What is the Resurrected Body?

Intro:

And we think about The reality of Receiving a glorified body In eternity, I often skip over the limited needs that I have for resurrected body and think about those who have suffered On a greater level than I. i think of amputees, of the blind of the deaf. I have two deaf cousins and I pray that they trust in Christ for salvation. I long for them have their hearing restored one day. I guess in my mind I think they need it more than I do at this moment in my life.

Once a personThat I have a mired is Joni Eareckson tada who has lived over 50 years as a paraplegic.In 2017, She wrote an article About those 50 years Of being Paralyzed And what the Lord has taught her through her suffering. When thinking about a glorified bodyThis is the lessonThat she has come to learn as she writes:

Don’t be thinking that for me in Heaven, the big deal after I get to see Jesus, is to get my new body, no, no, no I want a glorified heart! I want a glorified heart that no longer twists the truth, resists God, looks for an escape, gets defeated by pain, becomes anxious or worrisome, manipulates my husband with precisely timed phrases…

The hope we have for a glorified body is a good yearning, as long as we are willing to learn the lesson that God has for us as our bodies of this earth face its challenges. For in those challenges, we are led to lean on the power of Christ to teach us, mold us and give us what we need to overcome each daily trial. These Christ-centered lessons we learn in the difficulty are far better for us than just escapingThe difficulty altogether.

Last week, we read how Paul made the comparison of the resurrect the body to Seeds that are planted in the ground. In that planting, God rises up new life in which we are to give Him glory as our Creator. He gives us new spirituals lives in Christ and new glorified bodies for Christ. He will continue The thought process as he gives us comparisons between the resurrected body Versus our earthly body. It is helpful for us to see These comparisons For two reasons:

It helps us understand our current state in this physical form and how our great weakness leads us to cry out to the Lord for help

It helps us look forward to Christ’s power manifested in us whereby he brings transformation by gifting us new bodies just as he has already transformed our lives spiritually

So simply put, this chapter is NOT just about how great our bodies will be. It is about how Great of a God we serve who displays his power in defeating the effects of sin and creating all things new.

1. The Differences in our Bodies

a. Mortal/Immortal 42

The first difference that Paul brings to lightIs the difference betweenThe mortality in immortality of the body. We understand that because of the fall of adam and Eve into sin, All humanity is born into sin And the result of that sin is death.This does not mean annihilation But instead Spiritual separation from God and physical Corruption Of our human bodies.

A few weeks ago, we looked at 1 Cor 15:22

1 Corinthians 15:22 NASB95

22 For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ all will be made alive.

The phrase “all die” is present active meaning that as humans, we are in a state of perpetual physical decaying and death. The process of aging is an example. Our skin is aging, our organs are aging, our muscle tissue is aging and our cognitive abilities are definitely aging. We are a slave to time and with that time decay.

But when Christ abolishes death finally and completely at his second coming, then our new bodies will be gifted with incorruptibility. We will longer wince at another birthday or another New year that comes and goes.

To be incorruptible or immortal, it is the ability to live forever in the presence of Christ. Peter reminds the church of this promise:

1 Peter 1:3–5 NASB95

3 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who according to His great mercy has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, 4 to obtain an inheritance which is imperishable and undefiled and will not fade away, reserved in heaven for you, 5 who are protected by the power of God through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time.

Peter’s imagery lends us to think about a spiritual journey that when it comes to the end, a grand prize awaits us. We are pilgrims traveling and one day will arrive to receive the imperishable inheritance that awaits. We have already been given this in a spiritual sense in our salvation, but Peter is looking at the physical inheritance. Not a land, like that which was promised to Israel, but a place of rest with Christ forever. To inherit such a prize, we must also receive new substances in which we will dwell. This is our immortal bodies.

b. Dishonor/Glory 43

1 Corinthians 15:43 NASB95

43 it is sown in dishonor, it is raised in glory; it is sown in weakness, it is raised in power;

Secondly, he mentions being sown in dishonor but raised in glory. Because of the nature of sin, our bodies are in a state of humiliation in regards to our bondage to sin and death. That curse of sin remember carries with it a shameful and dishonoring nametag with it. To exist in the state of shame and dishonor because such a state was not how we were created to be.

