Jeanie C. Crain http://crain.english.missouriwestern.edu

The Resurrection of Believers. With all the concentration of the later Easter narratives upon the personal fate of Jesus, it must never be forgotten that resurrection is a corporate event. Jesus was raised as the firstfruits. Believers share in his resurrection initially through baptism. Paul is very cautious about this: believers share his death but their resurrection is conditional upon their present obedience and will not be complete until the parousia or second coming (Romans 6.3–11; 1 Thessalonians 4.15–17; See Also Biblical Theology, article on New Testament).

The deutero-Pauline Colossians and Ephesians are less cautious. Colossians asserts that we are already risen with Christ through baptism, though this risen state carries with it present moral responsibilities and its full consummation is not realized until the end (Colossians 3.1–4), while in Ephesians believers are already raised to life and made to sit at Christ’s right hand in heavenly places (Ephesians 2.5–6). Ethical obedience is still required in Ephesians, as the exhortation in Ephesians 4–6 shows, and there is still a final consummation (Ephesians 4.13). Similarly, the Fourth Gospel teaches that resurrection and eternal life are already realized for believers (John 5.24; etc.), though here again there is a future consummation to be awaited (John 6.39; etc.). The corporate and cosmic dimensions of resurrection are thus never completely lost in the New Testament.  Reginald Fuller The Oxford Companion to the Bible

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