In the previous session we examined some of the main passages of the Old Testament which foretell the resurrection. We saw that the Old Testament foretells the following three main events: 

1. 1. 1. Jesus Himself will be raised from the dead. 
      2. Those who believe in Jesus will share His resurrection. 
      3. There will also be a resurrection of the wicked for purposes of judgement and punishment.

  If we now turn to the New Testament, we find that the revelation it gives concerning the resurrection of the dead agrees exactly in these three main points with that of the Old Testament. However, a good deal more information is also given, to make the whole picture clearer and more detailed.

   Three Successive Phases of Resurrection  

  The first New Testament passage we shall consider is found in the Gospel of John. Jesus says:

   Most assuredly, I say to you, the hour is coming, and now is, when the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God; and those who hear will live (John 5:25).

   Do not marvel at this; for the hour is coming in which all who are in the graves will hear His voice and come forth – those who have done good, to the resurrection of life, and those who have done evil, to the resurrection of condemnation (John 5:28-29).

  Jesus here uses two different phrases. In verse 25 He uses “the dead”; in verse 28 He uses “all who are in the graves.” The context seems to indicate that these two phrases are not identical but are contrasted with each other.

  If this is so, then the first phrase, “the dead,” must be taken to describe not those who are physically dead but rather those who are spiritually dead in sin. This is in line with the language which Paul uses in Ephesians 2:1.

  And you He made alive, who were dead in trespasses and sins.

  Here the context makes it plain that Paul is not speaking about people who were physically dead, but he is speaking about people who, as a result of sin, were spiritually dead and alienated from God.

  Again, Paul uses language borrowed from Isaiah to exhort the sinner.

  Awake, you who sleep,

  Arise from the dead,

  And Jesus will give you light (Eph. 5:14).

  Here, too, the one whom Paul exhorts to awake and arise from the dead is not physically dead but spiritually dead in sin.

  It would seem, therefore, that we should apply this interpretation to the words of Jesus.

  Most assuredly, I say to you, the hour is coming, and now is, when the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God; and those who hear will live (John 5:25).

  Jesus is here speaking about the response of those who are dead in sin to the voice of Jesus, brought to them through the preaching of the gospel: “those who hear will live.” That is, those who receive the gospel message with faith will thereby receive forgiveness and eternal life.

  This is confirmed by the fact that Jesus says, “The hour is coming, and now is.” That is to say, the preaching of the gospel to men dead in sins had already commenced at the time that Jesus spoke these words.

  We notice the contrast between this and the words of Jesus in John 5:28-29.

  The hour is coming in which all who are in the graves will hear His voice and come forth – those who have done good, to the resurrection of life, and those who have done evil, to the resurrection of condemnation.

  This passage differs from the previous one in three main respects.

  First, Jesus says, “The hour is coming,” but He does not add, “and now is.” That is to say, the events of which Jesus here speaks are still entirely in the future; they have not yet begun to be fulfilled.

  Second, Jesus uses the phrase “all who are in the grave.” This clearly refers to those who have actually died and been buried. Furthermore, He says that all these, without exception, will hear; whereas in the previous passage, concerning the dead, He indicated that only some would hear, not all.

  Third, in this second passage Jesus actually uses the word resurrection. He says that all those in the graves will “come forth . . . to resurrection.”

  We conclude therefore that in the first passage Jesus is speaking about the response of those who are spiritually dead in sin; while in the second passage He is speaking about the literal resurrection of those who have actually died and been buried.

  In this second passage Jesus speaks about two distinct aspects of resurrection: 

1. the resurrection of life; 
2. the resurrection of condemnation. 

This agrees with the revelation of the Old Testament in Daniel 12:1-3.

  In each case the resurrection is spoken of in two distinct phases, that of the righteous and that of the wicked; and in each case the resurrection of the righteous precedes that of the wicked.

  In addition, we learn from the words of Jesus one further point not revealed in Daniel: The voice that will call all the dead forth to resurrection will be that of Jesus Himself, the Son of God.

  If we now turn to 1 Corinthians 15, we find there a yet fuller and more detailed account of the resurrection.

  For as in Adam all die, even so in Jesus all shall be made alive. But each one in his own order: Jesus the first-fruits, afterward those who are Jesus’s at His coming. Then comes the end, when He [Jesus] delivers the kingdom to God the Father, when He puts an end to all rule and all authority and power (1 Cor. 15:22-24).

  Notice the phrase “each one in his own order.” The word translated “order” is used to describe a rank of soldiers. Thus Paul here pictures the resurrection as occurring in three successive phases, like three ranks of soldiers marching past, one behind the other.

  The first phase consists of Jesus Himself – “Jesus the firstfruits.”

  The second phase consists of all true believers when Jesus returns – “those who are Jesus’s at His coming.” This corresponds to the resurrection of the righteous foretold in Daniel and by Jesus Himself.

