Anastasis–Resurrection

“We find that while men use the word resurrection in a very general way, the Bible uses the Greek word anastasis, represented by our English word resurrection, in a very particular manner. The common view of the doctrine of resurrection is shown by Webster’s definition of the term, as follows:

Resurrection:

(1) A rising again; the resumption of vigor.

(2) Especially, the rising again from the dead; the resumption of life.

As examples of resurrection, our Lord’s notable miracles, in the case of Lazarus, and of the son of the widow of Nain, of Jairus’ daughter, etc., are often cited; the general idea being that the restoration of any degree of vigor or life to one who has passed into the unconsciousness of death is a resurrection.

The Scriptural use of the original Greek word anastasis is, however, quite different from this.

The Scriptures never speak of the above cases of the awakening of the dead as a resurrection. Anastasis means much more than merely awakening out of death; it signifies to rise again, and this means all that the word RESTITUTION means, and all that the word SAVED means, to the lost and ruined race of Adam.

As restitution means full restitution to all that was lost by Adam, and as saved means full salvation from all the penalty and loss incurred under God’s sentence by Adam’s disobedience, so resurrection (anastasis) signifies a full and complete raising up again to all that was lost; not merely a partial raising (or temporary resuscitation of life), to a part of what was lost, but a full raising again, clear up to that position and condition of perfect manhood, mentally, morally and physically, which father Adam once had prior to his hurling himself and all his posterity down the broad road of destruction.

This is the blessed fullness implied in the word resurrection as God uses it. Let us rejoice in it hereafter, and use the word resurrection as God uses it. Hereafter let us not speak of such cases as the awakening of Lazarus as a resurrection; for Lazarus neither came perfect from the tomb, nor did he from that time begin to progress to perfection. He was merely awakened (resuscitated), as our Lord said: “I go that I may awake him.” And when Lazarus died again, that could not be considered his second death, for he never was fully freed from the first death, Adamic death.

If one were awakened a dozen times from Adamic death, he would still be IN IT, and could not die the Second Death (the wages of individual, willful sin) until somehow he was first released from the Adamic death-sentence.

Writing particularly on this subject (1 Corinthians Chapter 15), the Apostle tells us several important things:

(1) That the doctrine of a resurrection is an all-important one, because if there be no resurrection, those who have already fallen asleep in death are perished, and we who are hoping and seeking for a future life are deceived and will be sadly disappointed (Verses 18, 19); but he assures us that there is the best of ground for faith in God’s power and purpose to have a resurrection, and that the resurrection of our Lord Jesus is the proof of this. — Verse 20.

(2) He further declares our Lord to be the first one ever resurrected; thus showing that Lazarus and others WERE NOT resurrected in the sense that God uses that word–Christ was “the first -fruits of them that slept.”– Verse 20 and Acts 26:23.

(3) Building upon the foundation he had already laid down (Chapter 1:18, 23, 24, 30) —that Christ’s death as our RANSOM is the basis of our hope of the resurrection to life, which he thus redeemed for us and for all, the Apostle proceeds to declare (Verses 21, 22) that as death came as a result of something done by man (Adam) so the resurrection comes as a result of something done by another man (“the man Christ Jesus, who gave himself a ransom for all“); and that as ALL who were in Adam shared his sentence and as a consequence die, even so, ALL who are in Christ will be made alive—made to share the blessing which the man Christ Jesus merited, but which he laid down in death on behalf of all those who will obey him when brought to a full knowledge of the truth.– Heb. 5:9.

(4) But even among those made alive in Christ there will be a difference: there will be two orders, or classes, or grades; and all brought to perfection by resurrection, all lifted completely out of death, will belong to one or the other of these orders.

They will either belong to the spiritual order of which the “body of Christ” under Jesus its head, represented in Israel’s priesthood, is the first-fruits unto God of his creatures (Verse 23 and James 1:18), and of which the second company (the great company or multitude), represented in the Levites, will be the blessed servants or assistants, or else they will come up in the second order to human perfection as members of the great restitution class to be developed during the Lord’s presence –during the Millennial reign.” (Excerpts were taken from R1258)

So then in answer to our previous questions:

What precisely does a resurrection entail?

In regards to mankind a resurrection entails the full and complete rising again to that condition of perfection which was originally possessed and lost by father Adam prior to the fall, mental, moral and physical human perfection.

When the Lord raised Lazarus from the dead was that a resurrection?

No it was not. What Lazarus experienced was merely a brief resuscitation of his life, for not long thereafter he returned once again to the tomb from which he was raised, nor was he ever brought back to the original perfection lost in father Adam.

We continue with our next post.