One of the most glorious truths is the real hope that God offers his people. It's a real, substantial hope of a future on a renewed earth, with renewed bodies, free of suffering, with God himself living among us.
But many Christians are brought up to believe that when we die we "go to heaven".
Sometimes, the language of "heaven" is a short-hand for this earth-bound future that God promises. But other times, people picture something far more ethereal, and the language is "heaven" is actually quite unhelpful - it sells us short.
Now, don't get me wrong: When a Christian dies, they do go to heaven. Philippians 1:23 has Paul looking forward to the day he departs to be with Christ - a future he characterises as "better by far" than anything in this life. Luke 23:43 has Jesus promising the criminal crucified next to him, "Today you will be with me in paradise." Yes, we go to heaven when we die - we just don't stay there. We do people a service when we communicate God's promise of heaven. We do people a dis-service if we suggest that this is the best or only future God has promised.
So where might we look in the Bible to see this renewed-earth future promised? I thought I'd post a few blog posts to point people in the right direction, to try to build and renew all of our hope.
And today we start with 1 Corinthians chapter 15
Was Jesus raised?
The first question to ask is whether Jesus was raised from the dead. 1 Corinthians 15:1-11 answers this with a resounding "yes". We are told three things about Jesus' resurrection. First, it was on the third day (he died Friday, then came Saturday, before he rose Sunday). Second, it was "according to the Scriptures", not an afterthought but something God had long promised. Third, it was witnessed, both by the apostles Jesus chose to be his official eyewitnesses, and many others as well.
Jesus rose.
Will we rise?
Second, will we be raised? Again, the answer is a resounding "yes", this time from 1 Corinthians 15:12-34.
Some people "say that there is no resurrection of the dead" (1 Cor 15:12). But, if this were the case, then "not even Christ has been raised" (1 Cor 15:13), and if this is the case everything falls apart. Christian faith is useless (verse 14), the apostles are false witnesses (verse 15), we "are still in our sins" (verse 17). In summary, "we are of all people most to be pitied" (1 Cor 15:19).
But, as he's just demonstrated, Christ has been raised, which makes him the "firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep" (verse 20). That means he's the one who guarantees that the full harvest will follow. "Sleep" is a favourite term of Paul's for death, because it implies that we will wake up the other side. But we have to get the order right: "Christ, the firstfruits; then, when he comes, those who belong to him." (1 Cor 15:23). Jesus has already been raised; our resurrection has to wait until Jesus "comes" again. That is when death itself will be destroyed, the last enemy (verse 26).
This is why the Christians who have already died, by the time that Paul wrote 1 Corinthians, are not without hope. If there was no resurrection, then "those also who have fallen asleep in Christ are lost" (1 Cor 15:18). But there is, so they will be raised when Jesus comes. If this only referred to them going to be with Jesus at the moment of their death, this would make no sense: they would already have everything they were looking forward to. There is a future resurrection for them and for us.
How will we be raised?
But Paul is not yet finished. He asks another rhetorical question in verse 35: "How are the dead raised? With what kind of body will they come?"
He answers the question first in general. "When you sow, you do not plant the body that will be, but just a seed." (1 Cor 15:37). The bodies we will have will not be the same as the ones that we will have now.
In particular, here is the way in which our bodies will be different: "So will it be with the resurrection of the dead. The body that is sown is perishable, it is raised imperishable; it is sown in dishonour, 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." (1 Cor 15:42-44)
Unlike our present bodies, our new ones will be imperishable, glorious, in power, and "spiritual" not "natural".
That last contrast needs some "fleshing out", as it were. The contrast is not between a body that is physical ("natural") and one that is purely "spiritual" (as opposed to physical). Why not? Because Jesus himself had a physical body after his resurrection. He invited Thomas to touch him to feel his physical hands and feet (John 20:27), and ate fish to prove that he was not merely a spirit (Luke 24:37-43). If he is the archetypal "spiritual body", then being "spiritual" does not deny physicality. Or, to put it another way, "spiritual body" is not an oxymoron - it is still a body, no less so for being a spiritual one.
Then what is a "spiritual body"? Why don't we let Paul explain. "If there is a natural body, there is also a spiritual body" (1 Cor 15:44). He goes on to explain that Adam was the typical "natural man", whereas Jesus is the typical "spiritual" or "heavenly" man. In other words, Adam was formed only from the ground, whereas Jesus was raised from death and therefore his existence (after his resurrection) was more miraculous, more heavenly, more spiritual in origin and therefore in quality. "And just as we have borne the image of the earthly man, so shall we bear the image of the heavenly man." (1 Cor 15:49).
Our new bodies will be "spiritual" in that they will be like Jesus, not simply like Adam. They come from being the other side of death. As to what that means in practise, Paul does not tell us. We could speculate that it refers to those qualities of Jesus' post-resurrection body that are not our present experience - things like being physical and yet able to pass through locked doors.
When will we be raised?
The last question to ask is when this will all happen. We've already seen this as being when Jesus "comes". We've already noted that, as a source of comfort relating to those who have already died, it would make no sense unless this were to occur in the future.
Paul has a final flourish on the timing of this. It will be on a momentous day at the end of time. On that day, every Christian will be transformed into this glorious new body, whether or not they have died before the event.
Listen, I tell you a mystery: we will not all sleep, but we will all be changed – in a flash, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, the dead will be raised imperishable, and we will be changed. For the perishable must clothe itself with the imperishable, and the mortal with immortality. 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.’ (1 Corinthians 15:51-54)
This is something far better, and far more dramatic, than us going to be with Christ when we die. This is an end-time one-off transformation that will take in those who died in years gone past and those of us who are still alive when it happens.
What a future God has indeed promised!
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