I’ve become aware of a cultural confusion of the meaning of the word “resurrection” in contemporary English. The word has come to mean “brought back to life”, or “revived”. When the meaning in scripture is something far different from that. It is important that our children understand the difference.
Many people have been revived from death throughout history. In our advanced medical facilities, people die and are revived so often that it isn’t news anymore. Biblically speaking, we see several people who are revived. Jesus himself revived many including the widow’s son, Lazarus, and Jairus’ Daughter; Peter raised Dorcas (love that name), and Paul raised the young man that fell out of the window. In fact, lots of dead people were revived in Jerusalem as a side effect of Christ’s resurrection. They were walking around the city talking to people. “Hey guys! What’s going on?”
We certainly don’t say that they were resurrected, or that they are somehow divine because they came back to life. That’s because there is a HUGE difference between reviving and resurrecting. All of those people who were revived, every one of them, died again. Additionally, they were not any different than they were before they died. They were still constrained by the physical laws that govern our Universe.
Christ’s resurrection, however, is different than all of that. He died and rose in a different form. He was physical, he could eat, yet he was beyond physical, he could walk through walls, change his appearance and teleport. Additionally, Christ did not die again, He lives.
We know from scripture that Jesus is the only person ever to have been resurrected… so far. One Day we will all be resurrected in what is referred to as The Resurrection. At that time, not only will all people be resurrected (some to eternal life, some to condemnation), but the Universe will be resurrected into a perfect form, the one it was created to be, that is able to endure Eternity with its immortal inhabitants.
A great illustration of the difference for children would be if a caterpillar went into its cocoon, then when it came out it was still a caterpillar; that is like being revived. But when one comes out and is transformed into a butterfly, it is a new creation. It can fly, caterpillars can’t fly. The DNA is unchanged, it is the same caterpillar, but it is metamorphosed into something more capable.
So, you see, being revived is completely different than being resurrected. Our hope is in Jesus for our own resurrection.