Let's open our Bibles to Colossians
chapter 3. Colossians chapter 3, and it's
good to be back. We always enjoy coming down here,
especially this time of year, because I was talking to one
of the men last evening, and they said it's going to be in
the teens up in Ashland. So it's warmer here. So I'm always
glad to come, but mainly for the warm fellowship that we have
with you. And that's what, that's what
we're here for and to worship the Lord together. Going to deal
with the first four verses of Colossians chapter three, and
each one of these verses. has something to say about the
realm, the whole realm of salvation. Each verse sort of represents
a facet of salvation. That the Bible reveals the salvation,
not that man by nature thinks of. Because that salvation, you
know, man by nature in false religion, salvation to man is
man-centered. And it's all conditioned on man.
It's all based upon what man does for God. And, you know,
it's common you'll hear people say, well, God's done all he
can do, now the rest is up to you. And that's a common way
of thinking. But it's not a biblical way of
thinking. It's certainly not salvation by grace. But these
verses here, speak of salvation by grace, I'm titling the message,
Dead and Alive. Dead and Alive. You know, back
in the old west when they wanted to get a criminal, they'd often
print up posters with their image on it and they'd say, Wanted
Dead or Alive. Because they knew you couldn't
bring them in both ways. You couldn't bring them in dead
and alive. But here, in the scriptures, It speaks of salvation as being
both dead and alive. Let's read these first four verses.
Paul writes here by inspiration of the Spirit. He says, if you
then be risen with Christ, now risen means resurrected there,
and to be resurrected, that means to be resurrected from the dead.
He says, seek those things which are above, where Christ sitteth
on the right hand of God. Now that speaks of the basis
of salvation or what we call the ground of salvation. And
really, it's the heart of the gospel. We'll talk a little bit
more about that in a minute. But that is the missing note
in religion today. The false gospels of today miss
this. And I'll show you what I mean.
Now, the second verse, he says, set your affection. Now, if you
have a concordance in your Bible, you might see the word mind there,
your affection. on things above, not on things
on the earth. Now, when we think of the affections,
we think of feelings, don't we? I've often said, you know, we
study a lot through the Old Testament. I've been preaching through the
minor prophets. We're in the book of Zechariah
poem. And I tell the people, I say,
you know, sometimes to understand the Bible, you've got to stop
thinking like an American, and you got to start thinking like
a Hebrew. and in this case, a Greek, you know, for the New Testament
written in Greek. And when we think, in our society, in our
culture, you know, when we think about the heart, for example,
we normally think about intuition, feelings, emotions. But that's
not the way the scripture, reveals this, relates it. That's not
the way a Hebrew would think. You never, in the Bible, you
never separate the heart from the mind. You know, a lot of
people will tell you today, you know, you'll see this, you know,
in poetry and romanticized literature. They'll say, think with your
heart, not your head. That wouldn't mean anything to
a Hebrew. That'd be a silly statement to a Hebrew. You don't think with your emotions. So the heart, we know, represents
the mind, the affection, and the will. It's the whole inner
person. And that's what's being related here. So this is not
just a thing of feelings, and it's not just a thing of intellect.
This is the whole person. Set your affection, set your
whole person, your whole desire, your whole goal and foundation
on things above and not on things on the earth. In other words,
your hope is not in the things of this world. And then he says,
now that is the fruit of salvation. And this is the product of the
new birth. So you have in the first verse,
the ground of salvation. And then you have in the second
verse, the fruit of salvation. Now the ground of salvation is
the death of Christ and the fruit of salvation is the life of Christ
within us by the Holy Spirit in the new birth. And that's
why we have affections for things above. Apart from the work of
God the Holy Spirit in the new birth, we wouldn't have affection
for things above. Now that doesn't mean just wanting
to go to heaven. A lot, everybody wants to go
to heaven, everybody wants to live forever. But just because
you want to go to heaven, just because you want to live forever,
just because you're religious or moral doesn't mean you have
your affection on things above. The things above here has to
do with the glory of God in salvation. Now verse three, for you are
dead, that's present tense. Now he's talking, the one he's
describing here in verse three is one and the same persons.
