Jesus:
The First Fruits of Our Resurrection

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Question
What is the relationship between Jesus' resurrection and the resurrection of believers?
Answer
You know, the resurrection is a concept that undergirds the whole New Testament. You might even say it's the central core of the New Testament itself. We have isolated passages in the New Testament that speak very directly to resurrection. Perhaps the classic passage is 1 Corinthians 15. The Corinthians are under-informed about the resurrection, and so Paul goes to great length as to the nature of the resurrection. One of its key arguments is that our resurrection is going to be qualitatively similar or analogous to Jesus' resurrection. Jesus is the first fruits, Paul says. Well, what does that mean? Well, Jesus was already crucified, dead and buried and raised. He was raised bodily. Bodily physically, yes, but in a way that's not quite physical the way we think about this. Now, I'm not altogether sure how this really works. Jesus is physical enough so that when he says touch my hands, you touch him without your hand going through, and at the same time he can eat and, you know, actually eats. But then again, he suddenly appears in rooms where the doors have been locked. So, how does that work? Is he really physical? I think the Bible's answer is yes he's completely physical, but he's able to move in different spheres and in different dimensions, if you will, that we don't have access to. Well, if Jesus is raised that way, the promise is we will be raised exactly that way.