The Resurrection Order
Published by Stanley Pouw in 2013 · 31 March 2013
Did you know that the present age is Easter time? It begins with the resurrection of the Christ, our Redeemer and ends with the resurrection of the redeemed, the believers and we live between two Easters and in the power of the first Easter, we go to the second Easter. In other words, we live now between the resurrection of Christ and the resurrection of all the believers that is to come.
Paul presents in 1 Corinthians 15, an unparalleled case for bodily resurrection. It is the greatest document ever written on that subject. And it is all based on the reality that Jesus Christ rose bodily from the grave. One cannot be a believer without believing in the resurrection of Christ because Romans 10:9-10 says if you believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead and confess Him as Lord, you will be saved.
Now the first eleven verses of 1 Cor.15 then are an affirmation of what the believers at Corinth have already believed, that is that Jesus rose bodily from the grave. Then having laid out the reality of Christ’s resurrection in the opening eleven verses, starting in verse 12 Paul shows the consequence of denying bodily resurrection.
Paul says that if Christ is not risen, all gospel preaching is useless. Your faith is empty. The Apostles are liars, and we are all still in our sins. And then Paul goes to a negative point and shows the absolute disaster of all Christian Gospel and the entire divine plan of redemption crumbles if there is no bodily resurrection.
Then Paul starts the affirmation in 1 Corinthians 15:20-29, “But in fact Christ has been raised from the dead, the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep. 21 For as by a man came death, by a man has come also the resurrection of the dead. 22 For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ shall all be made alive. 23 But each in his own order: Christ the firstfruits, then at his coming those who belong to Christ. 24 Then comes the end, when he delivers the kingdom to God the Father after destroying every rule and every authority and power.”
“25 For he must reign until he has put all his enemies under his feet. 26 The last enemy to be destroyed is death. 27 For “God has put all things in subjection under his feet.” But when it says, “all things are put in subjection,” it is plain that he is excepted who put all things in subjection under him. 28 When all things are subjected to him, then the Son himself will also be subjected to him who put all things in subjection under him, that God may be all in all.”
So let us start with verse 20, “But in fact Christ has been raised from the dead.” They know it from the eyewitnesses in 1 Cor. 15:5-8, “He appeared to Cephas, then to the twelve. 6 Then he appeared to more than five hundred brothers at one time, most of whom are still alive, though some have fallen asleep. 7 Then he appeared to James, then to all the apostles. 8 Last of all, as to one untimely born, he appeared also to me,” the apostle Paul himself.
So the resurrection is a historic fact. They believe it when it comes to Christ. Now Paul wants them to understand that as believers they will be resurrected as well. Everything in God’s plan demands the resurrection. The whole redemptive plan is dependent on a bodily resurrection, of Christ and of all who believe. Christ has risen and so will we rise.
These are the words of Jesus in John 14:19, “Because I live, you will live also,” The fact is that Christ has been raised from the dead and He continues to be alive. Not like Jairus’ daughter who was raised and died, not like the widow’s son who was raised and then died, not like Lazarus who was raised and died. Christ was raised to live forever. That’s the foundation of the gospel.
Let’s start with the Redeemer, verse 20, “But in fact Christ has been raised from the dead, the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep.” Every Jew understood firstfruits, it’s an agrarian term for the first crop to be harvested. And when the firstfruits came in, for sure the rest of the crop was on its way.
The Jews were ordered by God back in Leviticus 23:10, “You shall bring a sheaf of the firstfruits of your harvest to the priest.” This is a sign of your harvest to come and it guarantees the harvest. And so it is with the resurrection of Jesus Christ, it is the guarantee of the full resurrection harvest of all believers.
It is the same way plants come to life out of dead seeds buried in the ground, and Jesus even referred to Himself in that way, that He would be like a seed buried in the ground in the gospel of John, that would spring forth into life. As He comes to life, He guarantees that the full harvest will come in the future.
And just as Christ who guarantees that resurrection has come to life, we will be raised. Christ was not the first to rise again. But He was the first to rise again and never die. And thus He is guarantying for us a resurrection not like Lazarus but like His, that we will be raised to life and never die again.