It's not two different people. So he says, for you are dead,
you are dead, present tense, that's a sinner saved by the
grace of God, he's dead, and your life, then he speaks of
life. You're dead, but you have life. Dead and alive, see? For you are dead, and your life
is hid with Christ in God. Now that speaks of the reality
of salvation. what this salvation really means,
dead and alive. How am I dead? How am I alive? I'm both. That's the reality
of it. That's the implications of this
death and life here, this salvation. So it's the reality. So you have
the ground of salvation, you have the fruit of salvation,
you have the reality of salvation. And then look at verse four.
He says, when Christ who is our life shall appear, then shall
you also appear with him in glory. And that's the completion, or
we might say the full fruition or harvest of salvation. And that speaks of final glory.
Now, go back there in verse one, the ground of salvation. Think
about this. It has to do with a living, saving
union with Christ. And it's all founded upon what
he accomplished at Calvary. So apply this now to the reality
of salvation. You're dead and you're alive.
How am I dead? Well, turn to Romans chapter
six. Think about it this way. How is a sinner saved by the
grace of God dead? Well, you know, by nature, all. The Bible teaches that by nature,
all men and women, without exception, are spiritually dead. That's
the death, that's the result of sin. You remember, Adam in
the garden, God gave him that mandate and set the tree of the
knowledge of good and evil in the garden. And he said, Adam,
in the day that you eat there, he said, you can eat of any tree
of this garden except one. And that's the tree of the knowledge
of good and evil. And you know what that tree represented.
What it did, it represented God's sovereign right as the creator
to set the standard of good and evil. In other words, it was
showing God's sovereignty. God is creator, Adam's the creature,
you're subject to the creator, see? The creator is not subject
to the creature. And so when Adam ate, knowing
full well what he was doing of the tree of the knowledge of
good and evil, what he was doing was asserting his independence
from God. He was saying, in essence, I
don't need God, I can set my own standard of good and evil.
I don't need to go by God's standard of goodness. What is good? Good
must be measured by God, not by me and you, how we compare
to each other. That's what Christ was teaching
the rich young man when he said, why do you call me good? There's
none good but God. If you don't believe I'm God,
why do you call me good? That's what he was saying. Well,
he was going by man's standard. You know, we all have a standard
by which we go by. And religion has its standard.
This is good, this is bad, this is evil, this is righteous. But
the only standard of good and evil is what God says in his
word. And that's why he says in Romans
3 and verse 10 that there's none righteous, no not one. There's
none good, no not one. That's according to God's standard
of righteousness, you see, the law. which says, cursed is everyone
that continueth not in all things which are written in the book
of the law to do them. So when it comes to salvation, we have
to be subject to God's standard of goodness in salvation, not
our own. It's not what this denomination
says or that denomination says or what this, it's what God says.
Now when Adam ate of the tree, he was asserting his independence,
he's saying I'm wise enough. I'm powerful enough to set my
own standard. I don't have to go by God's standard.
But God said, now in the day that you eat thereof, you shall
surely die. Literally, that means dying thou
shalt die. And Adam died in that day. Now
he didn't die physically, immediately, but the process of physical death
began. That's when man began to age
and sickness and disease began to enter the earth. That's when
the conflicts of this body and the infirmities of the flesh
began to show itself and the process of physical death began. Romans chapter eight speaks of
that. The body, this physical body is dead because of sin. We're dying each day. We don't
like to think about that and we fight it off and we try to
cover it up, but it's there. It's there. You know, man's search
for the eternal fountain of youth. Well, it's not there, that's
a myth. But that's what it is, that's what aging is. It's a
process of death because of sin. The wages of sin is death. But
Adam also died spiritually. And that spiritual death has
to do with the desires of the inner man to glorify God and
to seek God. He had no desire to glorify and
honor and seek God. He was on his own now, he's spiritually
dead. We're born dead in trespasses
and sins, that's by nature. We could also speak of a legal
death. Adam was sentenced to die eternally. It's like every person who fell
on Adam, which is all without exception, is condemned, like
people on death row. And so that's spiritual death.
Now, when God saves a sinner, he brings in life. In other words,
condemnation is no longer there. Spiritual life comes in all of
those things this body will still die But it will but we will not
remain dead. We will rise again Now here in
Colossians chapter 3 speaks of being risen with Christ And he's
talking about a believer, one who's been made alive in Christ.
And he says, you're dead, and your life is hid with Christ
in God. Well, what's he talking about?
