Skip to main content

Beale: The Gospel of John particularly links the end of the age with resurrection




The Already—Not Yet Latter-Day Resurrection and New-Creational Kingdom in the Gospels

The Gospel of John particularly links the end of the age with resurrection:

    John 6:39 “This is the will of Him who sent Me, that of all that He has given Me I lose nothing, but raise it up on the last day.”
    John 6:40 “For this is the will of My Father, that everyone who beholds the Son and believes in Him will have eternal life, and I Myself will raise him up on the last day.”
    John 6:44 “No one can come to Me unless the Father who sent Me draws him; and I will raise him up on the last day.”
    John 6:54 “He who eats My flesh and drinks My blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day.”
    John 11:24 Martha said to Him, “I know that he will rise again in the resurrection on the last day.”
    John 12:48 “He who rejects Me and does not receive My sayings, has one who judges him; the word I spoke is what will judge him at the last day.”

We observed earlier in John 5:24–29 that Jesus refers to the last “hour” of Dan. 12:1–2, one of the well-known resurrection passages of the OT, and that he sees it to have begun fulfillment in a spiritual manner in his ministry and a culminating fulfillment at the very end of time in the physical resurrection of all people. In response to Lazurus’s death, Jesus tells Martha, “Your brother will rise again.” Martha responds, “I know that he will rise again in the resurrection on the last day,” to which Jesus replies, “I am the resurrection and the life; he who believes Me will live even if he dies” (John 11:23–25). Consequently, the fact that Jesus identifies himself presently with resurrection life likewise includes an affirmation that this is to be identified with “the resurrection of the last day,” which thus had begun with him. Jesus’s raising of Lazarus later in the narrative (John 11:38–44) is another indication that “the resurrection of the last day” had been inaugurated in some way, even though the role of Lazurus’s resurrection within the overall storyline of John is to be an anticipation of Jesus’s own resurrection, which occurs on a grander scale (since Lazurus presumably died at some later point).

...
That resurrection is a “new creation” concept is clear from the simple fact that a resurrected body is a newly created body, and the body that saints will have in order to be part of the consummated, eternal new creation of the whole cosmos is a resurrected body. In this respect, Christ’s resurrected body was the first newly created body to pass to the other side of the new creation. The coming new creation penetrated back into the old world through the resurrected, new-creational body of Jesus.33 Although his postresurrection existence was on this old earth for a time, he ascended to the unseen heavenly dimension of the beginning new creation, which will finally descend visibly at the end of time, when the old cosmos disintegrates (Rev. 21:1–22:5).


Beale, G. K. (2011). A New Testament Biblical Theology: The Unfolding of the Old Testament in the New (pp. 234–238). Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Academic.

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

John Stott on the "old man" and the "body ruled by sin" in Rom 6 v 6

  There are, in fact, two quite distinct ways in which the New Testament speaks of crucifixion in relation to holiness. The first is our death to sin through identification with Christ; the second is our death to self through imitation of Christ.  On the one hand, we have been crucified with Christ. But on the other we have crucified (decisively repudiated) our sinful nature with all its desires, so that every day we renew this attitude by taking up our cross and following Christ to crucifixion.  The first is a legal death, a death to the penalty of sin; the second is a moral death, a death to the power of sin.  The first belongs to the past, and is unique and unrepeatable; the second belongs to the present, and is repeatable, even continuous. I died to sin (in Christ) once; I die to self (like Christ) daily. It is with the first of these two deaths that Romans 6 is chiefly concerned, although the first is with a view to the second, and the second cannot take place w...

Boice: “... the federal way of dealing with us was actually the fairest and kindest of all the ways God could have operated. ”

  Adam had been appointed by God to be the representative of the race so that if he stood, we too would stand, and if he fell, we would fall with him. Adam did fall, as we know.  So death passed upon everyone. “But isn’t that terribly unfair?” someone protests. “Isn’t it cruel for God to act in this fashion?” ... the federal way of dealing with us was actually the fairest and kindest of all the ways God could have operated.  Besides, it was the only way it would later be possible for God to save us once we had sinned. In other words, federalism is actually a proof of God’s grace, which is the point the passage comes to (vv. 15 ff.). It was gracious to Adam first of all. Why? Because it was a deterrent to his sin. God must have explained to Adam that he was to represent his posterity. That might have restrained him from sinning. A father who might be tempted to steal his employer’s funds (and would if only he himself were involved), might well decide not to do it if he kne...

Repackaging the gospel? It's more like obscuring the gospel!

Preface : I recognize this post may make me unpopular with some, but I think it is an important issue to blog about here.  I’ve had time to reflect on this video and in my opinion, I think what is in this video raises some questions.  This gentleman featured below is slotted to speak at the SBC's 2020 Pastors' Conference and it prompted me to think more about this illustration.  I want to note that I don't know him and I have no personal issue with him.   I assume he is a brother in the LORD.  Having said that, I see some significant issues here that relate to this type of preaching being clear on the gospel of Jesus Christ. In fact, it appears to be obscuring it in my observation. Concern:  Should the SBC or churches, in general, be in the habit of holding this up as a  good and healthy example?  Let's think about it some together.  (Watch this clip below here first.) Context:  The clip was posted to stand on its own a...