Moses represented the Law and Elijah represented the Prophets. The Law and the Prophets make up the Old Testament. Moses is a law that can be read and Elijah is a prophet, that is, a spirit who can be read. Moses represented a manner of life that could be read, so Elisha could read him and learn a manner of life from Him. For Moses and Elijah to bear witness to the death of Christ then, there had to be something about His death that was typified in both their lives.
Moses lived a life of death to the point that he was denied entrance into the promised land which he had laboured for all his life. However, Moses received something better than physical entrance into the promised land, he earned himself a position as one of the witnesses of the lamb (a position of the holy one). Only a resurrected being can bear witpness to the kind of Moses’ death. Moses must have been a glorious being to be allowed to bear witness to the glory at the mount transfiguration (Matt. 17:3).
Elijah also lived a sacrificial life and we see this from how he was driven by the spirit to a point where he caught the chariot and could give up himself. Elijah and the other prophets of old journeyed by sight and must have seen the promise ahead for them to willingly relinquish their lives on this earth for a greater cause. Anyone who follows the leading of the spirit would be a sacrifice.
The obedience of the prophets of old earned them the manner of death they went through which was the reason for the glory they witnessed. The kind of death one dies would tell the kind of resurrection that would be administered. To be risen with Christ is to have experienced resurrection from the dead (Col. 3:1). Resurrection is an estate in the spirit that is achievable. Jesus attained both resurrections (resurrection from and of the dead) in his soul even before he went to the cross, this was why it was impossible for death to hold him.
A soul would not be considered to have been risen with Christ if it does not have the properties of raising. Christ is a raising, a building, an attainment, a resurrection. Elijah and Moses represented the two resurrections in the Old Testament and they came because a man (Jesus) had attained both resurrections in His soul. They came to bear witness to one who has attained the real and exact substances of resurrection (I am the resurrection and the life).
One of the joys of the doctrine of Christ is the giving of what gave Christ; showing us that a man can be raised with Christ. Colossians 3:1 really speaks to those who have been risen with Christ - those who have experienced resurrection from the dead to begin to desire things that pertain to the resurrection of the dead. What is present at the right hand of God are substances of eternal life, substances of resurrection of the dead.
It is not every believer that knows what is at the right hand because you do not know them. The manner of death tells us the manner of one’s glory also. One thing God wants to achieve in us by these teachings is to help us stay focused. We need to complete the Christ curriculum and do it well because of the next allocation. Jesus obeyed and submitted to his parents because he was focused on obeying God.
Glory compels the soul to obey a higher commandment. The reason we stall at obeying commandment is that we have not sighted glory. Glory comes after resurrection. The manner of death one dies by obedience depicts the manner of glory one will attain. God speaks things because He wants to give them to us. If He is emphasizing the matters of resurrection of the dead to us, it is because he wants us to have it and we must also agree with Him by agreeing with His commandments.