Jesus said in John 11:25, “I am the resurrection and the life. Whoever believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live.” So, here we have the foundation of our own resurrection in the resurrection of Christ. And notice again in this verse, He is the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep. “Asleep” is a term referring to death for believers. When you die, your soul doesn’t sleep, your body does. When you die, 2 Corinthians 5:8 says, “we are pleased to be absent from the body and to be present with the Lord.”
How can one man’s resurrection have such an effect on all of us believers? Paul’s answer to that is in verse 22, “For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ shall all be made alive.” The analogy is between Adam and Christ. Adam as man is the head of the natural order, and Christ as God is the head of the spiritual order.
Romans 5:12 says, “Therefore, just as through one man sin entered into the world, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men because all sinned.” Similarly there is a causal relationship between the resurrection of Christ and the resurrection of all the people who believe. The act of the God/Man affects many people.
So from Adam we inherited sin, guilt and corruption. But with Christ, that chain is broken. Christ pays the penalty for our sin, conquers death on our behalf and death is overpowered. And all who put their trust in Christ, all who are a part of His spiritual seed possess His resurrection life.
All who are in union with Adam are so by natural descent. All who are in union with Christ are so by spiritual descent. In other words, all in Adam are in Adam by natural generation. All who are in Christ are in Christ by spiritual regeneration. All who are in Adam have the common factor of sin. All who are in Christ possess the common factor of life.
So we have met the Redeemer, now let us look at the redeemed in verse 23, “But each in his own order: Christ the firstfruits, then at his coming those who belong to Christ.” It doesn’t all take place at once. There is a specific order and a specific process.
Christ the firstfruits comes first then after that those who belong to Christ. And when is our resurrection? At the end of verse 23 it says, “at His coming.” The Christian hope is the coming of Christ at the end of the age. The word here is parousia, which means arrival, so that the fulfillment of resurrection for all the redeemed will occur when Christ returns.
Right now, the dead bodies have decayed or only ash remains. But believers who are with the Lord, absent from the body (2 Cor. 5:8), are called “spirits of just men made perfect.” They are there in personality but not in physical form. You might ask, “Are they just sort of floating around waiting for their eternal bodies?”
Well maybe from our perspective they are, but in heaven no time exists, there’s no such concept as waiting. We just know from Scripture that at the coming of Christ, there will be a great resurrection of the godly of all the ages. It is called a resurrection of life and it is also called the first resurrection. The second resurrection is the resurrection of the unjust to damnation.
And this is where we have to talk for just a moment about the components of resurrection. The first event that triggers the end is the Rapture of the church; believers are being taken into heaven. Look at 1 Thessalonians 4, and there are no signs to warn us. This is not describing Christ’s return to judge and establish His Kingdom.
1 Thessalonians 4:16-17, “For the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of an archangel, and with the trumpet of God. And the dead in Christ will rise first. 17 Then we who are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air.” So the first resurrection of believers will happen at the Rapture, when Christ snatches away His redeemed.
Then comes the Great Tribulation, a period of judgment on the earth, Revelation 5-19 describes it in detail. It is a period that is a sequence of judgments that start out as seal and then trumpet and then bowl judgments on the earth. At the same time, there is a great work of salvation and redemption going on along with that judgment.
But at the end of that period of time, the end of that seven-year Tribulation, there will also be a second part of the believer’s resurrection, another part of the harvest. And that part of the harvest is described in Revelation 20:5 which describes the end of the Tribulation and the beginning of the Millennial Kingdom, “The rest of the dead didn’t come to life until the thousand years were completed.”
Why? Because people will continue to die, believing people will die in the time of Tribulation, some of them killed by the Antichrist, and they will die during the thousand year kingdom. There will be a great rebellion at the end of the thousand years and a lot of people will die during that period.
So we have four parts: the resurrection of Christ, the first resurrection of the church at the Rapture, the second resurrection of the Old Testament and Tribulation saints at the end of the Tribulation period, and the third resurrection of those born and dying in the Kingdom at the end of the Millennial period. That’s the final phase and all of that is compressed in three words, “At His Coming.”
