On the third day of Jesus’ death, the Almighty God did raise him from the dead and clothed him with immortal life in the spirit world. By miraculously clothing himself with a fleshly body like that in which he died, Jesus revealed himself to his anguished disciples, on one occasion to upwards of 500. (1 Corinthians, chapter 15) Thus he could indeed become the resurrection and the life to humankind for whom he died.

But the case of Jesus’ own resurrection was the most important for all mankind. He did not die again, as the others did; but now, in his resurrected, immortal state, he can be “the resurrection and the life” for humans to an unbroken endless life in perfection, free of the condemnation of death and under God’s universal sovereignty.

7, 8. (a) How do the age lengths of Adam and Methuselah substantiate the possibility for perfected humankind to live forever? (b) How long is the life of Melchizedek reckoned as being, and what does this argue for the life of the one whom he prefigured?

⁷ The possibility of endless human life on earth when obedient mankind is recovered from the fall into sin and death (through the first man Adam) is substantiated by the fact that Adam, even though he sinned against God, lived for 930 years, most of that time outside the perfect garden of Eden. One of his descendants, Methuselah, lived to be 969 years old. (Genesis 5:5, 27)

The life possibility of the resurrected Jesus Christ is likened to that of King-Priest Melchizedek, for Hebrews 7:15-17 tells us that the glorified Jesus Christ now has “the power of an indestructible life, for in witness it is said: ‘You are a priest forever according to the manner of Melchizedek.’” (See also Psalm 110:1-4.) So during all the time since his heavenly glorification in 33 C.E., the immortalized Jesus Christ has acted as a High Priest toward members of the human family, in behalf of whom he offered up himself as a perfect human sacrifice. Hence, he can act as a second Adam to the death-ridden human family. When in due time he raises the human dead back to earthly life, it will be with the opportunity for them to gain everlasting life in human perfection in a Paradise extended earth wide. Unlike the first Adam, the self-sacrificing Jesus Christ will not fail in his responsibility toward the human family for whom he poured out his perfect lifeblood.​—1 Corinthians 15:22-45.

As a sacrifice, his perfect human life could be substituted for the perfect human life that Adam had forfeited for all his natural descendants by willfully sinning against his Creator in the garden of Eden. Accordingly, the resurrected Jesus Christ could serve as the “Eternal Father” toward all those of whom the first Adam made himself a sinful father. This leaves it to God’s Son to become their Eternal Father.​—Isaiah 9:6.

11. If Jesus Christ and his apostles, while yet on earth, could raise the dead, what about Jesus’ ability in this regard since his own resurrection?

¹¹ When Jesus Christ and his apostles raised people from the dead, this did not relieve them of the effects of the condemnation of death that they had inherited from the first Adam. Hence, even Jesus’ much-loved friend Lazarus died again and came into need of the final resurrection under God’s established Kingdom. But that will afford no problem. If Jesus, when a perfect man on earth, was empowered to resurrect dead humans in order to renew and prolong their earthly life, at least for a while under this present system of things, is he not much more capable of raising the human dead at God’s time, now that he is once again a spirit Son of God? Yes, indeed, due to all the authority in heaven and on earth given to him since his own resurrection and his ascension back to his celestial Father.

12. Was the relationship of Jesus Christ to the human family cut off by the way he was resurrected, and how will he complete the purpose of his human sacrifice?

¹² When one of Christ’s disciples, the apostle Paul, was discussing the resurrection in his letter to the Corinthian Christians, Paul said: “It is even so written: ‘The first man Adam became a living soul.’ The last Adam became a life-giving spirit.” (1 Corinthians 15:45) The fact that he is spoken of as the last Adam indicates that he still bears some family relationship to the human race. The fact that he is now a superhuman spirit person does not matter. (Psalm 8:4, 5; Hebrews 2:5-9) During the coming judgment day of a thousand years, he will complete the purpose of his perfect human sacrifice by bringing back the human dead with the opportunity of being lifted to perfection on a Paradise earth and having him as their Eternal Father and Prince of Peace. So he will undo what Adam did to them.