[Transcript]
One of the most infamous things that professing Christians say, or at least do little to correct, is this: God needed another angel. Grandma gained her wings. This is patently untrue on both counts, yet the idea that when a believer dies they gain wings or become like the angels persists. Yet even a surface reading of Scripture refutes this notion. The cartoon Tom and Jerry has a tighter grip on our minds than the Scriptures do on this subject.
But even those who understand and reject this idea either describe the eternal state in nonphysical terms or tie it too closely to our current earthly experience. This life is a shadow of the one to come, so there are similarities, but the shadow is meant only to show the shape of reality, not the substance.
Our Only Preview
“But someone will ask, “How are the dead raised? With what kind of body do they come?” – 1 Corinthians 15:35
Though Paul’s initial response to this question seems incredulous, it’s a fair question for inquiring minds. Even those who rightly understand this subject ask this question. What follows is Paul’s most detailed teaching on the resurrection body. But we also have a preview in the Gospels. The body that Christ possessed after His resurrection is our only real glimpse into what may await every believer. However, even with this glorious sneak-peek, we must temper our expectations. Because our only example is the risen Son of God, it remains unclear precisely how identical our bodies will be to His. Will our bodies be one hundred percent just like His, or will they be very similar, but beneath His by some magnitude? The Bible doesn’t make it that clear.
However, with that caveat in mind, let’s look at Christ, post-resurrection, and take notes.
- Jesus’ new body was the same yet transformed. The tomb was empty. (John 20:6-7)
- Jesus was recognizable, yet different enough that He wasn’t immediately recognized on a few occasions. On one occasion, He purposefully concealed His identity, and on another, He seemed different enough to remain unrecognized. (Luke 24:16; John 20:14)
- Jesus’ new body was physical. He invited the disciples to touch Him and ate a meal with some of them. (Luke 24:39, 42-43; John 20:27)
- Jesus could appear and vanish at will. He once appeared to the disciples behind locked doors and, on another occasion, vanished before their eyes. (John 20:19; Luke 24:31)
- Jesus’ new body retained the scars of His crucifixion. It’s unclear whether that means every resurrection body will retain scars from this life or if it was a one-off to remind us of His sacrifice for us. (John 20:20, 27)
It seems to me that Luke and John weren’t as concerned about telling us about His new body as they were about recounting the events. Fair enough. But these things help us understand what might await every believer when they receive their resurrection bodies. The original body is the seed; the new body is the tree. You can recognize a pine tree, even when you are just looking at a pinecone. Pinecones are undoubtedly the seeds of pine trees. Yet, the pine tree’s majesty and beauty are unrecognizable while simply looking at the lowly pinecone. C.S. Lewis understood this reality better than most. In his book, The Weight of Glory, he stated, “It’s a serious thing to live in a society of possible gods and goddesses.” What he meant by that is if we could preview the glory of our resurrection bodies, we would be tempted to worship our future selves. I think that’s a staggering concept, and Paul is going to address some of those concepts in this passage.
Christ’s resurrected body is the template for what we can expect. Even though the Gospel authors didn’t bother to expound on the nature and abilities of His new body, what they witnessed gives us enough clues to stir our imaginations.
Heavenly vs. Earthly
“There are heavenly bodies and earthly bodies, but the glory of the heavenly is of one kind, and the glory of the earthly is of another.” – 1 Corinthians 15:40
Paul drew a contrast between who we are now and who we will become. Right now, we are encumbered by corruptible flesh. What does that mean? Simply put, it means that the effects of sin have ruined our physical bodies. This doesn’t mean that people die because of particular sins (though it certainly can happen, as sinful choices can lead to physical death). Rather, in a broader sense, the sin nature corrupts the physical body. This is what the Lord meant when He told Adam, “You shall surely die,” if you eat from the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil.[1] It wasn’t an immediate physical death, but death did eventually come as a result of the corrupting effects of sin on the body.
“Thus also is the resurrection of the dead. It is sown in corruption, it is raised in incorruptibility” – 1 Corinthians 15:42 (LEB)
Though He was misunderstood, Jesus predicted His death and resurrection several times. One of those predictions was wrapped in a seed metaphor that fits this passage well.
“Truly, truly I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains by itself alone. But if it dies, it bears much fruit.” – John 12:24 (LEB)
Even as the Son of God, Jesus was clothed in human flesh in His incarnation. This is one of the mysteries of His life on earth. He was both entirely human and divine at once. Anything less wouldn’t do. In His humanity, He bore corruptible flesh, which meant He could be tempted by sin, yet He also remained completely divine, which gave Him the power to resist all temptations. To His (and our) point, when the corruptible flesh – the grain of wheat – falls into the earth and dies, it bears much fruit – it resurrects to its intended existence.
