As we all know, God’s wisdom is higher than the heavens. What God does exceeds our thoughts and imaginations. Just as it is written in the Bible, “For My thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways My ways, said Jehovah. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are My ways higher than your ways, and My thoughts than your thoughts” (Isaiah 55:8–9). As created beings before God, we are as insignificant and lowly as dust. We will never be able to fathom God’s work. This is similar to that which is recorded in the Bible when the Lord Jesus was talking with the woman from Samaria, “But whoever drinks of the water that I shall give him shall never thirst” (John 4:14). At that time, the woman from Samaria did not understand what the Lord was saying. She thought that “the water” the Lord was offering was the same water that people drank. As a result, she said, “Sir, give me this water, that I thirst not, neither come here to draw” (John 4:15). Actually, the water that the Lord Jesus was referring to was the Lord’s word. He was referring to the water of life. The woman from Samaria only understood the literal meaning of what the Lord said and thus she misunderstood the meaning. From this we can see that God’s word is the truth and it conceals the mysteries of God’s work. If God did not reveal these mysteries, our understanding would be very limited. Therefore, when it comes to prophecies, we must maintain reverence, seek more, absolutely not interpret the text literally, not rely on our notions and imaginings to delimit them and not rely on our own personal understanding to explain them.
Now, just what does resurrection of the dead refer to? What do “the dead” and “the living” refer to? Let’s read some of God’s words, “God created man, but then man was corrupted by Satan, such that people became ‘dead men.’ So, after you have changed, you will no longer be like these ‘dead men.’ It is the words of God that set people’s spirits alight and cause them to be reborn, and when people’s spirits are reborn, then they will have come to life. When I speak of ‘dead men,’ I am referring to corpses that have no spirit, to people whose spirits have died within them. When the spark of life is lit in people’s spirits, then people come to life. The saints that were spoken of before refer to people who have come to life, those who were under Satan’s influence but defeated Satan.” “Originally the man made by God was alive, but because of Satan’s corruption man lives amid death and lives under the influence of Satan, and so, in this way, people have become the spiritless dead, they have become enemies who oppose God, they have become the tools of Satan, and they have become the captives of Satan. … The dead are those who have no spirit, those who are numb in the extreme and who oppose God. They are foremost those who do not know God. These people have not the slightest intention of obeying God; they only rebel against Him and oppose Him and have not the slightest loyalty. The living are those whose spirits have been reborn, who know to obey God, and who are loyal to God. They are possessed of the truth, and of testimony, and these people alone are pleasing to God in His house. God saves those who can come to life, who can see God’s salvation, who can be loyal to God and who are willing to seek God. He saves those who believe in God’s incarnation and in His appearance.”
God’s words explain to us what “the dead” and “the living” mean. In the beginning, God created Adam and Eve. They were living human beings with spirits, they possessed conscience and reason and they were able to manifest God and honor God. Afterward, they were seduced by Satan into eating fruit from the tree of knowledge of good and evil. As a result, they were filled with the poison of Satan. They were no longer devoted to God nor did they obey God. They had lost any likeness to the people God had created in the beginning. Even though their flesh still lived, in God’s eyes they had already become dead people with no spirits. Presently, we are being corrupted more and more by Satan. We are full of Satan’s corrupt dispositions such as arrogance, selfishness, deceitfulness, maliciousness and greed. It has gotten to the point where, when we encounter something that is not in accordance with our own notions, we complain to God, judge God, resist God and betray God. In God’s eyes, we are also dead people with no spirits. From this, we can see that “the dead” refers to those who are living under Satan’s influence, those who have corrupt natures that resist God and those who are enemies of God. Alternatively, “the living” refers to those who have cast off satanic corrupt disposition, those who have restored their conscience and reason, those who have knowledge of God, those who obey God and those who love God. These people have a place for God within their hearts. In all matters they are able to seek the truth, grasp God’s will, practice in accordance with the truth and no longer act by Satan’s life rules. They are people who have triumphed over Satan’s influence and have returned to God. These are living people with spirits and they are truly those who have been resurrected from the dead.
So how will the prophecy of resurrection of the dead be fulfilled? Before answering this question, let’s see this fact clearly: Even though our sins have been atoned for by the Lord Jesus and pardoned, the root of our sinning has not been resolved. We still live within our satanic corrupt dispositions. We commit sins and then confess to them day in and day out. For example, we are unable to put the Lord’s words into practice. We are like those in the secular world who follow the tides of the world, lusting after wealth and fleshly enjoyment. We are dominated by our satanic natures, such as being arrogant and conceited, crooked and deceitful and selfish and base. We frequently rebel against God and resist God, and even lie and deceive God. If we are unable to cleanse our corrupt dispositions, how can we become living people and how can we attain God’s approval and enter the kingdom of heaven? Therefore, we still need God’s more advanced salvation.
The Lord Jesus says, “I have yet many things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now. However, when He, the Spirit of truth, is come, He will guide you into all truth: for He shall not speak of Himself; but whatever He shall hear, that shall He speak: and He will show you things to come” (John 16:12–13). Clearly, the Lord will return to express truth and do the final stage of His work of bestowing life upon man. When we receive the truths that the Lord expresses in the last days and make them into our lives, we will be able to attain true obedience to God, love for God and live out a genuine human likeness. This is how “the dead” will be able to change into “the living,” which is to be resurrected from the dead. This will also fulfill the Lord Jesus’ words: “And this is the Father’s will which has sent Me, that of all which He has given Me I should lose nothing, but should raise it up again at the last day” (John 6:39). Therefore, we can see that the “rising from the dead” is not as supernatural as people imagine. Only by accepting God’s work of the last days and making the truth into our life can we rise from the dead.
