Today we're going to look at the resurrection through the lens of fulfilled prophecy. As a preterist, I understand the resurrection not as something future for us, but as something already accomplished for those under the Old Covenant. Jesus is both the resurrection and the life, and that truth changes everything.

Let's begin with Ephesians 2:4-6:

"But God, being rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in our wrongdoings, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved), and raised us up with Him, and seated us with Him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus."

We were:

• Dead in our transgressions.
  
  

• Made alive with Christ.
  
  

• Raised up with Him.
  
  

• Seated in heavenly places.
  
  

This isn't something future. This is something already true for us who are in Christ. It's not physical. It's spiritual.

John 11:25-26 confirms this:

"Jesus said to her, 'I am the resurrection and the life; the one who believes in Me will live, even if he dies, and everyone who lives and believes in Me will never die. Do you believe this?'"

In this powerful statement, Jesus identifies two categories of believers:

• "The one who believes in Me will live, even if he dies."
  
  

  • This refers to those who had already died physically.
    
    

  • Many of these were Old Covenant saints who died in faith, awaiting the promise.
    
    

  • For them, Jesus is the resurrection, bringing them into eternal life.
    
    

  • Their resurrection was the transition from Sheol to the presence of God through Christ.
    
    

• "Everyone who lives and believes in Me will never die."
  
  

  • This speaks of believers who were still alive at that time and would live into the New Covenant age.
    
    

  • They would never die spiritually, because they had eternal life now.
    
    

  • There would be no need for resurrection, because there's no spiritual death in the New Covenant for those in Christ.
    
    

  • For them, Jesus is the life, sustaining them in the Spirit.
    
    

This matches what Jesus said earlier in John 5:24:

"Truly, truly, I say to you, the one who hears My word, and believes Him who sent Me, has eternal life, and does not come into judgment, but has passed out of death into life."

So the takeaway is this:

• Jesus was the resurrection for those under the Old Covenant.
  
  

• Jesus is the life for those under the New Covenant.
  
  

• For us who live in the fulfilled New Covenant age, spiritual death is no longer our reality.
  
  

• Therefore, a resurrection isn't something we wait for, we already have eternal life in Him.
  
  

If we have life in Christ, we don't need a resurrection, because:

• We've already passed from death to life.
  
  

• We already have eternal life.
  
  

• We're already seated in heavenly places.
  
  

When we die physically:

• Our bodies return to dust.
  
  

• Our spirits go immediately to be with the Lord.
  
  

"We are of good courage and prefer rather to be absent from the body and to be at home with the Lord." 2 Corinthians 5:8

Let us look at 1 Corinthians 15:44-48:

"It is sown a natural body, it is raised a spiritual body. If there is a natural body, there is also a spiritual body. So also it is written, 'The first man, Adam, became a living person.' The last Adam was a life-giving spirit. However, the spiritual is not first, but the natural; then the spiritual. The first man is from the earth, earthy; the second man is from heaven. As is the earthy one, so also are those who are earthy; and as is the heavenly one, so also are those who are heavenly."

Paul teaches:

• There's a natural body (flesh).
  
  

• There's a spiritual body (of the Spirit).
  
  

• Adam was from the dust.
  
  

• Christ is from heaven.
  
  

• Christ became a life-giving Spirit.
  
  

What Christ gives is life, not flesh. He doesn't raise us into physical bodies. He fills us with His Spirit.

Colossians 2:12 supports this:

"Having been buried with Him in baptism, in which you were also raised with Him through faith in the working of God, who raised Him from the dead."

Though some will disagree, when Paul says we were "buried with Him in baptism" in Colossians 2:12, he is not talking about water baptism alone, but about union with Christ through faith. Let me break it down clearly:

Notice what Paul connects it to: "through faith." This is a spiritual baptism, not just a ritual. The power is not in the water, but in trusting the work of God.

Also:

Romans 6:3-4 – "Or do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus have been baptized into His death? Therefore we have been buried with Him through baptism into death..."

Here too, Paul is talking about identification with Christ's death and resurrection. This can happen with or without literal water baptism, though baptism was the visible expression of faith in the first century.

So if someone was never water baptized, but believes in Christ and is filled with the Spirit:

• They have still been spiritually baptized into Christ.
  
  

• They have still been buried and raised with Him.
  
  

• They are alive in Him, part of the New Covenant body.
  
  

The key is faith, not the ritual itself.

Romans 6:4 adds:

"Therefore we have been buried with Him through baptism into death, so that, just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, so we too may walk in newness of life."

The result of resurrection is:

• Newness of life.
  
  

• Not a new physical body.
  
  

• But a transformed spiritual existence.
  
  

Romans 8:11 reminds us:

"But if the Spirit of Him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, He who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through His Spirit who dwells in you."

This is spiritual transformation, not physical resurrection.

Jude 19 gives us the contrast:

"These are the ones who cause divisions, worldly-minded, devoid of the Spirit."

Without the Spirit:

• No resurrection.
  
  

• No life.
  
  

• No heavenly body.
  
  

So what can we conclude?

• The resurrection was for the dead under the Old Covenant.
  
  

• Jesus is the resurrection for the dead and the life for the living.
  
  

• We who believe don't die spiritually.
  
  

• At physical death, we go immediately to be with the Lord.
  
  

• There's no need for a future resurrection of the righteous.
  
  

• The spiritual body is the new man, alive by the Spirit.
  
  

• Resurrection wasn't about bones coming out of graves.
  
  

• It was about the transition from death to life, from law to grace.
  
  

Galatians 2:20 says it best:

"I have been crucified with Christ, and it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself up for me."

This is the resurrection life. This is the Spirit-filled walk. This is the power of the New Covenant.

Amen.