The road of being born again

...the graves were opened; and many bodies of the saints who had fallen asleep were raised. (Matt. 27:52)

Resurrection is the hope of all Christians. However, the above biblical verse is a question which we who are living in the world of science and technology have to ponder about. Can a corpse whose bones have decayed and gone rise up again from the tomb? If so, shall that person die again or become immortal?

Resurrection means to come back to life. To come back to life has to have died once as its premise. Then, what shall that 'death' mean?

but of the tree of knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die (Gen. 2:17). ... the wages of sin is death (Romans 6:23

 

Should there had been the fall, there would not be death, either. If Adam had not fallen, would he be living until now?

... the dust will return to the earth as it was, and the spirit will return to God who gave it. (Ecclesiastes 12:7)

 

The world that God wanted is the Heavenly Kingdom in Heaven through the Heavenly Kingdom on Earth. It is the perfection of spirit though body. Our body is a tree and spirit is its fruit. Going to the Heavenly Kingdom in Heaven is merely the fruit. Fruit cannot grow any more once it leaves its tree. In the same token, we have to do our best in order to grow our spirit men while we have physical body on the earth.

To die once is the thing that is destined to all men. Since then, there shall be a judgment that evaluates the quality of the fruit.

Jesus said to him, "Let (1)the dead bury their own (2)dead, but you go and preach the kingdom of God. (Luke 9:60)

I know your works, that you have a name that you are alive, but you are dead. (Revelation 3:1)

For you are like whitewashed tombs which indeed appear beautiful outwardly, but inside are full of dead men's bones and all uncleanness. (Matt. 23:27)

 

The dead body bury the dead? There are two concepts of death mentioned in the Bible. One is physical death(2) in which breathing stopped. The other is spiritual death(1) in which men's relationship with God is cut.

The fallen Adam and Eve lived for about 900 years, multiplying their children. However, they were drived away from the Garden of Eden and they could not communicate with God. Adam and Eve had the name that they were alive, but they were dead people in God's eye.

Accordingly, the death caused by the fall in the Bible refers to the spiritual death and the state of having fallen from the good dominion of God in the Garden of Eden to the evil dominion of Satan.

He is not the God of the dead, but the God of the living. You are therefore greatly mistaken. (Mark 12:27)

 

God is not the God of the dead, but the God of the living. Hence, not the resurrection of the dead, but the resurrection of the living is important. The life in which people always repent, reflect, and try to live a righteous life is the very life of resurrection. Resurrection is not a miracle by which everything changes all of a sudden. Rather, it is a life that accumulated goodness day by day. In other words, resurrection means that the fallen men enter into the realm of God's heart by getting out of the realm of the fall.

We know that we have passed from death from life, because we love brethren. He who does not love his brother abides in death. (I John 3:14)

 

Love only can give birth to life. Only love brings forgiveness and peace. The works that Satan does is breaking love. Therefore, those who do not love are those who dwell among death.

For to be carnally minded is death, but to be spiritually minded is life and peace (Romans 8:6)

 

Those who think of physical body only, those who pursue one's own wealth, knowledge, and prestige only, and those who live only for the sake of oneself are also those who are alive, but have the name of being dead.

Thus also faith by itself, if it does not have works, is dead. (James 2:17)

 

The age of saying that if you believe, you shall be delivered and live forever is gone already. Now is the time when we have to attend the Lord as well as believe in him. The faith that has no works is not needed any more.

It is the Spirit who gives life; the flesh profits nothing. The words that I speak to you are spirit, and they are life. (John 6:63)

 

God's word is life. Accordingly, it cannot help being serious. Depending on whether one practise it or not, it can come to us either as the grace of eternal blessing and life or as a dagger of judgment.

For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ all shall be made alive. (I Cor. 15:22)

 

As if the human being ended up staying in the death of Satan's dominion because of the fall of Adam and Eve, the human being now are able to get life in God's dominion thanks to the victorious resurrection of Jesus Christ. We can resurrect through the truth (Luke 23:30-31, John 6:35), belief (Gal. 2:20), works (James 2:17), and love (I John 3:14, 4:16)

And Jesus said to them, "I am the bread of life. He who comes to Me shall never hunger, and he who believes in Me shall never thirst. (John 6:35)

 

When we get the bread of words, we shall meet God who is hidden among the truth, and the resurrected Jesus. Through the truth, we shall feel the word working alive in us, and greet the resurrection in life.

