The Resurrection of the Body...

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I think an incorrect goal has been presented to Christian people. The traditional goal of salvation has been, and is today, to go to Heaven, probably to live forever in a mansion in the spirit world. The true scriptural goal is the resurrection of the body to eternal life in God's Kingdom, not in Heaven necessarily.

(11/14/2010). It seems a primary purpose of salvation is to give us a better appearance, that is, a better resurrection, when the Lord returns.

People always are rewarded or punished in their body, whether they have done good or have done evil.

Do not be amazed at this, for a time is coming when all who are in their graves will hear his voice and come out—those who have done what is good will rise to live, and those who have done what is evil will rise to be condemned. (John 5:28,29)

Multitudes who sleep in the dust of the earth will awake: some to everlasting life, others to shame and everlasting contempt. (Daniel 12:2)

If we are wise we will serve Christ diligently. In this manner we gain a better resurrection in the Day of the Lord.

Women received back their dead, raised to life again. There were others who were tortured, refusing to be released so that they might gain an even better resurrection. (Hebrews 11:35)

The central issue of the Divine plan of redemption is not forgiveness, or going to Heaven when we die. Neither of these would solve God's problem of rebellion. The central issue is the developing of stern obedience to God in us. When we have been changed from our will to God's will, this inward change will be followed by the resurrection of our body; and not just the resurrection of the body, but the resurrection of the body to eternal life in the Kingdom of God.

The Lord Jesus Christ is our Redeemer. To redeem a thing or an individual is to give back to its original owner that which was lost. Mankind did not lose residence in Heaven, because of the disobedience of Adam and Eve, but immortality in the body. God drove the two first people from the garden so they would not be able to eat of the Tree of Life and thus attain to bodily immortality while they were alienated from God.

The price of our redemption was paid by the blood of the Lord Jesus.

The reason the Christian churches have emphasized eternal residence in Heaven as the goal of redemption is that they view salvation as being the salvation of our spirit. If salvation were only the salvation of our spirit, then it would make sense to view residence in Heaven as our goal. One does not need a body to reside in Heaven.

Because the Kingdom of God is destined to come to the earth and be installed here ("Your Kingdom come"), the body must be resurrected (changed from death to life). We must have a body if we are to live on the earth.

The idea that the Christian salvation is for the purpose of bringing our inward spiritual nature to a spiritual Paradise when we die is derived from the teaching of Gnosticism, and is similar to the hope of other religions. The Christian salvation is the opposite of this. It is the hope of immortality and renewed life on the earth.

When God saw the first two people in their physical form, and all else of the material world, God declared His work was "very good." The Gnostic concept, as I understand it, is that God's work was very bad, and mankind must flee to the spirit world to find fulfilment.

I have noticed a tendency of people to view flesh as evil and spirit as good. There are religions that emphasize this, but it is not true of Christianity. In fact, the evil of our flesh is caused by wicked spirits that come from the spirit world. The flesh is delivered from evil when the wicked spirits have been conquered and driven from us.

Most religions, it seems, view the physical world as evil—suspect at best. They present the hope that man must die and enter the spirit world to find fulfillment. Perhaps this is why the Catholic church forbids its ministers to marry. It is as though there is something less than holy in physical marriage. The result of this unscriptural, unnatural directive is sinful behavior, as the repressed personality seeks to escape its boundaries.

We are coming now to the true, scriptural concept, that the material world is "very good." Though it fell into the hands of Satan through man's disobedience, our Redeemer has paid the price of our redemption and we now are free to pursue and regain immortality. Then Paradise will be restored to the earth, as Isaiah informs us.

The Kingdom of God is the Divine Life of God incarnate in a material world, and shall be installed on the earth when Jesus returns.

When the New Testament speaks of eternal life, it often is speaking of immortality, not of eternal spiritual life in the spirit world.

The famous John 3:16 state that we will not perish if we place our faith in Christ. However, spirits do not perish. It is the body that perishes.

Compare the use of the term "perish":

So will it be with the resurrection of the dead. The body that is sown is perishable, it is raised imperishable; (I Corinthians 15:42)

For the perishable must clothe itself with the imperishable, and the mortal with immortality. (I Corinthians 15:53) If you stop to think about it, what people want is bodily immortality, not endless existence in the spirit world. The good news of salvation is that our body is going to be resurrected so it can live once again as part of a normal human being. A normal human being is spirit, soul, and body. This is how God made us in the first place. Physical death is an unnatural state.

It is interesting to note that when people speak of resurrection they are picturing going to Heaven. Resurrection has nothing whatever to do with going to Heaven. Resurrection is the making alive of the physical body, that is, filling it with the Spirit of God.

This simple fact is not understood at all by most Christian people, it appears. But it is what we want. Bodily immortality was and still is the goal of the Apostle Paul.

