SDA Sabbath School Lessons
Thursday September 19, 1996


Who will triumph over death?
(1 Cor. 15:23)

What great event makes it certain that those who accept Christ will triumph over death? 1 Cor. 15:12-22. Who at Christ's coming will triumph over death? 1 Cor. 15:12.

Christ's resurrection makes possible the resurrection of the righteous dead. If He had not risen from the dead, "those also who have fallen asleep in Christ [would] have perished" (1 Cor. 15:18, RSV). Believers before and after the cross would have no hope of life after death if Jesus had not risen from the grave.

Who are the ones "who belong to Christ" (1 Cor. 15:23, RSV)? Rom. 8:9-17.

The first seventeen verses in Romans 8 are alive with the love and power of Christ--love and power bestowed upon every willing believer by the indwelling Holy Spirit. "There is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus (verse 1, NIV)." The righteous requirements of the law can be "fully met" in those "who do not live according to the sinful nature but according to the Spirit" (verse 4, NIV). Life and peace are experienced by those who are "controlled by the Spirit" (verse 6, NIV). Only those belong to Christ in whose hearts the Holy Spirit is living (Rom. 8:9, 10). If the Spirit is living in us, "he who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through his Spirit, who lives in you" (verse 11, NIV). The gift of the Spirit brings the gift of eternal life now and the gift of immortality at Jesus' coming.

Of what two resurrections does the Bible speak?

"Amid the reeling of the earth, the flash of lightening, and the roar of thunder, the voice of the Son of God calls forth the sleeping saints. He looks upon the graves of the righteous, then, raising His hands to heaven, He cries: Awake, awake, awake, ye that sleep in the dust, and arise!' Throughout the length and breadth of the earth the dead shall hear that voice, and they that hear shall live. And the whole earth shall ring with the tread of the exceeding great army of every nation, kindred tongue, and people. From the prison house of death they come, clothed with immortal glory."--The Great Controversy, p. 644.