Well, first of all, he's talking about now, having been saved
by the grace of God, we're dead to sin. We are dead to sin. What does that mean? Well, look
at Romans chapter six. And look at verse three. He says, know you not that so
many of us as were baptized into Jesus Christ were baptized into
his death. Now most of the time when you
see the word baptized or baptism, people think about the baptistry
like this back here, water baptism, the ordinance of baptism. Some
people call it a sacrament. It's not a sacrament because
it has no saving value. A sacrament has saving value.
This water baptism has no saving value. There's no power in this
physical water to save anybody, all right? But that's not what
Paul's talking about. He's not talking about the ordinance
of physical baptism. That's an ordinance for the church
as an ordinance of public confession and identification with Christ.
We're to be baptized to confess that we've already been saved
by the power and goodness and grace of God in Christ. And that's
what that ordinance is. That's why it's commanded. It's
a confession, all right, and an identification with Christ. The word baptized, baptized,
baptized, or baptism, literally means placed into. That's what it means. That's
why we baptize by immersion. Some people say the word means
immersion. It literally means placed into. That's why we don't
pour and sprinkle, because baptism means placed into. You're placed
into the water in the ordinance of baptism. All right? And it's a sign, it's a symbol
of the death, burial, and resurrection of Christ. That when Christ died,
he died for me. I died with him. Go down the
water, when he was buried, he was buried for me. I was buried
with him. And when he arose again, come up out of the water, when
he arose again the third day, I arose with him. He did it for
me. He's my substitute. Now what
Paul's talking about here is that union with Christ of every
child of God. They've been placed into Christ.
Know you not that so many of us, as we're placed into Jesus
Christ, we're placed into his death. What does that mean? Verse four, therefore we're buried
with him by baptism into death, placed into his death, that like
as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the
Father, even so we should also walk in newness of life. Raised
with him. Verse five, he uses the analogy
of a planting here. He says, for if we've been planted
together, there's your key, in the likeness of his death. Now
how was I planted together in the likeness of his death? I
wasn't even there, wasn't even born yet. Well, this is the language
of representation. It's the language of substitution.
When Christ died on that cross, for whom did he die? All those
that were planted together with him, all whom the Father gave
him, God's elect people, his church. And all of our sins were
placed upon him in the sense of imputation. They were charged,
accounted to him. He was made sin so that when
he died, he died not as a private person but as a substitute. He
died for a people. He gave his life. The Bible says
his name shall be called Jesus for he shall save his people
from their sins. How did he do it? He died for
my sins. I was planted together in the
likeness of his death. We shall be also in the likeness
of his resurrection, knowing this, verse six, our old man
is crucified with him. My sins were crucified on the
cross of Christ and I died. I'm dead to sin legally. He says
that the body of sin might be destroyed that henceforth we
should not serve sin. Verse 7, for he that is dead,
you see that, is free. That word free there is justified. That means I'm not guilty anymore.
That means I'm righteous in the sight of God. Free, justified
from sin. My sins were put away. The debt
that I owe God's law and justice was laid upon Christ and He paid
the debt in full. I am dead to sin in this sense.
Sin can no longer condemn me. The wages of sin is death. That
wage has been paid for me by the death of Christ. My sins
were charged to Him. His righteousness charged to
me. I stand before God washed in the blood of Christ. Walk
Him, wash away my sins. Nothing but the blood of Jesus.
But the blood of Jesus did do it. What can make me whole again? My hope is built on nothing less
than Jesus' blood. All of that, you see. Sin can
no longer be charged to me. In God's books of law, my case
has been wiped totally clean by the blood of Christ. I'm dead
to sin. But there's another way that
I'm dead to sin. Look down at verse 17. He says, but God bethink
that you were the servants of sin. Now a servant of sin there
is an unregenerate person, an unbeliever. Doesn't matter what
kind of person he is. He can be an immoral criminal
or he can be the most religious man that ever set foot on earth.
