While the doctrine of the resurrection of the dead is both doubted (1 Cor. 15,35) and blasphemed (Acts 17,32) by the ungodly, contrary to their own natural knowledge of God as the almighty Creator and King of the universe, who can do all things, Rom. 1,19. 20, so that their unbelief is inexcusable, 1 Cor. 15, 35f., it is to the believing Christian a source of supreme joy and sweet consolation, 1 Cor. 15, 20—22 (Third Article: “I believe in the resurrection of the dead”).
The doctrine of the resurrection is taught not only in the New, but also in the Old Testament, Job 19, 25. 26; Is. 26, 19; Dan. 12, 2. The Sadducees, who denied the resurrection, were reproved by Christ as errorists, who “knew not the Scriptures,” Matt. 22, 29. At the same time Christ pointed out to them the large number of passages in the Old Testament which attest the resurrection, when He said: “As touching the resurrection of the dead, have ye not read that which was spoken unto you by God, saying, I am the God of Abraham and the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob? God is not the God of the dead, but of the living,” Matt. 22, 31. 32. Hence, wherever in the Old Testament we read the gracious promise: “I am thy God,” we have a passage teaching the resurrection of the dead, since “God is not the God of the dead, but of the living,” Gen. 17, 7; 26,24; 28,13; Ezek. 37, 27; etc.
Luther therefore is fully justified in saying that in Gen. 3,15 also the abolition of death and the resurrection are taught, since death is the wages of sin. He writes (St. L., I, 240): “This passage embraces the redemption from the Law, sin, and death and points out a clear and sure hope of the resurrection and the renovation in a life after this. For if the head of the serpent should be bruised, then also death must be abolished and annulled.”
We therefore maintain that the Christian faith in the resurrection of the dead is as old as is the proclamation of the Gospel. It is a mistake on the part of modern theologians to claim that the doctrine of the resurrection was only gradually developed among the believers (Luthardt, Dogmatik, p. 412; Voigt: “The doctrine of the resurrection is found only in the later books of the Old Testament.” Biblical Dogmatics, p. 239).
In opposition to this we hold that the doctrine of the resurrection is found not only in such passages as Dan. 12, 2; Ps. 17,15; Hos. 13, 14; Is. 26, 19; Ezek. 37, 1—10; Job 19, 25—27, but also in all passages in which God reveals Himself as the God of His people, individually or collectively, Ex. 3, 6. 13; 4, 5, etc. Hofmann rightly says: “Nothing can be more erroneous than the opinion that the doctrine of the resurrection is a later idea, which resulted from human speculation. . . . There is no time in which faith can be conceived without this hope.”
Since the doctrine of the resurrection belongs to the primary fundamental articles, without which the Christian faith cannot exist, 2 Tim. 2,17.18; 1 Tim. 1,19. 20, Hofmann’s statement that “faith cannot be conceived without this hope” is indeed Scriptural. The Old Testament believers would certainly have “made shipwreck concerning faith,” 1 Tim. 1,19, had they not believed in the resurrection.
It is nevertheless true that the full and complete revelation concerning the resurrection came with Christ and the fulness of His Gospel-preaching, John 5, 28. 29; 6, 39. 40; 1 Thess. 4, 16; 1 Cor. 15 ; etc.
According to Scripture the resurrection of the dead consists formally a) in the restoration of the same body which has perished by death, out of its atoms or particles that have been scattered and dispersed, Job 19,25—27; 1 Cor. 15, 42—49; and b) in the reunion of the body with the soul, 1 Thess. 4,14—17. The resurrection therefore lies beyond the comprehension of man; it is a miracle of God’s omnipotence, just as is creation, 2 Cor. 1, 9; Rom. 4,17.
Since the divine power, just as the divine essence, belongs to the three Persons in the Godhead without division or multiplication (una numero essentia, una numero potentia). Scripture ascribes the resurrection sometimes to the Father and sometimes to the Son in the same manner, John 5, 21, and to the latter not merely according to His divine, but also according to His human nature (John 5,22.27: “because He is the Son of Man”). The divine- human Redeemer of the world is also its divine Resurrector and Judge (John 5, 28: “All that are in the graves shall hear His the Son of Man’s voice”).
The fact that the Verbum incarnation (λόγος ἔνσαρκοςλ), or the God-man, is the omnipotent Lord, who on the Last Day will bless or condemn (Acts 17, 31: “by that Man”), is of great comfort to all believers, John 11, 23—27; Rev. 1, 5. 6, while to all unbelievers it is a cause of unspeakable terror, John 19, 37; Rev. 1, 7; 6,16.17.
That the denial of the communication of divine actions (actiones) to the human nature is a most pernicious error (cp. the Calvinistic denial of the genus maiestaticum) is proved convincingly by the very passages of Scripture which describe the resurrection and the final Judgment as the work of the Son of Man.
With respect to the question, Who will be raised from the dead ? (subiectum quod resurrectionis), Scripture answers very clearly that all men will rise again, both believers, 1 Cor. 15, 20—22; 1 Thess. 4, 13—18, and unbelievers, John 5, 28; Acts 24, 15. Unitarians and other antichristian sects have invariably denied the resurrection of the wicked (Socinians, Adventists, Russell- ites, etc.); but Scripture asserts this fact in unmistakable terms. While Christ’s exhortation to rise spiritually through faith in His divine Gospel promises, Matt. 11, 28—30, can be resisted. Matt. 23, 37, since He now works through means (potentia ordinata). His command on the day of Judgment to rise bodily from the grave cannot be resisted, Matt. 25, 31. 32, since He will then exert His divine power without means (potentia absoluta, efficacia irresisti- bUis, in nuda maiestate, ἐν τῇ δόξῃ αὐτοῦ).