I want to know Christ—yes, to know the power of his resurrection and participation in his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, and so, somehow, attaining to the resurrection from the dead. (Philippians 3:10,11)

To those who by persistence in doing good seek glory, honor and immortality, he will give eternal life.(Romans 2:7) The last enemy to be destroyed is death. (I Corinthians 15:26)

For the perishable must clothe itself with the imperishable, and the mortal with immortality. ((I Corinthians 15:53)

When the perishable has been clothed with the imperishable, and the mortal with immortality, then the saying that is written will come true: "Death has been swallowed up in victory." (I Corinthians 15:54)

But it has now been revealed through the appearing of our Savior, Christ Jesus, who has destroyed death and has brought life and immortality to light through the gospel. ((II Timothy 1:10) Notice the following:

And if the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead is living in you, he who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies because of his Spirit who lives in you. (Romans 8:11)

Not only so, but we ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for our adoption to sonship, the redemption of our bodies. (Romans 8:23)

It appears that we have come to a change in our thinking. Our concept has been that we are forgiven so we can go to Heaven. This is surprising, in that nowhere does the Bible speak of going to Heaven. In fact, I don't believe that any of the Apostles of the Lamb spoke of residence in Heaven as being our goal.

Why is it that now, in these days, we are becoming aware that our goal is to attain to bodily immortality in the Kingdom of God, and that we are destined to live once again on the earth? Probably because the coming of Christ and His Kingdom are at hand.

The unscriptural doctrine of the so-called "rapture" of the believers has largely done away with the pursuit of the resurrection, the redemption of our body. Ask any believer you know about the resurrection of our body. If they have been taught about the rapture, they likely will not be clear at all about the resurrection.

They probably will say that the rapture is the resurrection. This point of view hardly is scriptural. Can you imagine the Apostle Paul saying, "If by any means I might attain to the rapture?"

The truth is, there is a great difference between resurrection and ascension (rapture). The Lord Jesus was raised from the dead, was on the earth forty days, and then ascended to Heaven.

A central goal of the Christian redemption is the resurrection of our body, filling it with the Life of God. This is the destruction of the last enemy. This is the climax of redemption. The ascension is not part of redemption. It is an act of Kingdom power to get us ready to descend with Christ so we may participate in the installing of the Kingdom of God upon the earth.

When the fourth chapter of the Book of First Thessalonians speaks of the dead in Christ rising, that means the giving of Divine Life to their bodies. This is the resurrection. It does not mean rising into the air. The catching up comes later.

For the Lord himself will come down from heaven, with a loud command, with the voice of the archangel and with the trumpet call of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first. (I Thessalonians 4:16)

When we think of the resurrection of our body we need to clear our mind of the idea that this refers to our body going to Heaven. It means our physical body has been made alive in Christ. Paul refers to the resurrection as "our adoption to sonship." Can you see that this is speaking of a change in our state, not a change in our location? Not only so, but we ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for our adoption to sonship, the redemption of our bodies. (Romans 8:23)

I understand that viewing the resurrection of our body unto immortality as our goal may be a new thought to some of us. But it was Paul's stated goal, and he urges us to take the same view.

I want to know Christ—yes, to know the power of his resurrection and participation in his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, 11 and so, somehow, attaining to the resurrection from the dead. (Philippians 3:10,11)

All of us, then, who are mature should take such a view of things. And if on some point you think differently, that too God will make clear to you. (Philippians 3:15)

The practical difference in viewing the resurrection of our body as our goal is that there is something we are to do about it today. We are in a battle for our body. Satan wants it for his possession. So does the Spirit of God. It is up to us each day to decide who owns our body. We are only the caretaker of our body.

But if we view dying and going to Heaven by "grace," perhaps in a "rapture," we will not work out our salvation with fear and trembling. Do you know, we do not work for our salvation. But we certainly have to work at it. If we do not, we may lose it.

What we will experience in the Day of Resurrection depends on how we are pursuing our discipleship today. If we are like the Apostle Paul we will be seeking to know Christ, counting the spirit of the world as so much garbage. We will be denying ourselves so we may know Christ, the fellowship of His sufferings, and the power of His resurrection.

If instead we are yielding to our sinful nature, living in the impulses of the soul and spirit, we can look forward to corruption in the Day of Resurrection. Our flesh and bones will be raised and then clothed upon with the corruption we have practiced. Thus we will be an object of shame and contempt.

Let us rather press forward into the Lord Jesus each day so we may experience a better resurrection, a resurrection to a Glory-filled immortality.

The sufferings we are experiencing now are, in effect, a sowing of our body unto death. We can think of our present body as seed that is sown. In the Day of Resurrection, what we have sown, whether to life or to corruption, will spring forth as a body of glory beyond our imagination to picture at this time.

How foolish! What you sow does not come to life unless it dies. When you sow, you do not plant the body that will be, but just a seed, perhaps of wheat or of something else. (I Corinthians 15:36,37)

When a plant grows from a seed, the seed is in the full grown plan. So it is true that our new body will still have the old body in it. The old body will not be left somewhere to decompose.

