“The dead in Christ shall rise
first” (1 Thessalonians 4:16).
The resurrection of Christ
gives us assurance that our loved ones who have died
in Christ are currently safe in Christ and they
shall live again. They will have their own identity
in their own resurrected body. His resurrection
assures us that these bodies buried in the grave
shall rise again, not in corruption, but in
incorruptible, perfect, glorified bodies like that
of the resurrected Christ (1 Cor. 15).
“Blessed are the dead which die
in the Lord” assures us of our vital union with
Christ even in death. When Christ returns all those
who believe in Him will come with Him. They will be
raised up at His appearing. Jesus is the
“Resurrection and the Life” and He gives His life to
those who believe on Him.
“He that raised up Christ from
the dead shall quicken your mortal bodies by His
Spirit that dwells in you” (Romans 8:11). In Paul’s
logic the believer’s resurrection is linked to the
resurrection of His Lord. Everything is suspended on
the great fact of our vital union “in Christ.”
“If we believe that Jesus died
and rose again, even so them that slept in Jesus
will God bring with Him.” The “dead in Christ” will
hear the voice of the Resurrection and the Life and
come alive.
The resurrection of Jesus
Christ answers the question “with what body do they
come?” We look at the resurrected body of Jesus in
the Scriptures and we see in Him a living mirror of
our own future resurrected bodies.
We will have
holiness and righteousness perfectly restored to us
in Christ. The apostle John declares, “When He shall
appear we shall be like Him” (1 John 3:2). Christ
shall return as He went up. We shall receive back
our bodies perfected in Christ. Our bodies shall be
“fashioned like His glorious body.” That removes all
the foolish vain imaginations and arrogant nonsense
the world proposes about Christianity.
The present body of the flesh
with its limitations cannot inherit the kingdom of
God. However, our transformed and glorified state
will inherit His kingdom. Only the glorified body is
capable of eternal life.
What will our resurrected
glorified bodies be like? They will be like the
risen Christ who ate, and drank before eyewitnesses
who saw Him in plain sight. They touched the same
body that had been crucified and saw the scars of
His passion. But there was also another dimension
that was free of the limitations of time, space and
matter. It was above the law of gravity and matter.
We, too, shall have glorified bodies specially
prepared to inhabit the new heaven and new earth.
Our new bodies will have the
same vital characteristics of our unique
personalities, but they will never ever be corrupted
again by the effects of sin and the Fall.
Only Christianity gives dignity
and worth to the human being. “As we have born the
image of the earthly, we shall bear the image of the
heavenly.” The apostle Paul compared our physical
bodies to that of a seed that falls to the ground
and is buried and will one day be raised up to new
life after Christ who is the first-fruit (1 Cor.
15). “In Adam all die . . .” but “in Christ shall
all be made alive.” Why? Because Jesus said, “I am
the Resurrection and the Life.”
To paraphrase John Knox, if you
are alive in Christ there is no need for you to fear
the death of the flesh. The seed that is planted in
springtime is not the seed that shall be in harvest
time, but the Apostle Paul tells us there is an
identity between the two seeds that is clearly
identifiable. The seed of the harvest comes into
being only in the death of the first. One great
resurrection morning this old body of death shall
rise again when Christ calls it to life.
One day we shall be clothed
with another body, redeemed from all sin and
iniquity, made like the glorious body of our Lord
Jesus Christ. Only then shall we know our full,
complete, perfect, glorious redemption in Christ.
Those who witnessed the death
of the first Christian martyr “looked steadfast on
him and saw his face as it had been the face of an
angel.” May the transforming grace of God give us
that kind of a relationship with Him until the great
resurrection morning.
Selah!
Message by Wil Pounds (c) 2006
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Unless otherwise noted "Scripture quotations taken from the NASB."
"Scripture taken from the NEW AMERICAN STANDARD BIBLE" © Copyright 1960, 1962, 1963, 1968, 1971, 1972, 1973, 1975, 1977, 1995 by The Lockman Foundation Used by permission." (www.Lockman.org)Scripture quoted by permission. Quotations designated (NET) are from the NET Bible copyright ©1996-2006 by Biblical Studies Press, L.L.C. http://www.bible.org/. All rights reserved.
Wil is a graduate of William Carey University, B. A.; New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary, Th. M.; and Azusa Pacific University, M. A. He has pastored in Panama, Ecuador and the U. S, and served for over 20 years as missionary in Ecuador and Honduras. He had a daily expository Bible teaching ministry head in over 100 countries from 1972-2005. He continues to seek opportunities to be personally involved in world missions. Wil and his wife Ann have three grown daughters. He currently serves as a Baptist pastor and teaches seminary extension courses in Ecuador.
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