Jesus' Resurrection Experience 

Jesus’ lifeless body rested in the tomb of Joseph of Arimathea for about thirty-six hours – from 3pm on Friday afternoon, April 7, 30 CE, when he breathed his last breath, until about 3am Sunday morning, April 9, when he emerged from the tomb.

After Jesus was placed in the tomb, most of his followers did not truly know that he would rise from the dead, although David Zebedee and Joseph of Arimathea did believe that he would. But the Jewish authorities were taking no chances. They had heard the Master say that he would rise from the dead on the third day, and they knew him well enough by then to take him seriously. It wasn’t that they really believed a resurrection would happen. However, to prevent any of Jesus' disciples from attempting to remove the body and falsely claim that Jesus had been resurrected, they requested a guard and ten Roman soldiers to protect the tomb with a sizable stone and to maintain surveillance.

But unbeknownst to the rulers and the standing guard, Jesus would defy their precautions and emerge from the tomb in a semi-spirit form, impervious to material limitation. Therefore, Jesus could pass through the stone barriers unseen, leaving the seals unbroken and the soldiers on guard unaware of what had occurred. Shortly after, his physical body was removed and subjected to instant dissolution by the angels, leaving the tomb empty and leading to the facts of his resurrection being misunderstood.

Five weeks earlier, when Jesus resurrected Lazarus from the dead, he told Lazarus: "My son, what has happened to you will also be experienced by all who believe this gospel except that they shall be resurrected in a more glorious form. You shall be a living witness of the truth which I spoke – I am the resurrection and the life." This amazing miracle was exclusive to Lazarus and spectacularly demonstrated Jesus' power over life and death. Lazarus himself would experience a normal death experience years later of the same sickness that caused his earlier death.

When Jesus resurrected from the dead, he was resurrected into the more glorious form about which he spoke to Lazarus. This was accomplished through power within himself; no other personalities assisted him.

Jesus voluntarily laid down his life on Friday; on Sunday morning, he took it up again as he had said he would. Although exactly what happened that morning may never be fully known, we do know that the Master’s resurrection took place inside the tomb, where Jesus’ lifeless body was laid. He resurrected in the personality of the divine Son of God, Christ Michael, and the human Son of Man, Jesus of Nazareth.

Although spirit personalities had nothing to do with Jesus’ resurrection, they were present on this occasion. Gabriel was one such being, and there were also groups of spirit beings from the heavenly mansion worlds, among whom the risen Jesus would spend some time as one of their kind – a once-mortal, now ascendent being.

When Jesus emerged from the tomb, he greeted Gabriel who was present at the tomb, instructing him to carry on as executive of the universe with Immanuel. He sent greetings to Immanuel and procured the certification of his mortal passage.

Jesus then said to the assembled spirit beings: "Having finished my life in the flesh, I would tarry here for a short time in transition form that I may more fully know the life of my ascendant creatures and further reveal the will of my Father in Paradise."

In connection with his sojourn, Jesus was introduced to life as it is lived on the mansion worlds. But while this meeting was taking place, the Master was called away two times because he desired to speak to certain of his former associates in the flesh who had come to the tomb in search of him, only to find it empty. And to them, he appeared in his semi-spirit form, saying to Mary Magdelene in his first resurrection appearance: "Touch me not, for I am not as you knew me in the flesh." He subsequently made nineteen total appearances in his risen form to nearly one thousand eyewitnesses over the next forty days.

Soon after Jesus greeted Gabriel and the spirit beings, he ordered Gabriel to initiate the dispensational resurrection of a "great multitude" of sleeping souls from the days of Adam, saying: "As my Father has life in himself, so has he given it to the Son to have life in himself. Although I have not yet fully resumed the exercise of universe jurisdiction, this self-imposed limitation does not in any manner restrict the bestowal of life upon my sleeping sons; let the roll call of the planetary resurrection begin."

On May 18, 30 CE, Jesus did finally take leave of our world, ascending to the right hand of his Father and resuming his life as Christ Michael, sovereign of our universe.

While Jesus was the divine Son of God, he was also the Son of Man, a mortal like us in every way. So, we can expect that some of our experience will parallel his. We will rest in the sleep of death for a time and then emerge as semi-spirit beings. The important difference here is that Jesus was able to resurrect on earth and appear to many eyewitnesses, while we will resurrect on the mansion worlds, never to return to this planet of our nativity.

In connection with his sojourn with the spirit beings, Jesus was introduced – in his role as an ascendent mortal – to life as it is lived on the mansion worlds. And again, this corresponds to the experience that all mortals will have upon arrival on the mansion worlds, the difference being that Jesus had this experience while still here on earth in order to complete the final work of his bestowal.

When Jesus resurrected, his material body was left as it was, in the tomb. This is true for all mortals whose material bodies return to the dust from which they are made. However, Jesus’ material body was subjected to instantaneous dissolution by the agency of the seraphic hosts; in contrast, our bodies will decompose by purely natural means.

Just before he died, Jesus commended his spirit to the Father; like every human, the spirit counterpart of his life that he had built up over the course of his life resided in his soul, and it was this that he commended to the Father. Upon our death, our soul will also be commended to the Father, along with our identity and our personality. The reuniting of these elements constitutes resurrection into a new life.

Jesus’ resurrection was accomplished through the power that was inherent in himself; no other personality assisted him. We will be assisted by the angels and by our indwelling spirit of God, without whose sacred trust of our soul, mind, personality, and identity resurrection could not be accomplished. For us, resurrection will be experienced on the mansion worlds; for Jesus, resurrection occurred in the tomb.

Like Jesus, we will be introduced to life as semi-spirit beings after we resurrect on the mansion worlds. Jesus had this experience immediately upon his resurrection, as groups of spirit beings from the mansion worlds were assembled to greet him here on earth and to aid him in becoming oriented to this new way of life. He sojourned with them for forty days, gaining the final experience of existence as a human being before ascending to the Father.

While the resurrection of humans occurred before Jesus' life on earth, he made it a much more knowable and certain experience by demonstrating it to those who witnessed him after his death and through his teachings for those of us who have lived after his bestowal.