Following are some passages that emphasize when the New Testament is referring to "life," it often means immortality in the body.

"Stop grumbling among yourselves," Jesus answered. 44 "No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws them, and I will raise them up at the last day. 45 It is written in the Prophets: ‘They will all be taught by God.’ Everyone who has heard the Father and learned from him comes to me. 46 No one has seen the Father except the one who is from God; only he has seen the Father. 47 Very truly I tell you, the one who believes has eternal life. 48 I am the bread of life. 49 Your ancestors ate the manna in the wilderness, yet they died. 50 But here is the bread that comes down from heaven, which anyone may eat and not die. 51 I am the living bread that came down from heaven. Whoever eats this bread will live forever. This bread is my flesh, which I will give for the life of the world." (John 6:43-51)

I believe the Lord is teaching here that as we come to Him and partake of Him each day we gain inward resurrection life. Such inward life is the necessary prerequisite for receiving immortality in the body when the Lord returns.

Jesus said to them, "Very truly I tell you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in you. 54 Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise them up at the last day. 55 For my flesh is real food and my blood is real drink. 56 Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood remains in me, and I in them. 57 Just as the living Father sent me and I live because of the Father, so the one who feeds on me will live because of me. 58 This is the bread that came down from heaven. Your ancestors ate manna and died, but whoever feeds on this bread will live forever." 59 He said this while teaching in the synagogue in Capernaum. (John 6:53-59)

The ancestors ate manna and died physically. Whoever feeds on Christ will live forever physically. The passage reveals the relationship between the inward resurrection and the outward resurrection.

I am the Living One; I was dead, and now look, I am alive for ever and ever! And I hold the keys of death and Hades. Revelation 1:18)

Christ was dead physically and now is alive physically.

But you have come to Mount Zion, to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem. You have come to thousands upon thousands of angels in joyful assembly, 23 to the church of the firstborn, whose names are written in heaven. (Hebrews 12:22,23)

The Lord Jesus Christ is the Firstborn from the dead, and so His Church is referred to as "the church of the firstborn," that is, the church of those who like Him are to be raised from the dead.

"To the angel of the church in Smyrna write: These are the words of him who is the First and the Last, who died and came to life again." (Revelation 2:8)

I saw thrones on which were seated those who had been given authority to judge. And I saw the souls of those who had been beheaded because of their testimony about Jesus and because of the word of God. They had not worshiped the beast or its image and had not received its mark on their foreheads or their hands. They came to life and reigned with Christ a thousand years. (Revelation 20:4)

The believers who had not worshiped the beast or its image certainly had been alive spiritually prior to this event. So when the Scripture states, "They came to life," it must mean their body at that time was imbued with the Spirit of God. I believe this is a clear indication that when the New Testament speaks of Christ giving us "life," the meaning is immortality in our body.

Since the children have flesh and blood, he too shared in their humanity so that by his death he might break the power of him who holds the power of death—that is, the devil—(Hebrews 2:14)

I am the Living One; I was dead, and now look, I am alive for ever and ever! And I hold the keys of death and Hades. (Revelation 1:18)

From Jesus Christ, who is the faithful witness, the firstborn from the dead, and the ruler of the kings of the earth. (Revelation 1:5)

Whoever has ears, let them hear what the Spirit says to the churches. To the one who is victorious, I will give the right to eat from the tree of life, which is in the paradise of God. Revelation 2:7

Jesus said to her, "I am the resurrection and the life. The one who believes in me will live, even though they die; 26 and whoever lives by believing in me will never die. Do you believe this?" (John 11:25,26)

Jesus spoke these words just prior to raising Lazarus from the dead.

But Christ has indeed been raised from the dead, the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep. 21 For since death came through a man, the resurrection of the dead comes also through a man. 22 For as in Adam all die, so in Christ all will be made alive. 23 But each in turn: Christ, the firstfruits; then, when he comes, those who belong to him. (I Corinthians 15:20-23)

It may be noted in the verses above that, "in Christ all will be made alive." The sentence following that expression speaks of those who belong to Him being made alive when He comes. So even though they were alive spiritually before He came, just as is true of us today, they were not fully alive until He came and raised their bodies from the dead.

A careful study of the above passages will show, I believe, that it is time now for a change in our Christian thinking. Our salvation does not have to do so much with the redemption of our spirit, as important as that is. Rather, the emphasis is on the resurrection (redemption) of our body.

As I stated previously, I believe the concept that the Christian salvation is largely spiritual and has to do with our spiritual residence in Paradise when we die, probably reflects the influence of Gnosticism on the early churches.

Eternal life is the knowledge of God and of His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ. The fullness of that knowledge is first developed in our inward nature. Then, for redemption to be complete, the new creation of the inward nature must incorporate the body before we fully have been redeemed, fully have become a son of God. Such is the manner of our adoption as a son of God.

Not only so, but we ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for our adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies. (Romans 8:23)

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