He can be a publican who's cheating everybody so that he can get
rich, or he can be a Pharisee who's doing his dead-level best
trying to keep the law to be righteous before God. But he's
a servant of sin because he's not a believer in the Lord Jesus
Christ. He's not resting in Christ for all salvation, for all forgiveness,
for all righteousness, for all glory and eternal life. That's
a servant of sin, understand it. You see, that's another way
we've got to learn to think biblically, not naturally. We think of a
servant of sin as somebody who's immoral, somebody who's running
from the law, somebody who's doing drugs or something like
it, and they are servants of sin. But my friend, this includes
the most religious person who's seeking to establish a righteousness
of their own without Christ, without God. And he says, you
were the servants of sin, but you have obeyed from the heart,
there's that heart again, that's the mind, the affections, and
the will, that form of doctrine, that word form there is like
an identifying mark, it's a stamp. And he says, which was delivered
to you, and what form of doctrine was that? It was the gospel of
salvation, conditioned on Christ, who fulfilled all those conditions.
Now he says in verse 18, being then made free from sin, the
word free, remember over in Romans 6, 7, the word freed there is
justified, but the word free in verse 18 is liberated. Now
you've been liberated from sin and you became the servants of
righteousness. What is a servant of righteousness? It's a follower
of Christ. He's one who rests in Christ,
a disciple of Christ. Now he says you've been liberated
from sin. Now what does that mean? Now, a lot of people are
confused there. We're dead to sin, we're dead
to sin's condemnation, but we're also dead to sin's power over
us in certain ways. What does that mean? Well, it
doesn't mean that I'm no longer a sinner because I'm still a
sinner. There's only two types of people in the world, sinners
lost in their sins, sinners saved by the grace of God. Doesn't
mean that I no longer have sinful inclinations and desires. I still
have those. That's why we have the battle
of the flesh and the spirit. Listen, if we were dead to sin's
influence and presence in our lives, we wouldn't have a battle.
There'd be no battle between the flesh and the spirit. There'd
be no inner conflict that Paul described in Romans 7. We still
have, we have to fight sin every day of our lives. The battle,
the warfare of the flesh and spirit is an everyday battle
for the child of God. And it's a struggle to do what's
right according to God's standard of right and not to do what's
wrong according to God's standard of what's wrong. We have to fight
that all the time. It's a bath. So this being freed,
liberated from sin's power doesn't mean that I'm no longer a sinner
in my sin. Now some people say that. Some denominations who
call themselves Christians say that a believer can grow to a
point in their lives where they live above sin and they don't
sin. And I'm gonna tell you something.
Every one of them, I'll tell you what they have to do in order
to get there. They have to bring down the standard of what sin
and righteousness is. And I heard one of them tell
me one time, he said, he's a preacher, he said, he said, well, it's
only a sin if you mean to do it. See? And I said, well, you've
lowered the standard. Well, what did Adam do in the
garden when he fell? He said, I'm gonna set my own
standard so that I can look good in my own eyes. See, that's what
religion does. That's what, listen, that's what
even false gospels do. They lower the standards so that
they can count themselves righteous when they're not. You remember
the parable of the Pharisee and the publican? Who was that spoken
to, Luke chapter 18 and verse 9? Those who judge themselves
righteous and others lost. In what sense? Not according
to God's standard, their own standard. That's why the Bible
says judge not. It's not forbidding all judgment
in Matthew 7 there. It's forbidding self-righteous
judgment, lowering the standard. But he said, well, you can get
to a point where you can live above sin. Not in this life,
friend. Not in this life. But how are
we delivered from the power of sin? Well, let me give you just
several things to think about. Before I was born again by the
Spirit, before God the Holy Spirit brought me to a saving knowledge
of Christ, a saving knowledge of my sin, and a saving knowledge
of Christ and the grace of God and the righteousness of God
in him, I was totally in darkness and deceived by sin. Paul describes
that in Romans chapter seven. But now I've been brought from
the kingdom of darkness into the kingdom of light. Now I know
the truth. Now sin doesn't deceive me that
way. I struggle with it, I have a
war with it, but it doesn't deceive me that way. Now I see that Christ
is my only hope of salvation. salvation. He's my only hope
of righteousness. I have none of my own. I see
that now. I didn't see it before. Before,
I thought, well, all you do is you accept Jesus as your personal
savior and then try to be the best you can be, and that's got
to count for something. Now I see it counts for nothing.
That the only thing, like Paul said, oh, that I may know him,
Christ, and be found in his righteousness. His righteousness, not my own,
which is of the law. You see, I cannot save myself.
I cannot make myself holy or righteous. I must have Christ.
