Death and the Resurection

Yesterday, I talked a little about sin and repentance.  The ability to repent is made possible by Jesus.  Today I talk a little about physical death and the resurrection.  Today's scripture mastery is 1 Corinthians 15:20-22:

 20 But now is Christ risen from the dead, and become the firstfruits of them that slept.

 21 For since by man came death, by man came also the resurrection of the dead.

 22 For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive.

Through the atonement of Christ, we have all been given a wonderful gift.  That is the gift of the resurrection.  This is a free gift to all of us, whether we choose to believe in Him and repent of our sins, or not.  If we were born here on earth, we will, because of Christ's resurrection, also be resurrected, and receive a glorified and immortal body.  These verses from the Book of Mormon (2 Nephi 9:12-15) do a much better job of explaining this than I can.  This comes from a sermon that the prophet Jacob taught his people on this subject:

 12 And this death of which I have spoken, which is the spiritual death, shall deliver up its dead; which spiritual death is hell; wherefore, death and hell must deliver up their dead, and hell must deliver up its captive spirits, and the grave must deliver up its captive bodies, and the bodies and the spirits of men will be restored one to the other; and it is by the power of the resurrection of the Holy One of Israel.

 13 O how great the plan of our God! For on the other hand, the paradise of God must deliver up the spirits of the righteous, and the grave deliver up the body of the righteous; and the spirit and the body is restored to itself again, and all men become incorruptible, and immortal, and they are living souls, having a perfect knowledge like unto us in the flesh, save it be that our knowledge shall be perfect.

 14 Wherefore, we shall have a perfect knowledge of all our guilt, and our uncleanness, and our nakedness; and the righteous shall have a perfect knowledge of their enjoyment, and their righteousness, being clothed with purity, yea, even with the robe of righteousness.

 15 And it shall come to pass that when all men shall have passed from this first death unto life, insomuch as they have become immortal, they must appear before the judgment-seat of the Holy One of Israel; and then cometh the judgment, and then must they be judged according to the holy judgment of God.

In summary--Christ has two gifts he is willing to give to us all.  These gifts allow us the ability to overcome death.  First is the gift to overcome spiritual death, which is caused by sin, and is our separation from God's presence, is given to those who repent of their sins and accept Christ.  Second, the gift to overcome physical death, which is the separation of our spirit from our body, is given to all without condition.  We will all be resurrected, and come before Christ to be judged in the final judgement.