Putting On Immortality: Part 2
Putting On Immortality is the name of our Resurrection Series. In it, we are exploring Paul’s description of the resurrection body. Our Memory and Meditation Verses for celebrating the Resurrection together over the next 6 weeks are 1 Corinthians 15:35–49. The series aims to improve and guide our Christian meditation together. Today, in Putting on Immortality: Part 2, we will examine 1 Corinthians 15:38–39.
In case you missed the first installment in the series and would like to read it before moving on: Putting On Immortality Part 1.
Resurrection in the Religious Imagination
All religions have some version of heaven. I am not an expert in the religious practices of all men, but a state of perfection is at the end of nearly everyone’s religious rainbow—or a state of punishment and destruction. That includes those with an Abrahamic connection and those without.
We can certainly say without controversy that traditional Christians of all stripes and Jews see our life on Earth as a trial or probation where our eternity is determined based on what we have done. It is only traditional Christianity, however, that provides not only a remedy for the Fall of Man but also a mechanism to answer, “Where will the power come from to resurrect us?”
“If the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, he who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through his Spirit who dwells in you (Romans 8:11).”
The Spirit Applies the Resurrection: Now & Later
The Holy Spirit who dwells in us is the power through Whom we obey in “the already.” He will also be the power by Whom we are resurrected in the “not yet.” The Triune God has surrounded us with His Love. The Father sent the Son. The Incarnate Son came and accomplished the Gospel. The Father and Son poured out the Holy Spirit on the Church, indwelling God’s people with the seed of God. “No one born of God makes a practice of sinning, for God’s seed abides in him; and he cannot keep on sinning, because he has been born of God (1 John 3:9). The Holy Spirit within us applies the resurrection to our lives now and will raise us with our bodies later.
The Shape of the Resurrected Body
After you accept the power of God’s witness in the resurrection of Jesus Christ, the next question becomes, “What will the resurrected body be like?” Again, a clear answer is given. Scripture tells us it will be like Jesus’ resurrected body.
We will be glorified in the resurrection:
“But our citizenship is in heaven, and from it, we await a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ,
who will transform our lowly body to be like his glorious body, by the power that enables him
even to subject all things to himself.” (Philippians 3:20–21)
Glorified means our body will be perfected Humanity. Not gods. Nor angels. We will be perfected humans. Paul describes the mortal body as a kernel of wheat and the resurrection body as the full plant. Put them under a microscope and they are both wheat. At their core, they are the same. Stand back and look at them and the view is completely different. One is the other in full bloom. The same, but more.
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God Chooses the Body
What kind of body will we receive upon the Lord Jesus’ return? One that God has chosen:
“But God gives it a body as he has chosen, and to each kind of seed its own body.” (1 Corinthians 15:38)
Because of the noetic effects of sin, we cannot envision a body without sin—a life without sin. It is beyond our imagination. It is enough for us to know that God has sovereignly designed the resurrection body for us and our future enjoyment.
God tells us that in form we will look similar yet different. We will breathe, eat, and drink. Jesus breathed on the Apostles in John 20:19-23. Jesus ate and drank Luke 24:41-43. We know we will be able to be in the immediate presence of God and not die “for the Lord God will be their (our) light (Revelation 22:5).” The quality of our life will be radically different, yet the body will be substantively the same. Praise Him:
From eighty years if by strength,
to years without number or end.
He everlasting our life makes,
Infinite and without sin.
The Witness of Creation
We see this pattern in nature too. Not only does each seed have its own body, but there is more than one type of body in Creation. Turning from the plant kingdom to animated life, Paul shows us that God has already created multiple different kinds of beings with differing bodies. He shifts vocabulary now, using “flesh” as a synonym for “body”:
“For not all flesh is the same, but there is one kind for humans, another for animals,
another for birds, and another for fish.” (1 Corinthians 15:39)
He Can Call It Back From Nothing
We can trust that God can and will give us a flesh that differs in mortality from the one we have now. We can gather some evidence for this fact by simply looking at the created order. In Creation, did God make different kinds of beings with different kinds of flesh? Did He do it by speaking them into existence out of nothing—ex nihilo? The answer is yes!
Therefore, we can rest in God’s promise to resurrect us and move on from the question “What kind of body?” He created the world. He sent His Son into the world to save it. Christ died and rose again on the third day.
The Father and Son have sent the Spirit into our hearts “by whom we cry Abba, Father” (Romans 8:15). Since we have the Spirit, we know we are awaiting our glorious body. If He can bring all bodies into existence from nothing, He can certainly call them back into existence from nothing and also make them differ from when they were laid to rest—in glory.
He turns ashes into crowns (Isaiah 61:3). He can swallow up death in life. We know He can do this because He did not let Jesus, His “Holy One see corruption” (Psalm 16:10).
Putting on Immortality Part 3
Finally, thanks for reading Putting on Immortality Part 2. Read Putting on Immortality Part 3 based on 1 Corinthians 15:40-41.
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Additionally, if you enjoyed Putting On Immortality Part 2 you may also enjoy some of our other series’.
Christ, His Church, & Marriage (February 2025)
Forsaken For Us (March-April 2025)
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