Soul, Death, & Grace Chapter 10
THE RESURRECTION AND THE SOUL

The last quotation we presented above the reader says:
“By the power of the Savior that dwelt in them while living and because they were partakers of the divine nature, they are brought forth from the dead.”

The fact of the resurrection is presented to use as the happy future attached to the fact our friends go to the grave.

“The living Christian will be filled with cheerfulness and peace, because he lives as seeing Him who is invisible; and those who seek Christ in his true character have within them the elements of everlasting life, because they are partakers of the divine nature, … “ *

The “elements of everlasting life” within is the key to the soul’s nature in death, and to the meaning of death to a particular individual in the materials we are surveying. They are also the key to the resurrection of the soul.

“Christ became one flesh with us in order that we might become one spirit with Him. It is by virtue of this union that we are to come forth from the grave, – not merely as a manifestation of the power of Christ, but because, through faith, His life has become ours.” DA, p. 388.

Soul, Death, and Grace

“Our personal identity is preserved in the resurrection, though not the same particles of matter or material substance as went into the grave. The wondrous works of God are a mystery to man. The spirit, the character of man, is returned to God, there to be preserved. In the resurrection every man will have his own character. God in His own time will call forth the dead, giving again the breath of life, and bidding the dry bones live. The same form will come forth, but it will be free from disease and every defect. It lives again bearing the same individuality of features, so that friend will recognize friend. There is no law of God in nature which shows that God gives back the same identical particles of matter which composed the body before death. God shall give the righteous dead a body that will please Him.

“Paul illustrates this subject by the kernel of grain sown in the field. The planted kernel decays, but there comes forth a new kernel. The natural substance in the grain that decays is never raised as before, but God giveth it a body as it hath pleased Him. A much finer material will compose the human body, for it is a new creation, a new birth. It is sown a natural body, it is raised a spiritual body (MS 76, 1900).” 6BC, p. 1093.

Those whose souls are asleep awake with the freshness and vigor of eternal youth. Cf. GC, pp. 644, 645.

The souls without the elements of everlasting life are resurrected purely by the power of God and come up as they went down into the grave. Cf. 3 SG. pp. 84, 85.

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