Introduction
Many of us hear about the resurrection of the Bible and wonder what it truly means and how it relates to our lives on earth. After death, burial, and decomposition, will our earthly bodies somehow miraculously reassemble from the dust of the ground and return as immortal beings? Or is the resurrection of the Bible only in a spiritual body? Alternatively, will the faithful in the Lord Jesus receive entirely new heavenly bodies that are of some material substance and not just spiritual? In this blog, we won’t attempt to completely answer all these specific questions; instead, we will focus on a more fundamental inquiry: Will all humans who have ever lived on Earth be resurrected into some material heavenly body before Judgment Day? To explore this question, we will examine Mark 12:18-27.
Knowing the Scriptures
Mark 12 mainly concentrates on who the Lord Jesus is and His will to save all, even those who crucified Him. In this chapter, the religious leaders sent some of their followers to question the Lord Jesus about various topics: paying taxes, the resurrection, and the greatest commandment. They wanted to know His standpoint because they called Him a teacher; however, this display indicated a lack of respect toward the Lord. As a human position, they put Him as a teacher; therefore, He was above them, but they came up with many questions only to trap Him in His answers, not to learn from Him. This was a wicked way of the students; although they had called Him “teacher,” they showed no respect for the Lord. In this section, we focus on the Lord Jesus’ response to the Sadducees, who do not believe in the resurrection of the body (Mark 12:18-27).
Mark 12:18 And Sadducees come to Him, who say there is not resurrection; and they questioned Him, saying,
Comments Mark 12:18-27. For Mark 12:18-27, refer to Comments Matthew 22:23-32 and Luke 20:27-40.
19 Teacher, Moses wrote to us that, If someone’s brother should die, and leave a wife behind, and leave no child, that his brother should take the wife, and raise up seed for his brother. 20 There were seven brothers; and the first took a wife, and dying left no seed; 21 and the second took her, and died, leaving no seed; and the third likewise; 22 and the seven left no seed. Last of all the woman also died. 23 In the resurrection whose wife will she be of them? For the seven had her as wife. 24 Jesus said to them, Do you not because of this err, not knowing the Scriptures, nor the power of God?
Comments Mark 12:24. They don’t know that, by head knowledge alone, without heart knowledge, they will never understand the Scripture. Those who use the head to control the heart will never have the deep knowledge, according to the teaching of the Scripture. The Bible contains many warnings for people like this.
25 For when they rise from the dead, they neither marry, nor are given in marriage; but are like angels in the heavens. 26 But concerning the dead, that they rise; have you not read in the book of Moses, on the Bush, how God spoke to him, saying, I am the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob? 27 He is not the God of the dead, but of the living; you err greatly.
Comments Mark 12:27. Luke 20:38 adds, “For all live to Him.” The Lord Jesus tells us that no one who is in front of the Lord is dead. Don’t forget that the Lord is the Living God and all are alive in front of Him. That is why, when the Bible refers to the Lord, it always calls Him the God of the living, because no one who can come to be in front of Him dies; they are all living spirits.
Upon reading the Lord Jesus’ response in Mark 12:27, one might wonder how His answer relates to the resurrection of the body. We must note that the Lord’s answer here does not yet relate to the resurrection of the body; it concerns the living souls awaiting. At the second coming of the Holy Son, all those who have died in the Lord will be raised up at that time. And the Lord will give them a new heavenly body, and that is why, as believers, you should not cremate your body. You come from the ground, so let your body return to the ground. At the return of the Lord Jesus, all those souls who have died in the name of the Trinity of God (God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit) will return, but not in their earthly flesh body, to receive judgment in front of the Father. The flesh of sin is not there; this earthly flesh is full of sin, and it can’t be in front of the Father. But if you have been baptized in the name of the Father, the Son, Jesus Christ, and the Holy Spirit, you can be in front of the Father in your new heavenly body. The heavenly body resembles our earthly body, but is not the same; it looks alike but not the same.
Only One Can Be Resurrected in the Earthly Body: the Lord Jesus
Upon reflecting on the Lord Jesus’ responses in Matthew 22:29-32, Mark 12:24-27, and Luke 20:34-38, we will explore three main questions.
