The resurrection according to the spirit is believed by some to be the only true one.
But pay attention, brothers, we ask you; it is not a matter to be taken lightly, it concerns our faith: which should be guarded not so much from pagans, as from certain perverse ones, who wish to be called and seen as Christians. For there were even under the Apostles those who said that the resurrection had already happened, and they perverted the faith of some, about whom the Apostle said: They have erred concerning the truth, saying that the resurrection has already happened; and they have overturned the faith of some. It is not without reason that he did not say: They have wandered from the truth; but: concerning the truth, yet they did not hold to the truth. Therefore death is taken away, and will not exist in a certain manner: as the Apostle says: The mortal will be swallowed up by life. For it is also said of the Lord, that he swallowed up death. For death does not depart as if having some substance of its own: but in the very body where it was, it will cease to be, so that you see the appearance, hold the appearance, seek corruption and mortality, and do not find them. So has corruption departed somewhere? No: but it was killed there, it was swallowed up there. Therefore when he said: It is necessary for this corruptible to put on incorruption, and this mortal to put on immortality: then the saying which is written will be fulfilled: Death is swallowed up in victory. Where, O death, is your strife? where, O death, is your sting? And he did not say: Death has departed in victory; but: Death is swallowed up in victory. How then did they wander concerning the truth? Because they spoke of one true resurrection, but denied the other.
The resurrection of the wicked and the good is distinguished.
For there is a resurrection according to faith, in which everyone who believes rises in spirit. Indeed, one will rise well in the body who first has risen in the spirit. For those who have not first risen in spirit through faith will not rise to that change in the body, where every corruption will be taken up and absorbed, but to that penal integrity. For even the bodies of the impious will be complete, nothing will appear diminished from them; but the integrity of the body will be for punishment, and a certain, so to speak, certain firmness of the body, a corruptible firmness: because where pain can exist, it cannot be said that there is no corruption; although that infirmity in sufferings does not fail, so that pain itself does not die out. For it is not unreasonably believed that corruption itself is signified prophetically by the name of the worm, and pain itself by the name of the fire. But because the firmness will be so great that it will neither yield to sufferings into death, nor be changed into incorruption, in which there is no pain; therefore it is written thus: Their worm will not die, and their fire will not be extinguished. But the change which will have no corruption will belong to the saints. Therefore, it will belong to those who now have the resurrection of the spirit through faith; about which resurrection the Apostle says: If then you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ is seated at the right hand of God: set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on the earth. For you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God. Just as we die according to the spirit, and rise according to the spirit: so later we die according to the flesh, and rise according to the flesh. Death according to the spirit is not to believe the vain things which one believed before, not to do the evil things which one did before. Resurrection according to the spirit is to believe the healthful things one did not believe, and to do the good things one did not do before. He who thought earthly idols and images were gods, recognized the one God, believed in Him, died in idolatry, rose in the Christian faith. He was a drunkard, he is sober; he died from drunkenness, he rose in sobriety. Thus, when one withdraws from all evil works, a kind of death occurs in the soul, and it rises in its good works. The Apostle says, Mortify therefore your members which are upon the earth, immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire, and covetousness, which is idolatry. Therefore, with these members mortified, we rise in the good things that are contrary to these; in holiness, in tranquility, in love, in almsgiving. Just as death according to the spirit precedes the resurrection which is according to the spirit: so will death according to the flesh precede the resurrection which is to come according to the flesh.
Testimonies of the double resurrection from the Apostle.
