The Daily Word of Righteousness

Requirements and Purposes of the Two Resurrections, #9

But if the Spirit of him that raised up Jesus from the dead dwell in you, he that raised up Christ from the dead shall also quicken [make alive] your mortal bodies by his Spirit that dwelleth in you. (Romans 8:11)

Notice the inner source of the first resurrection:

"By his Spirit that dwelleth in you." "That dwelleth in you"!

The making alive of our mortal body is not accomplished by our entering an external life, as in the case of the second resurrection, but by the Spirit who is dwelling in us. The resurrection will come from the eternal Life that already has entered us and will, in that Day, expand to include all of our personality.

At the sounding of the trumpet of the first resurrection, the heavenly body of eternal life that has been created by our responding correctly to tribulation will be given to us (II Corinthians 4:7-5:5).

The Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit will be dwelling in our soul and will have become an eternal Part of our soul. We shall be a life-giving spirit (I Corinthians 15:45). The Divine "gold" will be in us. The Divine gold also will come upon us as we are clothed with our body from Heaven.

As was true of the Ark of the Covenant, the "wood" of our mortal frame will be overlaid within and on the outside with the "gold" of Divinity.

We then shall be the Wife of the Lamb and qualified and competent to ascend to be joined together with Him in the air as the complement of Christ. Christ, Head and Body, will perform on the earth the work of the Servant of the Lord (Isaiah 42:1-7; 61:1-11).

The participants in the first resurrection are the Lord's trees of life. They are the firstfruits of the Kingdom of God. Those who are raised in the second resurrection will have access to the trees of life, to those who have been raised in the first resurrection. In this manner those raised in the second resurrection will enter the eternal life that was raised in the first resurrection.

Eternal life always comes from God through Christ through the members of the Body of Christ. The Lord Jesus is the Vine. The members of His Body are the branches through whom the Life of the Vine flows to a dead creation. This is true today (although to a lesser extent than will be true in the future) provided we now are sowing each day to the Spirit of God.

We see this pattern in Ezekiel, Chapter 47. There are the waters to the ankles, to the knees, to the loins, and then waters to swim in. This is a symbolic portrayal of the growth in eternal life of the consecrated believer.

As soon as the saints have passed through the judgments, deaths, and resurrections that take place during their pilgrimage on the earth they become trees of life growing along the banks of the river of eternal life. It is from them that eternal life will flow to the dead creation.

Now when I had returned, behold, at the bank of the river were very many trees on the one side and on the other. Then said he unto me, These waters issue out toward the east country, and go down into the desert, and go into the sea: which being brought forth into the sea, the waters shall be healed. (Ezekiel 47:7,8)

To be continued.