The Apostle Paul considered the resurrection of man after death the very heart of the doctrine of God. He went on to say, "If there be no resurrection of the dead, then is Christ not risen; and if Christ be not risen, then is our preaching vain, and your faith is also vain" (1 Cor. 15:13,14). Again we hear this great man of God firmly exclaiming: "If in this life only we have hope in Christ, we are of all men most miserable" (1 Cor. 15:19).

The Jews, as the Bible shows, pursued Paul to the hour of his death. They sought to kill him on several occasions. They harassed and involved him in repeated court proceedings. And why? He gives us the answer, in Acts 23:6, by proclaiming, "Of the hope and resurrection of the dead I am called in question." Paul could have saved himself from many stripes and imprisonments with just one retraction, namely, refrain from stressing the glorious resurrection of all saints. But instead, we hear him fervently and uncompromisingly making this declaration unto Felix, the Governor of Judea: "For this one voice....touching the resurrection of the dead, I am called in question by you this day" (Acts 24:20, 21).

Before one becomes eligible for this holy and celestial resurrection of the just, one must receive a new birth, or, to make it clear, one must experience a spiritual resurrection here while in this life. Paul was teaching exactly this, when he admonished the Colossians (3:1), "If ye then be risen with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ sitteth on the right hand of God." This same apostle tells us that "If we have been planted together in the likeness of his (Jesus') death, we shall be also in the likeness of his resurrection, knowing this, that our old man (flesh) is crucified" (Rom. 6:5, 6).

What was the immediate and direct cause of our Savior's death on the cross? Was it not the raising of Lazarus from the dead? Indeed it was. Christ foretold his own resurrection, thus causing the Jews to seal his tomb. The miracle of God's power, however, challenged the sealed tomb and offered the open tomb as the consummation of his immortal message: "After three days I will rise again."

Child of God, let's join Brother Paul, and affirm, "There is laid up for me a crown of righteousness, which the Lord the righteous Judge, shall give to all those who love his appearing" (2 Tim. 4:8). Yes, my friend, we are "Looking for that blessed hope, and the glorious appearing of the great God and our Savior Jesus Christ, who gave himself for us, that he might redeem us from all iniquity, and purify unto himself a peculiar people, zealous of good works" (Titus 2:13, 14).

Not long ago, I saw a man of God laid to rest, and as I took a final look at that empty house of his, I knew that it would soon be dissolved into the earth from whence it came; yet, I knew that this man had "an house not make with hands, eternal in the heavens" (2 Cor. 5:1). Though the tent in which we live be taken down, we have another one which is more substantial -- an eternal mansion now being made by our dear Savior. Moreover, we walk forward without fear, looking with eager anticipation toward the goal that is set before us.

Often I think of a little boy in a tract I once read. As his mother lifted him up to take a last look into the face of his dead father, she blurts into tears and could not refrain from weeping. The little boy, looking his mother in the face gently, whispered softly, "Why are you crying, Mother? Isn't Daddy going to live again, like Rev. Brown said?" This child had accepted the clergyman's words as being the answer to Job's question: "If a man die, shall he live again?"

The most explicit answer to Job's question was found in the empty tomb on that early Sunday morning nineteen hundred years ago. Our Lord, while in that rocky cavern, figuratively wrote on its barren walls, "I am the resurrection, and the life; he that believeth in me, though he were dead, yet shall he live" (John 11:25). As someone put it, "Christ knocked both ends out of the tomb, and made it a tunnel into eternity."

What we call death is merely a transition from the terrestrial to the celestial. The reason so many believers fear death is that they do not possess the faith that would entitle them to a part in the first resurrection. Faith in the heart of a true believer makes this old world a veil of tears, a preparatory chamber for that glorious resurrection, which is soon to translate us into a better world.

Obviously, my reader, our Lord arose from the dead to demonstrate that the resurrection is a reality. Hence, "Why should it be thought a thing incredible," as it is by so many, "that God should raise the dead?" (Acts 26:8).

Yes, praise God, as the Word says, "There shall be a resurrection of the dead, both of the just and unjust" (Acts 24:15). The Revelator, in speaking of the resurrection of the just, says: "Blessed and holy is he that hath part in the first resurrection: on such the second death hath no power" (Rev. 20:6).

Paul's greatest hope was that he "might attain unto the resurrection of the dead" (Phil. 3:11). Naturally, he was referring to the first resurrection.

To be sure, this life on earth now is not all of man's story. Physical death is not the end of man. There is a world yet to come, and Jesus, in speaking of that world, informs us emphatically: "They who shall be accounted worthy to obtain that world, and the resurrection from the dead, neither marry, nor are given in marriage. Neither can they die any more" (Luke 20:35, 36).

Reader, are you ready for that wonderful, on-coming resurrection? Please give serious thought to this question, bearing in mind this profound and timely warning of our dear Savior: "Be ye also ready; for in such an hour as ye think not the Son of man cometh" (Matt. 24:44). It is fully explained in the Scriptures that when Jesus returns, he is only going to resurrect the righteous. "But the rest of the dead," we are told, "lived not again until the thousand years were finished" (Rev. 20:5).

Is there the witness in your heart and life, my friend, that you are prepared to meet our blessed Savior? Remember, John said, "He that believeth on the Son of God hath the witness in himself" (1 John 5:10). "And it is the Spirit," he goes on to say, "that beareth witness, because the Spirit is truth" (1 John 5:6). We learn a little more about this Spirit of truth from John 15:26: "But when the Comforter is come, whom I will send unto you from the Father, even the Spirit of truth, which proceedeth from the Father, he shall testify (witness) of me." Oh, how we do thank God for having this witness, which is quite essential if we are to be in the first resurrection!

"As in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive. But every man in his own order: Christ the firstfruits; afterward they that are Christ's at his coming" (1 Cor. 15:22, 23). If we are to avoid the resurrection of damnation, which is the second or last resurrection, we must be in the first resurrection. Jesus made this crystal clear when he said, "Marvel not at this: for the hour is coming, in the which all that are in the graves shall hear his voice, and shall come forth; they that have done good, unto the resurrection of life; and they that have done evil, unto the resurrection of damnation" (John 5:28, 29).

Just here, these words from an old familiar hymn push themselves into my memory:

In conclusion, may I say that it is only by the indwelling Spirit of God that his redeemed people can have part in the first resurrection. The life of triumph and victory will abolish sin out of our lives and give us a testimony like Enoch's. "Before his translation he had this testimony, that he pleased God" (Heb. 11:5).