Those are the stages in the resurrection of the redeemed. Let look at the heart of his passage, the redemption. 1 Corinthians15:24-27, “Then comes the end, when He delivers the kingdom to God the Father after destroying every rule and every authority and power.” 25 For he must reign until he has put all his enemies under his feet. 26 The last enemy to be destroyed is death. 27 For “God has put all things in subjection under his feet.”
What is the purpose for God to tolerate everything in human history? It is so that He can give to His Son a Kingdom made up of people who will love Him, and worship Him and adore Him and serve Him forever and ever in perfect joy, peace, and purity. It is a Kingdom of the redeemed of all the ages. The church, the Old Testament saints and Tribulation saints, and the saints who die during the Millennial era, all are raised now and in heaven.
We know the Millennial Kingdom ends when it says in 2 Peter 3:10, “The elements will melt with fervent heat,” the universe will be changed, “both the earth and the works that are in it will be burned up.” And in its place there is a new heaven and a new earth. And that is when Jesus hands over the Kingdom to God, the Father.
When? Until He has abolished all other authority and power. The plan of redemption itself is not complete until there are no more enemies of God in existence to tamper with His purposes. They will all be cast forever into the Lake of Fire, they will be bound there with Satan and his angels for whom hell was originally created forever.
This is where history is going. And then we have verse 27, “For “He has put all things under His feet.” But when He says “all things are put under Him,” it is evident that He who put all things under Him is excepted.” That’s referring to God the Father. Meaning, “God is not subjected to Christ. All things even death, are subjected to Christ, everything except God is under His dominion.
The resurrection of Christ then guarantees our resurrection and ultimately guarantees the abolishing of death. Christ then takes everything that has been put under Him, verse 28, “Now when all things are made subject to Him, then the Son Himself will also be subject to Him who put all things under Him, that God may be all in all.
In other words, when the Son has received His redeemed humanity, when all enemies are destroyed and He is King of Kings and Lord of Lords, when everything is under Him, except God Himself, He will then take the Kingdom, all that the Father has given to Him, and He will give it back to the Father in a reciprocal act of divine love so that God may be all in all.
Here in a wonderful inter-Trinitarian way beyond our comprehension, the Father who ordained redemptive history to gather a bride for His Son, a Kingdom for His Son, when the Son receives that Kingdom which is a gift of the Father’s love, in a reciprocating act of love, the Son hands the Kingdom back to the Father. The grandeur of this crowning event cannot be fathomed.
Sometimes we think about salvation in very personal terms. But it’s better for us to think that salvation by the grace of God, is really not about us, it is about infinite love of the Father for the Son and wanting to give to the Son a gift of His love which is a redeemed humanity that will love Him, adore Him, worship Him, praise Him and serve Him forever.
And the Son recognizes that all the redeemed are gifts from the Father so He says in John 6:37, “All that the Father gives to Me will come to Me.” The Son when He receives them all, gives them back to the Father. Everything is restored to God that He may be all in all. The Son has come as a servant of God into the world to take back to God redeemed souls. He has conquered death; and He has by His own resurrection provided a full resurrection for all who believe.
Does Christ still reign? Of course He reigns. He sits at the right hand of the Father and reigns. And Revelation 11:15 says He’ll reign forever. And in Luke 1:33, the angel Gabriel said when He was being announced Jesus was going to be born, “And He will reign over the house of Jacob forever, and of His kingdom there will be no end.”
Revelation 3:20-21, “Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears My voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and dine with him, and he with Me. 21 To him who overcomes I will grant to sit with Me on My throne, as I also overcame and sat down with My Father on His throne.” In some way we too are given a role in reigning and ruling together. This is a glimpse of heavenly worship.
We too as believers one day will have resurrected eternal bodies and God is all in all at the end because the Son gives back what the Father has given to Him. This is a magnificent picture of the final paradise on a new earth and a new heaven and it all happens because of the resurrection of Christ! Wow. Let us remember that at the Lord’s supper.