WHAT WILL YOU BE LIKE
IN THE RESURRECTION?
(First published in the early 1960s)
by Dr. Paul C. Meredith
What kind of body will we have? It will be of a different
TYPE and for a different PURPOSE than you have probably imagined!
IF You could examine the kind of body you will have when you
are resurrected to immortality, it would clear up a great many
questions in your mind, would it not?
Someone has already acquired the same type of body that you
will have, and that person is Jesus Christ!
What Is the Family of Cod?
God the Father has desired to form for Himself, and from His
very being, a Family of immortal children who will be partaken of
His own "divine nature" (2 Peter 1:4 and Psalm 17:15), who
can be trusted with great power and on whom He can lavish His
love by sharing with them all that He has created.
This Family will compose the Kingdom of God. You mast be
born of God to enter it.
Being a God of order, He has established laws which we must
obey in order to be admitted to this Family. We must show in
advance, our willingness to be obedient to Him by having these
laws written in our hearts and minds (2 Cor.3:3).
If we are not obedient, then we sin (I John 3:4), and the
wages of sin is - established as death (Romans 6:23) - eternal
death! "All have sinned, and come short of the glory of God"
(Romans 3:23) - all of mortal mankind that God ever made was
doomed to die!
Most certainly there could be no Family of God formed from
these mortal people if they were to be dead foreve.
It was at this point that the Word, who was soon to become
the Son of God, sacrificed the glory of being God to become
"flesh and blood" just as you and I (Heb.2:14), so that He could
die in place of us for our sins. No wonder we owe so much to
Christ!
How It All Began
Now notice, very carefully, the begettal of the Father's
very first son, who would later, after His physical death, be
born into the Family of God!
The angel, speaking to Mary concerning Christ's future
birth, said, "The Holy Ghost [Spirit] ... of the Highest shall
overshadow thee: therefore also know that holy thing which shall
be born of thee shall be called the Son of God" (Luke 1:35).
The angel said to Joseph, Mary's husband: "... Fear not to
take unto thee Mary thy wife: for that which is conceived [or
begotten] in her is of the Holy Spirit" (Matt. :20).
Two things happened here: Christ was begotten as a mortal
man and physical birth took place shortly thereafter; and, He was
also begotten by the Holy Spirit at that time.
At the end of His physical life He died a physical death in
the place of all mortal men, who would have died for their own
sins; but - at His resurrection - He was born again, this time a
spiritual birth because He had been begotten by the Holy Spirit.
This time He was born into the spirit Family of God with a
spiritual body.(I Cor.15:44,45).
"Except a man be born again, he cannot see [or enter] the kingdom
[or family] of God" (John 3:3,5). "It is sown a natural body; it
is raised a spiritual body" (1 Cor.15:44). "Flesh and blood
cannot inherit the kingdom of God" (1 Cor.15:50). "That which is
born of the flesh is flesh; and that which is born of the Spirit
is spirit." (John 3:6). Christ's physical body, which did not
corrupt, was changed into spirit like that of the Father. God is
spirit (John 4:24).
Christ Our Brother
It was by the Holy Spirit of God, put there by the Father at
Christ's human begettal and dwelling in Christ, that the Father
resurrected Him with an immortal spiritual body. He has promised
to give you and me the same reward if we now let God beget as
with the impregnating germ of eternal life, His Holy Spirit!
"... If the Spirit of him that raised up Jesus from the dead
dwell in you, he that raised up Christ from the dead shall also
quicken your mortal bodies by his Spirit that dwelleth in you"
(Rom. 8:11). To "quicken" is to make eternally alive! By
repenting and being baptized, you and I, who are made of the same
mortal flesh which Christ took on Himself by having Mary as His
mother (Heb.2:14), may also receive the gift, or, in other words,
be begotten of the Holy Spirit!
What does this mean? It means that when you and I are
resurrected, Christ becomes our eldest brother in the spirit
Family of God, for all will have the same Father, all will be
begotten of the same spirit - God's Spirit - and all will be born
into the same Family! (Rom.8:29; Heb.2:11,12).
It means that as Christ will be our elder brother then, you
and I will have the same kind of body that He has! "We shall be
like him" (I John 3:2).
