OUR BODIES Devotion 14 of 15 The ultimate destiny of the body is the resurrection of the dead. As long as we are in this world, we are stewards of our bodies, which do not belong to us. The Lord has purchased them. As it is written, "For ye are bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body, and in your spirit, which are God's" (1 Corinthians 6:20). While we use the body, and are stewards of it, the body "is for the Lord, and the Lord is for the body" (1 Cor 6:13). For those who are in Christ Jesus, their bodies are "the members of Christ" (1 Cor 6:15). This is what makes fornication, adultery, sodomy, and the likes such serious transgressions. They are transgressions that defile what really belongs to God – both by creation and redemption. The hedonist, or person who lives for pleasure, denies this reality, and is thus living in rebellion against the Lord. The same is true of those enslaved to sensuality, drunkenness, all forms of intoxication, the defacing and mutilation of the body, and so forth. All such people have taken what belongs to the Lord, and used it for self gratification, without any regard for the will of the Lord. – Tomorrow:
" . . . Now the body is not for fornication, but for the Lord; and the Lord for the body . . . Know ye not that your bodies are the members of Christ? . . . Every sin that a man doeth is without the body; but he that committeth fornication sinneth against his own body. What? know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit which is in you, which ye have of God, and ye are not your own? For ye are bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body, and in your spirit, which are God's." (1 Corinthians 6:13-20, KJV)
All of the dead will be raised. God has apprised us of this fact, and of the judgment which will follow. One of the purposes served by salvation is that it makes us ready for the resurrection. For those in Christ Jesus, the resurrection of the dead will prove to be an advantage. Paul alluded to this when he said, "Yea doubtless, and I count all things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord: for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and do count them but dung, that I may win Christ . . . If by any means I might ATTAIN UNTO THE RESURRECTION OF THE DEAD" (Philippians 3:8-11). He did not mean to merely participate in the resurrection, for all everyone will be raised. He was referring to being blessed by that resurrection. For all others, the resurrection of the dead will induct them into a state of condemnation and "everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord, and from the glory of His power" (2 Thess 1:9).
The resurrection will take place at the coming of the Lord when, with a "shout," He will summon the dead to rise, and all of them will come forth, "they that have done good, unto the resurrection of life; and they that have done evil, unto the resurrection of damnation" (John 5:29).
Blessed contemplation! "For in just a very little while, He who is coming will come and will not delay" (Heb 10:37). The final transformation will take place at His return – the time when, according to God's purpose, we will be "conformed to the image" of God's Son (Rom 8:29)! That is when our bodies, which He has purchased, will be "changed" (1 Cor 15:51).
Consider the marvelous promise of God. "Behold, I tell you a mystery; we shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed, in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet; for the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised imperishable, and we shall be changed" (1 Cor 15:51-52). Elsewhere Paul identifies that time of the sounding of the "last trumpet." It is the return of our blessed Lord! "For the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trumpet of God; and the dead in Christ shall rise first. Then we who are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and thus we shall always be with the Lord. Therefore comfort one another with these words" (1 Thess 4:16- 18). The dead in Christ will rise "first" in regards to those who are "alive and remain" until the coming of the Lord. The comparison is not made with the wicked, who will themselves be raised at the same time, but will not be gathered to the Lord as those who are the subjects of the Thessalonian text.
Declaring this transformation will take place at the return of the Lord, John speaks of believers longing and hoping for the appearing of Christ. He relates the sight of the glorified Christ with our transformation into His likeness. "Beloved, now are we the sons of God, and it doth not yet appear what we shall be: but we know that, WHEN HE SHALL APPEAR, we shall be like him; for we shall SEE HIM AS HE IS" (1 John 3:2). Then, the same thing that has happened to believers inwardly will take place outwardly. Now, in justification, we are changed by the glory of the Lord. As it is written, "For God, who commanded the light to shine out of darkness, hath shined in our hearts, to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ" (2 Corinthians 4:6). Then, when Jesus returns, we will behold Him in all of His glory, and our very bodies will be changed by the appearance, putting on incorruption. John makes a very strong case of this, affirming that EVERYONE who has this hope "purifies himself, even as He is pure" (1 John 3:3). Those who give themselves to sin, therefore, confess by that very fact that they are not looking for the return of Jesus. It is not possible to establish from Scripture that such a person will be saved. When one ponders the condition of the average church, this is a most arresting consideration.
In the resurrection, when Jesus comes again, the saints will be every whit "whole." There will be no more flaws in our persons. Farewell to handicaps! Goodbye to difficulty, warfare, and frustration! When Jesus returns "in His glory and in the glory of the Father and of the holy angels" (Luke 9:26), we "shall also appear with Him in glory" (Col 3:4). That "glory" will involve a resurrection body – the final installment in God's "great salvation." Then we will see more clearly than ever that "our bodies are the members of Christ." Our total persons will then be joined to Him in transcendent unity! This is why we have been saved – to dwell in the house of the Lord forever!
PRAYER POINT: Father, I thank You in Jesus' name for such a great salvation – one that includes the changing of my body as well as my heart, soul, mind, and strength.