Therefore, let us recognize both, the spiritual and the bodily. The spiritual pertains to what is said: Arise, you who sleep; and arise from the dead; and that: Those who sat in the shadow of death, a light has arisen for them; and what I mentioned a little earlier: If you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above. The bodily resurrection, however, pertains to what the Apostle now says, who had proposed such a question to himself: But someone will say, how do the dead rise? And with what body do they come? Therefore, he was dealing with the resurrection of the body, in which the Lord preceded His Church; concerning this he thus says: This corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality. Because of what he had said: Flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God. However, we have in another place very clear testimony of the apostle Paul regarding the resurrection according to the spirit, and the resurrection according to the flesh. For the mortal body, which is or was animated, is called flesh. Thus, the Apostle speaks: But if Christ is in you, the body indeed is dead because of sin, but the spirit is life because of righteousness. Behold, the resurrection of the spirit is now understood to be accomplished through righteousness: see whether the resurrection of the body is also to be hoped for. For he did not wish to call the mortal body mortal, but dead; and he nevertheless indicates in what follows that he meant this. Thus, he follows and says: If the Spirit of Him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, He who raised our Lord Jesus will also give life to your mortal bodies through His Spirit who dwells in you. Wherefore, those erred concerning the truth, who denied one resurrection. For if they denied it in every way, they would stray from the truth, not concerning the truth. Because they erred concerning the truth, they confessed one, which is according to the spirit; however, they denied the other, which is hoped for through the resurrection of the flesh, saying that the resurrection has already happened: which unless they said in such a way as to prevent belief and hope in the one that is to come in the body, it would not be said of them: They subvert the faith of some.
The testimony of the Lord Himself in the Gospel according to John.
But now hear the most manifest testimony of the Lord Himself in the Gospel according to John, in one place declaring both resurrections, both the one that is happening now according to the spirit, and the one that will later according to the flesh, so clearly that no one who in any way considers himself a Christian and is subject to evangelical authority can doubt; so that there remains no room for calumniators, as if wanting to overturn Christians through Christian faith by inserting their poisons to kill the souls of the weak. But listen from the very text. For this reason, not only do I perform the office of a disputant, but also that of a reader, so that our discourse may be supported by the authority of the sacred Scriptures, not built upon human suspicions on sand, in case something is not remembered. Therefore, listen to the Gospel according to John. The Lord speaks: Amen, amen I say to you, that he who hears my word and believes in Him who sent me, has eternal life; and does not come into judgment, but has passed from death into life. Amen, amen I say to you, that the hour is coming, and now is, when the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God; and those who hear shall live. For as the Father has life in Himself, so He has granted the Son also to have life in Himself; and He has given Him authority to execute judgment, because He is the Son of Man. Do not marvel at this, for the hour is coming in which all who are in the tombs will hear His voice: and will come forth—those who have done good, to the resurrection of life; and those who have done evil, to the resurrection of judgment. I indeed think that many understand from the Lord Himself in this place both resurrections, and according to the spirit through faith, and according to the flesh, declared distinctly and clearly by that well-known trumpet. Yet let us carefully consider these same words, so that it may be clear to all who hear. Amen, amen I say to you, that he who hears my word and believes in Him who sent me, has eternal life; and does not come into judgment, but has passed from death into life. A resurrection according to the spirit, which happens now through faith. But lest it might seem to have been proposed in such a way as if it were still far off; although He did not say: He will pass from death into life; but: He has passed from death into life: yet, lest He might seem to have used a past tense figuratively, as is: They pierced my hands and feet, which was still to be foretold; He follows and explains this very thing more plainly: Amen, amen I say to you, He says, that the hour is coming and now is, when the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God; and those who hear shall live. What He said above: Has passed from death to life; He now says: they shall live. But lest what He said: The hour is coming, might be hoped for at the end of the world, when also the resurrection of bodies will take place; He added: and now is. For He did not say only: The hour is coming; but: The hour is coming, and now is. But those who hear this voice shall live; namely, the life which He signified earlier, saying: Has passed from death to life. Therefore, here He signified those who do not pertain to the penalty of judgment; because they anticipate judgment with their faith, and pass from death to life.
What the resurrection will be like.
