Blessed Hope Bible-Presbyterian Church
500 Upper Bukit Timah Rd, Singapore 678106
There is a time of change that will take place for all who sleeps in the Lord. And the Apostle Paul is signalling to the saints to “behold”. He urges them to see the mystery of God’s resurrection power unveiled to reverse the sting of death upon all who have died in Christ.
This earthly body is not fitted for dwelling in heaven. This is the meaning of the statement “flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God.” We shall be given a heavenly body fitted for our heavenly home when Jesus returns. This is the believer’s blessed hope.
God’s work of redemption for fallen men is meant to rescue them from hell to heaven. The earthy, the man that lives upon earth, that is cursed to an unavoidable death, has a reprieve. And the earthy is starkly contrasted with the heavenly. The curse of the earthy is contrasted with the blessing of the heavenly.
Every believer has this hope that his mortal body will return to earth but God will remake new an immortal body. This immortal body is described as spiritual and heavenly. It is a body that is fitted for glorious, heavenly living.
The first Adam became a living being when God breathed life into him as recorded in Genesis 2:7 And the LORD God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul.
The contrast is made to highlight the glory of the resurrection body of the saints at the last day. He uses the words “incorruption, glory, power, spiritual body” to describe the glorified body given to the believer when the Lord returns.
The beginning of the human soul is at physical birth. Born into this world after the fall of Adam and Eve, man is plagued with the disease of sin that brings to him misery, suffering and finally death and then judgment in hell-fire. But God in His mercy did not leave men to eternal misery and torment.
Contrast is made with the glories of the bodies of sun and stars, and moon that God has made in the heavens above and the things that he has made on earth beneath, the birds, the animals, and the fishes. This contrast is made to distinguish our present physical body and the glorified body that we will receive from the Lord when He returns to bring us to glory.
This is the hope of the believer as one age and sees the decay of the earthly body. God will create anew a superior body for every believer. To the believer, there is no loss for him in the final equation in the light of eternity because God has promised to him a glorified body that will not decay and wear out like the earthly body.
The Apostle Paul impresses the truth upon our hearts that the resurrection body is starkly different from our present mortal body by the illustration that the animals are different from the fishes and the birds in God’s created world. Although they are all fleshly beings but are different from one another. They provide for us the wonders of God’s creation that bring glory to Him.