Philippians 3:21 NASB95

21 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.

Humanity was created to exist in this form of this glory, perfection and holiness. But the curse of sin brought about a bondage and servitude to Satan and evil. This is why the Son of God himself suffered so because he took our disgrace and our guilt and our shame and placed it upon himself.

Therefore, the resurrection of Jesus looks to the resurrected bodies of believers, who are brought full circle to what they were meant to be. The church of Jesus will one day be made new into physical forms fit for heaven, perfect and glorified as they were intended to be. This glory of course is wed to the image which we bear, and we will look at this in a few minutes….

c. Weakness/Power 43

1 Corinthians 15:43 (NASB95)

43…it is sown in weakness, it is raised in power;

The third component to our resurrected bodies is the difference between our weakness and power. When he says weakness, we most relate to this component of our current state. We face the trials of sickness, disease, exhaustion. Couple that to doctor visits with medications that lead to side-effects of greater weakness and we understand Paul’s words here. But our greatest weakness is the haunting reminder that death is imminent for all of us. It leads us to the idea that we are powerless in our mortal human bodies.

CHARLES HODGE

An Exposition of the First Epistle to the Corinthians Nature of the Resurrection Body, vs. 35–58

Nothing is more absolutely powerless than a corpse—it can do nothing and it can resist nothing. The weakness which belonged to it in life, is perfected in death

We cannot completely understand the power that we will experience in our resurrected bodies. We can speculate by what we see in the resurrected body of our Lord. We see how he appeared into the upper room without opening any doors. We see how he ascended to the heavenly realm from his earthly dwelling. He see how he the visible scars of a former suffering he experienced. We see that he ate on the beach with his disciples. We see a compassion for his disciples to be comforted in his presence. All these things remind us that the resurrected state will be a blending of the good of this existence with the unknown of the eternal existence.

To have a glorified power is to assume that we will not have the limitations that we have on earth so that our worship of Christ will be unhindered and our joy will be complete.

Revelation 21:3–4 NASB95

3 And I heard a loud voice from the throne, saying, “Behold, the tabernacle of God is among men, and He will dwell among them, and they shall be His people, and God Himself will be among them, 4 and He will wipe away every tear from their eyes; and there will no longer be any death; there will no longer be any mourning, or crying, or pain; the first things have passed away.”

d. Natural/Spiritual 44

1 Corinthians 15:44–45 (NASB95)

44 it is sown a natural body, it is raised a spiritual body. If there is a natural body, there is also a spiritual body.

This last one is more of a summary than just a component. We know that Adam and all his descendents are made up of flesh and blood and bone and organs. This body is fit for the earth so that it needs air to breathe, water to drink and food to consume. When we travel to space, and walk on the moon (hypothetically for some), then we need a mode of survival that equips us with what we need, such as space suits, and air tight space vessel. Why? Our natural bodies were not made to exist on the moon.

But Paul states that the resurrected body is a spiritual body. That sounds like a contradiction because we have learned in the Bible that there is the human body and there is bodiless spirit. They are distinct from each other and they mostly exist in different realms.

But the spirits we see in Scripture do inhabit bodies known as demon possession. In those situations, they are visitors that do not belong within that form. It is an invasion and the Scripture seems to point to the idea that a spirit that inhabits a human and is cast out, must inhabit another form of earth or it will die.

In Matt 12:43 we read,

Matthew 12:43–45 NASB95

43 “Now when the unclean spirit goes out of a man, it passes through waterless places seeking rest, and does not find it. 44 “Then it says, ‘I will return to my house from which I came’; and when it comes, it finds it unoccupied, swept, and put in order. 45 “Then it goes and takes along with it seven other spirits more wicked than itself, and they go in and live there; and the last state of that man becomes worse than the first. That is the way it will also be with this evil generation.”

