08/05/2020 For while we are in this tent, we groan and are burdened, because we do not wish to be unclothed but to be clothed with our heavenly dwelling, so that what is mortal may be swallowed up by life. (II Corinthians 5:4—NIV) Perhaps one reason for the confusion about the resurrection of the body is Paul's teaching in the fifth chapter of II Corinthians about the body from Heaven. We do have a body in Heaven that is being formed from our conduct on earth. But this is not the resurrected body. The resurrected body is our physical body that has died and been interred, and then raised by the voice of Christ. Another point of confusion is Paul's statement in First Corinthians: When you sow, you do not plant the body that will be, but just a seed, perhaps of wheat or of something else. (I Corinthians 15:37—NIV) The above verse could be interpreted to mean our present body is not the body that will be, therefore our present body is not the body of the resurrection. If such were the case it would be contradicting the argument presented in the entire chapter. What Paul is saying is that after the resurrection our body will be different, not that we will have a different body. He is pointing out that when a farmer sows wheat he is sowing only seed, not the stalk and head it will have after it germinates and grows. Our present body is a seed. We are sowing it to the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. In the Day of the Lord it will be raised and then marvelously glorified. But, as Paul warns us so many times, if we do not sow our present body to the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ, if we do not present our body a living sacrifice, if we continue to walk in the appetites and lusts of the flesh, we will slay our own resurrection. In the Day of the Lord our present body will be raised but in a state of corruption. It is for the very reason set forth in the preceding paragraph that our current Gnostic-Christian teaching is so destructive. If we are following the Gnostic point of view that salvation is the flight of our inward spiritual nature to the spirit Paradise, then much of what Paul wrote about reaping corruption makes no sense. Our spirit goes to Paradise by grace so who cares about whether we sow to our flesh or not. We will continue in our "eternal security." But if the Gnostic point of view is a satanic lie, which indeed it is, and we continue to live in the flesh, eating, sleeping, playing, working, reproducing, giving little thought to pressing forward in Christ each day, then in the Day of Christ we are not going to be given a glorified house from Heaven. We will enter the Kingdom of God (if we are permitted to enter!) as a naked spirit having no inheritance. Or, the possibility exists that we will be cast into the Lake of Fire in our body, where the worm does not die and the fire is never quenched. The warnings in the Scriptures are to be taken seriously! Multitudes who sleep in the dust of the earth will awake: some to everlasting life, others to shame and everlasting contempt. (Daniel 12:2—NIV) To be continued. |
