What is the resurrection of the dead? And the Greek word for
resurrectionis anastasis. It comes from a verb meaningto raise up.And so the resurrection is the raising up of our bodies that have died. The Westminster Confession puts it this way:The dead shall be raised up with the self-same bodies and none other, which shall be united again to their souls forever.Now, notice there the emphasis on the bodily nature of the resurrection. It is the body that is raised, and that is a truth that has often been neglected or even assailed. The ancient Greeks tended to view the body as ignoble and worthless, and something to be escaped from. In fact, the ancient Greek idea of salvation—if you read in the ancient mystery religions—is all about escaping: the spirit, the soul, escaping from the body. The last thing they would want is to get the body back. And here is an important point that Christianity and the Bible make over and over: that those things which God has made are good, and no religion affirms the body like the Christian religion does. The Bible values the body as God’s good creation. Christian salvation very positively affects our bodies. That is true in the present; it is even more true in the future. And that has a lot of implications for how we view and treat the body. Now, Christians are not to be the kind of radical ascetics who will harm the body or wrongly neglect the body. There were several centuries in the early church where the ascetic movement was enforced, and the idea was that you are being more holy by suppressing the body—and that is wrong.The body is good. It is holy, to be treated that way. Now, that means that the opposite should also be avoided. We should not be libertines who indulge the body in sinful ways and misuse it. Here is Paul’s reasoning in 1 Corinthians 6:1–20. He says,
Richard D. PhillipsDo you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit?Here is the conclusion:Therefore, glorify God in the body.(1 Corinthians 6:19–20) Cornelis Venema writes,The same Lord who forgives all our sins is also the one who heals all our diseases, including that sickness of body and soul that leads to death. Thus no biblical picture of the believer’s future may fail to include as a central part the promise of the resurrection of the body.It is absolutely central to the future of our salvation.1
15 Voici, en effet, ce que nous vous déclarons d'après la parole du Seigneur: nous les vivants, restés pour l'avènement du Seigneur, nous ne devancerons pas ceux qui sont décédés.