91 普遍的復活——在基督裹死的人要在荣耀中復起General Resurrection - Dead inChrist will rise in glory

《简明神学》Concise Theology: A Guide to Historic Christian Beliefs，巴刻（J. I. Packer）著/張麟至译，更新传道会，2007年。

https://yibaniba.blogspot.com/2020/01/blog-post_98.html

http://www.geocities.ws/gary_bee_za/packer/generalresurrection.htm

91 普遍的復活——在基督裹死的人要在荣耀中復起

General Resurrection - Dead in Christ will rise in glory

或有人问：“死人怎样复活，带着什么身体来呢？”无知的人哪，你所种的，若不死，就不能生。并且你所种的，不是那将来的形体，不过是子粒，即如麦子......死人复活也是这样。所种的是必朽坏的，复活的是不朽坏的；所种的是羞辱的，复活的是荣耀的；所种的是软弱的，复活的是强壮的；所种的是血气的身体，复活的是灵性的身体。若有血气的身体，也必有灵性的身体。（林前15:35-37,42-44）

耶稣是从死里复活的第一人（徒26:23），当祂再回到这世界的时候，祂要使祂所有的仆人复起，进入复活的生命，像她自己一样（林前15:20-23；腓3:20-21）。其实祂还要复活全人类，那些没有因信成为属祂之人的，也要复活受审判（约5:29）。当祂回来时，还活着的基督徒，在刹那间要经历奇妙的转变（林前15:50-54）；而已死的基督徒则要经历穿上荣耀的身体（林后5:1-5）。

必朽坏的和不朽坏的身体之间，有其连续性，正如耶稣的情形一样，因为祂死时的躯体也正是祂籍以复活的躯体。保罗将复活的身体和必朽的身体间的关系，比喻成种子和所生出之植物间的关系（林前15:35-44），其间有连续性，但也有着如起点和终端产物之间的巨大差异。保罗说，在每一种实例中，还有品质的对比。我们现在的身体，与亚当的一样，是自然的、属地的，胜不过各种的软弱，至终死亡时，还会腐败。但是我们复活的身体，却像基督的，将是属灵的（由圣灵所创造、内住、维持的），有其永恒性，带有不衰残、不朽坏、属天之类事物的本质（林前15:45-54）。

虽然如此，但正如复活的耶稣，虽有复活在祂身上所带来的改变，却仍是门徒可以辨认的；正如重新被赐予身体的摩西和以利亚在变像山上显现时，是可以辨认的（太17:3-4）；又如在耶稣复活时，重新被赐予身体的犹太圣徒，也是可以辨认的（太17:3-4），所以，复活的基督徒也是彼此可以辨认的。能在这个世界之外，与自己所深爱却因死亡而分离的圣徒重逢，那种喜乐也是可以预期的。这种喜乐的含义在帖撒罗尼迦前书4:13-18中说得特别仔细，因为当时有些在基督里活着的人，害怕他们终究会失去在基督里死去的人，因此保罗写了这书信。他写信时提到主的再来，为要向他们保证，他们必会再度看见他们所爱的基督徒亲友。

正如耶稣单纯的爱与谦卑是神用来塑造重生者性格的模型一样，祂在地上时曾用来完美地表达其品质的身体，如今变成了荣耀的身体，这荣耀的身体也正是神用来重造我们身体的模型（腓3:21）。基督徒现有的身体不过是一个捉襟见肘的器皿，充其量只是用来表达重生之心所祈求的、所要达成的工具。圣徒们所挣扎的许多软弱——诸如害羞、坏脾气、情欲、抑郁、与人关系的冷淡等等——都与我们身体的构造，和它所形成的行为模式有关。普遍复活中所得到的身体，将和我们重生的性情完全地结合在一起，也要在永世里证明为完美的器皿，好清清洁洁地表达我们自己。

[得荣]（如此称谓是因为它是神在我们生命中的彰显，林后3:18）是一个圣经名词，描述当祂重生了我们之后，继续所完成的工作，使我们在道德和属灵方面，重建到可以完全、永远地模成基督的形象。得荣是神转变大能的工作，籍此，神至终将我们变为无罪、躯体不死的受造物。最终得荣的状态包括了以下几个观念：（1）透过我们悟性能力不受限制的延伸，对恩典有了完全的认识（林前13:12）；（2）完全地享受看见父神与子神，并享受与其同在；（3）出于全然正直的性情，与一颗全然自由追求神爱和顺服的心灵，而有对神完美的敬拜和侍奉；（4）脱离所有过去所经历的罪污、邪恶、软弱和挫折，而有完全的释放；（5）所有我们所感受到的需求，都得到满足（不是指性欲，太22:30；不是指饥渴，启7:16；也不是指睡眠的欲求，启22:5；而是指渴慕更多与神交通）；（6）所有在今世所羡之美善事物，但因着欲求超过了人的度量而不得完全，都得完满的成全；以及（7）在所有这些完美的事物上，个人将有无限的成长。

