Made alive [zao] again from the dead.
"And this is the will of Him who sent Me, that everyone who sees the Son and believes on Him should have everlasting life. And I will raise [anistemi] him up at the last day." (John 6:40).
1. Everlasting life [zoe].
2. Being raised up again (bodily) from the dead in order to live | to be alive [zao] again.
"Fool ! That which you sow is not quickened [zoopoieo], except it die." (1 Corinthians 15:36)
Paul was answering the question: "How are the dead raised [egeiro]? With what kind of body [soma] will they come?" (1 Corinthians 15:35), and he was talking about the resurrection of the body from death/the dead.
* It is written that the dead bodies of Adam and the seed of Adam who have been given eternal LIFE [zoe] IN CHRIST will be:
made alive [zao] again ("quickened"), having been quickened with the quickening of Christ's dead body (Romans 8:10-11)
- because we have been:
* buried with him [sunthapto] in baptism, wherein also all of us are
* risen with him [sunegeiro] through the faith of the operation of God, who
* has raised him [egeiro] from the dead, - and we,
* being dead in our sins and the uncircumcision of our flesh, he has
* quickened together with him [syzoopoieo], having forgiven us all trespasses." (Colossians 2:12-13)
"God, who is rich in mercy, for His great love with which He loved us, Even when we were dead in sins,
(1) He has (past tense) [syzōopoiéō] (quickened together with) Christ, (by grace ye are saved);
(2) and has (past tense) raised us up together [synegeírō] and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus" (Ephesians 2:4-6).
(Christ's dead body was quickened - not His Spirit: When Jesus died, His Spirit did not die: His soul went into hades - Acts 2:27 - where by the Spirit He preached to the spirits in prison- 1 Peter 3:18-20 - and His dead body, being quickened [zoopoieo] (made alive by the Spirit), was raised from the dead).
So Paul says,
"If Christ's Spirit is in you,
1. your body is dead because of sin, but the Spirit (of Christ) is your (eternal) life [zoe] because of (Christ's) righteousness.
2. Moreover, if the Spirit of the one who raised [egeiro] Jesus from the dead dwells in you, the one who raised [egeiro] Christ from the dead will also quicken [zōopoiéō] your mortal bodies through his Spirit who lives in you." (Romans 8:10-11).
So because we have been quickened with Christ when His dead body was quickened, our dead bodies too will be quickened and we will rise again bodily from the dead - having been raised with the resurrection of Christ's dead body - hence we will LIVE | BE ALIVE [zao] forever (be immortal, never dying) :
"For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be quickened [zoopoieo]."
(1 Corinthians 15:22 - where Paul is talking about the resurrection of the body).
So Paul says,
"If then ye be risen with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ sits on the right hand of God. Set your affection on things above, not on things on the earth. For ye are dead, and your life [zōḗ] is hid with Christ in God.
When Christ, who is our life [zōḗ], shall appear, then shall ye also appear with him in glory." (Colossians 3:1-4).
(i) The word zoopoieo (quickening, being made alive) is being applied to the mortal body in all the above verses, and we are going to list the other verses using the same word soon, but first also bear the following in mind:
(ii) The words egeiro (raised), sunegeiro (raised with) and anastasis (THE resurrection of the body from the dead) - whenever the words are referring to resurrection from death - are always referring to the resurrection of the body in the New Testament. (Each and every New Testament verse using one of those three words in reference to resurrection from death, as well as the word anístēmi, is quoted HERE).
The words are referring to the positional reality in Christ of those who belong to Him.
Jesus said,
"It is the Spirit that quickens (makes what was dead, alive again [zoopoieo] ); the flesh profits nothing: the words that I speak unto you, they are spirit, and they are life [zoe]." (John 6:63).
PASSING FROM DEATH TO LIFE
Passing from death to life is not being "raised" from death to life: Jesus said:
"Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that heareth my word, and believeth on him that sent me, hath everlasting life [zoe aionios], and shall not come into condemnation; but is passed [G3327 metabaino] from death unto life [zoe]." (John 5:24).
G3327 μεταβαίνω metabaivnw metabaino {met-ab-ah'-ee-no}: from 3326 and the base of 939; to change place:--depart, go, pass, remove.
Many conflate quickening (being made alive again) with being born of the Spirit of God, but the new birth is not talking about spiritual regeneration (or the "quickening" of a 'dead' human spirit) - it's talking about the life (Spirit) of Christ coming to live in you, giving you eternal life IN CHRIST - the key words are IN CHRIST, who possesses (eternal) life [zoe aionios] in Himself.
When the New Testament tells us about being quickened from death (made alive again), it's not talking about the quickening (making alive) of the human body by the Spirit of God in one passage, and the quickening of the human spirit in another. The New Testament is always consistent. There is never any contradiction.
Peter wrote:
"Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! By his great mercy he gave us new birth [anagennáō] into a living (záō) hope THROUGH the resurrection (anástasis) of Jesus Christ from the dead." (1 Peter 1:3).
