Monday, October 11, 2010

Our Heavenly Bodies

There are also celestial bodies, and bodies terrestrial: but the glory of the celestial is one, and the glory of the terrestrial is another.
There is a natural body, and there is a spiritual body.
And as we have borne the image of the earthy, we shall also bear the image of the heavenly.
Now this I say, brethren, that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God; neither doth corruption inherit incorruption.
For we know that if our earthly house of this tabernacle were dissolved, we have a building of God, an house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens.
And I knew such a man, (whether in the body, or out of the body, I cannot tell: God knows)

When our spirits leave this earthly body we will be given a heavenly body, or a spiritual body. Just what that body will be is a mystery, but we know it will be made in the same way as the body of Jesus. Now some have suggested that Jesus is still human in heaven and with that I disagree. Jesus is not a glorified human, and although He bore a human resemblance on this earth is was never a human as we define and experience being a human. What human can walk upon water or speak with authority over the weather? The writer of Hebrews says,

Wherefore when he cometh into the world, he saith, Sacrifice and offering thou wouldest not, but a body hast thou prepared me:

If Jesus had a human nature, along with His human body, then He was partially a created being, not just a divine being inside a created body. It is my contention that the body was human and created, but inside that body was Jehovah the Son.

…being made in human likeness. And being found in appearance as a man,…

I make this distinction, with malice toward no one and even while admitting no one can fully grasp the mystery of the Incarnation, to illustrate how we will have a celestial body like the one Jesus now has, but that we will not be divine. We will be glorified humans, which is very different than the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords. But I want to digest the glory that will be ours.

For I reckon that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us.

To whom God would make known what is the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles; which is Christ in you, the hope of glory:

There can be no way a human being can fully understand, or even imagine, just what this glorified body will look like or how it will operate. But we can know that it will be like God the Son’s body, and this heavenly body will allow us to know Him more completely and worship Him forever. The depth of that mystery cannot be overstated. And this wonder, this glory, will be ours. We will be clothed in the garment of eternity and all vestiges of this earth will be completely gone as spiritual saints worship the Risen Lamb in wave after wave of glory, honor, and blessing. There is no greater imagination of the coming reality.

Imagine further. The spiritual body that will be given to us has its benefits to us indeed. No more pain, no more tears, no more sickness, and no more sin are just a few of these benefits. However the greatest and most consuming benefit will be that this body will give us the capacity to worship the Christ fully and without dilution and indeed…forever. So as you read these words, imagine one million years from this very moment where you will be worshiping the Lion of the Tribe of Judah in all His supreme glory. And your present fallen body cannot do this, in fact, your present sin filled body can never enter the eternal throne room of God. The entire realm is presently the mystery of all mysteries. Even the Lord uses metaphors and symbols and earthly examples in order to just give us a holy glimpse, but what a glimpse it is. And when you meditate on the glimpse that we have, and when you imagine and rejoice in the coming glory, you must include this essential element of it all:

None of it will be deserved.

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