保罗在罗马书8:30节中分析神拯救祂的选民时，以醒目的过去式作结论：[所（已经）称为义的人，又（已经）叫他们得荣耀。]除了耶稣自己以外，得荣对每个人而言，是未来之事，在保罗的日子是如此，今日仍是一样。但是保罗的思想很明显的是这样的：因为我们的得荣在神主权的计划里，是此时此地一件确定的事，其稳当有如已成的事实了。这个过去式的用意是叫我们知道：要我们的得荣不发生，是一件绝对不可能的事！基督徒的盼望是这样的千真万确。

GENERAL RESURRECTION

DEAD IN CHRIST WILL RISE IN GLORY

But someone may ask, “How are the dead raised? With what kind of body will they come?” How foolish! What you sow does not come to life unless it dies. When you sow, you do not plant the body that will be, but just a seed.... So will it be with the resurrection of the dead. The body that is sown is perishable, it is raised imperishable; it is sown in dishonor, it is raised in glory; it is sown in weakness, it is raised in power; it is sown a natural body, it is raised a spiritual body... 1 CORINTHIANS 15:35-37, 42-44

Jesus was the first to rise from the dead (Acts 26:23), and when he returns to this world he will raise his servants to a resurrection life like his own (1 Cor. 15:20-23; Phil. 3:20-21). He will, indeed, raise the whole human race; those who are not his through faith will be raised for sentencing (John 5:29). Christians alive at his coming will at that instant undergo a marvelous transformation (1 Cor. 15:50-54), while Christians who had died will experience a glorious re-embodiment (2 Cor. 5:1-5).

There will be continuity between the mortal and the immortal body, as there was in Jesus’ case, for it was the body in which he had died that was raised. Paul compares the relation between the resurrection body and the mortal body to the relation between a seed and the plant that grows out of it (1 Cor. 15:35-44), a kind of continuity, we should note, that allows for great differences between the starting point and the end product. Also, says Paul, there will be in every case a contrast of quality. Our present bodies, like Adam’s, are natural and earthly, subject to all sorts of weakness and decay until finally they perish. But our resurrection bodies, like Christ’s, will be spiritual (created, indwelt, and sustained by the Holy Spirit) and will belong to the eternal, imperishable, immortal, heavenly order of things (1 Cor. 15:45-54).

However, as the risen Jesus was recognizable by his disciples despite the change that resurrection had wrought in him, and as the re-embodied Moses and Elijah were recognizable at the Transfiguration (Matt. 17:3-4), and as re-embodied Jewish saints were recognizable at the time of Jesus’ rising (Matt. 27:52-53), so risen Christians will be recognizable to each other, and joyful reunions beyond this world with believers whom we loved and then lost through death are to be expected. That is implicit in 1 Thessalonians 4:13-18, which was written because persons who were alive in Christ feared they had finally lost those who had died in Christ; Paul wrote as he did about Christ’s return in order to assure them that they would certainly see their Christian loved ones again.

As Jesus’ single-minded love and humility are the model to which God is conforming our regenerate characters, so his glorified body, the present form of the body through which he perfectly expressed these qualities when he was on earth, is the model for the remaking of our bodies (Phil. 3:21). The bodies that Christians have now are at best poor tools for expressing the desires and purposes of regenerate hearts, and many of the weaknesses with which the saints struggle—shyness, shortness of temper, lust, depression, coolness in relationships, and so on—are closely linked with our physical constitution and its patterning in our behavior. The bodies that become ours in the general resurrection will be bodies that perfectly match our perfected regenerate characters and will prove perfect instruments for our holy self-expression throughout eternity.

Glorification (so called because it is a manifesting of God in our lives, 2 Cor. 3:18) is the scriptural name for God’s completion of what he began when he regenerated us, namely, our moral and spiritual reconstruction so as to be perfectly and permanently conformed to Christ. Glorification is a work of transforming power whereby God finally turns us into sinless creatures in deathless bodies. The idea of our glorified final state includes (a) perfect knowledge of grace, through limitless extension of our powers of understanding (1 Cor. 13:12); (b) perfect enjoyment of seeing and being with the Father and the Son; (c) perfect worship and service of God out of a perfectly integrated nature and a heart set perfectly free for love and obedience; (d) perfect deliverance from all that is experienced as sinful, evil, weakening, and frustrating; (e) perfect fulfillment of all desires of which we are conscious (not sexual desire, Matt. 22:30; or hunger and thirst, Rev. 7:16; or desire for sleep, Rev. 22:5; but desires for more communion with God); (f) perfect completion of all that was good and valuable in this world’s life but that had to be left incomplete because desire outran capacity; and (g) endless personal growth in the encompassing of all these perfect things.

Paul ends his analysis in Romans 8:30 of the action whereby God saves his elect with a striking past tense: “Those he justified, he also glorified.” Glorification was in Paul’s day, and still is, future for everyone apart from Jesus himself, but Paul’s thought evidently is that since our glorification is here and now a fixed point in God’s sovereign plan, it is already as good as done. The past tense is meant to let us know that it is absolutely impossible for our glorification not to happen. Such is the sureness and certainty of the Christian hope.