First, does the Lord Jesus explicitly address the issue of resurrection in these passages? Answering this question, one needs to think about those who have already died but come in front of God; are they raised or not? The answer the Lord Jesus gives in these passages of Scriptures talks about resurrection, but as for the resurrection in the body, there is only One who has been risen in the body of flesh. There is only One who can be resurrected in an earthly body, and that is the Lord Jesus. The Lord Jesus’ body never decayed; all other humans’ bodies decay after death. Therefore, all other humans who died in the Lord are resurrected into a body, but not in the body of the earth. In that time, there will be a different kind of body, a heavenly body. The Father is the God of the living because all things live in front of the Lord. These passages confirm the resurrection of the Lord Jesus, which is why the Father is the God of the living; His Son never dies, and He was resurrected in the body. The Lord Jesus never dies; yet the Lord Jesus in human form died on the cross and He was resurrected in the body. God cannot die; He is the God of the living, so He cannot die; He is life (see 1 John 5:11-12). These passages confirm the resurrection of His Son, complete body and soul. The Lord Jesus was the first to rise from the dead and ascended to the Father in His human body, where He is seated at the right hand of the Father (Mark 16:19). This is why He is the King of the Resurrection; all that will be resurrected at the end will be under Him. He is the King of all, the dead (those who never have a chance to return, as mentioned in the Bible, the ones that have been punished to be burned in Hell; see Revelation 20:12-14), and the alive. By His sacrifice on the cross, the Lord Jesus has become the King of the dead and the living.
Second, if these passages discuss the resurrection of the body, how many resurrections of the body are described in the Bible? There is only one resurrection in the body. The resurrection in the body can happen only for the believers in the Trinity of God: God the Father, God the Son, Jesus Christ, and God the Holy Spirit. Only these believers can have that chance. This is the first resurrection, as described in Revelation 20:4-5, and it will occur sometime in the future before the Lord’s second coming to earth. Revelation 20:5 says, “The rest of the dead did not come to life until the thousand years were ended.” Those who come to life in this Revelation verse never get a body; they come to life just to receive judgment, but they will have no material body, just the spiritual body. The soul that dies without a body has no thought of pain, but these ones that come to life here will have thought to know only what pain will mean and will have feelings of punishment in torture. (See Revelation 20:12-14).
Third, will we retain our gender after the resurrection? From the Lord’s answer, which He provided in these passages, there are differences between the resurrected bodies, but no term for female or male is used. Those who reign with the Lord have heavenly bodies, not human bodies. The heavenly body does not have a specific appearance to distinguish between male and female, as we do on earth (see 1 John 3:2).
Conclusions
In conclusion, when we examine various Bible passages regarding the resurrection of the body, we find two main scenarios.
First, we can infer that both unbelievers and Christians in name, who do not have true faith, will not receive a heavenly body. Instead, their souls will face judgment and be condemned to eternal fire. There are two main reasons for this belief: first, it seems illogical for someone to receive a new heavenly body only to be destroyed in hell; second, we must remember that the Lord Jesus Himself is preparing a place for true believers in heaven, which includes their heavenly bodies (John 14:2-3). Only those who truly believe in the Lord Jesus will attain salvation through His resurrection and become part of His Kingdom.
Second, all true believers will receive new heavenly bodies, which are material bodies made of heavenly substance, at the second coming of the Lord Jesus. The resurrection of these believers will occur in stages, but they will all appear before the Father in their heavenly bodies to be judged. Their rewards will be based on the work they have done on earth during their service. The nature of their rewards will be reflected in the different levels of shine their heavenly bodies possess. If their works were built on a foundation of gold, silver, or precious stones, they will be granted shining heavenly bodies; however, if their works were built on a foundation of wood, hay, or straw, they will receive dull heavenly bodies and be at the lower end of the scale (see 1 Corinthians 3:12-15).
Meditation Tasks
- We encourage all believers to reflect on the resurrection, particularly on the differences between resurrection in the body and in the spirit. It’s important to understand why the Bible teaches resurrection in the body rather than in the spirit. We also invite all readers to explore our two articles: “The Bodily Resurrection of the Lord Jesus” and “The Second Coming of the Lord Jesus.”
- Considering the resurrection of the body, an important question for followers of the Lord Jesus to reflect on is whether Christians should choose cremation for themselves or their loved ones after death. At Bible Commentary Forever Ministries, we believe that choosing not to cremate one’s body demonstrates respect for the Lord. The things that the Lord has created cannot be destroyed completely. If the Lord God Almighty used dirt to create humans, the dirt should go back to dirt, and that is why we should not cremate our dead bodies. For this reason, we encourage all believers in the Lord Jesus to choose traditional burial in the ground upon their death.