Can you please explain what is meant by "a better resurrection" in Hebrews 11.35. Does it indicate that there will be degrees in the resurrection of believers?
The meaning will become clear if we look at the beginning of the verse in the RV: "Women received their dead by a resurrection". The writer here refers to the miraculous incidents of the raising from death of the widow’s son by Elijah (1 Kings 17.22), and the later incident of the raising of the Shunammite’s son by Elisha (2 Kings 4.34-37). The martyrs referred to later in the verse endured torture in the light of the prospect of a better resurrection than these. It is better in its character because Christ has brought in blessings that surpass what could be enjoyed under the old covenant. The word "better" is a key word in this epistle, and here primarily in the immediate context is in contrast to the resurrection of the two boys who were raised from the dead to resume bodily life, but eventually, of course, to die again. The three the Lord raised during His ministry would die again. Those saints who arose after Christ’s resurrection would die again. The resurrection, however, for believers in the Church, Old Testament saints, and Tribulation saints will not be, thank God, to die again.
This resurrection is better in its character and in its duration, but there may be a possible hint here that it is better for these martyrs in view of the reward that will be their portion for being prepared not to avoid such suffering for Christ’s sake. Barnes in his Notes has interesting comments on this: "Nothing will better enable us to bear up under the suffering than the expectation that the body will be restored to immortal rigour, and raised to a mode of life where it will be no longer susceptible of pain. To be raised up to that life is a ‘better resurrection’ than to be saved from death when persecuted or to be raised up from a bed of pain".
John J Stubbs
In what way did Paul seek to attain to "the resurrection of the dead" (Phil 3.11)?
In this section (vv.7-16) of Philippians 3 Paul is presenting moral teaching. He expresses his desire to "know him" (i.e. Christ); here the aorist tense is used, indicating a definite experience. It was not simply a question of knowing about Him. Believers have no right to claim that they know Christ simply because they have read and learned of Him in the Scriptures. Spiritual maturity is produced only by a personal and practical knowledge of Christ.
Paul then speaks of "the power of his resurrection", that is the power proceeding from Christ in resurrection that enables victory in Christian living. He adds "and the fellowship of his sufferings" - entering into the sufferings of reproach that the Lord Jesus experienced (the reference here, of course, is to Christ’s exemplary sufferings and not to His expiatory sufferings) - "being made conformable unto his death" - this is a process which goes on continually. Although it is clear from other Scriptures that Paul was prepared to die as a martyr, it is moral conformity to Christ’s death that is in view here, a reckoning to have died to sin (as taught in Romans 6.10,11).
It is then in this context that Paul says, "If by any means" - this is not a condition, but a contingency, i.e. "if somehow" - "I might attain (arrive at as a goal) unto the resurrection (lit. out-resurrection) of (from among) the dead" (v.11). It is quite clear that Paul is not referring here to a future bodily resurrection from among the dead when the Lord Himself comes to the air. Indeed Paul did not even know whether he himself would die before the "rapture"; thus Paul says, "Then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them (the ‘dead in Christ’) in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air" (1 Thess 4.17). The resurrection of the body from among the dead is never regarded as a matter of "attainment", it is absolutely certain for all believers who have passed into death. It will be the completion of the salvation of "the dead in Christ" when their bodies will come into the good of the redemptive work of Christ.
Paul was therefore expressing a desire for a present experience of living as one who had been raised with Christ; thus the reference in Philippians 3.11 is to the present life of identification with Him in His resurrection.
David E West
