June 1 – LD 22, Day 5: The Nature of our Resurrection Bodies
by Prof Herman Hanko
Read: I Corinthians 15:35-49
Our teacher who is
instructing us in the meaning of our faith in the resurrection of our bodies
does not have very much to say about the nature of our resurrection bodies. Nor is this so surprising. After all, the Bible does not say
very much about heaven. And this too is to be expected, because heaven is the
realm of spiritual creatures, while we here on earth are earthly creatures.
Even if the Bible would want to tell us about heaven, there is no language that
could be used to describe what heaven is like. And even if a
language could be found, we would not be able to understand it. (See Paul’s
comments in II Cor 12:1-4).
A few things are told us
in the Bible and our teacher points us to the most important of them: We shall
be “fashioned like unto his [Christ’s] glorious body.” (Phil 3:21). Christ’s
body was raised and glorified at the time of our Lord’s ascension and
exaltation. In his glorified body, he is now in heaven and sits at his Father’s
right hand, where he is Lord of lords and King of kings.
His glorified body is so
beautiful, so powerful, so shining with the brightness of his exaltation that
God himself in all his glory is revealed through Christ. When we see Christ, we
see God himself (John 14:7-11).
Our bodies, raised to be
like the body of Christ, shall be just as beautiful, just as
glorious and just as wonderful. The glory of God shining through Christ will
also shine through our bodies.
If this is the nature of
our resurrection bodies, we shall be more glorious than Adam was in
But in heaven we will
have more beautiful bodies than Adam and Eve had. We cannot even imagine what
that will be like. We cannot imagine the beauty of an angel, but we shall be
more glorious even than the angels.
Somehow, by some great
miracle, the beautiful bodies of a newborn baby will be preserved in heaven;
the unique glory of a man and woman at the peak of their strength will be
preserved; the beauty of the grey-haired veteran of the battle of faith will
also be preserved. But all traces of sin, the curse and death will be erased,
and every body will be perfect and fully able to serve God in the new creation.
All
that will be a miracle; an astounding miracle. We shall be changed. We
believe this, for Christ arose; and his resurrection guarantees our
resurrection. It is wonderful to contemplate!