Resurrection to Life: I Want A New Body
Part 1 of 3
March 2007
Do you ever wake up in the morning and wish you
could trade your body in on a newer model? I know that some reading this
suffer daily with unimaginable pain and discomfort that would make
anything I experience look like a paper cut by comparison, but allow me
to indulge in a little self pity.
My body is fighting a battle it is destined to
lose. Some mornings I wake up with a “trick knee,” likely a remnant of a
bad bicycle accident I was involved in as a teenager that nearly took my
life. It hurts to walk. Climbing the stairs brings an aching discomfort
with every step. A couple doses of Ibuprophen and I make it through the
day just fine. The next morning, the pain is gone. It comes and goes
like the wind.
Last November I finally got my first pair of
glasses. For 30 years I had perfect vision. I saw things with crystal
clarity at any distance. Then I started to get frustrated that they
weren’t printing the road signs as clearly and legibly as they used to.
At first, I attributed the blurriness to dry
eyes brought on by my summer allergies. That brings me to another
frustration: why all of a sudden am I so allergic to pollen? I used to
work in the hayfields as a kid and smell flowers. Now I squirt stuff up
my nose every morning just to get by and still I avoid a close brush
with a flower like Mike Tyson avoids a spelling bee.
I walk on a treadmill a couple times a week,
work outside, and ride my bike, to stay in shape. I eat vitamins to stay
healthy. Yet I know that I am fighting a battle I am destined to lose.
There is nothing I can do to keep this body from the grave. The grave
has an insatiable appetite that ultimately consumes us all.
If our hope was in Christ in this life only, we
would be of all men most to be pitied (1 Cor. 15:19). We have a
future beyond the grave. It is a glorious future. It is a future in our
bodies!
Why This Topic
I decided to write this series of articles in
response to a friend who asked me a question about the future
resurrection and what heaven will be like. There are probably many
reading this who have wondered, “What will eventually happen with my
body? Will I get a new body, or will I be in heaven as a ‘spirit
essence?’ What will that body be like? Does everyone get a new body, or
just believers?” I hope to answer those questions and many more in this
series of three articles on the subject of Resurrection.
In this article I am going to focus on the
general promise in Scripture to the righteous of resurrection unto life
and the form it will take.1
Next month we will turn our attention to the
resurrection to damnation and what that will look like for those who
reject God’s gracious offer of salvation in Christ.
In part 3 of this series we will look at the
resurrection of the cosmos and what is meant by the promise of a new
heaven and a new earth.
With all that is given to us in Scripture on
these subjects, it is a wonder that we don’t spend more time thinking on
these things!
The Christian View of the Body
Dualism was a basic tenet of much of ancient
Greek philosophy. Dualism considered everything spiritual to be
intrinsically and inherently good while everything physical was
intrinsically and inherently evil.
To anyone who held to a dualistic worldview,
the idea of spending eternity in a resurrected body was repugnant. For
the dualist, the very reason for going to the afterlife was to escape
all things physical and to be caught up in the essence of spirit. They
viewed the body as a tomb, a corpse to which their spirits were
shackled. The body was the last thing they wanted to take along to the
afterlife.2 Thus,
the teaching on the doctrine of the resurrection of the body was met by
the Greeks with scoffing and disbelief (Acts 17:32; 26:8, 23-24).
Christianity does not view the body or physical
matter as inherently evil. As Hank Hanegraaff writes in Resurrection,
“Only in a biblical worldview do we become greater after death than
we were before. Only in Christianity are our lowly bodies transformed
into glorious, resurrected bodies, like unto Christ’s resurrected body.”3
The Bible does not teach that anything physical
is intrinsically evil. God is the one who created this physical world
and all things in it. When He finished His creation, He described it as
“very good.” (Genesis 1:31)
Our bodies are an indispensable part of our
humanity. Adam and Eve were created in the image of God and their bodies
were uniquely designed to give expression to that image (even though God
Himself does not have a body). Man was created with both a material
essence (body) and an immaterial essence (soul/spirit). We are united to
our bodies in such a way that Paul described being absent from the body
as being “naked.” (2 Cor. 5:3) Upon our death, we shall certainly
“lay aside this earthly dwelling” (2 Peter 1:12-14), and shall
continue, for a time, absent from our bodies. God did not create us to
live forever as a disembodied spirit being, but as a physical creature.
Therefore, we can confidently expect that God will redeem our entire
being, including our body. Salvation does not bring deliverance from our
body, but it guarantees the resurrection and transformation of our body.
Does the Bible Promise a Bodily Resurrection?
Unequivocally, yes! The sheer volume of the
biblical revelation that answers this question prohibits me from
commenting on every reference. I want you simply to read over the
following biblical citations taking note of what I have put in bold for
emphasis.
Job 19:25-27, “As for me, I know that my
Redeemer lives, and at the last He will take His stand on the earth.