I see that now. I didn't see it before. I was
in total darkness. The darkness of religion. But
I've been delivered from that power now. And let me tell you
something. I don't see it perfectly even
now. That's what John said in 1 John 3. In verse two, he said,
Beloved, it doth not yet appear what we shall be, but we know
that when he shall appear, we'll be like him. We'll see him as
he is. We'll see him perfectly then. Sin once overpowered totally
our wills and kept us in bondage. Not only did I not see the glory
of God in Christ and the salvation that God freely provides, I didn't
want it. Man by nature will not come to
Christ. You see, this free willism that's
going around today, it is not of God. Man, what is man's will
free of? It's not free of himself and
he's in sin. He's dead in trespasses and sin.
But now God has made me willing in the day of his power to come
to Christ. I want to be in him, to be found
in him. Sin once kept me totally from
seeing the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. Now I see
that glory. Sin once kept me in the bondage
of legalism, trying to bring forth and establish and work
a righteousness of my own before God, but now I see that I can't
do that. Sin once kept me in the bondage
of condemnation and guilt of conscience. And you know what? What cleansed that conscience
before you came and to see Christ and the glory of Christ. Well,
a lot of things. To me, it was walking an aisle,
making a confession, getting baptized, trying to do better.
That's what cleansed my conscience, but it wouldn't last. That's
legalism, you see. What cleanses the conscience
of a sinner who's been delivered from the power of sin? There's
not but one thing that'll cleanse a conscience of that sinner,
and that's the blood of Christ. Let me show you that. Turn to
Hebrews chapter 10. One of my favorite passages, I refer to
this a lot. But he's talking about here seeking
to come before God to be accepted, to be worshiped, to worship God. I'm coming before God and I want
God to accept me, but I'm a sinner. And that sin lays on my conscience. You know what the conscience
is? That's the part of your mind that either accuses or excuses. All right? Accuses or excuses
yourself. And he's talking about the death
of Christ on the cross here in Hebrews chapter 10 and how Christ,
by his one offering, how he put away sin by his one offering
and sat down on the right hand of God. And he says in verse
19 of Hebrews 10, Having therefore, brethren, boldness. Now that
word boldness there is liberty. He's talking about liberty to
come into the presence of God. Liberty to enter into the holiest. The holiest, the very presence
of God. Now what's the next line? How
do you have that liberty, that boldness to come into the presence
of a holy God? By the blood of Jesus. That's it. My access into God's
favor and blessing and the salvation that God freely provides is based
on one thing, and that's the blood of Christ, his death, his
righteousness imputed. That's what that is. Read on. He says, by a new and living
way, that's in comparison with the old covenant, that dead way
that was in the blood of animals, which could not take away sin,
he says, which he hath consecrated, which Christ hath made new. For us, through the veil, that
is to say his flesh, that's the death of his body on the cross,
and having a high priest over the house of God, let us draw
near with a true heart. Now a true heart there is an
honest heart, not in pretense of religion, But being honest,
I'm a sinner, and I need the mercy and grace of God. In full
assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled from an evil
conscience, that's a legal conscience, and our bodies washed with pure
water. Washed in the blood of Christ. I'm dead to sin's power
to keep me from coming to God through the blood of Christ.
That's death to sin. That's being liberated. Sin once
kept us bringing forth fruit unto death, but now we can serve
God with a motive of grace and gratitude and love. We still
sin, that's, now go back to, go over to Romans chapter seven
with me. We're dead to sin, but we're
also dead to the law. You're dead, Colossians three
says, you're dead and you're alive. Well, how am I dead? I'm
dead to sin. I'm dead to the law. Look at
verse 4 of Romans chapter 7. Wherefore, my brethren, you also
are become dead to the law by the body of Christ. Now, what
does it mean to be dead to the law? It means the law can no
longer condemn me. But it also means this. Now listen.
It also means the law can no longer demand any obedience from
me in order to attain or maintain salvation. You see, Christ commands obedience
from his people, but it's not in order to be saved. It's not
our obedience that makes us righteous before God. You see, that's totally
his work. That's what he meant there in
Colossians chapter three, when he talks about if you then be
risen with Christ. When he died, I died. When he
was buried, I was buried. When he arose again, I rose again.
