.
      2. I Cor. 15:42-44 teaches that the seed sown arises in a different and better form.
    3. The same faith which embraces God and Christ embraces the hope of the resurrection of the body.
      1. We are saved totally - not just our souls, but also these bodies.
      2. For those exercising faith, death is without sting and the grave is without victory.