Our body will not be raised from the dead so we can live in Heaven. The spiritual nature of the righteous does go to the Paradise of God at the time of death, as far as we know. But the purpose of the resurrection of the body is that we may live once again upon the earth: first upon the present earth; later upon the new earth.

The resurrection of the saints that will take place when the Lord returns is not the general resurrection of the dead. It is a special resurrection of the royal priesthood so they may rule with the Lord Jesus throughout the thousand-year Kingdom Age.

Moreover, brethren, I declare unto you the gospel which I preached unto you, which also ye have received, and wherein ye stand; (I Corinthians 15:1)

That which follows in Chapter Fifteen will be the Gospel the Apostle Paul preached, the truth on which the Church of Christ is to stand. We see at once that the resurrection of the physical body from its place of burial is the central vision of our salvation.

When we make eternal residence in a mansion in Heaven the vision of redemption, the Scriptures, both Old Testament and New, become impossible to understand.

By which also ye are saved, if ye keep in memory what I preached unto you, unless ye have believed in vain. (I Corinthians 15:2)

What Paul preached to the saints in Corinth is described in the following words. It is that Christ died on the cross to make an atonement for us, that He was buried, and that He rose again the third day.

In the fifteenth chapter of First Corinthians, Paul emphasizes the fact that because Christ rose, our resurrection is guaranteed. We are to keep firmly in mind that our hope, our goal, is the bodily resurrection from the dead, the resurrection to eternal life in the Kingdom of God.

If we lose sight of Christ's resurrection and our resurrection we do not participate in the program of salvation as we should. The result may be that our original belief proved to be in vain.

Our vision of the goal of the plan of redemption has a direct effect on the diligence with which we serve the Lord.

A little later in the chapter Paul says in effect, If there is no resurrection let us eat and drink, for tomorrow we die. It is the fact that we shall be raised from the dead to meet the consequences of our behavior that compels us to lead a godly life. We do not cease to exist after we die physically.

Evidently some teachers of Paul's day were claiming there would be no bodily resurrection from the dead. Paul knew that it is the hope (and fear) of the resurrection that cause us to work out our own salvation with fear and trembling.

To be continued.