Body for New Work
The outstanding difference between the body we now have and
the one we will have is that, while this one is a natural or
mortal body, the one we shall have will be a different, spiritual
body: "It is sown a natural body; it is raised a spirltual body"
(1 Cor.15:44). If we are alive at the time of the resurrection,
our mortal bodies will be changed just as an egg becomes, or is
changed into, a chick. If we have died, our character comes forth
out of the dust (more correctly our character spirit has gone to
be safely kept by God up in heaven - see Ecc.12:7 and is joined
to a spirit body at the time of the resurrection - Keith Hunt) in
a spiritual body which God gives through His Holy Spirit from
heaven (2 Cor.5:2). This is a different kind of resurrection than
to mortal life, as described in Ezekiel 37 and Revelation
20:11-13. Also we read: "The wind bloweth where it listeth, and
thou hearest the sound thereof, bur canst not tell whence it
cometh, and whither it goeth: so is everyone that is born of the
Spirit" (John 3:8). Spirit is not subject to physical laws,
because it is not matter.
Jesus Christ could suddenly appear: "And as they thus spake
Jesus himself stood in the midst of them, and saith unto them,
Peace be unto You. But they were terrified..." (Luke 24:36-37).
He also had the ability to vanish after He was resurrected: "and
he vanished out of their sight" (Luke 24:31).
We shall be able to pass through barriers or walls as Christ
did: "Then the same day at evening ... when the doors were shut
where the disciples were assembled for fear of the Jews, came
Jesus and stood in the midst..." (John 20:19).
We will be able to travel rapidly through space. In John
20:17 Christ says: "Touch me nor, for I am not yet ascended to my
Father...." Now note that on the same day Christ had been able to
travel to the Father and return: "And as they went to tell his
disciples, behold, Jesus met them, saying, All! hail. And they
came and held him by the feet..." (Matt.28:9).
The eating of food will not be necessary, although we may
eat for pleasure as did Jesus with his disciples
(Luke 24:41-43): and, of course, no shelter will be necessary.
When desirable, we will be able to manifest ourselves as physical
flesh and bone so mortal eyes can see us:
.... Jesus himself stood in the midst of them [after the
crucifixion] ... but they were terrified and affrighted and
supposed that they had seen a spirit. And he said ... Behold my
hands and my feet, that it is I myself: handle me and see; for a
spirit hath not flesh and bones, as ye see me have" (Luke 24:36
39).
Notice that Christ did not say that He was not spirit,
because He definitely was (see I Cor.15:42-45 and the description
of His appearance in Rev.1). The disciples were quite frightened
when Christ suddenly appeared out of nowhere. He simply was
allaying their fears by pointing ut that He was not an apparition
- not a wispy cloud hovering in the air - not a figment of their
overactive imaginations.
So we shall be able to manifest ourselves as flesh and bone as
Christ did, even though we - as Christ - will be composed of
spirit with spirit bodies (John 4:24; 2 Cor 3:17; John 6:63).
Now, what about the work we are to do in the 1000 years of
Christ's and His rule here on this earth (Revelation 20:4 and
Isaiah chapter 11), in relation to these new, powerful bodies
which are like Jesus' and the Father's?
We know that we shall be judges (Revelation 20:1-4) and
priests (verse 6) and rulers (verse 4) with God and Christ on
this earth (Revelation 5:10). To govern all the great number of
human beings, who at that time will need guidance (Isaiah 2:1-5;
9:6-7; Jeremiah 31:1-9) so that they can also be begotten and be
born into the Family of God, we will certainly need the kind of
body that Christ and the Father possess (Isaiah 40:28 and 31).
This certainly does not say that, at death, we go at once to
heaven, and lie around in idleness and ease, does it? No! And the
Bible does not teach it! (Zechariah, 14th chapter.) We will have
work to do according to the plan revealed only in the Bible! We
shall be teachers visibly manifested to human beings (Isaiah
30:20). With bodies that can do without food or shelter and
which can travel so rapidly, those called now can accomplish an
immense amount in guiding large numbers of people and in
governing the universe with God!
Glorified Bodies
We have now seen that our bodies are to be resurrected as
spiritual bodies (I Corinthians 15:44), and that we will be able
to change into physical flesh and bone (Luke 24:39) in different
forms (Mark 16:12).
But there is something else that is going to happen to our
spiritual bodies - something that Christ considered very
important! Notice what Christ said to the Father in finishing His
work here on this earth!
"I have glorified thee on the earth: I have finished the work
which thou gavest me to do. And now, O Father, glorify thou me
with thine own self with the glory which I had with thee before
the world was" (John 17:4,5).
Christ said, "I have glorified thee." But how? In raising
people from the dead, healing, and performing miracles He had
glorified God by showing to man only a part of God's great power!
