Class Notes: 4/1/2018

Titus 2:13; Resurrection Sunday part 2

The second doctrinal rational appears in Heb 11:18; where the Abrahamic covenant is reconfirmed through Isaac-not through Ishmael:

Abraham's confidence was based in the two unconditional covenants given to Him by God which meant that there was no way that the sacrifice of Isaac could possibly prevent them from being fulfilled, not only to him but also to Isaac and his descendents.

It is from these rationales that Abraham reached the doctrinal conclusion that enabled him to with the faith, obedience, and the confidence to go through the process of sacrificing Isaac on Mount Moriah.

This doctrinal conclusion is stated in Hebrews 11:19 -Abraham considered that God is able [ through omnipotence ] to raise men [ Isaac ] even from the dead [ resurrection ]; from which he also received him back [ Isaac was recalled from the sacrificial wooden altar on Moriah ] as a type [ Isaac became a teaching aid to illustrate the sacrifice of the Messiah on the wooden cross of Calvary ].

Jesus' resurrection is the deployment of God's omnipotent power. It confirms the satisfaction of the Father with our Lord's sacrificial work on the cross,

it guarantees our eternal future, and in our struggle in Angelic Conflict it provides a major doctrinal rationale that we can use as a problem-solving device.

Abraham's ability to put grace into action and completely rely on the immutability and veracity of God's Word enabled him to pass the test and become the only person in Scripture specifically designated as the friend of God: Isaiah 41:8; 2Chronicles 20:7, and James 2:23.

The Lord learned through the test he gave Abraham that He could trust him. At the same time, Abraham learned that he could trust the Lord. From such trust comes friendship. And this friendship was built on Abraham's faith and trust in the Lord to honor His promises through a doctrinal rationale that placed absolute confidence in the resurrection of the believer.

The prophet Daniel, also used the resurrection as a problem-solving device when he applied the faith-rest drill to the future of the Jewish people. While a teenager, Daniel was taken to Babylon as a POW following Nebuchanezzar's capture of Jerusalem in 586 b.c. Through Jeremiah, the Lord prophesied this event and revealed that the captivity would last 70 years: Jeremiah 25:11 ;Jeremiah 29:10

Daniel realized from these prophecies that the time was drawing near for the Jews to return to Jerusalem and prays that God would confirm this to him. Gabriel is sent to Babylon to answer his prayer:

Daniel 9:24 - "Seventy weeks [ 70 x 7 = 490 years ] have been decreed * chathach: cut out of time ] for your people [ Israel ] and your holy city [ Jerusalem ], to make and end of sin [ terminate the 5th cycle ], to make an end to sin [ the baptism of fire for the Jews ], to make atonement for iniquity [ the regathering of the Diaspora ], to bring in everlasting righteousness [ resurrection of Old Testament saints ], to seal up vision and prophecy [ terminate the dispensation of Israel ], and to anoint the most holy place [ the Lord's dedication of the millennial temple ].

This prophetical timeline is interrupted by the intercalation of the Church Age leaving seven years remaining for Israel. The dispensation of Israel will not resume until the exit resurrection or Rapture of the church occurs and then the final seven years called the Tribulation will occur. Details of this future dispensation which actually concludes the dispensation of Israel are prophesied in Daniel chapters 11 and 12.

In Daniel 12 Gabriel provides Daniel with the prophecy of the resurrection of Jewish believers at the Second Advent which can be used as a doctrinal rationale from which Daniel can reach a doctrinal conclusion of absolute confidence regarding his and his fellow Israelites eternal future by using the Faith Rest Drill.

Daniel 12:1-2;- Daniel prophesies about the resurrection and reveals it to be a future reality for all Old Testament saints and Tribulational martyrs at the Second Advent of the Messiah.

