Resurrection Is Not Resuscitation

With Jesus raised, the nature of resurrection itself became clear — and the difference from every earlier case is decisive.

Jairus’ daughter, Lazarus, those raised by Elijah and Elisha, those raised at Jesus’ death (Matt 27:52-53), Tabitha and Eutychus — none of them ‘were raised up for glory and immortality, but only for another death.’¹Tertullian, On the Resurrection of the Flesh, 38; ANF, 3:573. They died twice. Their restoration was temporary, returning them to corruptible bodily life, subject once again to temptation, sin, suffering, aging, and finally death.

Resuscitation involves a single process: the reversal of death, ‘a temporary revitalization of a single individual, yet that one would be destined to die again.’²Oden, Systematic Theology, 2:459.

Resurrection involves two: the defeat of death and the giving of new life. To resurrect a person is to undo their death and then to override it by transforming the fundamental nature of their whole bodily-spiritual life — to produce a new version of them, launch a new edition, release a whole new model. It is ‘the healing, lifting up and projection of human being into a new order of things in which its existence before God is finally made good.’³Torrance, Space, Time, and Resurrection, 86.

Why the Body Matters

Bodily and spiritual resurrection are bound together, because human beings are living embodied souls (Gen 2:7) — souls and bodies. ‘Everything depends on the resurrection of the body, otherwise all we have is a Ghost for a Saviour.’⁴Torrance, Space, Time, and Resurrection, 87.

Spiritual resurrection alone ‘would be only half of a victory — that is, no victory at all, but a defeat,’⁵Bavinck, Our Reasonable Faith, 368. since the physical aspect of the person would have stayed dead. If the body were permanently done away with, half the human person would be permanently destroyed, and ‘Satan would have remained conqueror in a large area.’⁶Bavinck, Our Reasonable Faith, 368.

So the bodily nature of Christ’s resurrection displayed his power over sin and put on public view ‘his spiritual power in the world of matter.’⁷Bavinck, Our Reasonable Faith, 368. It was ‘the visible restoration of that outward unity of body and soul.’⁸Vos, Reformed Dogmatics, 3.5.48; Single Volume Edition, 582. Indeed we could have no sense of spiritual resurrection — ‘the resurrection of an invisible soul’ — other than by the bodily one.⁹Tertullian, On the Resurrection of the Flesh, 38; ANF, 3:573.

Greek and Roman philosophy held the soul eternal but expected no continuation of bodily existence. The New Testament, drawing on the Old, develops individual resurrection as bodily, physical, and spiritual. It promises complete deliverance of a person as a whole — a thorough-going redevelopment of their entire constitution, the perfection of both natures.¹⁰Vos, Reformed Dogmatics, 3.5.49; Single-Volume Edition, 587.

Death is the final tearing apart of soul and body. So resurrection abolishes it by perfecting both: the soul, with every trace of sin and weakness removed so that from the deepest level a person may ‘live to God in the fullest sense of the word’;¹¹Vos, Reformed Dogmatics, 3.5.49; Single-Volume Edition, 587. and the body, with every tendency to disintegration absent, everything functioning harmoniously at its highest capacity.

The Same Body, Comprehensively Upgraded

Jesus’ resurrection was his full restoration to material bodily human life, and his enlivening in the tomb entailed the creative renewal of his own original body. The life he began to live, now lives, and always will live at God’s right hand resulted from the creative transformation of that body.

So resurrection came to be understood as necessarily physical, material and bodily. It was Christ’s actual flesh that was resurrected, and his resurrection body was made of flesh — albeit flesh extensively upgraded from the original version.¹²Tertullian elaborates this matter at length, On the Resurrection of the Flesh, 1-63; ANF, 3:545-94.

Resurrection is to ‘enliven anew.’¹³Vos, Reformed Dogmatics, 3.5.48; Single-Volume Edition, 583; slightly amended. It overhauls and upgrades the physical aspect of human life to hyperphysical dimensions. That’s essentially Paul’s point about the change from a ‘natural body’ (sōma psychikon) to a ‘spiritual body’ (sōma pneumatikon) (1 Cor 15:35-50).

And ‘spiritual’ there does not mean not composed of created matter. Paul isn’t describing a refined form of ghost-like existence. By ‘spiritual’ he means ‘immortal’, ‘incorruptible’ — bodies no longer subject to decay, deterioration, or the sinful desires that make us enemies of God and each other.¹⁴Doyle, Eschatology and the Shape of Christian Belief, 48. ‘An immaterial body is a contradiction in terms; a spiritual body is a possible concept.’¹⁵Vos, Reformed Dogmatics, 3.5.50; Single-Volume Edition, 588. Physicality isn’t what’s at issue: ‘natural’ and ‘spiritual’ human conditions are both bodily. One is under the condition of sin and superseded by the other, which is not.

