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The Daily Word of Righteousness
From Life to Death to Life, continued
I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful, I know that full well. My frame was not hidden from you when I was made in the secret place. When I was woven together in the depths of the earth, your eyes saw my unformed body. All the days ordained for me were written in your book before one of them came to be. (Psalms 139:14-16—NIV)
The resurrection of our physical body is a major example of the program of giving us things twice.
We do not think often of the marvel we have been given, the flesh and bones body. Because of the influence of Gnosticism on Christian thinking we have all but discarded the doctrine of the resurrection of the mortal body. Yet it is the resurrection of the mortal body that is the central hope of the Christian faith.
John 3:16 is speaking of rescuing the body from perishing. This thought may be new to you but the Scriptures will bear out that we are working toward the redemption of our body, that is, the reclaiming of it from indwelling sin and the corruption of death.
We are given a marvelous body, a house an angel would give anything to possess but never will. A flesh and bones body can come only from a woman. The highest possible calling of a woman (as God ordains for the individual) is to bring forth the flesh and bones body of a human being.
God has given us this marvel, and now He asks us to offer it as a sacrifice to God. Present your body a living sacrifice, Paul urges.
Now the fat is in the fire in more ways than one. Our whole life revolves around our body just as Abraham's whole life revolved around Isaac. When God asks for our body He is asking for most of what we are as a person.
We have a choice, just as did Jesus and Abraham. Either we give to God what He is asking for or we refuse to do so. Which will it be?
If, like Jesus and Abraham, we are willing to drink the cup, our end will be glorious beyond the mind of humans to comprehend. If we refuse to give our body to God, continuing to indulge its appetites and passions, the end will be corruption.
We may not realize it but the resurrection of our body is what Christianity is all about. The catching up of our body to meet the Lord in the air, the so-called "rapture," is not our hope. Being caught up to meet the Lord in the air is only our first step in the Kingdom of God, the first step we take after we have been raised from the dead. Our redemption is complete when we are raised from the dead.
The sooner the Christian churches begin to look toward the resurrection of the body as the blessed hope of the Christian salvation, and not that of being caught up to Heaven, the quicker our doctrine will begin to get straightened out.
Right now—today—we are forming the nature of our resurrection. There is nothing as important to you as an individual as the nature of your resurrection—what happens to you when you hear the voice of Jesus and are raised from the dead. Believe me, there is absolutely nothing as important as this.
To be continued.