Soon Christ was going to be back with the Father again, and He
looked forward to being restored to the great power He once had!
To be glorified means to be given power and glory! But what has
that to do with us? God is going to glorify you and me also -
going to give you and me great power! "The Spirit itself beareth
witness with our spirit, that we are the children of God, and if
children, then heirs; heirs of God, and joint-heirs with Christ;
if so be that we suffer with him, that we [you and I) may be also
glorified together" (Rom.8:16,17 and 2 Cor.3:18). This prospect
leaves us breathless, yet there it is in your own Bible. Read it!
God has promised it and He will do it! (I Cor.15:43).
This power we shall have will be so great that it will make
our spirit bodies shine as the sun and our raiment be white as
the light. Jesus gave us a fleeting glimpse of this future
condition when He was transfigured while Peter, James, and John
looked on:
"... till they see rise Son of man coming in his kingdom. And
after six days Jesus taketh Peter, James and John ... up into an
high mountain apart, and was transfigured before them, and his
face did shine as the sun, and his raiment was white as the
light" (Matt.16:28 and 17:1-2).
There are other places that give us a more complete picture
of the glorified body we will have (Rev.1:13-16).
Notice Daniel 12:2,3: "And many of them that steep in the
dust of the earth shall awake, some to everlasting life... and
they that be wise shall shine as the brightness of the firmament;
and they that turn many to righteousness as the start for ever
and ever."
Other Characteristics
Inasmuch as we will be begotten of the Father, we will be
better than the angels: "Being made so much better than the
angels...for unto which of the angels said he ... Thou art my
Son, this day have I begotten thee?" (Heb.1:4-5).
There will nor be sex and marriage as we know them in the
spirit form:
"For in the resurrection they neither marry, nor are given
in marriage, but are as the angels of God in heaven" (Matt.
22:30). Yet we shall recognize one another as Mary Magdalene did
Jesus (John 20:16).
Our work will be so pleasant after our resurrection when we
have new bodies that Paul spoke of it as a rest: "Let us labour
therefore to enter that rest, lest any man fall after the same
example of unbelief" (Heb.4:11). At that time, we will not have
such physical handicaps as lameness, blindness, deafness, missing
members or deformities.
Mind of God
Here is the kind of mind the Bible says that human beings
normally have: "For from within, out of the heart of men, proceed
evil thoughts, adulteries, fornications, murders, thefts,
covetousness, wickedness, deceit, lasciviousness, an evil eye..."
(Mark 7:21-22).
"I know that in me (that is, in my flesh) dwelleth no good thing"
(Rom.7:18). "The carnal mind is enmity against God: for it is not
subject to the lam of God..." (Rom.8:7).
Yet obedience to the Law of God is the only way that will
bring happiness! But we want to follow, not God's laws, but our
own
ways instead.
Why? So that we will try every other way of living and
discover that, regardless of what we think, the only satisfactory
way is to live and think by the Father's laws! This is how we
develop the character of God - by coming to right knowledge and
by acting upon it.
Some of us, becoming discouraged with the ways of living in
this world, learn of the true way to live, repent, believe, are
baptized and receive the Holy Spirit - we are begotten of the
Father. By our mental efforts we cannot overcome our natural
minds.
But God has given us a part of His own self to aid us. If we
will nourish this earnest (down payment) of the Spirit, which is
the nature and mind of God by which we are begotten (2 Cor.1:22),
spiritual growth will automatically take place.
"Bot the flesh lusteth against the Spirit, and the Spirit against
the flesh: and these are contrary the one to the other: so that
ye cannot do the things ye would." "Walk in the Spirit, and ye
shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh" (Gal.5:17,16).
Thus we acquire the same mind functioning in our physical
brain as was in Christ (Philippians 2:5).
After this mortal body dies, we will be resurrected with a
spiritual mind and body if we have the Holy Spirit at our death
(Rom.8:11). At our spiritual birth we will have the mind of God
and Christ in full - we will have no mortal mind to bother us any
more! It will have perished with the flesh.
All will have one mind then (Philippians 1:27), and God will
have completed His New Testament covenant with us: "I will put my
laws into their mind, and write them in their hearts ... and they
shall not teach every man his neighbour ... for all shall know me
(Heb.8:10-11).
"I delight to do thy will, O my God: yea, thy law, is within my
heart (Psalm 40:8).
How wonderful eternity will be!
....................
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