Therefore, it remains to show that the future judgment will distinguish between the good and the bad: for here he only mentioned the good as pertaining to the present resurrection, which is according to the spirit. It follows then, and he says: And he gave him the power to execute judgment, because he is the son of man. He hinted at in what way he received the power of judgment: because, he says, he is the son of man. For as the Son of God, he has eternal power with the Father. He now consequently explains what the future judgment will be like: Do not marvel at this, he says, for the hour is coming in which all who are in the tombs will hear his voice; and they will come out, those who have done good, to the resurrection of life; but those who have done evil, to the resurrection of judgment. Earlier when he said: The hour is coming; he added: and is now, lest that hour, which is to come at the end of the world, be thought to be foretold as the resurrection of bodies. Here, therefore, because he wanted it to be understood, when he said: The hour is coming; he did not add: and is now. Likewise, earlier he said the dead would hear the voice of the Son of God, but he did not mention the tombs, so that we might distinguish the dead through the error of the mind who are now resurrected through faith, from those dead whose corpses are in the tombs to be resurrected at the end of the world. Here, therefore, so that the resurrection of bodies might be hoped for at the end: All, he says, who are in the tombs, will hear his voice, and come out. Likewise, earlier he said: They will hear the voice of the Son of God; and those who hear will live. Why was it necessary to add: Those who hear, when it could have been said simply: They will hear the voice of the Son of God, and live; unless it was because he was speaking of those who are dead through the error of the mind, of whom many hear and do not hear, that is, do not obey, do not believe? But those who hear as he wished, when he said: He who has ears to hear, let him hear, they will live. So many will hear, but those who hear will live, that is, those who believe. For those who hear in such a way that they do not believe, will not live: whence it appears from what kind of death, and from what kind of life he was speaking in that place: namely, from the death which pertains only to the wicked, precisely because they are wicked; and from the life which pertains only to the good, precisely because they become good.
Here, however, where he declares that they will rise according to the bodies, he does not say: they will hear his voice, and those who have heard will come forth. For all will hear the final trumpet, and will come forth, because we will all rise again. But because not all will be changed, he follows and says: those who have done good, to the resurrection of life; but those who have done evil, to the resurrection of judgment. So above, where they revive according to the spirit through faith, all revive to the same lot; so that their life is not distributed into happiness and misery, but all belong to the good part. And therefore, when he had said: those who hear, will live; he did not add: those who have done good, to eternal life; but those who have done evil, to eternal punishment. For this same thing that he said, will live, he wished to be understood only in the good; just as above he said: He has passed from death to life; nor did he say to which life; because to be revived from death by faith, cannot be a bad life. Here, however, first, not: they will hear his voice and live; for he wished for live to be understood in the good throughout this entire reading; but he said: they will hear, and will come forth, by which word he signified the bodily movement of bodies from the places of their burials. But because coming forth from the graves will not be to the good for all: those who have done good, he said, to the resurrection of life; here too he wished life to be understood only in the good; but those who have done evil, he said, to the resurrection of judgment, judgment clearly being placed for punishment.
What kind of body, and what kind of life of the saints after the resurrection.
So now, brothers, let no one seek with perverse subtlety what kind of figure the bodies will have in the resurrection of the dead, what stature, what movement, what gait. It is enough for you that your flesh will rise in that form in which the Lord appeared, in the form of a man indeed. But do not fear corruption because of the form: for if you do not fear corruption, you will not fear that statement either: Flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God; nor will you fall into the snare of the Sadducees, which you cannot avoid because you think that men will rise again for this purpose, to marry wives, and to beget children, and to do the works of mortal life. If you ask what the life will be like, who among men can explain it? It will be the life of the Angels. Whoever can show you the life of angels will show you their life; for they will be equal to the Angels. But if the life of Angels is hidden, let no one inquire further; lest through error he does not arrive at what he seeks, but at what he has devised for himself. For he seeks rashly, and seeking hastily. You walk along the way; you will come to the homeland if you do not desert the way. Therefore, hold on to Christ, brothers, hold on to faith, hold on to the way: it will lead you to what you cannot see now. For in that head appeared what is hoped for in the members; in that foundation is demonstrated what is to be built on in our faith, so that later it may be perfected in form: lest perhaps, while you think you see, something may appear to you through a false image as being what it is not, and having left the way you stray into error, and do not reach the homeland to which the way leads, that is, to the form to which faith leads.