  The third phase is called “the end” – that is, the end of Jesus’s earthly reign of one thousand years, at the close of which He will deliver up the kingdom to God the Father. Of those resurrected at this stage, the majority – but not all – will belong to the resurrection of the wicked as foretold in Daniel and by Jesus. Concerning this third phase, Paul says nothing more here in 1 Corinthians. However, we shall see in due course that further details concerning this are given in Revelation 20.

  Let us examine more closely what Paul says about the first two phases.

  Typology of the First-fruits  

  The first phase, Paul says, is “Jesus the first-fruits.” By this phrase Paul compares the resurrection of Jesus to the ceremony of presenting the first-fruits of the harvest to the Lord, as ordained for the children of Israel under the law of Moses.

  Speak to the children of Israel, and say to them: “When you come into the land which I give to you, and reap its harvest, then you shall bring a sheaf of the first-fruits of your harvest to the priest. He shall wave the sheaf before the Lord, to be accepted on your behalf; on the day after the Sabbath the priest shall wave it” (Lev. 23:10-11).

  This sheaf of the first-fruits waved before the Lord is a picture of Jesus coming forth from the dead as the sinner’s representative and as the beginning of a new creation.

  Notice how accurate the picture is. The sheaf of the first-fruits was the first complete fruit to rise up out of the seed that had been buried earlier in the earth. Moses told the children of Israel that the priest was to wave this sheaf before the Lord “to be accepted on your behalf . . .”

  In Romans 4:25 Paul tells us that Jesus “was delivered up because of our offenses, and was raised because of our justification.”

  The resurrection of Jesus not only vindicated His own righteousness, but it also made it possible for the believer to be reckoned equally righteous with Jesus before God.

Furthermore, this sheaf of the first-fruits was to be waved before the Lord “on the day after the Sabbath.” Since the Sabbath was the seventh or last day of the week, the day after the Sabbath was the first day of the week – the day on which Jesus did in fact rise from the dead.

  Finally, the waving of the first-fruits was an act of worship and of triumph, for the appearing of the first-fruits at the appointed season gave assurance that the rest of the harvest would be gathered safely in. In like manner, the resurrection of Jesus gives assurance that all the remaining dead will also in their due season be resurrected.

However, there is yet one further prophetic revelation concerning Jesus’s resurrection contained in this Old Testament ordinance of the first-fruits. Jesus spoke prophetically of His own impending death and burial, and He compared this to a grain of wheat being buried in the earth. He said:

  Most assuredly, I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the ground and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it produces much grain (John 12:24).

  By this Jesus taught that the fruit of His ministry of reconciliation between God and man could come only as a result of His own atoning death and resurrection. If He were to stop short of death on the cross, no fruit could come forth out of His ministry. Only through His death, burial and resurrection could there come forth the fruit of a great harvest of sinners justified and reconciled to God. This truth He presented to His disciples in the picture of a grain of wheat being buried in the earth, germinating and springing up again as a fruitful stalk out of the earth.

  In nature, although a single grain of wheat is buried in the earth, the stalk which springs up out of it never bears merely one single grain but a whole head or cluster of grains upon the one stalk. As Jesus indicated in the parable of the sower, the ratio of increase out of the single grain may be thirtyfold or sixtyfold or a hundredfold.

  This truth of natural law applies also in the spiritual counterpart of Jesus’s resurrection. Jesus was buried alone, but He did not rise alone. This fact, which has received surprisingly little attention from the majority of Bible commentators, is clearly stated in Matthew 27:50-53. These verses record the death of Jesus upon the cross and various events which followed His death and resurrection.

  Jesus, when He had cried out again with a loud voice, yielded up His spirit. And behold, the veil of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom; and the earth quaked, and the rocks were split, and the graves were opened; and many bodies of the saints who had fallen asleep were raised; and coming out of the graves after His resurrection, they went into the holy city and appeared to many.

  Though these events are here presented in close succession one after the other, it is clear that the total period of time which they covered extended over three days. The death of Jesus on the cross took place on the eve of the Sabbath, but His resurrection took place early in the morning of the first day of the new week. In connection with this, Matthew states:

  The graves were opened; and many bodies of the saints who had fallen asleep were raised; and coming out of the graves after His resurrection . . . appeared to many (Matt. 27:52-53).

  At what precise moment the graves were opened, we do not know; but we do know that it was only after the resurrection of Jesus Himself that these resurrected saints arose and came out of their graves. Perhaps this was the first resurrection of those who passed on under the Old Covenant.

  In this way the Old Testament type of the first-fruits was perfectly fulfilled by the resurrection of Jesus. Jesus was buried alone – a single grain of wheat that fell into the ground. But when He arose again from the dead, He was no longer alone – no longer one single grain. Instead, there was a handful – a sheaf of the first-fruits – brought forth together with Him out of the dead and waved in triumph before God as a token of the defeat of death and hell and Satan, and as an assurance that all believers who had been buried would also in their due season be resurrected.

