Resurrection

[February 21, 2011]   --"Now if Christ is proclaimed as raised from the dead, how can some of you say there is no resurrection of the dead? If there is no resurrection of the dead, then Christ has not been raised; and if Christ has not been raised, then our proclamation has been in vain and your faith has been in vain."-1 Corinthians 15: 12-14

The Bible is quite clear on one, singular point regarding what will happen next: the dead will rise.  All of them.  From all time.  From everywhere.  Everybody is coming back for the grand judgment.  This is the way things will go, according to Scripture, but not according to our popular notions of death.  Most of us consider the body to be a mere shell which is dispatched with this life, while our souls head up to heaven.  While this has some vague roots in Scripture, it is not representative of the Bible's teaching on the matter.  Instead, the Bible returns, over and over again, to the issue of the resurrection of the dead, with bodies. The nature of these bodies will be explored later in the month, but trust me when I say to you, your body matters.

But why?  Because our bodies are a part of God's creation.  Our bodies reflect our creation in God's image, yet they too, like the rest of creation, are fallen.  They are broken.  Here on earth, our bodies don't work like they should.  The wear out; they break; they fail us.  But the spiritual body, as Paul refers to it, the body which we will receive in Christ, will not do these things, but will last for all time.  But make no mistake, it will be a body.  So if the dead will rise again for judgment, and that, obviously, has yet to happen, then what of the interim.  Where are our loved ones now?  This is more difficult to say, but the great theologian N.T. Wright has a phrase for it; "blissful sleep."  The Bible is unclear about the interim time, clearly something happens, and clearly we don't all lapse into nonexistence for awhile, but there is no clear answer to the question.  I am not telling you all this with any agenda, but rather to shed light on what the Bible actually says about this.  We will go into more details on Sunday, but, until then, remember this; your body is going to be with you a very, very, very long time.

Prayer:  Holy God, thank you for all you have done for me, and for giving me this body.  Help me to remember that it too is a part of your creation, and that it too shall be with me forever.  I pray in Jesus' name.  Amen.

[Phil Blackburn, First Presbyterian Church]