The Resurrection Body
What Will Our Bodies Be Like in Heaven?
At the return of Christ “the heavens will pass away with a roar, and the heavenly bodies will be burned up and dissolved, and the earth and the works done on it will be exposed” (2 Pet. 3:10 ESV). All creation “will be dissolved” (2 Peter 3:11). Still, it seems that something else is going on with the resurrection of the dead.
The resurrected dead will no longer be on this earth. Instead, Paul said, “So whether we are at home or away, we make it our aim to please him. For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, so that each one may receive what is due for what he has done in the body, whether good or evil” (2 Cor. 5:9-10). The universe will be gone, but the dead will be raised to receive their reward. The Christians raised will enjoy what is called the state of glorification since the body is “raised in glory” (1 Cor. 15:42 Rom. 8:30).
Paul described this resurrection in 1 Corinthians 15:42-44, “So is it with the resurrection of the dead. What is sown is perishable; what is raised is imperishable. It is sown in dishonor; 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. If there is a natural body, there is also a spiritual body.” The body that we are familiar with will not enter eternity as it was. Instead, Paul teaches that there is metamorphosis from the weak physical body to a glorified spiritual body. Now, Paul is not saying here that we will only be a spirit. The emphasis is on the metamorphosis of the body.
Death occurs when the spirit is separated from the body. The body dies, but the spirit continues to exist apart from the body. Thomas Oden said, “What is dead is the body, not the animated liveliness of the body that is the psuchē. Precisely speaking, the psuchē does not need to be raised but rejoined to the body.”[1] The flesh and blood which will not inherit the kingdom is the current unglorified and not-spiritual body. Calvin explained “Flesh and blood, however, we must understand, according to the condition in which they at present are, for our flesh will be a participant in the glory of God, but it will be—as renewed and quickened by the Spirit of Christ.”[2] Ciampa and Rosner say:
It turns out to be a point that may very well have been stressed by those Corinthians who found the idea of the resurrection of the dead incredible. He agrees with them that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God, nor does the perishable inherit the imperishable. The combination flesh and blood is a Jewish idiom for a human being with a “strong emphasis on ephemeral character, shortsightedness, and moral weakness” or “in contrast to gods.” The two clauses seem to have a nearly synonymous relationship, suggesting that the ephemeral character of human life is foremost in mind in the reference to flesh and blood. Taken together, the two clauses imply that perishable humanity (flesh and blood) cannot inherit the imperishable kingdom of God.[3]
We shall all “be changed” to a body fit for eternity (1 Cor. 15:51).
The question then is what is this glorified spiritual body like? Paul gave us a glimpse in Philippians 3:21 when he said that Christ “will transform our lowly body to be like his glorious body, by the power that enables him even to subject all things to himself.” John said that “when he appears we shall be like him for we shall see him as he is” (1 Jn. 3:2).
To better understand our future spiritual body, then, we can look at Jesus’ resurrected body. Jesus’ body still had the scars for Thomas to touch and examine (Jn. 20:27). Jesus’ body was even able to eat (Lk. 24:42-43). Ignatius, likewise, said “As for me, I know that even after His resurrection He was in the flesh, and I believe this to be true. For, when He came to those who were with Peter, He said to them: ‘Take hold on me and handle me and see that I am not a spirit without a body.’ And, as soon as they touched Him and felt His flesh and pulse,7 they believed. It is for this reason that they despised death and even showed themselves superior to death. After His resurrection He ate and drank with them like anyone else with a body, although in His spirit He was one with the Father.[4] It was this same body which ascended into Heaven (Acts 1:9-11).
The nature of the resurrection body will remain a mystery until the mystery is removed by experience. Hodge offered a simple list of what has been agreed upon by the majority of Bible readers when he wrote: “We have also seen that the Bible teaches nothing on this subject beyond (1.) That the body is to rise again. (2.) That its identity will be preserved. And (3.) That it is to be so changed and refined as to adapt it to the high state of existence to which it is destined. In this simple form the doctrine has ever been held by the Church.”[5]
[1] Thomas C. Oden, Life in the Spirit: Systematic Theology, Vol. III (San Francisco, CA: HarperSanFrancisco, 1992), 401.
[2] John Calvin and John Pringle, Commentaries on the Epistles of Paul the Apostle to the Corinthians (Bellingham, WA: Logos Bible Software, 2010), 56.
[3] Roy E. Ciampa and Brian S. Rosner, The First Letter to the Corinthians, The Pillar New Testament Commentary (Grand Rapids, MI; Cambridge, U.K.: William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 2010), 828.
[4] Ignatius, “To the Smyrnaeans,” 3.
[5] Charles Hodge, Systematic Theology (Oak Harbor, WA: Logos Research Systems, Inc., 1997), 788.