We shall consider first _the fact of the resurrection of the body of
Jesus Christ and of our bodies_.
1. Turn first, please, to II Tim. 2:8, +"Remember that Jesus
Christ of the seed of David, was raised from the dead, according to
my gospel."+ Here Paul explicitly declares that Jesus Christ was
raised from the dead according to the gospel which he preached. Now
what was raised? Certainly not His soul. That did not die. Turning to
Acts 2:27-31, we find that the soul of the Lord Jesus went into Hades,
the abode of the dead. These are Peter's words, spoken on the day of
Pentecost, there recorded, +"Because thou wilt not leave my soul
unto Hades, neither wilt thou give thy holy one to see corruption+
(i.e., in His body). +Thou madest known unto me the ways of life;
thou shalt make me full of gladness with thy countenance. Brethren, I
may say unto you freely of the patriarch David, that he both died and
was buried, and his tomb is with us unto this day. Being therefore
a prophet, and knowing that God has sworn with an oath to him that
of the fruit of his loins, according to the flesh, he would raise
up Christ to sit on his throne; he foreseeing this spake of the
resurrection of Christ, that neither was he left unto Hades, nor did
his flesh see corruption. This Jesus did God raise up, whereof we all
are witnesses."+ Peter here declares that the soul of Jesus went
to Hades and that it was "His flesh," i.e., His body, that was kept
from corruption and afterwards raised. Turning now to I Cor. 15:3,
4, we read these words of Paul: +"For we delivered unto you first
of all that which also I received, how that Christ died for our sins
according to the scriptures; and that he was buried; and that he hath
been raised on the third day according to the scriptures."+ Paul
here declares that Jesus Christ died and was buried and was raised.
What was raised? Paul says, that _that which "was buried"_ was raised.
But what was buried? _Not the soul_ of the Lord Jesus, _but His
body_. Peter makes this even plainer, if possible, in I Pet. 3:18-20:
+"Because Christ also suffered for our sins once, the righteous for
the unrighteous, that he might bring us to God; being put to death
in the flesh, but quickened in the spirit; in which also he went and
preached to the spirits in prison; which aforetime were disobedient,
when the longsuffering of God waited in the days of Noah."+ These
words clearly mean that it was the body of Jesus that was put to death,
but that the spirit still lived and went into Hades; so it was _the
body_ that was raised and to which the spirit that had not died or
become unconscious came back. I Cor. 15:12-19 removes all possibility
of doubt on this point on the part of any man who goes to the Bible
to find out what it actually teaches and not merely to see how he can
twist and distort it to fit it into his own preconceived opinions.
Paul's Spirit-given words here read, +"Now if Christ be preached
that he hath been raised from the dead, how say some among you that
there is no resurrection of the dead?+ (Mark, not _no immortality of
the soul_, but _no resurrection_ of the dead.) +But if there is no
resurrection of the dead neither hath Christ been raised: and if Christ
hath not been raised, then is our preaching vain, your faith also is
vain. Yea, and we are found false witnesses of God; because we witness
of God that he raised up Christ: whom he raised not up if so be that
the dead are not raised. For if the dead are not raised neither hath
Christ been raised: and if Christ hath not been raised, your faith is
vain, ye are yet in your sins. Then they also that have fallen asleep
in Christ have perished. If in this life only we have hoped in Christ,
we are of all men most pitiable."+ There is no honest mistaking the
plain meaning of these words: by the "resurrection of the dead" Paul
plainly means _a resurrection of the body_; and in the whole chapter,
beyond an honest doubt, he is not talking about the immortality of
the soul, but the resurrection of the body. The whole argument turns
on that, and Paul here clearly says _if the body of Jesus was not
raised_, then the whole Christian system is a sham and our faith vain
and that we Christians of all men are most to be pitied. For if the
body of Jesus was not raised, and if our bodies are not to be raised,
then we Christians are making tremendous sacrifices for a lie. Paul
says further that _if our bodies_ are not to be raised, then Christ's
body has not been raised and Christianity is a humbug. Christianity as
taught in the New Testament stands or falls with the resurrection of
the body of Jesus and the resurrection of our bodies. There is no room
in this argument of Paul's for "Pastor" Russell's doctrine, that the
resurrection of Jesus Christ was not a resurrection of the body that
was laid in the grave, the body that was crucified, and that the body
of Jesus Christ, the body that was laid in the sepulchre, was carried
away and preserved somewhere, or else dissolved into gases. Paul says
here, _if the body that was laid in the sepulchre was not raised, "then
is our preaching vain" and your "faith also is vain."_
In Luke 24:5, 6, the angels at the tomb from which the body of Jesus
had disappeared are recorded as saying to the women who were seeking
the body of Jesus to embalm it, +"Why seek ye the living among
the dead? He is not here but is risen."+ Now what were the women
seeking? The body of Jesus to embalm it, and the angels say that
what they were seeking was not there but was risen, had been raised.
Furthermore, in the remainder of the 6th verse and verse 7, they say:
+"Remember how he spake unto you when he was yet in Galilee, saying
that the Son of Man must be delivered up into the hands of sinful men,
and be crucified, and the third day rise again."+ Here they told the
women plainly that what was crucified, which of course was the body
of Jesus, was raised. If the actual, literal body of Jesus had not
been raised, then these angels were liars. Do you believe that? These
are only a few of the very many passages in which it is very clearly
taught that the very body of Jesus was raised from the dead. The body
of Jesus was raised from the dead and our bodies shall be raised from
the dead, else Christianity is a lie from start to finish. But Christ
was raised from the dead and we shall be raised. Or, as Paul puts it
in the 20th verse of this same chapter, "+But now hath Christ been
raised from the dead, the first fruits of them that are asleep."+
Our resurrection, the resurrection of our bodies, will be _the harvest_
that follows the resurrection of the body of Christ, which was "_the
first fruits_."