  Concerning these Old Testament saints resurrected together with Jesus, two interesting questions naturally suggest themselves.

  The first question is: Did these resurrected saints comprise all the righteous believers of the Old Testament? We’re all the Old Testament saints resurrected together with Jesus?

  To this question the answer would appear to be no. Matthew says: “Many bodies of the saints . . . we’re raised.” This phrase, “many . . . of the saints,” in normal usage would indicate that it was not all the saints that arose.

  This conclusion is supported by the words of Peter on the day of Pentecost.

  Men and brethren, let me speak freely to you of the patriarch David, that he is both dead and buried, and his tomb is with us to this day (Acts 2:29).

  Peter is here speaking fifty days after the resurrection of Jesus. Yet his words suggest that the body of David was still in his tomb at that time. This would indicate that David, one of the greatest of the Old Testament saints, had not yet been resurrected at the time when Peter spoke on the day of Pentecost. Therefore this resurrection of Old Testament saints on the first Easter Sunday morning was a resurrection of some, but not of all.

  The second interesting question concerning these resurrected Old Testament saints is: What became of them after their resurrection?

From the account given, it would appear that these Old Testament saints were, in the true sense, “resurrected” – that is, they were raised up once and for all out of the dominion of death and the grave, never to return again under that dominion. In this respect, there is a complete difference between these saints and the people whom Jesus raised from the dead during His earthly ministry.

  Those whom Jesus raised from the dead were called back out of death to the same kind of natural, earthly life which they had previously. They still remained subject to all the weaknesses of mortal flesh, and in due course they died again and were buried. These people had merely been restored to natural, earthly life; they had not been resurrected from the dead. On the other hand, the saints who rose with Jesus shared His resurrection with Him. They entered into a totally new kind of life; they received new, spiritual bodies, just like that which Jesus Himself received.

  Coming out of the graves after His resurrection, they [the resurrected saints] went into the holy city [that is, Jerusalem], and appeared to many (Matt. 27:53).

  These words indicate that these saints had bodies of the same kind that Jesus had after His resurrection. They could appear or disappear at will. They were no longer subject to the physical limitations of a normal, earthly body.

  If this is so, then there can be no thought that they ever returned again into their graves and submitted themselves afresh to the process of decomposition. In putting on these resurrection bodies, they had passed once and for all out of the shadow and dominion of death and the grave, never to return thereunder again.

  What became of these saints after this? The New Testament does not give any definite or final answer to this question. However, it seems natural to suppose that these saints, having shared with Jesus in His resurrection, shared with Him also in His ascension into heaven. Let us therefore glance briefly at the description of the ascension of Jesus into heaven.

  Now when He had spoken these things, while they watched, He was taken up, and a cloud received Him out of their sight (Acts 1:9).

  We notice that Jesus passed out of His disciples’ sight into a cloud and that within this cloud He then continued His ascent to heaven. Immediately after this, two angels appeared to the disciples and gave them the following assurance concerning the return of Jesus.

  This same Jesus, who was taken up from you into heaven, will so come in like manner as you saw Him go into heaven (Acts 1:11).

  This indicates that there is to be a close parallel between the ascent of Jesus into heaven and His return again from heaven to earth. He will so come in like manner as He was seen to go.

  What does this imply? In Mark 13:26 (and in other passages also) it is stated that Jesus will come again in the clouds – more literally, in clouds. Again, Zechariah 14:5 and Jude verse 14 reveal that Jesus will come with His saints.

  Combining these two statements, we find that Jesus will come “in clouds, with His saints.” We know also that the ascension of Jesus into heaven and His return from heaven are closely parallel. We know, further, that Jesus ascended into heaven “in a cloud.” We are therefore completing the parallel if we suggest that Jesus ascended into heaven together with those of his saints who had at that time been resurrected.

  There is one further point of interest to notice in this connection.

  Therefore we also, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which so easily ensnares us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us (Heb. 12:1).

  What is this “cloud of witnesses” to which the writer of Hebrews refers? The context makes it plain that he is referring to the Old Testament saints whose exploits of faith had been recorded in the previous chapter – Hebrews 11.

  These Old Testament saints are pictured as a cloud of witnesses surrounding each Christian’s believer who undertakes to run the race of faith in this dispensation. In this way the figure of a cloud is once again linked to the saints of the Old Testament.

  From all these considerations it seems both logical and scriptural to suggest that, on the day of His ascension, Jesus was taken up into heaven within a cloud that also contained the Old Testament saints who had been resurrected with Him. In this way the resurrection and ascension of Jesus would exactly and completely fulfill all that is indicated in the typology of the Old Testament ordinance of the first-fruits. It would also be exactly parallel to the method of His promised return from heaven to earth.

  However, this conclusion should be taken as no more than a logical inference from various indications of Scripture. It should not be put forward dogmatically as an established doctrine.