If the question is asked, Just what of man will rise from the dead? (subiectum quo resurrectionis), Scripture designates “the entire man that previously died” (Quenstedt; Dan. 12, 2; John 5, 28. 29), in particular the body, the same in number and essence which was born in this life and which perished through death, Job 19, 25—27; Is. 26, 19; Rom. 8, 11; 1 Cor. 15, 53; 2 Cor. 5, 4; Phil. 3, 21.
The body, of course, will be united with the soul, as the very concept of resurrection implies; for as death is the separation of the body and soul, so the resurrection is the reunion of the body with the soul. Vox ἀναστάσεως importat iteratam, stationem eius, quod ante steterat et ceciderat. Hence all who deny the numerical identity of the dead and the raised body deny eo ipso also the resurrection. Neither the resurrection nor the “change” (1 Cor. 15, 51. 52: “We shall all be changed in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye”) of those who will live when the day of Judgment breaks will destroy the identity of the body. All those who doubt or deny the possibility of the resurrection our sovereign Lord reproves very severely: “Ye do err, not knowing . . . the power of God,” Matt. 22, 29.
However, while the same body will rise from the grave, it will have new qualities. The resurrected bodies of the believers will be spiritual (σώματα πνευματικά), 1 Cor. 15, 51. 52, that is, suited to the spiritual, heavenly life with God in glory. Holy Scripture describes the spiritual bodies of God’s saints as incorruptible, glorious, and powerful, 1 Cor. 15, 42—45; as “fashioned like unto His Christ’s glorious body,” Phil. 3, 21; and lastly as “like unto the angels of God in heaven,” Luke 20, 36; Matt. 22, 30. This similarity, however, must not be extended to the bodilessness and sexlessness of the angels; for while the human body will not perform its former earthly functions in heaven (cp. the error of the Mormons), it will nevertheless be essentially the same body that lived upon earth, 1 Cor. 15, 47—49.
Luther thus says (St. L., VIII, 1222): “The body remains according to its nature, but not the same use of the body remains.” (Cp. also IX, 1242f.) Luther correctly describes the “natural body” (σῶμα ῃνυγχικόν), 1 Cor. 15, 44, as “the whole man as he lives with his five senses in this world and sustains himself by eating, drinking, maintaining house and home, wife and children,” etc., but the “spiritual body” (o&pa nvev/nazixor) as the glorified body, fitted for heavenly bliss. Of the saints of Christ Holy Scripture tells us in particular that “the righteous shall shine forth as the sun in the kingdom of their Father,” Matt. 13,43.
That the bodies will rise in the same stature in which they were in death (children, youth, men, old men, etc.) is quite probable, since in the Book of Revelation we read: “And I saw the dead, small and great, stand before God,” Rev. 20,12.
It goes without saying that the bodies of the righteous there will have no physical defects nor any traces of age or suffering, since all these are the consequences of sin. Chemnitz is correct when he says (De Duabis Naturis, p. 175): “The bodies are heavenly, not with respect to substance, but with respect to qualities, because they will shine with heavenly light and glory, will no longer be subject to earthly infirmities, but will be distinguished by their heavenly luster and no longer be disfigured, corrupt, imperfect, maimed, and unsightly, but most beautiful, pleasing to the sight, perfect, handsome, and complete in members, etc. An illustration of these qualities is presented to us in the body of Christ, as raised from the dead and placed at the right hand of God, to which our body is to be made like.” (Doctr. Theol., p. 6421)
Since the ungodly remain in their sin and under the divine curse, John 3,18. 36, their bodies will come forth from the graves “unto shame and everlasting contempt,” Dan. 12,2, so that all the defects and consequences of sin will be the more visible in their bodies, raised to everlasting disgrace.
Chemnitz writes of this: “Although the bodies of the wicked and the damned will be incorruptible and imm ortal, yet they will not be impassible, but will be subject to eternal tortures and will be adorned by no honor, no glory, no power, no spiritual excellence, but will be marked by perpetual foulness and ignominy, destined to eternal disgrace, and oppressed by infernal darkness. They are vessels made unto dishonor and disgrace, Rom. 9,21; 2 Tim. 2,20.” (Doctr. Theol., p. 643.)
While the righteous shall rise from the dead by virtue of the merit of Christ, 1 Cor. 15, 20—22, the godless will rise by the divine power communicated to Christ’s human nature through the personal union and exaltation to the right hand of God, by which He sustains, rules, and governs all things in heaven and earth in His general Kingdom of Power (regnum potentiae), John 5, 25—29. As Gerhard well remarks, the resurrection of the godless pertains to Christ’s functions as Judge and not to His functions as Mediator and Savior (Doctr. Theol., p. 643).
The view of some modern theologians (Kahnis, Nitzsch, Martensen, etc.) that a germ of the resurrection body is implanted in the believers in this life, which either develops into, or serves as the nucleus of, the glorified body, is unscriptural. Holy Scripture does not teach such an Auferstehungsleib, nor does it say that it is implanted in the believer through the use of the Lord’s Supper.