Having clearly settled the fact of the resurrection _of the body_ of
Jesus Christ and of our bodies, let us next consider the character of
our resurrection bodies.
1. First of all, we know that _the body which is raised will not be
exactly the same body that it was when it was laid in the grave_. This
appears from I Cor. 15:35-38: +"But some will say, how are the dead
raised? And with what manner of body do they come? Thou foolish one,
that which thou thyself sowest is not quickened, except it die: and
that which thou sowest, thou sowest not in the body that shall be, but
a bare grain, it may chance of wheat, or of some other kind; but God
giveth it a body even as it pleased him, and to each seed a body of its
own."+ Here we are told that our bodies when they are raised will
not be exactly the same as our bodies when they are buried, any more
than the wheat that springs from the kernel of wheat that is planted is
the same as the kernel that was planted. But just as what grows from
the seed comes from the seed and bears the most intimate relation to
the seed, so our resurrection bodies come from the body that is buried
and bear the most intimate relation to it. The resurrection body is the
outcome of the body that is buried. It is the old body quickened and
transformed; or, as Paul puts it in Phil. 3:20, 21: +"Jesus Christ
. . . shall fashion anew the body of our humiliation, that it may be
conformed to the body of his glory, according to the working whereby he
is able even to subject all things unto himself."+
2. The next thing that the Bible teaches about _our resurrection
bodies_ is that _they are like the glorified body of Jesus Christ_.
This appears from the verses just quoted, Phil. 3:20, 21: +"The
Lord Jesus Christ . . . shall fashion anew the body of our humiliation,
that it may be conformed to the body of his glory, according to the
work whereby he is able even to subject all things unto himself."+
Christ's resurrection body was not the same body that was laid in the
sepulchre. It was the old body _transformed_ and delivered from the
limitations of the body that He had while living here among men, and
new qualities imparted to it, and our bodies will also be transformed
into the likeness of this glorious body of Christ and thus delivered
from the limitations to which they are subjected now, and new qualities
imparted to them. It will be a transformed body; the character of its
transformation is indicated by the transformation that took place in
the body of Jesus Christ. Some suggestion as to what that transformed
body of Jesus Christ was like is found in that anticipation of His
resurrection which was seen by Peter, James and John on the mount of
transfiguration. Matthew in his description of the appearance of Jesus
at His transfiguration, tells us that +"His face did shine as the
sun, and his garments became white as the light"+ (Matt. 17:2).
Luke tells us that +"the fashion of his countenance was altered and
His raiment became white and dazzling"+ (Luke 9:29). Mark tells
us that +"He was transfigured before them: and his garments became
glistering, exceeding white; so as no fuller on earth can whiten
them"+ (Mark 9:2, 3).
3. The next thing that we are told about _our resurrection bodies_ is
that they _will not be flesh and blood_. In I Cor. 15:50, 51 we read,
+"Now this I say, brethren, that flesh and blood cannot inherit
the kingdom of God."+ Paul is here talking about our resurrection
bodies. It is in the resurrection chapter he says this, and he
distinctly tells us that our resurrection bodies will not be "_flesh
and blood_."
4. But while _our resurrection bodies_ will not be "flesh and blood,"
they _will have "flesh and bones."_ This appears from what our Lord
Himself says about His own resurrection body in Luke 24:39. Here we
read that Jesus said: +"See my hands and my feet, that it is I
myself: handle me, and see; for a spirit hath not flesh and bones as ye
behold me having."+ As our resurrection bodies are to be transformed
into the likeness of His, we also must have "flesh and bones" in our
resurrection bodies. Some have fancied that they saw a contradiction
between what our Lord says here and what Paul says in the passage
quoted above (I Cor. 15:50, 51), but there is no contradiction. "Flesh"
we shall have, but not "flesh _and blood_," i.e., not flesh, the
animating principle of which is blood. The question arises, What takes
the place of the blood in our resurrection bodies? The answer seems to
be that in the present life, "blood is the life" of the natural body,
but in the life to come our bodies are to be, as we are told elsewhere
in this same chapter, "_spiritual_ bodies," i.e., bodies, the animating
principle of which is the Spirit of God, not our own blood. Our not
having "_blood_" in our resurrection bodies involves many great and
glorious possibilities, upon which we cannot dwell now.
5. In the fifth place (and closely connected with 3 and 4), _our
resurrection bodies will be incorruptible_. We read in I Cor.
15:42: +"So also is the resurrection of the dead. It is sown in
corruption; it is raised in incorruption."+ The thought of this
word "incorruption" is that the body is not subject to decay, it is
imperishable. Our present bodies are decaying all the time. We are
perishing every day and every minute. My present body is disintegrating
while I talk to you. But the bodies that we shall receive in the
resurrection will be absolutely free from the liability to corruption
or decay. They _cannot_ disintegrate or suffer decay or deterioration
of any kind.
6. The next thing that we are taught about _the resurrection body_
is that it _is a glorious body_. This comes out in the first part of
the following verse, I Cor. 15:43, +"It is sown in dishonour; it is
raised in glory."+ Some idea of the glory, the glorious beauty,
of that body is suggested by the representation of our glorified Lord
that we have in Rev. 1:13-17: +"And in the midst of the candlesticks
one like unto the Son of man, clothed with a garment down to the foot
and girt about the breasts with a golden girdle. And his head and his
hair were white as white wool, white as snow, and his eyes were as a
flame of fire and his feet like unto burnished brass, as if it had been
refined in a furnace, and his voice as the voice of many waters. And
he had in his right hand seven stars: and out of his mouth proceeded a
sharp two-edged sword: and his countenance was as the sun shineth in
his strength. And when I saw him, I fell at his feet as one dead, and
he laid his right hand upon me saying, Fear not; I am the first and the
last."+ Our resurrection bodies will be like that.
