Should Christians be Cremated?: Everyday Discipleship

1689 Chapter 31 Paragraphs 1 and 21.

1. The bodies of men after death return to dust, and see corruption;2 but their souls, which neither die nor sleep, having an immortal subsistence, immediately return to God who gave them.3 The souls of the righteous being then made perfect in holiness, are received into Paradise, where they are with Christ, and behold the face of God in light and glory, waiting for the full redemption of their bodies;4 and the souls of the wicked are cast into hell; where they remain in torment and utter darkness, reserved to the judgment of the great day;5 besides these two places, for souls separated from their bodies, the Scripture acknowledgeth none.

2. At the last day, such of the saints as are found alive, shall not sleep, but be changed;6 and all the dead shall be raised up with the selfsame bodies, and none other;7 although with different qualities, which shall be united again to their souls forever.8

2 Genesis 3:19 “By the sweat of your face you shall eat bread, till you return to the ground, for out of it you were taken; for you are dust, and to dust you shall return.”” ; Acts 13:36 “For David, after he had served the purpose of God in his own generation, fell asleep and was laid with his fathers and saw corruption,”

3 Ecclesiastes 12:7 “and the dust returns to the earth as it was, and the spirit returns to God who gave it.”

4 Luke 23:43 “And he said to him, “Truly, I say to you, today you will be with me in paradise.”” ;2 Corinthians 5:1 “For we know that if the tent that is our earthly home is destroyed, we have a building from God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens.” , 2 Corinthians 5:6 “So we are always of good courage. We know that while we are at home in the body we are away from the Lord,” , 2 Corinthians 5:8 “Yes, we are of good courage, and we would rather be away from the body and at home with the Lord.” ; Philippians 1:23 “I am hard pressed between the two. My desire is to depart and be with Christ, for that is far better.” ; Hebrews 12:23 “and to the assembly of the firstborn who are enrolled in heaven, and to God, the judge of all, and to the spirits of the righteous made perfect,”

5 Jude 6–7 “And the angels who did not stay within their own position of authority, but left their proper dwelling, he has kept in eternal chains under gloomy darkness until the judgment of the great day— just as Sodom and Gomorrah and the surrounding cities, which likewise indulged in sexual immorality and pursued unnatural desire, serve as an example by undergoing a punishment of eternal fire.” ; 1 Peter 3:19 “in which he went and proclaimed to the spirits in prison,” ; Luke 16:23–24 “and in Hades, being in torment, he lifted up his eyes and saw Abraham far off and Lazarus at his side. And he called out, ‘Father Abraham, have mercy on me, and send Lazarus to dip the end of his finger in water and cool my tongue, for I am in anguish in this flame.’”

6 1 Corinthians 15:51 “Behold! I tell you a mystery. We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed,” , 1 Corinthians 15:52 “in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised imperishable, and we shall be changed.” ; 1 Thessalonians 4:17 “Then we who are alive, who are left, will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and so we will always be with the Lord.”

7 Job 19:26–27 “And after my skin has been thus destroyed, yet in my flesh I shall see God, whom I shall see for myself, and my eyes shall behold, and not another. My heart faints within me!”

8 1 Corinthians 15:42, 1 Corinthians 15:43 “It is sown in dishonor; it is raised in glory. It is sown in weakness; it is raised in power.”

Cremation as sign of judgment and view of the afterlife

Should not be cremated as cremation was a sign of judgment whereas a burial was an honor. How we treat our bodies speaks to how we view the after life

In the Old Testament, the burning of bodies was considered a sign of divine judgment and a portent of the torments of hell, whereas the godly were buried with honor, as was the body of Christ (e.g., Josh. 7:25–26; 1 Kings 13:2; 16:18; 2 Kings 23:4).

It is true that with time a buried body will decay into much the same condition as those consumed in fire, but Christians have declined to treat the body as disposable remains, instead committing it to God’s care with reverence. Cremation would seem to pose no barrier to God’s ability to raise the dead, and we should note that the Bible never explicitly commands burial versus cremation. Yet our view of the afterlife will always influence how we handle the bodies of those who have died. Whereas cremation results from a pagan view of the body and the afterlife in which matter is released into spirit, Christian burial is shaped by the hope of a bodily resurrection.1

1 Richard D. Phillips, John, ed. Richard D. Phillips, Philip Graham Ryken, and Daniel M. Doriani, 1st ed., vol. 2, Reformed Expository Commentary (Phillipsburg, NJ: P&R Publishing, 2014), 620.

