Captain Kirk would say on Star Trek, “He’s dead Jim” whenever a character would die on the show.
Previous blogs have touched on being dead in Christ. This blog is about being alive and resurrected in Christ. It will briefly touch what it means to the individual believer and Church as a whole.
In Acts 14:19, Paul was left supposedly dead. Supposedly could mean He seemed like he was dead because he wasn’t moving, breathing and had no heart beat which is dead by the way. It could also mean he wasn’t moving, breathing and had no heart beat, but then later he did. This implies resuscitation. The bible calls it resurrection power. Power that raises the dead.
Other examples of dead not staying dead are:
- Elijah and the Widow’s dead son in 1 Kings 17:22
- Elisha and the dead child in 2 Kings 4:17-37
- The Widow’s Son From Nain in Luke 7:11-15
- Jairus’ dead daughter in Matthew 9:24
- Raising Lazarus from the dead in John 11:43-44
- Peter and Tabitha in Acts 9:40
- Paul and the young man in Acts 20:10
- Of course, the Lord in Matthew 28:6, 1 Corinthians 15:6
Something happens to someone when they hang around with this Jesus Christ person (the real One.) Acts 4:13 says, “Now when they saw the boldness of Peter and John, and perceived that they were unlearned and ignorant men, they marveled; and they took knowledge of them, that they had been with Jesus.”
Paul says, “Mimic or imitate me as I imitate Christ” as a child would their father. The word mimic in the Greek means to “rub off on.” To me, this also sounds like anointing oil. John describes the unction within the believer. Unction can mean to smear on like an ointment.
Fellowship with Christ obviously had a radical effect on the apostles and prophets.
Hebrews 11:5 says, Enoch was translated by faith. He pleased God. Without faith it is impossible to please God.
2 Kings 2:1 says, Elijah was caught up in a whirlwind to heaven.
In 1 Corinthians 15:51-53 the apostle Paul says,
“Behold, I shew you a mystery; We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed, in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump: for the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed. For this corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal [must] put on immortality.”
Ephesians 4:13 says, “Till we all come in the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, unto a perfect man, unto the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ:”
Hebrews says by faith Enoch was translated. Hebrews and Colossians refer to the Old Covenant as a shadow of good things to come. Christ is the Body that makes the shadow. He is substance. Faith comes by hearing and hearing the word of God. Enoch walked with God for 365 years.
Who did Enoch walk with? God the Father? God the Son? God the Spirit?
I would say not the Spirit. He is Spirit.
I would say not the Father. John 6:46 says, “No one has seen the Father except the one who is from God; only he has seen the Father.” So, Enoch did not walk with Him either. This leaves only One person of the Godhead left, Jesus.
I believe Enoch walked with Christ. Death has never had reign over Christ. Jesus says He is the beginning and the end. The first and the last.
Colossians 1:15-18 says, “He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation. For by Him all things were created that are in heaven and that are on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or principalities or powers. All things were created through Him and for Him. And He is before all things, and in Him all things consist. And He is the head of the body, the church, who is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that in all things He may have the preeminence.”
If Enoch walked with Christ and death does not have authority over Christ (which it never has, otherwise He’d still be dead) then Christ ‘rubbed off’ on Enoch after walking with Him for 365 years!
Some would say, “That’s great brother. What’s for dinner?” It would go in one ear and out the other. That is why it says in Revelation, “He who has an ear let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches.”
So, the Old Covenant or Testament is a shadow of the New Covenant. Christ rubs off on believers by revelation of Him through faith and grace. Death never had reign over Christ. Christ walked with Enoch (By the way, God is big enough for Christ to have walked with Enoch before Mary conceived Him. This is already mentioned in Colossians.)
Here is the point. I am of the opinion that as the Church grows in the “unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, unto a perfect man, unto the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ” that as a universal Church death will not have power over us.
We won’t die because of the revelation of Christ in us.
It is not in His nature to ‘stay dead.’ That is why Paul and the others resurrected, or did not die.
Enoch did not die. Elijah did not die. Paul, Tabitha, the Widow’s son, and Lazarus did not stay dead.
Ironically, Enoch means both initiated and inaugurated. The word ‘mystery’ that Paul mentions in his writings means, “that which is known only by the initiated.”
What is ‘that which is known’? It is Christ in you the Hope of Glory!
The Church in Him, are the initiated ones by revelation of Him.
I am of the opinion that in the future existence of the Church that it’s members will grow to a point in revelation of Him that they cannot die physically ever. In Christ, the Church is immovable and eternal. This is also how we can be ‘living sacrifices.’ Usually, a sacrifice is something that dies after sacrificed. In Christ, death has no authority over us. Ever! In Christ, it never did.
Getting there is the next question. How? Ephesians 4:11 indicates how to get to Ephesians 4:13. That is another blog.
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