It is not our inner man that will be raised in the last day. The inner man receives eternal life at the moment of receiving Christ. It is not the body from Heaven that is to be raised at the last day, for the body from Heaven never is buried, never needs raising. It is the flesh and bone body that will be raised from the place of death at the blowing of the trumpet.

The Lord Jesus is the Resurrection. He is the Life. As He is formed in us and lives in us we have the resurrection in our inner man. If we have the resurrection in our inner man, then, when the trumpet sounds, the resurrection life in our inner man will make alive our mortal body. Notice how the Apostle Paul states this:

But if the Spirit of him that raised up Jesus from the dead dwell in you, he that raised up Christ from the dead shall also quicken [make alive] your mortal bodies by his Spirit that dwelleth in you. (Romans 8:11)

Our mortal body will be made alive by the Holy Spirit who is dwelling in us, who is a pledge, a guarantee that one day we will have immortality in our body.

That is why Paul teaches that if we live in the flesh, if we choose to walk in our soulish, bodily appetites and do not cultivate the new Life that has been born in us, we will die (Romans 8:13). This means that in the Day of Resurrection there will be no eternal life ready to make alive our mortal body. By choosing to walk "in the flesh" we destroy the quality of our resurrection. Perhaps this will be seen more clearly as we proceed.

The making alive of his mortal body always was a goal of the Apostle Paul.

And not only they [the material creation], but ourselves also, which have the firstfruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, waiting for the adoption, to wit, the redemption of our body. (Romans 8:23)

The phrase "the redemption of our body" is not referring to the Life of God in our inner man. Neither is it speaking of the state of being of our house from Heaven. Rather, this expression is referring to raising and filling with Divine Life our mortal body, our flesh and bone body.

The Apostle Paul speaks of "immortality." He is indicating the reviving of our flesh and bone body to a state of incorruptibility.

But is now made manifest by the appearing of our Saviour Jesus Christ, who hath abolished death, and hath brought life and immortality to light through the gospel: (II Timothy 1:10)

When Paul refers to "eternal life," to redemption, he often puts the acquiring of it in the future, revealing that he is not speaking of reconciliation to God in our inner man, which is present now, but rather of the reviving of the mortal body in the Day of the Lord (Ephesians 1:13,14; 4:30; I Peter 1:5).

Consider the following:

To them who by patient continuance in well doing seek for glory and honour and immortality, eternal life: (Romans 2:7)

To be continued.