Resurrection's Divine Distinction

But the rest of the dead did not live again until the thousand years were finished. This is the first resurrection. Blessed and holy is he who has part in the first resurrection. Over such the second death has no power, but they shall be priests of God and of Christ, and shall reign with Him a thousand years.

(Revelation 20:5-6)

Both the saints and the children of God will receive resurrected bodies at the end of this current dispensation. However, there is another difference between these two classes of God’s creations. The saints will receive their resurrected bodies when they return with Christ to reign with Him on earth for one thousand years. In the above passage of Scripture, this event is called the first resurrection. That same passage refers to “the rest of the dead,” who do not live again until the thousand years are completed. These “rest of the dead” are, in fact, the children of God currently in heaven. Thus, the children in heaven will receive their resurrected bodies only after the millennial reign of our Lord Jesus Christ. Nevertheless, they will receive their resurrected bodies before God the Father does away with this present earth. Just as the natural bodies of the saints have been sown into the earth as seeds for their resurrected bodies (1 Corinthians 15:44), so too the bodies of children have been sown into this present earth as seeds for their resurrected bodies.

Since the time of Adam, it is estimated that no fewer than twenty-five billion children have died and gone to heaven. Clearly, the population of children in heaven far exceeds that of the saints, estimated to be between two and three hundred million. Although, for the sake of explanation, I have referred to the children of God as children, most are adults by now, as they would have matured in heaven at the same pace they would have had they lived out their full lives on earth. Nevertheless, a population of approximately twenty-five billion children of God currently resides in heaven, awaiting their resurrected bodies. At the second resurrection, at the end of our Lord’s millennial reign, they will finally receive their resurrected bodies. When they do, they will take up residence in the new earth that God our Father will create.

And what you sow, you do not sow that body that shall be, but mere grain—perhaps wheat or some other grain. But God gives it a body as He pleases, and to each seed its own body. 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. There are also celestial bodies and terrestrial bodies; but the glory of the celestial is one, and the glory of the terrestrial is another. 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. So also is the resurrection of the dead. The body is sown in corruption, it is raised in incorruption. It is sown in dishonour, 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. There is a natural body, and there is a spiritual body. And so it is written, “the first man Adam became a living being.” The last Adam became a life-giving spirit. However, the spiritual is not first, but the natural, and afterward the spiritual. The first man was of the earth, made of dust; the second Man is the Lord from heaven. As was the man of dust, so also are those who are made of dust; and as is the heavenly Man, so also are those who are heavenly. And as we have borne the image of the man of dust, we shall also bear the image of the heavenly Man. Now this I say, brethren, that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God; nor does corruption inherit incorruption.

(1 Corinthians 15:37-50)

What will the resurrected bodies of the children of God be like? Many assume their bodies will be the same as those of the saints, but this is incorrect. Although Scripture does not explicitly describe the bodies of the children of God as it does for the saints, various aspects of their lives in the new earth, as discussed later in this teaching, indicate that the nature of their bodies will differ from those of the saints. In the above passage of Scripture, the apostle Paul describes the resurrected bodies of the saints as being like the resurrected body of the Lord Jesus. He refers to the saints’ bodies as heavenly. He also mentions celestial bodies and terrestrial bodies. A celestial body is a heavenly body, which the saints will have. In this passage, Paul states that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God. We know that the bodies of the saints will consist of flesh and bone, not flesh and blood, as our Lord Jesus described His resurrected body as being made of flesh and bone (Luke 24:39). Thus, the saints, who are heirs of the world and joint heirs with Christ, qualify to inherit the kingdom of God in their resurrected bodies.

In contrast, a terrestrial body is an earthly body, made of both flesh and blood. This is the type of body the children of God will have. As previously mentioned, the children of God are not heirs of the world or joint heirs with Christ, as the saints are. With their bodies of flesh and blood, they can dwell in the kingdom of God but cannot inherit it. Thus, the resurrected bodies of the children of God will be similar to the bodies Adam and Eve had before they sinned, as they will consist of flesh and blood.

God, who made the world and everything in it, since He is Lord of heaven and earth, does not dwell in temples made with hands. Nor is He worshiped with men’s hands, as though He needed anything, since He gives to all life, breath, and all things. And He has made from one blood every nation of men to dwell on all the face of the earth, and has determined their preappointed times and the boundaries of their dwellings.

(Acts 17:24-26)

In a later section of this series, we will see that the children of God will have offspring in God’s new earth. It is precisely because the children of God will have terrestrial bodies made of flesh and blood that they will be able to have offspring and multiply on God’s new earth. In the above passage of Scripture, the Holy Spirit explains how God uses the blood of man to multiply mankind on the earth.

Michael E.B. Maher

The End of the Age

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