And you shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free. (John 8:32)

 

Jesus wanted to give us words, truth, and freedom. Truth is shackles to those who reject it, but freedom to those who receive it gladly. It is resurrection.

And he arose and came to his father. But when he was still a great way off, his father saw him and had compassion, and ran and fell on his neck and kissed him....But his father said to his servants, "Bring out the best robe and put it on him, and put a ring on his hand and sandals on his feet. And bring the fatted calf here and kill it, and let us eat and be merry; for this my son was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found." And they began to be merry. (Luke 15:11-32)

 

God's word is love. Love is not knowledge that we can know by brain. We can finally know it only through feeling through heart.

Neither do I condemn you; go and sin no more. (John 8:11)

 

Jesus forgave a woman at whom everybody would throw a stone. He did it with loving parent's heart. It is true love only that can embrace a prodigal son when he returned home penniless after having left his father (Luke 15:11-32).

True love is to love even something that cannot be loved at all. It forgives and embraces those who were deserted by everyman of the world. True love is the only short cut to resurrection.

I affirm, by the boasting in you which I have in Christ Jesus our Lord, I die daily. (I Cor. 15:31)

 

Apostle Peter is proud of dying daily in Christ Jesus our Lord. Dying daily corresponds to resurrecting daily. We hope that the state of Peter who is reviving everyday with Jesus' word and love can be ours. Resurrection begins at the very point when we deny ourselves thoroughly and myself is completely deadened.

Whoever seeks to save his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life will preserve it. (Luke 17:33)

Then the eyes of both of them were opened, and they knew that they were naked; and they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves coverings. (Genesis 3:7).

 

After the fall, Adam and Eve covered their shame with fig leaves and hid themselves behind a tree with fear and horror. However, there was not any external change at all.

The same is true with the resurrection. Although people's faces become filled with happiness since they receive God's divinity and become His temple, there cannot be any special change in appearance. Only internal mind, the center of mind, and life change.

Women received their dead raised to life again. And others were tortured, not accepting deliverance, that they might obtain a better resurrection. (Heb. 11:35)

Here is the principle to get a better resurrection. First, the providence of resurrection is carried out according to the benefits of the age. As time goes by, people of succeeding generations can enjoy more benefit from their ages based upon the foundation that their good forefathers had built. Second, it is done by man's fulfilling his own portion of responsibility. Man has to believe in God's words and practice them (Gal. 2:20, James 2:17). Third, resurrection should be done while man is living (Mark 12:27). Jesus gave the keys of the kingdom of heaven to Peter who remains on the earth (Matt. 16:19). The kingdom of heaven begins from the earth. Accordingly, resurrection also begins from the earth. As if fruits grow on the basis of a tree, the resurrection of the spirit man is also to be accomplished through physical life on earth.

Then the dust will return to the earth as it was, and the spirit will return to God who gave it. (Ecclesiastes 12:7)

 

Fourth, resurrection is to be accomplished through the three orderly stages of the providential period. Since resurrection is not a miracle in which everything changes suddenly, but is to be perfected through gradual stage, it is perfected through the three stage of the blade, the head, and the full grain in the head (Mark 4:28).

Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet before the coming of the great and dreadful day of the Lord. (Malachi 4:5)

And if you are willing to receive it, he is Elijah who is to come. (Matt. 11:14)

 

The Bible says that Elijah is coming first before Jesus comes since Elijah ascended to heaven on a chariot of fire without fulfilling his responsibility (Mal. 4:5).

Six months before the birth of Jesus, a baby was born with Elijah's mission and ability. He was John the Baptist. He did not come on a chariot of fire and was born between Zacharias and Elizabeth. However, John was the second advent of Elijah from the standpoint of their identical mission.

Elijah and John the Baptist were two different men with different faces, names, and environments. They are, however, an identical person in terms of their mission.

Like this, spirit man's coming down to an earthly man with the same mission and helping him is called 'the resurrection of the mission.

' Resurrection is love that God gives. Besides, it is my responsibility that I have to accomplish.

Resurrection means to come back to life. Then what is death caused by the fall? Because of the fall, men's relationship with God was broken. Spiritual communion was cut. In other words, what is dead from the fall is men's spiritual life. The relationship between mind and body of men is that of a tree and its fruit. Just as if a fruit fallen from a tree cannot grow any longer, spirit that left body cannot expect to grow.

Accordingly, the growth of spirit (or resurrection) should be done on the earth while the physical body id alive. Hence, resurrection means for a spirit to live again, for a spirit to grow gradually, and finally to go back to God.