Death: The Two Types of Resurrections
When the Bible speaks of resurrection from the dead, one must distinguish between two types of resurrections.
1. Restoration Back to Physical Life
The first type is only a restoration back to natural physical life. What this means is that later the person will die again physically. This restoration-type resurrection occurred twice in the Old Testament: Elisha raised the Shunammite’s son back to life (2 Kg. 4:32–37), and a man was suddenly resurrected from the dead when his dead body touched the bones of Elisha the Prophet (2 Kg. 13:20–21). In the New Testament, restoration-type resurrection occurred at least four times: the resurrection of the daughter of Jarius (Mat. 9:18–26; Mk. 5:21–24, 35–43; Lk. 8:40–42, 49–56); the son of the widow of Nain (Lk. 7:11–17); Lazarus (Jn. 11:1–44); and the resurrection of many of the saints the moment Yeshua died (Mat. 27:52–53).
These two cases in the Old Testament and four cases in the New Testament were all resurrections of the first type: resurrections, which were merely restorations, back to natural physical life. All of these people died again later.
2. True Resurrection Life
The second type of resurrection from the dead is the type that means resurrection life, in which one is no longer subject to death (Rom. 6:9). True resurrection life means a person is no longer capable of dying physically, because there was a change in the nature of the body that has been resurrected. So far, Jesus is the only One who has been resurrected in this way; He is the only One who has undergone the second type of resurrection, that of resurrection life. That is why Yeshua is called the first-fruits of the resurrection (1 Cor. 15:23; Col. 1:15, 18; Rev. 1:5). Critics have often felt that this statement is contradictory, for how could Jesus be called the first-fruits of the resurrection since there were others who had been resurrected before Him. But all the others who were resurrected before Yeshua underwent the first type of resurrection, which was merely a restoration back to natural life. Jesus is the only One who has undergone the second type of resurrection, true resurrection-life, so He is no longer subject to death. That is why He is called the first-fruits of the resurrection, that is, the first to be resurrected unto resurrection life.
Perhaps the best way to explain the means of true resurrection-life as over against restoration-life is by the way it is stated in Hebrews 2:14, where we are told that Yeshua passed through death.
In the first type of resurrection, the resurrection back to natural life, one enters from the realm of physical life into the realm of physical death. When he is resurrected, he simply comes back to the realm of physical life: from physical life, to physical death, and back to physical life. Hebrews 2:14 states that Jesus did not merely come “out of” death, He passed through death, and that is the key. He went from the realm of physical life, to the realm of physical death, and then He passed through death into the realm of resurrection-life. Coming out of death is merely the first type of resurrection; but passing through death leads to the second type of resurrection, that of true resurrection-life.
Excerpt from Dr Arnold Fruchtenbaum:
MBS091 THE BIBLICAL VIEW OF DEATH: Pg 6-7
