Why resurrect the living if they are already living?

The resurrection of humanity that started with the Jesus’ Jewish resurrection in Jerusalem was ongoing until the end of the age at 70 AD, so also the death of old covenant humanity was ongoing until 70 AD. Those being raised to life, culminated in the never ending new covenant life and those who stayed in the dying body ended in the permanent death of the old covenant, which was called the second death or the death of the death. So who was dead and who was living?

Whether still in a living biological body or already buried in the dirt, everyone in Hades and on everyone on earth was being considered part of the dead and dying body of humanity. The biologically living and the biologically dead both needed to join the resurrection of Christ before 70 AD, if they were to be found living in the new covenant at the end of the old age rather than still dying in the old covenant. Those not in the book of the living were the ones in contempt of the court of Yahweh and were thus judged to second death at the culmination of the old age of 1000.

If the death of Adam had already been made permanent by God then there could be no resurrection. But the body of Adam and Israel was dead and dying. The death of the body was still in process until their 1000 year age of accountability arrived. The dead and dying body was the one in the death of Adam and the death of Israel. The Greek verb tense in 1 Corinthians 5:14-15 for the verb “died” is second aorist active indicative: meaning it was a single action in the past that was not necessarily complete. Second aorist is composed of a combination of an irregular verb root and an imperfect ending.

2 Corinthians 5:14

CLV ¹⁴ For the love of Christ is constraining us, judging this, that, if One died for the sake of all, consequently all died.” (All died dead and dying but not permanently dead yet)

When Jesus died, He joined the dead and dying body still in the process of dying but not yet permanently dead. Jesus did not join the old covenant body of humanity after it’s second death in 70 AD. Second death is beyond the old covenant resurrection. Anyone born into the new covenant family is now past the death and dying of the old covenant body. The covenant transition is over. Death was swallowed up in life.

In the past God overlooked the ignorance of the Gentile nations but no more. All the first century nations of the Roman empire (the inhabitable lands) were being informed by the Hebrew diaspora. Humanity had pervaded the Roman Empire and created one informed humanity out of all the nations. All nations became part of the dead and dying body of humanity. All were ripe for the gospel of the resurrection into the living body of Christ. The new humanity was being raised and united out of all the old creation.

• Jesus: ‘This is what is written: The Christ will suffer and rise from the dead on the third day, and in His name repentance and forgiveness of sins will be proclaimed to all nations, beginning in Jerusalem. You are witnesses of these things. And behold, I am sending the promise of My Father upon you. But remain in the city until you have been clothed with power from on high.’
• Colossians 1:21-23
• You he has now reconciled . . . if indeed you continue in the faith, stable and steadfast, not shifting from the hope of the gospel that you heard, which has been proclaimed (Greek tou kēruchthentos) in all creation under heaven.” (emphasis added)
• Whether the Greek verb indicates past tense or ongoing doesn’t change the fact that humanity is for all nations not just Israel.

Paul explained to the Athenians how the one true God is the maker of the cosmos (orderly arrangement given to humanity). The world is the humanity God created in His image. That humanity was seeded into all the nations due to their corruption corruption. It was seeded in corruption and raised in incorruption. All nations were being humanized from the one blood of Adam and Israel.

The soul of humanity was typically in the blood but now all nations were being humanized by the diaspora (through-seeded) Hebrews. Since the nations were no longer ignorant, they too were about to be judged like Adam, who knowingly disobeyed. The new covenant humanity (the body of Christ) that started with His resurrection in Jerusalem was now including all nations in His resurrected body. All were also being counted as the dead and dying body of old covenant humanity in need of resurrection.

Acts 17:24-31

LITV ²⁴ The God who made the world and all things in it, this One being Lord of Heaven and of earth, does not dwell in handmade temples, ²⁵ nor is served by hands of men, as having need of anything. For He is giving life and breath and all things to all. ²⁶ And He made every nation of men (anthropos/humanity) of one blood, to live on all the face of the earth, ordaining fore-appointed seasons and boundaries of their dwelling, ²⁷to seek the Lord, if perhaps they might feel after Him and might find Him, though indeed He not being far from each one of us. ²⁸ For in Him we live and move and exist, as also some of the poets among you have said, For we are also His offspring. ²⁹ Then being offspring of God, we ought not to suppose that the Godhead is like gold or silver or stone, engraved by art and the imagination of man. ³⁰ Truly, then, God overlooking the times of ignorance, now strictly commands all men everywhere to repent, ³¹ because He set a day in which “He is going to judge the habitable world in righteousness,” by a Man whom He appointed; having given proof to all by raising Him from the dead. Psa. 9:8

The Father’s world (cosmos) that Jesus came to save was being downloaded by the diaspora into all the inhabitable lands. Jesus made the download permanent when he sent the Holy Spirit to the diaspora Hebrews who had gathered for Pentecost. The Holy spirit Himself moved from that creation of humanity to the whole Roman Empire before the old covenant ended for good.

cosmos – κόσμος – world of order – arrangement

KJV Usage: adorning, world. G2865 TBESG: κόσμος world G:N-Mκόσμος, -ου, ὁ 
[in LXX: Refs (צבא), Refs (עֲדִי), Isa.61:10 (כְּלִי), al., Wis.2:24 and freq., Sir.6:30, al ;] 
__1. order (Hom., Plat., al.). 
__2. ornament, adornment, esp. of women (Hom., al.): 1Pe.3:3. 
__3. Later, the world or universe, as an ordered system (Plat., al.): Refs 
__4. In late writers only, the world, i.e. the earth (= ἡ οἰκουμένη, cf. Mat.4:8 with Refs; hence by meton., 
__(a) of the human inhabitants of the world: Refs; 
__(b) of worldly affairs or possessions: Refs; 
__(with) in ethical sense, of the ungodly:

The hypocritical religious leaders who lived for profit and self-glory turned the meaning of “worldly” upside down. Had they truly been living for the world (of humanity) that Jesus came to save then their “worldliness” would have been a good thing.

οἰκουμένη 
oikoumenē 
oy-kou-men’-ay 

Dodson: οἰκουμένη the inhabited (Roman) world (properly: the land that is being inhabited, the land in a state of habitation), the inhabited world, that is, the Roman world, for all outside it was regarded as of no account. Strong’s: οἰκουμένη land, i.e. the (terrene part of the) globe; specially, the Roman empire
Derivation: feminine participle present passive of G3611 (as noun, by implication, of G1093);

KJV Usage: earth, world.

The oikoumene had become humanized from the one blood of the Adamic world God made. People from the first four living-soul creations were tamed and being tamed by the living human soul. They were all considered part of the dead and dying humanity in the first century. Humanity is no longer dead and dying. It has been resurrected. The treasures of the nations are still being brought into the kingdom of God. From the one blood of Christ, the resurrection of Adam’s dead and dying humanity came to all the nations: that is the church.