1 Corinthians 15:36-53 “Foolish one, what you sow is not made alive unless it dies. (37) And what you sow, you do not sow that body that shall be, but mere grain--perhaps wheat or some other grain. (38) But God gives it a body as He pleases, and to each seed its own body. (39) All flesh is not the same flesh, but there is one kind of flesh of men, another flesh of animals, another of fish, and another of birds. (40) There are also celestial bodies and terrestrial bodies; but the glory of the celestial is one, and the glory of the terrestrial is another. (41) There is one glory of the sun, another glory of the moon, and another glory of the stars; for one star differs from another star in glory. (42) So also, is the resurrection of the dead. The body is sown in corruption, it is raised in incorruption. (43) It is sown in dishonor, it is raised in glory. It is sown in weakness, it is raised in power. (44) It is sown a natural body, it is raised a spiritual body. There is a natural body, and there is a spiritual body. … (53) For this corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality.”
As we have already seen, at the first resurrection our natural bodies will be changed instantly into spiritual bodies. The spiritual bodies of the saints will be exactly like the spiritual body that our Lord Jesus has, for scripture tells us that as we have born the image of the man of dust, referring to Adam, so we will also bear the image of the heavenly man, referring to our Lord Jesus (1 Corinthians 15:49). The apostle Paul in the above quoted passage of scripture describes what our spiritual bodies will be like, for he says that our spiritual bodies will be incorruptible, immortal, and full of glory and power. Because our spiritual bodies will be immortal, in that sense we will be like the angels, for they too can never die (Luke 20:36). And because our spiritual bodies will be like the Lord’s body, they will be able to take on different forms as and when we require them to. Our Lord’s resurrected body could look and operate just like a natural body after He was raised from the dead, as our Lord demonstrated on numerous occasions, for example when He prepared and ate breakfast with the disciples at the Sea of Galilee (John 21:12). Our Lord’s resurrected body also displays His full glory when He wants it to, as in the instance when He appeared to the apostle John on the Island of Patmos, and John described His countenance as being like the sun shining in its strength and His eyes like flames of fire (Revelation 1:14). With that same body, our Lord can also transition between the natural realm and the spiritual realm instantly as He wills, for time and again the scripture described Jesus appearing to the saints to converse with them and then vanishing before their eyes when He had finished interacting with them. The list is almost endless regarding what our Lord’s spiritual body is capable of and as His brethren; our spiritual bodies will have the exact same capabilities.
Michael E.B. Maher
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