We often reference Job who was placed under evidence testing that required him to deploy maximum recall of doctrine. He, was sustained by his confidence in the resurrection. He expresses this in Job 19:23-26 ;

Joseph demonstrated his confidence in the resurrection of the saints by his last will and testament which required that his body be withheld from burial until after the Jews entered into the Promised Land. Gen 50:24-26;

The fact that the Israelites honored his request when they left Egypt after passover demonstrates their confidence.

Joseph's thinking, was the application of the faith-rest drill. His doctrinal rationales were similar to Abraham's. He was confident that the unconditional Palestinian covenant would be fulfilled and therefore he knew his brothers would eventually return to the land. Consequently, he gave orders for his body to be buried in the Promised Land and not in Egypt.

Joseph's request was fulfilled in Exodus 13:19; For forty years the Israelites carried Joseph's coffin around the desert and finally into the land of Canaan. Once the country was conquered we find that Joseph's wishes were finally carried out in: Joshua 24:32 ;

This entire episode is a testimony to Joseph's confident expectation of the resurrection as well as that of the Israelites who carried his coffin around for 40 years.

Because of his confidence in the resurrection and his confidence that the Israelites would eventually conquer the land, Joseph knew if his remains were returned to Canaan then at the command of the Messiah he would be resurrected along with his family at the family burial plot at Shechem.

Hebrews 11:22 -By means of faith-rest in doctrinal conclusions Joseph, when he was dying, made mention of the exodus of the sons of Israel, and gave orders concerning his bones.

Just like today, some believers at Corinth were busily denying the very doctrinal rationale that sustained the faith-rest heroes we have reviewed.

Paul used the debater's technique in 1 Corinthians 15:13-19 to effectively exposed the fallacy of their contention that there was no bodily resurrection. If this were true, asserts Paul, then:

"even Christ has not been raised" (v. 13-17),

their "faith also is vain" (v. 14),

their "faith is worthless" (v. 17),

they "are still in their sins" (v. 17),

those who have died "have perished" (v. 18), and

"we are of all men most to be pitied" (v. 19).

Paul then refutes these heresies with a bold statement of biblical and historical fact:

1 Corinthians 15:20 - But now Christ has been raised [ intensive perfect passive indicative of the verb 'egeiro" ] from the dead, the first fruits of those who are asleep.

The Greek perfect tense presents an action that has been completed and continues to exist as reality in a completed state. In this case the verb "egeiro" is an intensive perfect placing emphasis upon these existing results as a finished product.

It is an emphatic way of saying that Jesus Christ has been resurrected and emphasizes that He remains resurrected in hypostatic union at the right hand of the Father.

The passive voice indicates that it was by the power of God the Father and God the Holy Spirit that the Lord received the action of being resurrected "from the dead."

The indicative mood is a statement of fact, documentation of biblical and historical reality.

We see that by means of doctrine (faith) the Old Testament faith-rest heroes' perspective was formed by their absolute confidence in the resurrection of the dead.

From Paul's defense of the resurrection of TLJC we have retrospective proof of the resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ and because He is risen we shall also have a resurrection body at the exit resurrection or rapture of the church.
1 Corinthians 15:23-24;

Paul's dissertation on resurrection in 1 Corinthians 15 is the most extensive in scripture. His closing crescendo provides a powerful conclusion to our study today. From it we are able to confidently conclude that since Christ has in fact been resurrected we shall also be resurrected "at His coming" 1Cor 15:51-53;

May the certainty of our Lord's resurrection which we celebrate today and that has been demonstrated from Scripture be a source of encouragement and confidence because it not only certified our deliverance from sin but also guarantees every believer a resurrection body in the eternal state.

May the faith-rest confidence in doctrinal rationales, demonstrated by Old Testament heroes and affirmed by Paul, enable you to be even more motivated by the confirmation of the Lord's resurrection which was proclaimed by the angel beside the tomb on that first Resurrection Sunday morning approximately 1998 years ago... Matthew 28:6a - "He is not here, for He has risen.

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