What will we be like in heaven? Will we become angels with wings? Or will we be ethereal spirits floating around in the clouds with harps? From Paul’s earlier letter to the Philippians we know that the moment we are absent from the body we are present with the Lord. This state he describes as “better by far.” We seem to comprehend this part of the story well. But what happens at the second coming of Christ?
Paul wrote to correct the Corinthians who did not believe in a bodily resurrection. Greeks believed that the body could not come back to life. The spirit is set free from the corrupt body. So why would one need a body to come back to life? Paul pointed to Jesus himself as proof that the body itself will be raised. Just as Jesus rose from the dead, so God will raise our physical bodies from the dust and ashes back to life again. I do not often hear Christians speaking of this hope of new resurrected bodies.
So often when a loved one dies, we say, “Well they lost the battle.” It feels as though death has won the victory over life. So when Jesus died, all of hell may have danced at the defeat of the Messiah. But that was Friday. Sunday was coming. When Jesus arose from the grave, he made a promise that all of his disciples who die will also someday be raised to life as immortal bodies. When our bodies are raised, then death, the final enemy will be defeated once and for all. As the poet, John Donne wrote, “One short sleep past, we wake, and death, thou shalt die.”
On a tombstone in Louisiana, a follower of Jesus summarized this truth with a single word on the tombstone: “Waiting.” She is with the Lord, but the resurrection will be complete when her body is raised. We will not be angels but people with new immortal bodies. The New Jerusalem will come down to the earth. We will live forever with God with new perfect bodies that will not grow old or get sick. What difference does this make to the way we live? All. All the difference. Because God will raise our bodies to life, everything we do with our bodies here matters. So we stand firm and we give ourselves fully to the work of the Lord. Why? Because our labor in the Lord will never be in vain. Hold on to this hope today!