Even after my skin is destroyed, yet from my flesh I shall
see God; Whom I myself shall behold, and whom my eyes will see and not
another. My heart faints within me!” That is one of the most amazing
statements in all of the Old Testament. Job believed that although his
skin would be destroyed in the grave, at some time in the future, he
would stand in his flesh on this earth and see (with physical eyes) his
Redeemer!
David, speaking prophetically of the Messiah,
expressed his hope in a God who raises the dead in Psalm 16:9-11,
“Therefore my heart is glad and my glory rejoices; My flesh also
will dwell securely. For You will not abandon my soul to Sheol;
nor will You allow Your Holy One to undergo decay. You will make known
to me the path of life; In Your presence is fullness of joy; in
Your right hand there are pleasures forever.”4
Listen to the bold promise of Isaiah 26:19,
“Your dead will live; Their corpses will rise. You who lie in the
dust, awake and shout for joy, For your dew is as the dew of the dawn,
And the earth will give birth to the departed spirits.”
Job, the psalmists, and the prophets
confidently expected God to eventually deliver them from the grave that
they might stand in their flesh and see their Redeemer.
Beyond just those general promises of
resurrection, the Old Testament promised that there would be a
resurrection of both the righteous and the wicked. We see this in
Daniel 12:2, “Many of those who sleep in the dust of the ground
will awake, these to everlasting life, but the others to
disgrace and everlasting contempt.”
Now on to the New Testament! Jesus promised in
John 5:28-29 that some day “all who are in the tombs will hear
His voice and will come forth; those who did the good deeds to a
resurrection of life, those who committed the evil deeds to a
resurrection of judgment.” Further, in John 6:39-40, 44, Jesus
promised that He would raise up on the last day all that the Father had
given to Him. That is the hope of all who have believed on Him who
called Himself the “Resurrection and the Life” (John 11:25-26)
that “even if we die, we will live.”
It is for this “hope and the resurrection of
the dead” that Paul was on trial in the closing chapters of Acts (23:6;
24:15, 21; 25:19; 26:8, 23). In fact Paul affirmed that he had
confidence “that there shall certainly be a resurrection of both the
righteous and the wicked” (Acts 24:15).
This resurrection of the righteous is
described by Paul in Romans 8:11, “But if the Spirit of Him who
raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, He who raised Christ
Jesus from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies
through His Spirit who dwells in you.”
In 2 Corinthians 4:14, Paul says we know
“that He who raised the Lord Jesus will raise us also with Jesus
and will present us with you.”
Philippians 3:20-21, “For our
citizenship is in heaven, from which also we eagerly wait for a Savior,
the Lord Jesus Christ; who will transform the body of our humble
state into conformity with the body of His glory, by the exertion of the
power that He has even to subject all things to Himself.”
I could multiply verses and continue for two
more pages, but I must stop for the sake of space and turn our attention
to two very important questions.
Two Good Questions
In correcting the Corinthian Christian’s
misunderstandings regarding the doctrine of the resurrection, Paul
answers two questions that he anticipates being raised by his readers in
1 Corinthians 15:35-56. I don’t have space to quote the entire
passage so I would encourage you to read it along with this article.
First, how are the dead raised? How
could God possibly reassemble the bodies of everyone who has died
throughout the ages of history? What about those who were burned, eaten,
lost at sea? Second, with what kind of body do they come? When
the dead rise again, what will the body be like?
The first question is a fair question, but one
that betrays a lack of appreciation for the power and wisdom of God. The
second question is one prompted by our curiosity. What will my
resurrection body be like? Will it be like my current body? If so, how?
To answer these two questions, Paul gives an
illustration from the plant world to show the similarity between the
planting of a seed to produce a plant, and the dying of our natural
bodies to produce our glorious resurrected body. 1 Cor. 15:36-38,
“That which you sow does not come to life unless it dies; and that which
you sow, you do not sow the body which is to be, but a bare grain,
perhaps of wheat or of something else. But God gives it a body just as
He wished, and to each of the seeds a body of its own.”
Notice three significant points in the analogy
offered. First, when you plant a seed, it dies. It actually
decomposes as a seed in the ground. It ceases to exist in its original
form before coming to life in its final and more glorious form - the
plant.
Second, there is a difference between the
seed that is planted and the crop that results. That which is sown
is different from that which grows. The corn seed looks nothing like the
plant that comes from it. In fact, there is a radical difference between
the seed which is sown and the plant that grows.
Third, there is a continuity between the
seed and the plant. In spite of the differences, there is a
continuity that exists between the old and the new. A corn seed does not
become a bean stock. A grain seed does not become a pea plant. The
identity of the plant was and is contained in the seed!
So how can God possibly raise all the dead? It
should pose no problem for us to believe that the same God who works so
marvelously through this process in nature every day with plants can do
the same with men.