I'm righteous before God, not on the ground of my works, but
on the ground of his works. His obedience unto death. He's
my hope, he's my plea. So I'm dead to the law. The law
cannot condemn me. I have righteousness. It's charged,
accounted to me. It's the righteousness of God
in Christ. So the law cannot condemn me. Now how did I become
dead to the law? Look at it again, verse four.
By the body of Christ. Not by my works. Not by my efforts,
not even by my believing. Somebody says, but you've got
to believe. Yes, you've got to believe that Christ did it all.
You've got to believe that Christ met every condition. You've got
to believe that Christ's blood alone is your righteousness before
God. You don't have, see your belief
is in him, it's not in your believing. There are a lot of people, they
have faith in their faith. They don't have faith in Christ,
they have faith in their faith. Christ means nothing to them
except they believe him. You see what I'm saying? But
he says by the body of Christ. Now he says that you should be
married to another, united to him by faith, even him who is
raised from the dead that we should bring forth fruit unto
God. We're dead to the law. Turn to Galatians chapter six,
we're also dead to the world. Look at Galatians chapter six.
Now remember what Colossians said there. He says, set your
affections on things above and not on things of the earth. Well,
we're dead to the world. Now what does that mean? Well,
does it mean that I no longer live in the world? No, obviously
we all live in the world. We live, we're in the world.
Christ told his disciples, you're not of the world, but you're
in the world. We have to live in the world.
We all have families, we have friends, we have jobs, everything.
We have to walk in this wilderness. That's what it's like. It's a
wilderness. This world is not our home. This
world is not our hope. The things of this world are
not our salvation or our goal, but we're dead to the world.
Well, what does it mean? Look at verse 14 of Galatians
6. He says, but God forbid that
I should glory or that I should have confidence in anything save
or except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ. My confidence
is in the death of Christ. My confidence is in the blood
of Christ. My confidence and hope is in
the righteousness of Christ, the Lord Jesus Christ. And he
says, by whom the world is crucified unto me. Now what does crucifixion
mean? It means death, cursed, it's
a cursed death. I look upon this world as being
cursed and dead. Because if you don't have hope
in Christ, if you don't glory in Christ and what he accomplished
on Calvary is your whole salvation, you know what you are? You're
dead. This world is dead and I enter
the world. This is the way the world looks
upon me. That's why the Pharisees looked upon Paul as cursed. because
of what he began to preach. He preached the gospel of God's
free and sovereign grace in Christ. And they said, that's heresy.
You're cursed. When the world crucified the
Lord Jesus Christ, what were they saying about him? What was
our, this is fallen humanity now. Us included, we weren't
there personally, but we were there in the persons of fallen
humanity. What were we saying about Christ when we crucified?
That he's cursed. He was crucified as a malefactor. That's what the New Testament
says. You know what that is? A criminal. A criminal. And we meant murder in our hearts.
That's what it was all about. Because we looked upon him as
dead. But we're the ones without him who are dead. But now, being
made alive in Christ, we're dead to the world. The world's crucified
unto me and I unto the world. There's no hope in this world
of salvation. There's only hope in Christ.
And he says it here, verse 15, for in Christ Jesus neither circumcision
availeth anything nor uncircumcision but a new creation. What is a
new creation? That's what Christ created on the cross. Read it
in Ephesians chapter 2. Now one more verse and I'll quit.
Look at Galatians 2. Now, being dead, we're alive. We're alive unto God. Now look
at verse 20 of Galatians chapter 2. Paul says, I am crucified with
Christ. Now Paul, he's writing a letter
to the churches of Galatia. And he said, I'm crucified with
Christ. When Christ died, I died. That's what he said. When Christ
was buried, I was buried. When Christ arose again, I rose
again. Nevertheless, I live. You see, just same thing that,
you're dead and alive. I was crucified with Christ.
I'm dead to sin, dead to the law, dead to the world, but I'm
alive. I live. Yet not I. Now what does that mean? Is he
talking out of both sides of his mouth here? He's saying I'm
alive but I'm not alive. No, he's just simply saying yet
not I. I'm not the source of the life.
This thing of salvation didn't come about because of a spark
of life or goodness in me and some preacher emotionally had
to fan it to get me to operate on it. No, it's not I. I'm not
the source of it. I was dead in trespasses and
sin. My salvation is a resurrection from the dead.