Although this article is about the final resurrection, let’s think about the future God promises his people. What will the new heaven and new earth be like? One common depiction is that we will be floating on clouds for eternity, perhaps strumming on harps and singing songs. Yet such a caricature makes it seem like the physical world is something we were meant to escape from.
Is the biblical view of the physical world and the physical body one of escape? No, it’s a view of restoration. Just as the first book of the Bible (Genesis) depicts the physical world as very good (the refrain after God created something was always that “God saw that it was good”), the Bible’s final book (Revelation) depicts our destination as Christians not as souls drifting along in a cloud world, but as a richly multisensory, physical dwelling in which the physical world and our physical bodies have been restored. Even though both the physical world and our bodies are currently subject to decay, God promises to restore both in the end.
Hence, the resurrection of our bodies at the end of time. Recall that our disembodied state when we die is rightly called the “intermediate state,” as it is temporary and awaits something better: the resurrection of the body and its reunification with the soul. When Jesus returns at the second coming, this will bring about this “resurrection of the dead,” by which we mean the resurrection which re-embodies the souls of those who have died.
How should we think about this resurrection of the dead?
A Core Belief of Christians
First, it’s important to note that a future resurrection of the dead is a central way the earliest Christians described their faith.
“They [the religious leaders] were greatly disturbed because the apostles were teaching the people and proclaiming in Jesus the resurrection of the dead.” (Acts 4:2, NIV)
[Paul said to the governor] “And I have the same hope in God as these men, that there will be a resurrection of both the righteous and the wicked.” (Acts 24:15, NIV)
“Therefore let us move beyond the elementary teachings about Christ, and be taken forward to maturity, not laying again the foundation of repentance from acts that lead to death, and of faith in God, instruction about cleansing rites, the laying on of hands, the resurrection of the dead, and eternal judgment.” (Hebrews 6:1-2, NIV)
“Jesus said to her, ‘Your brother will rise again.’ Martha said to Him, ‘I know he will rise again in the resurrection on the last day.’” (John 11:23-24, NIV)
What is the resurrection of the dead? “I have the same hope in God as these men, that there will be a resurrection of both the righteous and the wicked.”
At the resurrection, both the saved and lost will be raised from the dead. Consider the following descriptions of this event:
“Multitudes who sleep in the dust of the earth will awake: some to everlasting life, others to shame and everlasting contempt. Those who are wise will shine like the brightness of the heavens, and those who lead many to righteousness, like the stars for ever and ever.” (Daniel 12:2-3, NIV)
“Do not be amazed at this, for a time is coming when all who are in their graves will hear his voice and come out—those who have done what is good will rise to live, and those who have done what is evil will rise to be condemned.” (John 5:28-29, NIV)
What the Resurrection Means for the “Dead in Christ”
Though the resurrection of both saved and lost is a solid teaching of the scriptures, the Bible places far more emphasis on the resurrection of the saved. For example, the resurrection of God’s faithful people is given an entire chapter, 1 Corinthians 15, with considerable supplementation as well in 1 Thessalonians 4:13ff.
But this imbalance of material is actually to be expected. The entire emphasis of the Bible is one underscoring the joy, peace, contentment, and everlasting reward in serving the Creator. For those who are “dead in Christ,” the resurrection of the dead means crossing over from death to life forever with Jesus:
“For the Lord himself will come down from heaven, with a loud command, with the voice of the archangel and with the trumpet call of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first. After that, we who are still alive and are left will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And so we will be with the Lord forever. Therefore encourage one another with these words.” (1 Thessalonians 4:16-18, NIV)
“Very truly I tell you, whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life and will not be judged but has crossed over from death to life. Very truly I tell you, a time is coming and has now come when the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God and those who hear will live.” (John 5:24-25, NIV)
What is the resurrection of the dead? “And so we will be with the Lord forever.”
Notice that, for the believer in Jesus, this resurrection is depicted as being a “redemption of our body”:
“Not only so, but we ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for our adoption to sonship, the redemption of our bodies. For in this hope we were saved. But hope that is seen is no hope at all. Who hopes for what they already have?” (Romans 8:23-24, ESV)
For those who trust and follow Jesus, the resurrection of the dead means being given new, imperishable bodies, as Jesus had at his resurrection.[1] Our bodies will not be made of mere flesh and blood; rather, they will be imperishable, glorious, and powerful. The apostle Paul described it this way:
“So will it be with the resurrection of the dead. The body that is sown is perishable, it is raised imperishable; it is sown in dishonor, it is raised in glory; it is sown in weakness, it is raised in power; it is sown in a natural body, it is raised a spiritual body. If there is a natural body, there is also a spiritual body.” (1 Corinthians 15:42-44, NIV)
Paul goes on to describe how it will happen:
“I declare to you, brothers and sisters, that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God, nor does the perishable inherit the imperishable. Listen, I tell you a mystery: we will not all sleep, but we will all be changed—in a flash, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, the dead will be raised imperishable, and we will be changed. For the perishable must clothe itself with the imperishable, and the mortal with immortality.” (1 Corinthians 15:50-53, NIV)
What is the resurrection of the dead? “The trumpet will sound, the dead will be raised imperishable, and we will be changed.”
Our bodies will be ideally suited for an eternal life in the new heaven and new earth where we will have intimate communion with God.
Raised for Final Judgment
Throughout the Bible, the resurrection of the dead is often set in the context of an event that follows it: we are raised for the final judgment. (This does not mean, however, that all end-times paradigms place the two events one right after the other; see chapter 9.) Revelation 20:12-13 (NIV) describes it this way:
“And I saw the dead, great and small, standing before the throne, and books were opened. Another book was opened, which is the book of life. The dead were judged according to what they had done as recorded in the books. The sea gave up the dead that were in it, and death and Hades gave up the dead that were in them, and each person was judged according to what they had done.”
According to Scripture, everyone stands before God for a final judgment. People are raised up from every imaginable place: the sea (where they were not buried), death, and Hades. Everyone will be raised to be judged according to what they had done. Christians, of course, have placed their faith in Jesus Christ, so their judgment will be an affirmation of their lives as those who trust and follow Jesus.
“According to Scripture, everyone stands before God for a final judgment.”
Most of the world missed Jesus’ first coming; the world won’t be able to miss the second. The supergroup the Traveling Wilburys wrote a song (“End of the Line”[2]) to make the listener feel that everything is “all right” (the song’s refrain). At one point, they sang the line, “Every day is judgment day,” as though, as long as the day went well, we can look back and render our own final judgment: “It’s all right.” But there will be a judgment day—the judgment day—and although it will be a day of rescue and reassurance for many, it will not be all right for everyone.
[1] See N.T. Wright, Surprised by Hope: Rethinking Heaven, the Resurrection, and the Mission of the Church (Harper One, 2009).
[2] Traveling Wilburys, “End of the Line,” Genius, https://genius.com/Traveling-wilburys-end-of-the-line-lyrics (May 22, 2024).
For more on what the Bible teaches about end times, check out the free eBook by Bobby Harrington and Anthony Walker: 
