V. 40.— God having provided some better thing for us, that they without us should not be made perfect. God having provided some better thing for us...— With the exception of Enoch and Elijah, all the family of Adam have returned to the dust. One generation has passed away, and another come to occupy the earth. The people of God have entered into rest, although their bodies have mouldered in the dust. But, while the soul remains in a state of separation from the body, they are not made perfect, they are in a state of transition, they are present with the Lord; but their body, so fearfully and wonderfully made, is reduced to its first elements, and appears to be turned to destruction. Christ is the first-born from the dead; the Holy One of God saw no corruption. He did, indeed, taste of death, and has become the first-fruits of them that sleep. They came into the world in successive generations, but they shall all be made perfect in one. John 17:23. When the Lord shall descend with a shout, with the voice of an archangel and the trump of God, the dead in Christ shall arise. There will be no priority of those who lived in the early ages of the world. They are all members of Christ, of His flesh and of His bones, and His body cannot be mutilated. Believers are members of Christ’ s body, of His flesh and of His bones. Each individual believer, therefore, is necessary to the perfection of the whole; so that, while some remain in the grave the body of Christ is incomplete. This passage seems to be a conclusive argument against the notion of first and second resurrection. The first resurrection is figurative, as John the Baptist was figuratively Elijah. The body of Christ is compared to the human body. Every member, the smallest and, apparently, the most insignificant, is essential to the perfection of the natural body, and not less to the mystical body of Christ; which, like the other, is one body composed of many members. 1 Corinthians 12:10.