Job inquired, "If a man die, shall he live again?" (Job 14:14.)
Jesus' wonderful words of comfort and joy disperse any doubt that all shall "live again." He said, "Because I live, ye shall live also" (John 14:19); "I am the resurrection, and the life" (John 11:25); "Come, follow me." (Luke 18:22.)
The Savior's invitation to come follow Him, in terms of the Resurrection, can be taken literally. Our resurrection from the dead is inescapable; it is a future event in every one of our lives; it awaits all of us. Indeed, we have no choice but to follow Him who burst the bands of death and came forth as the first fruits of them that slept. (See 1 Cor. 15:20.)
There are some conditions of our resurrection, however, that we sow by our mortal deeds such as the glory of our body at the time of our resurrection or whether we come forth in the First Resurrection or the last resurrection. (See 1 Cor. 15:35, 39 42.)
The New Testament is a testament of Jesus Christ's resurrection from the dead. It is also a library of teachings of those who taught the doctrine of the resurrection of the dead. It is consequential to our faith that we understand what this book of scripture and the prophets have said about this glorious event and doctrine.
Jesus taught of His coming resurrection. On more than one occasion, Jesus taught of the coming event of His resurrection from the dead. At the temple in Jerusalem Jesus answered the Jews' question of why He so zealously cleansed the temple courtyard.
He answered, "Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up. Then said the Jews, Forty and six years was this temple in building, and wilt thou rear it up in three days? But he spake of the temple of his body." (John 2:19 21; see also Matt. 16:21.)
As the Savior neared the climax of His mortal ministry, He dramatized for all Christendom that He was the "resurrection and the life," that He had power over life and death including His own.
The stage to teach this doctrine was set with the sickness and subsequent death of His friend Lazarus, the brother of Mary and Martha. With the knowledge that His friend's sickness was nigh unto death, He allowed him to die; allowed his body to be prepared for burial; waited until the funeral was over and the entombment accomplished; allowed four days to pass so that the process of the decomposition of the body would be well under way; tested the faith of His dear friends Mary and Martha; came to the enclosed tomb of Lazarus drawing many witnesses; and with the prerogative of Deity to give life or death according to His own will, commanded: "Lazarus, come forth." (John 11:43.)
This was one of the mightiest miracles of Jesus' ministry. It clearly demonstrates that He had power over life and death. It is no wonder from that time forward that "they took counsel together for to put him to death." (John 11:53.)
Jesus burst the bands of death. The Resurrection was made possible through the atonement of Jesus Christ. The Apostle Paul taught, "For since by man came death, by man came also the resurrection of the dead. For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive." (1 Cor. 15:21 22.)
The need for a resurrection is due to Adam's fall. Adam's fall brought death; and indeed death would have been a "sting" and a "victory" for Satan. Had it not been for One who was endowed with power over death, mankind would have been in "checkmate."
President Brigham Young taught, "This [the resurrection] was no miracle to him. He had the issues of life and death in his power; he had power to lay down his life and power to take it up again. . . . This is what he says, and we must believe this if we believe the history of the Savior and the saying of the Apostles recorded in the New Testament. Jesus had his power in and of
himself; the Father bequeathed it to him; it was his legacy, and he had the power to lay down his life and take it again." (Teaching of Presidents of the
Church: Brigham Young, p. 275; see Matt. 28:18; John 10:17 18.)
The testament of the apostles on the Resurrection. Because the Resurrection from the dead is miraculous and unnatural from our mortal world, it was difficult for apostles to believe what they had experienced. After the 40-day ministry of the resurrected Savior among the apostles, however, there was no doubt that they came to know that Jesus Christ was a resurrected being, with actual flesh and bones.
Peter vigorously proclaimed the resurrection of Jesus in the book of Acts and in his Epistles (see Acts 1:22; 2:32; 3:15; 4:33; 5:30 32; 1 Pet. 1:3; 3:21.) So bold were Peter and John in teaching this doctrine that the priests and the Sadducees "came upon them, Being grieved that they taught the people, and preached through Jesus the resurrection from the dead." (Acts 4:1 2.)
Paul was second to none in preaching the Resurrection, declaring it in many of his Epistles, and giving a remarkable explanation in 1 Corinthians, chapter 15, the longest and most detailed statement on the Resurrection in the Bible.
The Prophet Joseph Smith said, "The Doctrines of the Resurrection of the Dead . . . are necessary to preach among the first principles of the Gospel of Jesus Christ." (Teachings of the Prophet Joseph Smith,
p. 149.)
He emphasized that the resurrection of Jesus Christ is central to our hope for future happiness and that Jesus, having been resurrected Himself, has the power to bring all mankind out of their graves to stand before Him to be judged. (See Teachings,p. 62.)
Jesus gives us hope to come follow Him. He has shown us the way, and He and the apostles have taught us the doctrine of the resurrection of the dead as recorded in the New Testament.
Craig K. Manscill is a member of the Windsor 5th Ward, Orem Utah Windsor Stake, and is currently chairman of Melchizedek Priesthood and Relief Society Writing Committee for the Church.