Jesus is showing the way of evil spirit and possession. He is not giving us a treatise on the spirit realm but He gives us enough info to understand that spirits seem to need a host in which to dwell in this realm, although temporarily. In that co-existence for a time, the demon seems only to torment the human body and soul because it does not belong there.

What the resurrection does by the power of Christ is that it re-creates the human flesh to coexist with the spiritual realm. With the power of God that rose Christ from the dead and which will raise up all believers, the resurrected body is a heavenly flesh as I like to call it, is a flesh that is created for eternity, the spiritual realm. Its because of this that we can now exist in a new created heaven and earth. If we are allowed to travel back and forth from the realm of heaven and earth, these bodies will allow us to do so. There would be no way that we could exist in such bodily form if it not for the fact that God creates for us the necessary resurrected form to live beyond time.

Paul now will draw the differences of the earthly and heavenly to our heads or representatives of earth and heaven, which is Adam and Christ.

2. The Differences in our Representatives

a. Living Soul/Life-giving Spirit (for soul)45-46

1 Corinthians 15:45–46 NASB95

45 So also it is written, “The first man, Adam, became a living soul.” The last Adam became a life-giving spirit. 46 However, the spiritual is not first, but the natural; then the spiritual.

The great differences can be seen in these verses between the limited Adam and the unlimited Christ. With a new life in Jesus, we leave the ways of Adam and the live fully to be like Christ. With a new promise of glory, we will no longer bear the resemblance of Adam but we will bear the likeness of Christ.

Paul begins by comparing the power difference in these two figures. Adam was given life in his body at Creation.

Genesis 2:7 NASB95

7 Then the Lord God formed man of dust from the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living being.

Who did what here?

God breathed life into the body formed from the dust and Adam lived. Adam was the recipient of life just as you and I are only recipients of life. Life is a gift from God and Adam was powerless to do anything else except receive the life giving breathe that was pour into him. God alone is the giver of life and we are powerless, no matter how much humanity tries to create life on their own, they cannot.

Psalm 100:3 NASB95

3 Know that the Lord Himself is God; It is He who has made us, and not we ourselves; We are His people and the sheep of His pasture.

Isaiah 64:8 NASB95

8 But now, O Lord, You are our Father, We are the clay, and You our potter; And all of us are the work of Your hand.

Psalm 139:13–14 NASB95

13 For You formed my inward parts; You wove me in my mother’s womb. 14 I will give thanks to You, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made; Wonderful are Your works, And my soul knows it very well.

But it was Jesus that Paul says is distinct from Adam. Jesus is the life-giver and he gives life to all by his spirit. Paul is not meaning here that Jesus is simply just a spirit, but it more specifically means that Jesus gives life by means of his Spirit.

John 1:1–5 NASB95

1 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. 2 He was in the beginning with God. 3 All things came into being through Him, and apart from Him nothing came into being that has come into being. 4 In Him was life, and the life was the Light of men. 5 The Light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not comprehend it.

John 11:25–26 NASB95

25 Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life; he who believes in Me will live even if he dies, 26 and everyone who lives and believes in Me will never die. Do you believe this?”

Physical and eternal life can only be found in Christ. We are made by him physically, formed in our mothers womb and we are made new by him spiritually at our salvation and bodily at His 2nd coming. Because Adam is powerless to give life, then let this be the great warning to the world. No descendent of Adam has ever acquired the formula for physical or spiritual life apart from Christ. He owns the copyright to life and no one could ever gains those rights other than Him.

Therefore we come to him humbly, asking only by his mercy that he might impart new life to us, even though we are his enemies and rebels against his name. The promise of the gospel is this:

John 3:16 NASB95

16 “For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life.

b. From earth/from heaven 47

The second difference of our representatives is their origins. Adam was a man of earth while Christ is a man of heaven. Adam only lived on earth and represented earth and its fall into sin. Adam was from earth and only upon his belief in the promise seed that would crush the head of the snake, would he ever experience the joys of heaven.