Resurrection of Life

Let’s talk about the Resurrection of Life.

What do we have to look forward to?

If you want to know about the Resurrection and the Resurrection Body look no further than 1 Corinthians 15.

In that chapter Paul says 1 Corinthians 15:51-52 Behold! I tell you a mystery. We shall not all sleep [talking about death because it is temporary…you wake up], but we shall all be changed, in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet.

And in that moment, in that twinkling of an eye when Christ returns we will be raised in glorified, new Resurrected Bodies.

Ones fully fit for Eternal Life and Heaven.

Well what are those resurrected bodies like?

Paul compares them to a seed.

If you take a grain of wheat, you’ll get wheat, but something more glorious than the seed itself (1 Cor 15:37).

So it is with the Resurrection body.

1 Corinthians 15:42-44, 49 So is it with the resurrection of the dead. What is sown is perishable; what is raised is imperishable.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…Just as we have borne the image of the man of dust, we shall also bear the image of the man of heaven.

Our body will be like Christ’s own glorious body (Phil 3:20-21).

People always ask how old will we be in heaven.

Probably the age of Christ when He rose again. Mature manhood.

And in this passage Paul tells us four things about the Resurrection Body and how it differs from the fallen natural bodies we have now.

Imperishable

First it is imperishable.

It will not get sick, old, or die.

It will never see corruption.

It will be an eternal body fit to worship God in Heaven forever.

Glory

Second it will be a glorious body.

What is sown in dishonor will be raised in glory.

Our physical bodies are not inherently dishonorable.

When God made us He said that it was good.

We have made our bodies dishonorable because of sin.

We have used our bodies to commit sinful and wicked acts against God.

Taken what God has given and corrupted it.

But in our Glorification, our bodies will be pure and honorable.

They will be raised in glory and perfectly suited to honor, praise, and glorify God.

Power

Third, our body will be sown in weakness but raised in power.

We feel our weakness every day.

And not just our physical weakness, but spiritual weakness.

Like Paul says in Romans 7 I want to honor God but I don’t have the power to do it.

But in the resurrection we will have the power.

We will have all the strength we need to perfectly obey God and His will.

We will no longer fall, fail, or stumble because of our own weakness.

In the resurrection of life we will be raised in power necessary to obey God and glorify Him for all He’s worth.

Spiritual

Finally, what is sown is natural and what is raised is spiritual.

Now this isn’t talking spiritual as in disembodied spirits.

Christ rose again bodily and so will we.

To understand what Paul is saying here you need to go back to 1 Corinthians chapter 2 where Paul talks about the natural man and the spiritual man.

The natural man does not accept the things of God nor is even able to understand them.

The spiritual man, on the other hand, is someone who is entirely submitted to God and in perfect harmony with the Holy Spirit.

So when Paul says what is sown is natural what is raised is spiritual that’s what we should have in mind to say that the spiritual body in the Resurrection is one that is perfectly submitted to the will of God.

There will no longer be any temptation or anything in us that resists God.

In the Resurrection everything in us both body will be perfectly submitted to God want to obey Him.

The internal battle we now have in our natural bodies between righteousness and sin will be gone and we will have a physical body that is able to carry out every holy desire we have and worship God with all our being.

That is our hope.

That is what Paul says we are longing to put on.

The Resurrection of Life.

And on the Day of Judgment we will stand before Christ justified in Him.

The wicked will be thrown in the Lake of Fire and Christ will purify the earth.

Our eternal home will be here in a fully renewed New Heavens and New Earth.

A New Creation where every trace and stain of sin is washed away and the entire world will be a paradise restored.

A completely renewed Eden.

And God will dwell with us and we will be His people just like in the first Eden.

And He will wipe away every tear from [our] eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore, for the former things [will] have passed away (Rev 21:4).

The Resurrection of life for all who believe in Christ will be a life of everlasting blessing and rest.

An eternal Sabbath to the glory of God.