What will the body be like? The resurrected
body is much like the seed becoming a plant. The seed will die,
disappear, and dissolve into the elements. When the resurrected body is
brought forth by an act of God, it will be different from our current
body as a plant is different from a seed, yet there will be a
continuity. It will be our body.
How can it be a different body, yet have
continuity with my current body? Think of it this way: there is
continuity between your present body and the body you had a birth. Even
though all of the cells that made up your body at birth have died off
and been replaced, yet it is the same body. The body you have today is
the same as the body you had back then. It is a different body, yet it
is the same body. There is a difference, yet there is a continuity
between the two. So shall it be in the resurrection.
What Will Our Resurrection Bodies Be Like?
Paul says in Philippians 3:21 that
Christ will “transform the body of our humble state into conformity
with the body of His glory.” The body the redeemed receive in the
resurrection will be fashioned after the body that Jesus received in His
resurrection.
We can say that the resurrection body we will
receive will be demonstrably physical. Jesus invited the
disciples to examine His resurrection body (John 20:27). Jesus’
body was capable of being grabbed (Matt. 28:9). He was capable of
eating food (Luke 24:36-42). It was a physical body. Every bit as
physical as the body you now inhabit.
If someone had taken a picture of Jesus after
His resurrection, the camera would have captured the image. Walking down
the Emmaus road, His feet would have kicked up the dust. You could have
patted him on the back and given Him a hug. It was that physical.
Do you realize that the eternal heaven will not
be populated by disembodied spirits, but you and me in glorified
physical bodies for all eternity? We will be able to shake hands with
each other in heaven and feel each other’s grip!
Further, this question is answered in 1
Corinthians 15:42-44 where Paul contrasts our present body with our
heavenly bodies saying, “So also is the resurrection of the dead. It
is sown a perishable body, it is raised an imperishable body; it is sown
in dishonor, it is raised in glory; it is sown in weakness, it is raised
in power; it is sown a natural body, it is raised a spiritual body. If
there is a natural body, there is also a spiritual body.”
Notice the four contrasts. First, it will be an
imperishable body. For all eternity, you will enjoy a
physical body free from any death, sickness, deterioration or decay.
Some day this “perishable will put on the imperishable” and death will
be swallowed up in victory (1 Cor. 15:54).
Second, it will be a glorious body.
Today we have a “dishonorable” body, a body racked by sin and unable to
please God fully; our current bodies are characterized by dishonor. We
will be resurrected in glory, a state in which our body will have no
dishonor and will be fully honoring to the God who created us.
Third, it will be a powerful body.
Our earthly body is sown in weakness, but raised in power. We are weak
creatures. We are subject to injury, disease, and infection. Eventually,
this weakness wins and the body dies. The resurrection body will be
raised in power. We are not told what that power will entail, but it
will be immense compared to what we are now capable of doing. Imagine
serving God and working without ever getting tired; without any hint of
weakness.
Fourth, it will be a spiritual body.
It goes into the ground a natural body and is raised a spiritual body.
Our natural body is dominated by natural desires, but our spiritual body
will be Spirit dominated and sin free. It will no longer be merely
natural, but supernatural.
The body we wait for will be a supernatural,
glorious, powerful, imperishable, physical body. For all of eternity we
will dwell together in that wonderful glorious state.
Benjamin Franklin stated our hope well in the
epitaph he wrote for himself. It is engraved on his tombstone in the
cemetery of Christ’s Church in Philadelphia: The body of Franklin,
printer, like the cover of an old book, its contents torn out and
stripped of its lettering and gilding, lies here food for worms. But the
work will not be lost, for it will appear once more in a new and more
elegant edition, revised and corrected by the Author.
No more allergies, glasses, and aching knees!
Until then, “we ourselves, having the first fruits of the Spirit, even
we ourselves groan within ourselves, waiting eagerly for our adoption as
sons, the redemption of our body.” (Romans 8:23).
Amen!
Without Wax -
Jim Osman
Pastor/Teacher
Footnotes:
1. It is not my intention to
discuss in detail the timing of these events, but instead to focus on
the nature of these events. For more information on my eschatological
views of when these resurrections take place, see our doctrinal
statement titled “We
Believe: The Doctrinal Statement of Kootenai Community Church”
available online at
www.kootenaichurch.org.
2. 1 Corinthians, MacArthur,
John F., Jr (Moody Press, 1984), pg 408. This is why ancient mystery
religions incorporated so much drunkenness, mind-altering drugs, orgies,
and altered states of consciousness into their “worship.” It was an
attempt to exit the body and commune with the divine. They thought that
only by being freed from the physical could man truly touch the
“spiritual.”
3. Resurrection, Hanegraaff,
Hank, (Word Publishing, 2000), pg. 66.
4. Read also Psalm 17:15; 49:15;
71:20; Hosea 13:14.
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