Jesus is eternal and came to this world, put on human flesh so that he might accomplish the work of redemption. While the visited this earth, his time here was intentionally limited. He does not belong here in a world cursed with sin. The redemption that he accomplished was all part of God’s grand plan to bring his kingdom to all points of existence, both in heaven and on earth. Jesus ascended to heaven for a time while leaving the work of redemption active in this world through the church. We are his tools to bring about the growth of his kingdom until the King returns to create a new dwelling place, a new Eden for all of us to enjoy with Him for all eternity.

c. Image of the earthy/image of the heavenly

1 Corinthians 15:49 NASB95

49 Just as we have borne the image of the earthy, we will also bear the image of the heavenly.

Finally, the last difference between Adam and Jesus is the image that we bear. The English word “image” is Eikon in the Greek. An icon as we know it is a picture or representation of something else great. We put images or icons of our US presidents on our currency. We build statues for those who made great impacts on our history. These are icons, images, and representations of the real people but they are not those people.

We will not be Christ, but we will be like him. We are given the promises that with a new life in Jesus, we experience two transformations into his likeness: spiritual transformation and a bodily transformation.

Spiritually transformed to his image

Colossians 3:10 NASB95

10 and have put on the new self who is being renewed to a true knowledge according to the image of the One who created him—

This is our daily regenerated lives with Christ where he is tearing away the old grave clothes of our image of Adam and we are being renewed spiritually to look more like Christ. Friend, do not be discouraged as you battle sin with the stumbling in sin. The stumbling will come but do not overlook that Christ makes you upright. He keeps you on your feet and day by day, he will removing the effects of that sin over you as you submit to him. You are being renewed spiritual by the power of Christ and his resurrection.

Bodily transformed to his image

Secondly, Paul states in 1 Cor 15:49

1 Corinthians 15:49 NASB95

49 Just as we have borne the image of the earthy, we will also bear the image of the heavenly.

We will bear the image because our bodies do not yet bear that image. Our spirits do but our bodies await the instantaneous change to look and live like Christ in all the heavenly places.

Revelation 22:1–4 NASB95

1 Then he showed me a river of the water of life, clear as crystal, coming from the throne of God and of the Lamb, 2 in the middle of its street. On either side of the river was the tree of life, bearing twelve kinds of fruit, yielding its fruit every month; and the leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations. 3 There will no longer be any curse; and the throne of God and of the Lamb will be in it, and His bond-servants will serve Him; 4 they will see His face, and His name will be on their foreheads.

I want us to consider this image of our resurrected bodies dwelling in heaven where our the name of the Lord will be on our foreheads. I don’t take that literal here but figurative, because of what it meant in the OT. There are constant references to the the word of God being displayed on the foreheads of the people. They took it literally and wore leather bands with a box called a phylactery. In this box were scripture verses in Hebrew to symbolize that God’s word was before their mind and between their eyes.

In Ex 28:38, Aaron the high priest was to wear a turban with a gold plate with the engravings, “Holy to the Lord” which was his acceptance before God to enter into his presence.

in Ex 28:43

Exodus 28:43 NASB95

43 “They shall be on Aaron and on his sons when they enter the tent of meeting, or when they approach the altar to minister in the holy place, so that they do not incur guilt and die. It shall be a statute forever to him and to his descendants after him.

Now, look froward to the image of Christ that the bodies of the resurrected believers bear in heaven, with Christ being on our foreheads. It figuratively represents that which is before us in worship and to whom we belong to and are accepted by. We will live forever with Christ in our new resurrected bodies because we bear his name upon us and therefore we are accepted. Instead of death from our uncleanness, we receieve eternal life because He has made us holy and new.

Has Jesus made you new? This comes only by trusting in him by believing in him alone for salvation.

Do you see his transforming power spiritually in your life? If so rejoice, for this is the promise that he will make you new in body as well when he comes again to reign forever.