The resurrection of Jesus as act of God is a decisive event, a final judgment, which affects the entire state of human existence, the whole situation in which we have our being and as such affects every human being. It is this concentration of universal significance in the resurrection of Jesus that is so very important for the whole of the Christian message. The New Testament does not teach a doctrine of individual resurrection first, in the sense that each man is to rise again because he is made of a body and an immortal soul, a resurrection mainly because of some interior principle in his creation. It is the fulfillment of God’s covenant mercies in the incarnation and resurrection that confers immortality. Christ only has immortality and we receive out of his fullness. The general resurrection is absolutely dependent on the resurrection of Jesus Christ himself, for it is in his death and resurrection that God has dealt with death and guilt and hell once and for all. (from Space, Time and Resurrection,pp. 34-35. Grand Rapids, MI: William B. Eerdmans, 1976.)