I have to admit, I have a really good imagination. I imagine being able to appear and disappear wherever my heart desires. I imagine that if I chose to walk from point A to point B, regardless of the distance, I would never tire. I imagine that in a new body where my desires aren’t corrupted, I’ll finally be able to enjoy food and drink without the concerns of emotional or boredom eating. I imagine that I’ll enjoy everything the new creation has to offer without the temptation of overindulgence. But I can’t really relate to that. It’s like I’m reading a book about someone else’s adventures in an alternate reality. I suppose, in some ways, that’s exactly what it is. How can the pinecone understand what it means to be sixty feet tall and sway in the wind? It can’t. Until it dies in the earth, it will never begin to understand what it will be.
Paul’s contrasts include perishable to imperishable, dishonor to glory, weakness to power, and natural to spiritual. The difference between the earthly and heavenly bodies is hard to envision when our only frame of reference is the earthly. Though it’s easy to let our imaginations run away, we can ground our understanding in a single necessity. The most important reason for this change is to enable us to exist eternally with the Father in a face-to-face relationship.
As He Is, So Are We
“As was the man of dust, so also are those who are of the dust, and as is the man of heaven, so also are those who are of heaven.” – 1 Corinthians 15:48
Paul called Jesus the last Adam. The first Adam became a living being. The last Adam became a life-giving spirit. The contrast isn’t meant to spark a discussion of what Paul meant by “life-giving spirit.” It’s a contrast of origin. Adam came from the dust. Christ came from heaven. Adam brought death. Christ brings life.
In all of this, Paul understood that Adam was a type of Christ.[2] He foreshadowed Jesus in that He was the head of the human race, and every human inherited what He offered. Therefore, just as we inherited dust and death from Adam, in Christ we inherit spirit and life! Not just the life we have known, but eternal life and everything necessary to live eternally with Him. That means we receive incorruptible, spiritual bodies at our resurrection, just as He did.
You may wonder what Paul meant by spiritual body. I must confess that for a long time it presented a challenge to my thinking. But I found that most of my confusion stemmed from being too strict in my thinking. I couldn’t get past the thought that spiritual automatically meant it wasn’t physical. But that’s not true. Spiritual does not mean non-physical. Consider that angels appeared to men and women as physical beings. Consider that Christ’s post-resurrection body was a physical body. Abraham shared food with angels in Gen 18:8. Lot fed angels in Genesis 19:3. We have been programmed by popular culture or bad theology to think of angels as non-corporeal beings. They have bodies. Unlike us, they are not limited to space and time in the same way. So, the idea of a spiritual body is the combination of two terms to communicate a new reality. We will inherit physical bodies unbound by the limitations of the physical world. Whatever that means exactly is yet to be seen.
This passage stands alongside Romans chapter eight as one of the most glorious in Paul’s writings. There’s no correction, only promises. No admonition, just encouragement. Why don’t we spend more time contemplating this glorious future? Without real-life frames of reference, finding practical encouragement in such a surreal passage can be tricky. We would do well to familiarize ourselves with these glorious promises, because there have been times, there are times, and there will be times when those promises help us endure terrible hardships.
Ongoing Discussion
“Behold! I tell you a mystery. We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed, 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 Corinthians 15:51-52
Within Christian circles, there is much discussion about whether the rapture is real. The subject suffers from bad labeling. Some who say there is no rapture are rejecting the broader argument for a premillennial, dispensational (pre-tribulation) understanding of the end times. This view holds that these verses are fulfilled seven years before Christ’s second coming, known as the rapture. Its critics sometimes respond by denying the rapture. However, those critics would still affirm this passage.
The problem lies in the word choice. The word rapture comes from the Latin rapiō, a translation of the Greek harpazō. These words mean to snatch away. It appears in 1 Thessalonians 4:17, where Paul speaks of what happens to those in Christ who are alive at His coming.
“Then we who are alive, who remain, will be snatched away at the same time together with them in the clouds for a meeting with the Lord in the air, and thus we will be together with the Lord always.” – 1 Thessalonians 4:17 (LEB)
The critics who say there is no rapture have committed the error of throwing the baby out with the bathwater. When Christ returns, regardless of which understanding of end-times theology you embrace, the dead in Christ will be resurrected, imperishable. Then, those believers who are alive at that moment will be “snatched away.” Why? They, too, must receive the promise of their resurrection bodies, but since they have not yet died, in an instant, they are transformed and snatched away to the clouds where the Lord is returning in power with all of His saints.
Therefore, yes, a rapture happens because it means being snatched away. What critics reject is the broader interpretation of the events taught to accompany the rapture. But every orthodox Christian must embrace the resurrection, so by default, that embrace includes the snatching away and bodily transformation of living believers at Christ’s second coming.
“Behold, I tell you a mystery: we will not all fall asleep, but we will all be changed,” – 1 Corinthians 15:51 (LEB)
[1] Genesis 2:16
[2] Romans 5:14