Paul wrote:
"When Christ, who is our life, shall appear, then shall ye also appear with him in glory." (Colossians 3:4);
and the hope that Peter is talking about in 1 Peter 1:3 is the confident assurance of the resurrection of our dead bodies (at the time of the return of Christ) - even after we have died - as Paul also wrote,
"To whom God would make known what is the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles; which is Christ in you, the hope of glory" (Colossians 1:27).
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Eternal life [zoe AIONIOS] is only given to created human beings through "Christ in you, the hope of glory" (Colossians 1:27). It is IN CHRIST.
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It follows that if someone does not have the Spirit of Christ in him, he does not have eternal life in him - which is what John taught in 1 John 5:12:
11 "God has given to us eternal life [zōḗ], and this life [zōḗ] is IN HIS SON:
12 He that has the Son has (eternal) life; and he that has not the Son of God has not (eternal) life [zōḗ]." (1 John 5:11-12)
and without being born of the Spirit of God, created human beings simply have no eternal life [zoe] in them.
The gospel is a deep mystery, and being able to discern that it's true is something that cannot be brought about by the human mind alone, but only by (through) the Spirit of God. Through the Spirit of Christ it can be discerned and believed. It's a truth that was also difficult for the apostles to express using words, due to the limitations of human language:
The sin of the flesh is in the flesh and had to be condemned in the flesh.
In order to condemn sin in the flesh and justify, forgive, and deliver us from the guilt of the sin of the flesh, and the consequence of the sin of the flesh (death), our Creator, by (through) His Word (the Word of God), took on human flesh, becoming fully human and partaking in the creation while maintaining His Godhead.
Though He Himself was not the son of any man (being born of a virgin), and though He Himself had no sin, He took on human flesh and became both the Son of man representing Adam and all the descendants of Adam (all mankind), having becoming the second man (Adam was the first man, and we are all descended from him), and the latter Adam | the last Adam (1 Corinthians 15:45 & 47).
Jesus the Messiah bore the sin of the flesh (the sin of Adam and of the seed | descendants of Adam) in His own body (for us and for our sakes), and died - His body of flesh died (for us, and for our sakes). He rose again from the dead on the third day, because death could not hold Him. He alone could sacrifice His life for sin because He was without sin - no sin was found in Him or could be found in Him, because He is the Son of God:
-- "God in Christ was reconciling the world to himself, not counting people's trespasses against them, and he has given us the message of reconciliation. Therefore we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God were making His plea through us we plead with you on Christ's behalf: Be reconciled to God! For God made the one who did not know sin to be sin for us, so that in him we would become the righteousness of God." (2 Corinthians 5:19-21) --
- but in order to do this for us He had to become one of us, and partake of flesh and blood (which we are), so He came in the likeness of flesh that is sinful, but was without sin (Romans 8:3; Hebrews 4:15; Philippians 2:5-11).
He partook in the creation by taking on human flesh so that He could bear the sin of the creature (we are creature, part of God's creation). This is what the words the last Adam | the latter Adam and the Son of man express.
The sin of the flesh is in the flesh and had to be condemned in the flesh - and so it was condemned - in the flesh of Christ Jesus our Savior, who was without sin (Romans 8:3).
- The consistent message in the scriptures that have already been mentioned on this page, is that Christ's dead body has (past tense) been quickened and raised from the dead, and those who have been born of the Spirit of God and belong to Him have been (past tense) quickened and raised together with Him, because He has put His Spirit in them;
and because the New Testament is always consistent and there is never any contradiction, it's the quickening of the body that is also being spoken about in all the following verses (the word zōopoiéō is used in each verse:-
* The only passage in the New Testament that speaks of a "natural body" and a "spiritual body" is 1 Corinthians 15:44 where Paul, speaking about the resurrection of the body from death says,
"It is sown a body, natural [Greek: sōma psychikós], it is raised a body, spiritual [sōma pneumatikós]. There is a body, natural [sōma psychikós], and there is a body, spiritual [sōma pneumatikós]."
* The word psychikós is from the word psychḗ (soul / life / mind).
* The word pneumatikós is from the word pneûma (spirit / breath).
No Christian who has been taught in any church that the 'dead' human spirit is 'quickened' (a.k.a spiritual 'regeneration') when someone is 'born again' (and accepted that doctrine as true) will understand these things unless the person also first understands the distinction that the New Testament makes between being given life [zoe]; and being alive | living [zao].
"If Christ's Spirit is in you,
(1) your body is dead because of sin, but the Spirit (of Christ) is your (eternal) life [zoe] because of (Christ's) righteousness.
(2) Moreover, if the Spirit of the one who raised [egeiro] Jesus from the dead dwells in you, the one who raised [egeiro] Christ from the dead will also quicken [zōopoiéō] your mortal bodies through his Spirit who lives in you." (Romans 8:10-11).
"For the law of the Spirit of the life [zoe] (which is) in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law of sin and death." (Romans 8:2)
"When Christ, who is our life [zōḗ], shall appear, then shall ye also appear with him in glory." (Colossians 3:4).
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