What does "raise him up at the last day" mean (John 6:44)?

While in some other parts of Scripture those caught up are distinguished from those raised from the dead, they are not so contemplated here. Nor are they in John 6. Four times over we get in that chapter, “I will raise him up at the last day.” We are well aware that many who believe on Him, and who eat his flesh and drink His blood, and thereby find eternal life, shall be caught up without dying; yet here He speaks of raising such up, and that without any exception. The change of the body when the Lord comes will be equivalent to resurrection. Therefore the Lord can say, “I will raise Him up.” The last day, of course, is the last day of the present age, a general term for its conclusion, without meaning just the last twenty-four hours.

And here we learn, that the teaching about the Bread from heaven involves the truth of the resurrection of the body. For the body, as well as the soul of the believer, is to share in everlasting life. So four times over in this chapter (6:39-40, 44, 54) the Lord declares, "I will raise him up at the last day." Of resurrection by His voice of power He had spoken in chapter 5:28-29, distinguishing there the resurrection to life from the resurrection to judgment. Here in chapter 6 He announces who they are who can share in the former: those who now eat His flesh and drink His blood — i.e. feed spiritually on Him as dead. Such live for ever (58). The whole person of the saint is to share in this blessing. With this the Lord's discourse in the synagogue at Capernaum comes to a close. In John's Gospel He never taught therein again.

Lastly, and this is the third thing, the Lord says, "And I will raise him up at the last day." This has already been referred to in connection with the previous verse; but a few more words are necessary to explain its repetition. Eternal life does not belong to this world; its home is in heaven, in the Father's house, and consequently its full enjoyment, according to the thoughts of God, is future. The apostle Paul generally thus speaks of it, and thus more than once speaks of the "hope of eternal life." Resurrection (if dead before the Lord's return) must then come in to introduce us actually into that blessed circle of divine affections in the Father's house. Even now, possessed of the springing well, we may, through the energy of the Holy Ghost, enter upon and enjoy in our measure the bliss of eternal life; but for the realization of it according to the Father's counsels, we must wait until the Lord Jesus Christ returns as Saviour and changes our bodies of humiliation, that they may be fashioned like unto His glorious body, according to the working whereby He is able to subdue all things unto Himself. All this is included in the Father's will, and this blessed will is accomplished in and through His beloved Son. The result is that all His brethren, conformed to His own image, will surround Him as the firstborn throughout the ages of eternity. There in the Father's house, sharing His glory, and thus one, even as the Father and the Son are one, they will also, being with Him where He is, behold the glory which the Father has given to Him; for, as He said, in addressing the Father, "Thou lovedst Me before the foundation of the world." Well might we say: -

Outwardly, it seemed that God's will had been frustrated in the death of His dear Son, for Messiah was cut off and had nothing; but before going to the cross, the Lord had stated publicly, "This is the Father's will which hath sent me, that of all which He hath given me I should lose nothing, but should raise it up again at the last day." A new world has been opened up to man through the death and resurrection of Christ; and it is in this world, where sin and death can never come, that the Son has secured all for the Father's will and pleasure. In resurrection, all that has been given to the Son, is beyond the reach and power of death: Satan has no authority there; nor can he enter it to deceive, defile, or corrupt. Moreover, those who believe on the Son, receive everlasting life; a life that death cannot touch; and the Son will raise up, in resurrection power, those who have believed on Him. So that according to the Father's will, the companions of Christ are going to be with Him in resurrection, to have part with Him in those things that lie outside of what is temporal; where He shall be displayed in glory; yea, in the glory of all that the Father has given to Him.

"Jesus therefore† answered and said to them, Murmur not among yourselves. No one can come unto Me except the Father Who sent Me draw him, and I will raise him up at the last day. It is written in the prophets, And they shall be all taught of God. (Isa. 54:13.) Every one that heard‡ from the Father and learned cometh unto Me. Not that any one hath seen the Father, except He Who is of God, He hath seen the Father" (verses 43, 44). Unbelief can only destroy and trouble; it cannot give life or comfort. Man under Satan is the source of unbelief, which ever leads from Christ, not to Him. But as the Father sent Christ, so He draws the believer to Christ, Who raises Him up at the last day. It is not man's worth or work or will, therefore, but the Father's grace, by which one comes to Christ. The whole blessing, in short, is of sovereign mercy, and so the prophets have written. All true teaching comes from God, and all are taught of God, Who never forgets what is due to Christ. "Every one that heard from the Father and learned" comes to Christ. Not that the Father has been seen by man. He is known in the Son. "He who is of God, He hath seen the Father"; it is Christ only Who has. Ἰησοῦς, omitted by most [so Blass], is read by ℵBLT, etc. † οὖν, "therefore," is read by ℵAD and ten uncials more, most cursives, etc.; but omitted by BCKLTΙΙ, ten cursives, and several ancient versions [Blass simply, "He said to them"]. ‡ The aorist participle has the preponderance of witnesses in age and number.