In the perpetual future sabbath, there will be no works, not even works of mercy.
You ask: How do the Angels live? It is enough for you to know this, that they do not live corruptibly. Indeed, it is easier for you to be told what there will not be there rather than what there will be there. For even I, my brothers, can briefly run through some things that will not be there: and I can do this because we have experienced these things and we know what will not be there. But what will be there we have not yet experienced. For we walk by faith, not yet by sight: as long as we are in the body, we are away from the Lord. So, what will not be there? Marrying a wife so that children may be born; because there is no death there. There will not be growing because there is no aging. There will not be refreshment, because there is no depletion. There will not be business, because there is no need. Nor will there be those commendable works of innocent men, which the need and necessity of this life compel them to do. For I do not say only that there will not be the work of robbers or usurers, but even those things that innocent men do because they need to alleviate human necessities will not be there.
The Sabbath will be perpetual, which is celebrated by the Jews temporarily, but is understood by us eternally. There will be an ineffable rest, which cannot be explained; but, as I said, it is explained in some manner when things that will not be there are spoken of. We strive for that rest, we are spiritually regenerated for that rest. For as we are born carnally to labors, so we are reborn spiritually to rest: with Him crying out: Come to me, all who labor and are burdened, and I will refresh you. Here He feeds, there He perfects: here He promises, there He returns: here He signifies, there He demonstrates. But when in that blessedness we are perfected and saved in both spirit and body, these businesses will not be; nor will those things be there which are praised here in the good works of Christians. For who is not praised as a Christian for giving bread to the hungry and drink to the thirsty, clothing the naked, welcoming the stranger, making peace for those in conflict, visiting the sick, burying the dead, consoling the mourner? Great works, full of mercy, full of praise and grace. But those too will not be there: because the necessity of misery created the works of mercy. Whom do you feed, where no one is hungry? To whom do you give drink, where no one is thirsty? Will you clothe the naked, where all are clothed in immortality itself? You heard a little earlier about the tunics of the saints, when the Apostle spoke: This perishable nature must put on the imperishable. Where 'putting on' sounds, it indicates clothing. Adam lost this garment to take up skins. Will you welcome the stranger, where all live in their homeland? Will you visit the sick, where all will thrive in the same firmness of incorruption? Bury the dead, where all live forever? Make peace for those in conflict, where all things are in peace? Console the sad, where all will rejoice eternally? Therefore, as miseries will simultaneously cease, these works of mercy will cease too.
Amen and Alleluia will be our entire activity with perpetual delight.
What then will be done there? Did I not say earlier, it is easier for me to say what will not be there than what will be there? This I know, brothers, that we will not be sleeping doing nothing, because sleep itself was given as a support for the soul's weakness. Indeed, a fragile body could not bear the continuous strain of mortal senses, unless it were repaired by being put to sleep so that it may bear the same strain; and as there will be a renewal from death, so now there is wakefulness from sleep. Therefore, it will not be there. For where there is no death, there will not be an image of death. Nor let any fear of tedium creep into anyone, when it is said to them that they will always be watching, and not doing anything. I can say, and indeed I cannot say how it will be, because I cannot yet see it: nevertheless, I can say something not impertinently, because I say it from the Scriptures, what our activity will be there. Our entire activity will be Amen and Alleluia. What do you say, brothers? I see that you hear and are glad. But do not be saddened again by carnal thought, because if perhaps one of you stood and said daily: Amen and Alleluia, you would wither with tedium, and in those very voices fall asleep, and wish to be silent: and therefore think life to be despicable to you, and not desirable, saying to yourselves: Shall we always say Amen and Alleluia, who will endure it? I will say then, if I can, as much as I can. We will not say Amen and Alleluia with passing sounds, but with the affection of the soul. For what is Amen? What is Alleluia? Amen is true: Alleluia, praise God. Because therefore God is unchangeable truth, without defect, without progression, without loss, without increase, without any inclination of falsity, perpetual and stable, and always remaining incorruptible; these things we do in the creature and in this life, are like figures of things through the signs of the body, and certain things in which we walk through faith; when we see face to face what now we see through a mirror in a mystery, then in a far different and ineffable manner we will say: It is true; and when we say this, indeed we will say Amen, but with an insatiable satisfaction. Because nothing will be lacking, hence satisfaction: because indeed what will not be lacking will always delight, hence there will be, if it can be said, an insatiable satisfaction. As much as you will be insatiably satisfied with truth, so insatiably with truth you will say: Amen. How can anyone say: what eye has not seen, nor ear heard, nor has it entered into the heart of man? Therefore, without any weariness and with perpetual delight, we will see the truth, and with the most certain evidence we will contemplate it, kindled with love for that truth and clinging to it with a sweet and chaste embrace and that incorporeal one, we will praise it with such a voice, and we will say: Alleluia. Rejoicing indeed, inflaming one another with the most fervent charity towards equal praise and towards God, all the citizens of that city will say: Alleluia, because they will say: Amen.
