HOPE! - The Resurrection of the Body

The resurrection of the body is a very important part of the Christian belief system for several reasons. First of all, as Christians we believe that Jesus himself had a bodily resurrection. The Gospels record the resurrection of Jesus as a physical resurrection. Jesus is recorded as having a body with scars from his crucifixion. Thomas feels the wounds on Christ’s body after having doubted the resurrection and then truly believes that Jesus is alive after feeling that Jesus had a physical body.

The Gospels record that the disciples were a bit startled at Jesus’ appearance to them after his resurrection. They wondered if he might be a ghost or some kind of spirit. He was not a spirit, however. He is recorded as having flesh and bones. Luke’s Gospel records: “He said to them, ‘Why are you troubled, and why do doubts rise in your minds? Look at my hands and my feet. It is I myself! Touch me and see; a ghost does not have flesh and bones, as you see I have.’” (Luke 24:38-9). Jesus reassured them that he was not a spirit and asked them to bring him a piece of fish, which he ate in front of them. A spirit would have no need for physical food. However, Jesus’ body, while it is physical, does appear to be different than it was before. He is able to do things in his body, such as walk through walls, that he is not recorded as having done before his resurrection.

According to Paul, Christ is the first born from among the dead (Colossians 1:18), indicating that the rest of us will follow him in his resurrection. Paul writes in Romans, “If we have been united with him like this in his death, we will certainly also be united with him in his resurrection” (Romans 6:5). If we are to truly be resurrected as Jesus was then we must be resurrected in our bodies, for that is how Jesus was resurrected. He had a physical body after his resurrection and so will we.

However, Jesus’ resurrected body was not exactly the same as it had been before his death, so we may assume that our resurrected bodies will not be exactly the same as they were before our deaths. One of the differences is that Christ will not die again. His body cannot die. In the same way, our physical bodies will no longer be subject to death.

Paul also records that all of creation is waiting to be liberated from its bondage to decay. He writes, “The creation waits in eager expectation for the sons of God to be revealed. For the creation was subjected to frustration, not by its own choice, but by the will of the one who subjected it, in hope that the creation itself will be liberated from its bondage to decay and brought into the glorious freedom of the children of God” (Romans 8:19-21).In this is seen the idea of a sort of resurrection of all creation, all of the physical realm.

Paul continues, “We know that the whole creation has been groaning as in the pains of childbirth right up to the present time. Not only so, but we ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for our adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies” (Romans 8:22-3).

This again shows that in the future we will have physical bodies that have been redeemed; just as the whole of the physical creation will be redeemed. All of creation will be resurrected. This idea of resurrection points to something beyond the merely spiritual ideas we have inherited from Plato and others. This idea includes a physical resurrection of all people, as well as a resurrection of the entire physical domain.

When God created the physical world, he did not create it separate from the spiritual world. He created all and he said that all was good, including both the physical and the spiritual. He created the heavens as well as the earth. This indicates that the earth and the physical creation is not evil as the Gnostics believed. They believed that we needed to escape the physical world through death in order to enter the spiritual realm. This idea is not much different than the idea of salvation that many Christians have today. Many Christians are focused solely on getting into heaven, believing that the world is purely evil and that God will destroy it someday, so the only thing to look forward to is heaven, a place where we will be free from our evil fleshly bodies and this evil physical world.

However, this concept is flawed.

God will indeed create a new heavens and a new earth, but this does not mean that the physical realm will be done away with. The scriptures give us a picture of heaven being united with earth in a new creation. It is a picture of the physical and the spiritual being united as they were truly meant to be.