I BELIEVE IN THE RESURRECTION OF THE BODY – PART 2.

Let me summarize last week’s concluding points before we start again:

In order to understand what the resurrection of the body involves, we need to know about three things—the bodies we have, the death we’ll face, and the resurrection we’ll enjoy.

First - The Bodies We Have: Most of us have a love/hate relationship with our bodies and this is the first point: Your body is a gift from God that won’t last forever.

Second, The Death We’ll Face: Most people fear death and don’t want to talk about it. Death remains the “final frontier” that we all must cross sooner or later, and though we all know that death is coming, we prefer to live as if it will never come at all.

What does the Bible say about death? Death is certain. Death is not the end “And after that comes judgment.” BUT Christ defeated death. Death remains the last enemy. “The last enemy to be destroyed is death” (I Corinthians 15:26).

Third, The Resurrection We’ll Enjoy: If death is the fundamental human problem (and it is), resurrection is the Christian answer? Listen to Paul’s soaring words in I Corinthians 15: 51-55 (ESV).

NOW note three things from this passage about our coming resurrection:

It will happen instantly. The text says “in a moment” and “in the twinkling of an eye.” One moment the dead will be in the ground; the next moment they will be raised to life. This is no gradual resurrection. The great miracle will happen so fast that if you blink, you will miss it!

It will happen when Jesus returns. The “last trumpet” refers to the return of Christ in the air. The trumpet will sound, the dead in Christ will rise, and living believers will be raptured off the earth to meet the Lord in the air (I Thessalonians 4:13-18).

It will result in our complete transformation. In that moment our essential being will change from mortal to immortal and from perishable to imperishable. Our individual personalities will remain intact, but all that relates to mortality, death and decay will be removed from us once and for all.

As we think about it, it is natural to want more information. The people in Paul’s day wanted more information also:

But someone will ask, “How are the dead raised? With what kind of body do they come?” You foolish person! What you sow does not come to life unless it dies. And what you sow is not the body that is to be, but a bare kernel, perhaps of wheat or of some other grain.  (I Corinthians 15: 35-37 ESV).

Take a simple acorn. Suppose you knew nothing about acorns, and nothing about how oak trees grow. You would be hard pressed to imagine that such a mighty tree could come from such a humble beginning. Place the acorn and the oak tree side by side. You can hardly get them in the same frame together. The acorn must be planted in the ground and it must die before the oak tree can appear. But without the humble acorn, there would be no oak tree at all.

This is the essence of Paul’s argument. Today we are humble acorns—just a bunch of nuts! Not much to look at and not very impressive. The day will come when we must die and be planted in the ground.

(By the way, when we talk about “planting Uncle Joe” in the ground, that’s not just a joke. That’s good biblical terminology. We “plant” Christians in the ground in the prospect of their coming resurrection from the dead.)

But that “planting” is not the end of the story, according to the Bible. As the acorn dies to produce to the mighty oak, even so we die and our death becomes the gateway to our future resurrection.

That’s our destiny: Acorns today, oak trees tomorrow. We cannot say what the resurrection body will be like with certainty, but it will be to this life as the oak tree is to the acorn.

The resurrection of the body is necessary to reverse the effects of sin. Old age, cancer, disease, accidents, terrible tragedy. These things are all part of the curse upon the earth because of sin.

Redemption will not be complete until our bodies are finally redeemed and changed forever. Redemption touches the body not just the soul. Your salvation will not be complete until your body becomes immortal and imperishable.

This clarifies a crucial misunderstanding about the saints who are already in heaven. Sometimes I hear people say things like, “I know he’s up there playing football in heaven.”

Well, not without his body. Football is a contact sport. If you don’t have your body with you, you’re not going to play much football. It’s not correct to speak of our loved ones in heaven as already having their glorified bodies. If the body is still in the ground, then it’s not glorified yet.

Better to say that their spirit or soul is with the Lord, and that they in heaven (like us on earth) await the day of resurrection.

The body that is raised will be a new body—not just the old one patched up. If a loved one dies of cancer, it won’t do any good to be raised with cancer. Personally, I don’t want a “renovated” body. I want something brand-new that won’t wear out or run down, a body suited for eternity.

And individual personality continues in the resurrection. We believe in resurrection, not reincarnation. If I come back as a Chihuahua, I’m going to bite someone on the ankle. But that’s not going to happen. I won’t come back as someone else or something else.

I’ll be raised as John with all the destructive marks of sin removed from all parts of my being. The parts of me that annoy other people will be gone forever, thank God and I’ll be slim, tall, and better looking (I guess?).