The rest of the blessed in the contemplation of truth.
This, therefore, will so fulfill the life of the saints, along with their bodies transformed into a heavenly and angelic state, and will so invigorate them immortally that from that most blessed contemplation and praise of the truth, no corruption of necessity will avert or distract them. Thus for them, food will be the truth itself: and rest itself, like reclining. For it is said that the reclining ones will feast, as the Lord says: "Many will come from the east and the west, and recline with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob in the kingdom of my Father": this signified that they will be nourished with the great rest of the food of truth. For such food refreshes and does not fail; it fills and remains whole: you are consummated, but it is not consumed. Such is that food, not like this one, which fails in order to refresh, and lest life end for the one who takes it, it ends instead. Therefore, that reclining will be eternal rest: those feasts will be immutable truth: that feasting will be eternal life, that is, the knowledge itself. Because this is, he says, eternal life, that they know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent.
Testimonies of the Scriptures concerning the blessed life in which we will be free for God.
For because that life in the contemplation of truth will not only remain ineffably, but also delightfully, many places in Scripture testify, which we cannot all recount. Hence it is that: Whoever loves me will keep my commandments; and I will love him; and I will show myself to him. As if indeed a fruit and reward were being sought from him, because his commandments are kept: I will show, he says, myself to him; placing perfect happiness, that he may be known as he is. Hence also it is that: Beloved, we are now children of God, but it has not yet been revealed what we shall be. We know that when it is revealed, we shall be like him; because we shall see him as he is. Therefore Apostle Paul says: Then, he says, face to face; because he also said in another place: We are transformed into the same image from glory to glory, as by the Spirit of the Lord. And in the Psalms it says: Cease, and know that I am the Lord. Then therefore he will be seen best, when we will be at our most idle. But when will we be at our most idle except when the laborious times have passed, the times of necessities, by which we are now bound, as long as the earth brings forth for sinful man thorns and thistles, that in the sweat of his brow he may eat his bread? Therefore with the times of the earthly man entirely passed, and the day of the heavenly man entirely perfected, we shall see most highly; because we shall be most idle. For with corruption and need ended in the resurrection of the faithful, there will be no reason for labor. As if it were said: Recline and eat; so it is said: Cease and see. Therefore we shall be idle and we shall see God as he is; and seeing we shall praise God. And this will be the life of the saints, this the activity of the tranquil, because without failure we shall praise. We shall praise not for one day: but just as that day has no end of time, so our praise will have no end of cessation; and therefore we shall praise for ages of ages. Also listen to what Scripture says to God, which we desire: Blessed are they who dwell in your house; they will praise you for ages of ages. Turned to the Lord, let us pray to him for ourselves and for all his people standing with us in the courts of his house: which he may deign to keep and protect; through Jesus Christ his son our Lord, who with him lives and reigns for ages of ages. Amen.