Scripture describes the resurrection body four ways — imperishable, glorious, powerful, spiritual (1 Cor 15:42-44). On that basis it may be characterised by plasticity (completely subject to the Spirit), agility (overflowing in energy and movement), impassibility (incapable of pain and suffering), and luminosity (shining like the sun, Matt 13:43).¹⁶Oden, Systematic Theology, 2:481-82. Together these amount to the re-creation of the person — ‘a new creature, for whom everything old is past and a new law of life is begun.’¹⁷Vos, Reformed Dogmatics, 3.5.49; Single-Volume Edition, 587.

What People Actually Saw

So what kind of body was it? Clearly his — recognisable, capable of being touched, felt, examined, held, even clasped (Matt 28:9; John 20:27).

And yet: ‘Christ left a very different impression upon people after his resurrection than he did before. Those who saw him were startled and afraid, and threw themselves down before him, and worshipped him. He appeared in another form than that which he had before manifested (Mark 16:12).’¹⁸Bavinck, Our Reasonable Faith, 367. He wasn’t always recognisable. He appeared and disappeared, moved considerable distances, passed through locked doors (Luke 24:31, 36; John 20:19).

Two features stand out. First, immortality. Christ was made physically alive again in a way that was deathless and undying — his ‘old sinless nature, nevertheless ravaged by the consequences of sin in which death had hitherto reign, is replaced by a nature in which immortal life reigns.’¹⁹Vos, Reformed Dogmatics, 3.5.49; Single-Volume Edition, 586. He would ‘no more … return to corruption’ (Acts 13:34); ‘death no longer has dominion over him’ (Rom 6:9). This was the transformation of his whole human nature — body and spirit, outward and inward — into an indestructible state (Heb 7:16). Only God possesses immortality (athanasia) in himself (1 Tim 6:16); yet the same word describes the resurrected bodies of believers (1 Cor 15:53-54).

Second, not reduced, but vastly enhanced bodily abilities. The risen Christ could be seen, touched, heard, talked to. He had flesh and bones, hands and feet, appetite, intellect, will (Luke 24:39-43).²⁰Tertullian, On the Resurrection of the Flesh, 1-63; ANF, 3:545-94. His interaction with others was genuinely material — acting, speaking, eating, drinking, cooking, walking, sitting, making breakfast on a beach (John 21:1-14).

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• 1
  Tertullian, On the Resurrection of the Flesh, 38; ANF, 3:573. ↩︎
• 2
  Oden, Systematic Theology, 2:459. ↩︎
• 3
  Torrance, Space, Time, and Resurrection, 86. ↩︎
• 4
  Torrance, Space, Time, and Resurrection, 87. ↩︎
• 5
  Bavinck, Our Reasonable Faith, 368. ↩︎
• 6
  Bavinck, Our Reasonable Faith, 368. ↩︎
• 7
  Bavinck, Our Reasonable Faith, 368. ↩︎
• 8
  Vos, Reformed Dogmatics, 3.5.48; Single Volume Edition, 582. ↩︎
• 9
  Tertullian, On the Resurrection of the Flesh, 38; ANF, 3:573. ↩︎
• 10
  Vos, Reformed Dogmatics, 3.5.49; Single-Volume Edition, 587. ↩︎
• 11
  Vos, Reformed Dogmatics, 3.5.49; Single-Volume Edition, 587. ↩︎
• 12
  Tertullian elaborates this matter at length, On the Resurrection of the Flesh, 1-63; ANF, 3:545-94. ↩︎
• 13
  Vos, Reformed Dogmatics, 3.5.48; Single-Volume Edition, 583; slightly amended. ↩︎
• 14
  Doyle, Eschatology and the Shape of Christian Belief, 48. ↩︎
• 15
  Vos, Reformed Dogmatics, 3.5.50; Single-Volume Edition, 588. ↩︎
• 16
  Oden, Systematic Theology, 2:481-82. ↩︎
• 17
  Vos, Reformed Dogmatics, 3.5.49; Single-Volume Edition, 587. ↩︎
• 18
  Bavinck, Our Reasonable Faith, 367. ↩︎
• 19
  Vos, Reformed Dogmatics, 3.5.49; Single-Volume Edition, 586. ↩︎
• 20
  Tertullian, On the Resurrection of the Flesh, 1-63; ANF, 3:545-94. ↩︎