The Lord, however, was about to manifest the glory of His Person. He would prove that the power which would certainly be exercised in the "last day" (see John 6:39-40, 44, 54 for His references to the last day) was resident inherently in His Person — He is the Son of God. As such (see John 5:21-29) He quickens dead souls, and as such He shall raise the dead. So He says to Martha, "I am the resurrection and the life." Death and corruption must give way before Him. It is in virtue of this truth that we elsewhere read, "… the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed" (1 Corinthians 15:52).

It could well be that Martha had heard something of our Lord's teaching as to "the last day" — "I know that he shall rise again in resurrection at the last day." In this she referred to our Lord's word as to her brother Lazarus, "Jesus saith unto her thy brother shall rise again" (verse 23). Or she could have been thinking in terms of Daniel 12:2, or even Ezekiel 37:12. (See also Romans 11:15). What she really needed to know was that the power of resurrection and life was there before her in the Person of our Lord, the great I AM of John 8:58. While as Son of God He speaks life to dead souls now, so giving them to live before God in the blessedness of a life — eternal life — to which neither sin nor death can have anything to say. Shortly He shall act as the resurrection and the life to the bodies of His own. Then those believers who have died shall live, while those who live, physically, and believe shall never die. In other words, sleeping saints shall be raised — "I am the resurrection" — living saints shall be changed — "I am the life." Then shall be fulfilled His prayer of John 17:24, "Father, I will that they also whom Thou hast given Me, be with Me where I am; that they may behold My glory, which Thou hast given Me: for thou lovest me before the foundation of the world." So we close as we commenced with this blessed note: "The Father loveth the Son."

It is with this presence then that the believer has to do; it is for this he is looking. The child of God earnestly longs to enter into the perception of this power, which Christ has spent the travail of His soul to accomplish for him, in order that He may undo the very existence of Satan's power both in body and soul. He has triumphed over the power of Satan in the soul of every sinner who believes in Him - He shall triumph in their bodies also. "I am the resurrection," He says, as well as "the life: he that believeth in me, though he were dead, yet shall he live; and whosoever liveth and believeth in me shall never die: believest thou this?" It is not simply saying, Men die, and then I raise them again; but the very power that wrought over them to death yields to His presence both spiritually and personally. Christ, as the first-fruits, rose to shew the certainty of His people's resurrection; then they which are Christ's at His coming shall rise, when shall be fulfilled the saying that is written, "Death is swallowed up in victory." Here is what the enlightened soul is led to look for, the exercise of Christ's power over the utmost power of Satan. If the Spirit testifies within us of the energy of the life of Christ, in the conscious power of His quickening the soul, we have by that the certain evidence that our bodies must also be quickened; for, having made a new man within, think ye, will the Lord suffer it always to occupy an unredeemed body, liable to the power of death and corruption?

The resurrection of the saint is not a preliminary to a judgment which is to decide the state he is to be in, but the putting him into the state in which he is like Christ and in which he is to be for ever in the Father's house with Him; power introducing him into that condition which redemption has obtained for him. Let my reader weigh for a moment the vast importance of this truth, incontrovertible if we acknowledge the authority of scripture. We are raised in glory. Let him see what a seal it sets on the efficacy of redemption and on the nature of our association with Christ in life. We have life in Christ, life from Him risen. So complete is our redemption and the efficacy of Christ's work, that the power which calls us out of the grave is used only to put us into actual glorious conformity to Christ glorified, who is our life. It is evident that this can have no application to, but is in the completest contrast with, the resurrection of the wicked.

What God did for Christ, He will presently do for all who belong to Christ. They will have a resurrection in character like to His. "Every man in his own order; Christ the first-fruits; afterwards they that are Christ's at His coming" (1 Cor. 15:23). The notion of a general resurrection at the end of time is erroneous. No such confusion could possibly mark the ways of God. He has drawn a sharp line of demarcation between those who serve Him and those who serve Him not. At the moment of Christ's descent into the air according to 1 Thess. 4, all believers who have fallen asleep from the beginning until that time will be raised from their tombs; and, together with the changed living ones, will be taken in triumph into the Father's house. Apocalyptic martyrs will subsequently be added to their number, but the mass of the believing dead will be raised at Christ's return. "Blessed and holy is he that has part in the first resurrection; on such the second death has no power" (Rev. 20:6).