I Believe in the Resurrection of the Body
The apostle Paul explains the importance of believing in the resurrection of the body. Now, sometimes he can be hard to follow, but do your best:
Now if Christ is proclaimed as raised from the dead, how can some of you say that there is no resurrection of the dead? But if there is no resurrection of the dead, then not even Christ has been raised. And if Christ has not been raised, then our preaching is in vain and your faith is in vain. We are even found to be misrepresenting God, because we testified about God that he raised Christ, whom he did not raise if it is true that the dead are not raised. For if the dead are not raised, not even Christ has been raised. And if Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile and you are still in your sins. Then those also who have fallen asleep in Christ have perished. If in Christ we have hope in this life only, we are of all people most to be pitied. (1 Cor. 15:12-19)
Did you follow that? If Jesus rose from the dead, that is the proof we will also be raised. And if Jesus didn’t rise from the dead, we are wasting our time with all this religious stuff. So the question is, did Jesus rise from the dead? As Dr. Gary Habermas reminded us in a recent television series, the resurrection is “one of the earliest and best-attested facts about Jesus.”[1] He also listed a dozen facts about the resurrection that even skeptics are forced to accept because of the overwhelming evidence. So it seems very safe to say that Jesus rose—and so will those of us who have died before He returns.
The Bible doesn’t really give us a lot of information about what this new resurrection body will be like. We read this description in 1 Corinthians 15:
There are heavenly bodies and earthly bodies, but the glory of the heavenly is of one kind, and the glory of the earthly is of another…. So it is with the resurrection of the dead. What is sown is perishable; what is raised is imperishable it is sown in dishonor; it is raised in glory. It is sown in weakness; it is raised in power. It is sown a natural body; it is raised a spiritual body. (1 Cor. 15:40, 42-44)
But it’s important to remember that this bodily resurrection will not be a happy time for everyone. John tells us, “a time is coming when all who are in their graves will hear his voice and come out—those who have done what is good will rise to live, and those who have done what is evil will rise to be condemned” (John 5:28-29).
Michael Bird writes, “The fact that Jesus warned that one’s body could be thrown into hell shows that the final judgment is an embodied punishment (Matt 5:29–30).”[2] Those who are condemned to hell will go there in their physical resurrection body.
Likewise, those who are raised to eternal life with spend eternity in heaven in their “resurrection bodies.” Albert Mohler says, “the resurrected body is a physical body… The physical body is part of what it means to be human. Christian, therefore, will have a corporeal, physical, bodily existence throughout eternity.”[3]
Please be sure you will spend eternity with God in heaven by accepting His gift of salvation now. We are told in Acts 4:12, “Salvation is found in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given to mankind by which we must be saved.” Because Jesus has been raised, we will also be raised, and we have hope not just in this life, but for eternity.
Go Deeper
[1] John A.T. Robinson, The Human Face of God (Philadelphia: Westminster, 1973), p. 131.
[2] Michael F. Bird, What Christians Ought to Believe (Zondervan Academic, Kindle Edition), p. 216.
[3]R. Albert Mohler, The Apostles’ Creed (Thomas Nelson, Kindle Edition), p. 190.