What remains will be me, cleansed and purified and perfected by the grace of God. I will still be me and you will still be you. But we will also be like Jesus because we will see him as he is (I John 3: 1-3).

We will have new bodies fit for new people who will live in the New Jerusalem.

I have heard people speculate that we will all be 33 years old in heaven because that’s approximately the age Jesus was at his crucifixion. The Bible doesn’t say that, and I doubt that earthly markers of age will apply to our resurrection bodies. I heard a man say that just as we have five senses today, we will have 500 in the resurrection. Perhaps that is true. It does fit the acorn-oak tree analogy.

Our only way of understanding the resurrection body is to consider the experience of Jesus. After he rose from the dead, the disciples could still recognize him and he bore on his body the marks of his suffering. He ate and drank with them, yet he also appeared and disappeared from their midst, suggesting that in his glorified state, he transcended time and space.

Your current body is like an old jalopy. It never works very well, it keeps breaking down, and one day it will stop altogether. Your new body will be like a Roll Royce that never needs servicing. This is wonderful news for those who today suffer from cancer, deformities, disabilities, limitations, sicknesses, chronic illness, and broken body parts. A day is coming when they will suffer and weep no more.

When Christ saves you, he saves all of you. Every part of you is saved and every part of you will be delivered from sin. Here is my whole sermon in one sentence: It is not soul salvation that we believe in, but whole salvation. The resurrection of the body is the final step in our salvation:

Step #1: We are saved from the penalty of sin. That happens when we trust Christ.

Step #2: We are saved from the power of sin. That happens day by day through the new life given to us by the power of the Holy Spirit.

Step #3: We are saved from the presence of sin. That will happen in the future when our bodies are raised from the dead and transformed by God’s power.

There have been many strange and different philosophical questions raised through the ages about the nature of, and characteristics of the resurrected bodies of believers.

To them I am reminded of Augustine’s famous reply to the question, “What was God doing before he created the universe?” Answer: He was creating hell for people who ask questions like that. There is a serious side to that frivolous question, however.

We know that many people were incinerated on 9/11 when the twin towers of the World Trade Center collapsed. Their bodies simply vaporized. How will God resurrect the bodies of believers who died that day? Or of believers whose bodies were lost at sea, or in the jungle down through time?

The answer in all cases is the same: God can do it. The God who holds every molecule of the universe in his hand can retrieve the right ones when the time of resurrection finally arrives. It’s not a problem for God. Think of it this way: If you can raise the dead, you can raise the dead. The circumstances of death will not delay or deter the Lord on that great day. Everyone who died a believer will be raised immortal. Death will not have the last word.

We are sown in dishonor and raised in glory (I Corinthians 15:43). Dishonor describes our condition at the moment of death because our bodies begin to decay the moment life ebbs away. Glory describes what we shall be when Christ returns and we are raised from the dead.

From dishonor to glory—that’s our destiny.

How will God do it? Paul says, “I show you a mystery.” Even he doesn’t know for certain. The best arguments in favor of resurrection are simply analogies. We are like a little baby in the womb who hears voices from the outside and sees light shining into the womb. We know as much about the resurrection body as that little baby knows about life after birth. What we know is wonderful. The reality will go far beyond anything we can imagine.

In all of this, we must not miss the great point Paul wishes to make:

O Grave, where is your victory? It is gone!

O Death, where is your sting? It is gone!

The resurrection of the body means that when God saves us, he saves the whole person—body, soul and spirit. It also means that we will see again our loved ones who died in the Lord. And it transforms how we view death. If we truly believe what God has said, why should we fear dying? Death has been so thoroughly defeated that the moment of death has become the moment of our personal victory through Christ our Lord. It is a mere incident in the ongoing life we share with Christ.

Take comfort, brothers and sisters, in this affirmation of the Apostles’ Creed: “I believe in the resurrection of the body.”

Lord, there may be people reading these words who are unsure of what will happen when they die. They may want to trust in your salvation through Jesus Christ. Grant them faith to say these words in prayer:

God, I am far from you and I am afraid to die. I believe that Jesus died for me; I believe that Jesus rose from the dead. Here and now I trust in Him as my Savior; come into my heart, Lord Jesus, and save me. Amen.

And grant to all the believing children of God great faith and hope and deep joy as we move toward the great day of our resurrection. Help us to stand strong and to abound in doing good because we know our work is not in vain. And we say with all the saints, “Even so, come, Lord Jesus.” Amen.