This is another in a series of excerpts from What Every Christian Should Know About the Return of Jesus, released by High Street Press and available at Amazon.com.
The glory we experience now as Christ lives in us, and the glory we experience in death as our souls and spirits ascend into heaven, are partial works of glorification. But full glorification for followers of Jesus takes place when he calls our bodies from the grave and gives us incorruptible bodies like the body he bore when he rose from the dead.
Physical resurrection is the pinnacle of personal glorification, for in it we shrug off the last vestiges of sin, which have clung to our mortal bodies. In glorification, the effects of the Fall are fully and finally reversed.
At the return of Christ, all who have died in the Lord are resurrected. Their souls and spirits, which are in heaven with Jesus, are reunited with their bodies, resulting in complete personal glorification; the body, soul, and spirit are fully conformed to the image of Christ and thus free of any effects of the Fall.
Christians alive on the earth at the return of Christ are instantly transformed as they are given glorified bodies; their souls and spirits are perfected at the same time.
Three New Testament passages from Paul’s pen describe the transformation to which all Christians may look forward.
Philippians 3:20-21: “Our citizenship is in heaven, and we eagerly wait for a Savior from there, the Lord Jesus Christ. He will transform the body of our humble condition into the likeness of his glorious body, by the power that enables him to subject everything to himself.” The Greek word summorphon (“likeness”) indicates that our bodies become similar in form to that of the resurrected Christ.
2 Corinthians 5:1-5: “For we know that if our earthly tent we live in is destroyed, we have a building from God, an eternal dwelling in the heavens, not made with hands. Indeed, we groan in this tent, desiring to put on our heavenly dwelling, since, when we are clothed, we will not be found naked. Indeed, we groan while we are in this tent, burdened as we are, because we do not want to be unclothed but clothed, so that mortality may be swallowed up by life. Now the one who prepared us for this very purpose is God, who gave us the Spirit as a down payment.”
Paul compares our mortal bodies to an earthly tent, and our resurrection bodies to a heavenly palace. Further, he likens glorification to putting on new clothes that never wear out.
1 Corinthians 15:35-49. While Paul devotes the entire 15th chapter to resurrection, he differentiates the mortal body from the immortal one in verses 42-44. Our bodies are:
(1) “Sown in corruption, raised in incorruption” (v. 42). Physical death is the result of living in a perishable body. Even death by natural causes means the fittest body can’t live forever. And we should note that those raised from the dead in Scripture – from the son of the widow at Zarephath to Lazarus – died a second time because they did not receive glorified bodies.
However, God fashions our future bodies so they’re immune to sickness, disease, aging, and decay. Put another way, our glorified bodies are guaranteed to last as long as Jesus’ resurrected body endures – forever.
(2) “Sown in dishonor, raised in glory” (v. 43). Adam left us a legacy of dishonor. He willfully disobeyed God, made excuses for his sin, and even implicated God in the process. As a result, Adam passed on to us a sin nature – a natural tendency to live independently of God, which manifests itself in sin and shame in every human life.
Standing in sharp contrast, however, are believers’ resurrection bodies, which are raised in glory. They no longer bear the stamp of sin, and thus they radiate the Christlike qualities of holiness, integrity, reliability, and wisdom.
(3) “Sown in weakness, raised in power” (v. 43). The Greek word rendered “weakness” is astheneia and means “frailty,” “sickness,” or “disease.” Our present earthly bodies can’t overpower the effects of living in a sinful and fallen world. Ultimately, the curse of sin is victorious over the healthiest human specimens, and we all succumb to death in a thousand awful ways.
But our resurrection bodies are raised in power. The Greek dynamis means “might,” “strength,” or “ability.” Often in the New Testament, it’s connected with miraculous power, particularly with respect to the power of God and the miracles of Jesus. Our glorified bodies are powered by God, who destroys every trace of sin plaguing our earthly bodies.
(4) “Sown a natural body, raised a spiritual body” (v. 44). Today, we have a soma psychikos, or a “natural body.” This means more than just flesh and blood, however. It refers to a living human being who belongs to the natural world. But in resurrection, we receive a soma pneumatikos, or a “spiritual body.” This means the Holy Spirit preserves and directs our glorified bodies.
Our glorification in resurrection is not a lengthy process. Rather, Paul reveals to us a mystery: “We will not all fall asleep, but we will all be changed, in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet” (1 Cor. 15:51b-52a).
Whether we are raised from the dead or instantly transformed as living Christians on earth into glorified believers, the promise of Christ’s return should cause us to rejoice, as Paul does: “But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ!” (1 Cor. 15:57).
Next: Glory in restoration