Wasn't the Lord Jesus Christ dead ? He said He was Rev 1:18
I am he that liveth, and was dead; and, behold, I am alive for evermore, Amen; and have the keys of hell and of death.
Now since He was dead, He had to be made alive !
Being made alive is a resurrection from the dead, and thats a regeneration.. The word includes in its meaning:
restoration of life after death
His body was dead. But He is God, and God cannot die. He is also the source of Eternal Life.
John 10:17-19 King James Version
17 Therefore doth my Father love me, because I lay down my life, that I might take it again.
18 No man taketh it from me, but I lay it down of myself. I have power to lay it down, and I have power to take it again. This commandment have I received of my Father.
John 1:4 King James Version
4 In him was life; and the life was the light of men.
Christ is the Baptizer, and that He died doesn't change the fact that the life we receive in New Birth (which is Eternal Life) is part of His Nature as God. God is Eternal, having no beginning, no end. That is contrasted with the spirit of men,which has a beginning but is everlasting (which means it will never cease to exist.
God manifest in flesh is still God, His nature doesn't change. When the WORD became flesh, He took upon Himself the flesh of man, rather than the idea that He stepped away from being God and became a man. So basically His glory as God was veiled by the flesh.
When He laid down that flesh, that human "life," He still remained God the Son, Eternal God, the Creator. It is my view that when He died he went to Hades and preached the Gospel to the Just. He then liberated the Just from Sheol/Hades and they went to Heaven.
So what is different when He arose from the grave is this: He was in His glorified body. Now think about that, BrightFlame—have any of those that have been born again received their glorified bodies? The answer is no (though some hold to those who arose from the grave and walked through the city after His resurrection were glorified), in my view.
So we cannot equate either man's existence (his natural condition) with what happened in the Incarnation or Resurrection. Man does not have, nor ever had—a divine nature (though some argue this in regards to "Original Sin):
Hebrews 2:14-17 King James Version
14 Forasmuch then as the children are partakers of flesh and blood, he also himself likewise took part of the same; that through death he might destroy him that had the power of death, that is, the devil;
15 And deliver them who through fear of death were all their lifetime subject to bondage.
16 For verily he took not on him the nature of angels; but he took on him the seed of Abraham.
17 Wherefore in all things it behoved him to be made like unto his brethren, that he might be a merciful and faithful high priest in things pertaining to God
, to make reconciliation for the sins of the people.
Only a man can die in the stead of a man, thus it was necessary for Him to take upon Himself the flesh of man.
His Resurrection is just that a resurrection. While Regeneration is a resurrection, the difference being, as I said, is that men did not have a divine nature as the Son of God did:
2 Peter 1
King James Version
1 Simon Peter, a servant and an apostle of Jesus Christ, to them that have obtained like precious faith with us through the righteousness of God and our Saviour Jesus Christ:
2 Grace and peace be multiplied unto you through the knowledge of God, and of Jesus our Lord,
3
According as his divine power hath given unto us all things that pertain unto life and godliness,
through the knowledge of him that hath called us to glory and virtue:
4 Whereby are given unto us exceeding great and precious promises:
that by these ye might be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust.
We are made partakers of the divine nature through the Gospel. That is "the knowledge of Him" Peter speaks about.
Before we are born again/from above/of God we are dead. Without life.
John 6:47-53 King James Version
47 Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that believeth on me hath everlasting life.
48 I am that bread of life.
"Everlasting Life" is the best way to view the life we have when we are baptized into Christ. Man has a point in time when we are conceived, hence we have a beginning. The Son of God does not have a point in time when He began, He is Eternal God. Now understand me when I say this: Christ has a point in time when He began as a man. In other words, the Son of God is Eternal but the Messiah was created in the womb of Mary 2 thousand years ago. That body did not exist prior to the Incarnation (Galatians 4:4-6; Hebrews 10:5). Again, Eternal God took upon Himself the flesh of man for the express purpose of dying in the stead of sinful man. His glory was veiled by that flesh (and I'll post a Scripture after I get through this passage).
49 Your fathers did eat manna in the wilderness, and are dead.
50 This is the bread which cometh down from heaven, that a man may eat thereof, and not die.
His point is not that they were physically dead, but that they did not have eternal life. Remember the rich young ruler? "What must I do to obtain eternal life?" The understanding according to the revelation they had is best seen in Daniel 12:1-2. They believed eternal life was granted at the general resurrection of the dead.
So when Christ states they are dead, his point is that the Old Testament provision for life was physical. He is explaining that He is the provision for spiritual life. The corollary being, that men did not receive eternal life in the Old Testament.
If men eat of the bread that came down from Heaven (the Son of God) they will not die, or in other words they will receive eternal life.
51 I am the living bread which came down from heaven: if any man eat of this bread, he shall live for ever: and the bread that I will give is my flesh, which I will give for the life of the world.
The provision is His "flesh." You and I, on this side of Pentecost, can understand He is referring to His death on the Cross. He will give His flesh, His life—that the world might live. Rather than die without eternal life as the fathers who ate of the physical provision for life.
52 The Jews therefore strove among themselves, saying, How can this man give us his flesh to eat?
53 Then Jesus said unto them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, Except ye eat the flesh of the Son of man, and drink his blood, ye have no life in you.
"Eating of His flesh and drinking of His blood" is a reference to believing on His death, burial, and Resurrection.
Note that if one does not do this—they have no life. They are dead.
Again, it is not in a physical sense, but in the spiritual sense. The eternal perspective, not the temporal.
And that is the difference between Christ's Resurrection and the resurrection of the believer in Regeneration. We still have a physical resurrection to undergo in the Rapture, and that is more akin to Christ's resurrection. We will be resurrected unto glorified bodies like as He, but we have already been resurrected in the New Birth and made New Creatures. Christ did not become "a new man" or a "new creature," He was still the Son of God in His Resurrection.
That is just one passage where we see the concept of "life" and "eternal Life" which Christ came to bestow.
Back to God's glory veiled by the flesh He took upon Himself:
Hebrews 10:15-20 King James Version
15 Whereof the Holy Ghost also is a witness to us: for after that
he had said before,
16
This is the covenant that I will make with them after those days, saith the Lord, I will put my laws into their hearts, and in their minds will I write them;
17
And their sins and iniquities will I remember no more.
18
Now where remission of these is, there is no more offering for sin.
19 Having therefore, brethren,
boldness to enter into the holiest by the blood of Jesus,
20
By a new and living way, which he hath consecrated for us, through the veil, that is to say, his flesh;
I read one of your other threads and saw that you understand "Perfection," or rather, the completion of the believer in regards to remission of sins. Understanding that one principle allows you to understand Scripture far better than most.
The promise of the New Covenant was just that, a promise, until it was inaugurated by the Death of Christ. Remission of sins in completion was one of the promises.
"The "Holiest" in view is Heaven itself (Hebrews 9:24) and man's entrance to God was made possible through Christ's Death. The veil of the earthly tabernacle (it is never called the Temple, I believe because the Tabernacle, like the Book of Hebrews, has a first relevance to the Hebrew People, and the Tabernacle was specific to them in the wilderness) represented one great Old Testament truth: Man could not come into God's presence. The High Priest came into the shadow/figure/parable of God's presence in the Tabernacle, and only he, and only once a year.
So picture the High Priest walking through that veil into the presence of God. Now picture the reality of the shadow and see Christ coming into the presence of God through the veil that was the flesh He took upon Himself.
Pretty cool, no?
Okay, I might have to make this two posts, I have been, as KYredneck likes to say about me—rambling! lol
God bless.
