June 1 – LD 22, Day 5: The Nature of our Resurrection Bodies

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 Paradise. Before he fell, he was a very glorious man. Our bodies now are nothing like Adam’s and Eve’s bodies. They were beautiful, strong, revealing God’s glory. But sin and the curse has filled us with death, made our bodies ugly, and eroded all the powers that Adam and Eve had.

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!