7. Furthermore, _our resurrection bodies will be powerful_, or as we
read in the last half of this same verse (1 Cor. 15:43), +"It is
sown in weakness, it is raised in power."+ Then all our weariness
and weakness will be forever at an end. In our present bodies our
bodies are oftentimes a hindrance to our highest aspirations, they
thwart the carrying out of our loftiest purposes, we cannot put into
execution our loftiest purposes, +"the spirit is willing but the
flesh is weak."+ But in our resurrection bodies the body will be
able to accomplish all that the spirit purposes. The redeemed body will
be a perfect counterpart of the redeemed spirit that inhabits it. No
deafness, dimsightedness nor blindness, no tired hands and feet, no
maimed soldier boys coming home from the war.
8. _It will be a heavenly body._ This appears from the 47th to the 49th
verses of this same chapter. +"The first man is of+ (literally,
_out of_) +the earth, earthy: the second man is of+ (literally,
_out of_) +heaven: as is the earth, such are they also that are
earthy: and as is the heavenly such are they also that are heavenly.
And as we have borne the image of the earthy, we shall also bear the
image of the heavenly."+ The thought plainly is that our present
bodies are of an earthly origin and an earthly character, but that the
transformed body will be of a heavenly character. Paul explains it
at length in 2 Cor. 5:1-4 where he says, +"For we know that if the
earthly house of our tabernacle be dissolved, we have a building from
God, a house not made with hands, eternal, in the heavens. For verily
in this+ (i.e., in this present earthly house, earthy body) +we
groan, longing to be clothed upon with our habitation which is from
heaven+ (i.e., our heavenly body): +if so be that being clothed we
shall not be found naked. For indeed we that are in this tabernacle+
(i.e., in the present earthy body) +groan, being burdened; not for
that we would be unclothed, but that we would be clothed upon+
(i.e., with our heavenly body), +that what is mortal may be swallowed
up of life."+
9. _Our transformed bodies will be luminous, shining, dazzling, bright
like the sun._ This is seen in many passages. For example, Matt. 13:43,
+"Then shall the righteous shine forth as the sun in the kingdom
of their Father."+ This is to be taken literally for it is in the
_interpretation_ of the parable and not in the parable. This suggests
what we have already seen about the transfigured body of Jesus in Matt.
17:2, where we are told that +"His face did shine as the sun, and his
garments became white as the light."+ We have the same thought also
in the Old Testament in Dan. 12:3, where we are told, +"And they that
are wise shall shine as the brightness of the firmament; and they that
turn many to righteousness as the stars forever and ever."+ They
shall shine literally as well as figuratively. Some suggestion of what
the luminous glory of our faces and forms in our resurrection bodies
will be is seen in the light that Paul tells us that he saw beaming
from the person of Jesus when the glorified Jesus met him on the
Damascus road. In Paul's description of what he saw on that occasion,
as given in Acts 26:12, 13, we read, +"Whereupon as I journeyed
to Damascus with the authority and commission of the chief priests,
at midday, O king, I saw on the way a light from heaven, above the
brightness of the sun, shining around about me and them that journeyed
with me."+ The light that Saul saw, as is evident from the whole
account, was the light that shone from the person of our glorified
Lord, and in our resurrection bodies we shall be like Him.
10. _Three interesting facts regarding our resurrection bodies_ are
stated in Matt. 22:30 and Luke 20:35, 36. In Matt. 22:30 we read:
+"For in the resurrection they neither marry, nor are given in
marriage, but are as angels in heaven."+ In Luke 20:35, 36 we read:
+"But they that are counted worthy to attain to that world, and the
resurrection of the dead, neither marry, nor are given in marriage: for
neither can they die any more: for they are equal unto the angels; and
are sons of God, being sons of the resurrection."+ Taking these two
passages together, we learn that our resurrection bodies are like the
angels, that we do not marry in our resurrection bodies and that these
bodies cannot die any more.
11. _Though all these resurrection bodies are glorious, they differ
from one another, each one having its own peculiar glory._ This appears
from 1 Cor. 15:41, 42: +"There is one glory of the sun, and another
glory of the moon, and another glory of the stars; for one star
differeth from another star in glory. So also is the resurrection from
the dead."+ Glorious as all our bodies shall be, there will be no
tiresome uniformity even of glory in the world of resurrection bodies.
Each body will have its own peculiar glory.
12. Let us say finally in regard to the character of our resurrection
body, that _the resurrection of our body will be the consummation of
our adoption_, i.e., of our placing as sons, our manifestations as
sons of God. In Rom. 8:23 we read: +"We, which have the first fruits
of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, waiting for
our adoption+ (i.e., our placing as sons), +to wit, the redemption
of our body."+ The resurrection body will be the consummation of our
placing as sons, i.e., in the resurrection body it will be outwardly
manifested that we are sons of God. Before His incarnation Christ was
"_in the form_ of God." (Phil. 2:6), i.e., in the visible appearance of
God. So shall we also be in the resurrection, for our bodies shall be
like His. This throws light upon what Paul meant when he said in Col.
3:4: +"When Christ, who is our life, shall be manifested, then shall
we also with him be manifested in glory."+ And also it throws light
on what John meant when he says in I John 3:2, R. V.: +"Beloved, now
are we the children of God, and it is not yet made manifest what we
shall be. We know that, if he shall be manifested, we shall be like
him; for we shall see him as he is."+