February 23, 2025 Text: 1 Corinthians 15:21-26, 30-42
Dear Friends in Christ,
Louis XV, the king of France, ordered that no one should speak about death in his presence. He tried to avoid any visible sign or symbol or place that would remind him of the mortal nature of life in this world. Yet, the king could never escape this last great enemy. He died on May 10, 1774, at 3:15 a.m. Age 64.
Death is hard to ignore. God in the Scriptures doesn’t deny it or conceal it. We all die because we are sinners. Every human body will undergo decay in the grave. But the good news is that the curse and punishment has been removed through Jesus Christ. By His resurrection from the dead Christ has defeated sin, devil, hell, and death. The grave for the Christian becomes the gate to life eternal. We wonder what will that look like? Let’s answer that question as we examine . . . .
“THE RESURRECTION BODY”
A final resurrection is going to take place. Believers and unbelievers will be made alive on the Last Day. Believers will join their Savior and all the faithful in heaven. Unbelievers will be consigned to everlasting shame and contempt in hell.
Because as a Christian we live in our baptismal grace every day we can look forward to our own resurrection transformation on the Last Day.
The Apostle Paul was very good at rhetorical questions. He liked to pose a question, but then answer it. Paul asks, “Why am I in danger every hour? I protest, brothers, by my pride in you, which I have in Christ Jesus our Lord, I die every day.” (v. 30-31) Paul is asking rhetorically, “Why would I risk my life for things I don’t truly believe in?”
I had an uncle growing up who knew how competitive I was. I still remember him telling me, “Every time you lose, a little part of you dies.” That has been true for me. But whether you feel that way about losing or not, you still see a little dying each day. Maybe your walk isn’t as brisk, your mind regresses, hair leaves your head but grows out of your ears, you remember being 25, but the movies, music, and TV shows shove off into the distance. At some point we all realize, this isn’t going to last forever.
Time in this world, that is. We do have a forever appointment with our resurrection body. Paul ever the questioner poses another one, “How are the dead raised? With what kind of body do they come?” The resurrection body is the same but different. The Lord who created our physical bodies will give us spiritual bodies. Our bodies in their present state or condition will be changed instantly. We will no longer have bodies full of lusts, no longer sinful, no longer limited by hunger, thirst, pain, losing, or mortality. We will have resurrection bodies free from the debilitating effects of our sin.
Imagine experiencing this by God’s grace. Stepping onto a shore and finding it heaven…taking hold of a hand and finding it Christ’s hand…breathing new air and finding it celestial air…passing from a storm to unbroken calm…waking up and finding it….home!
The first time she saw a dead child, Corrie ten Boom began to worry about her own death and the death of her loved ones. She thought, “What if I am persecuted and must suffer?” She went to her father with her fears. He asked her a question: “When do I give you the ticket when you take the train from Haarlem to Amsterdam? Three weeks ahead of time?” “Why, no,” Corrie replied. “You give me the ticket the day I need it.” “Right,” said her father. “That’s exactly what God does. Today you don’t need the strength to be brave if someone dies or you are persecuted. But when the time comes, the Lord will give you the ticket right on time.”
Fearing death may cause us to ignore it. Jesus said, “I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in me will live, even though he dies.” (Jn. 11:25). We can place our hand in Christ’s nail-scarred hand and face death with peace and confidence. As baptized believers, we have the ticket. We live in Jesus now with a foretaste of the feast to come. By God’s grace in Christ we anticipate our resurrection body.
Amen.