What does your future resurrection mean to you? Do you look forward to it with longing and joy, or questions, fears, and misunderstandings?
Do you believe your spirit will go on eternally but your decrepit, physical body will remain eternally entombed someplace in the Earth?
Today we’re going to explore some Scripture that may impart new meaning, new joy, and new purpose to you for your resurrection, and for your present life on Earth.
Getting it straight—
Throughout the pages of Scripture—Old Testament and New—you can read a promise of, and belief in a future resurrection—spiritual andphysical. There is both a physicality and soul/spiritual component. The physicality of a resurrection actually defines and solidifies the definition of resurrection.
Word pictures of resurrection—
Scripture gives us word pictures of people “coming forth” out of their tombs after hearing God’s voice calling them to come forth, like Jesus called out to Lazarus when He raised that dead man from the grave.
This resurrection will be grand and unspeakable, an awesome display of God’s creative and re-creative and restorative powers. It will be a day unlike any other since Jesus’ Resurrection.
There are Old Testament resurrection passages echoed in the New Testament.
Even Job believed in a bodily resurrection.
Supporting Scripture—
Meditate on the following verses to expand, solidify and encourage your resurrection view and hope.
“But concerning the resurrection of the dead, have you not read what was spoken to you by God, saying, ‘I am the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob?’ God is not the God of the dead, but of the living” (Jesus speaking in Matthew 22:31-32).
“And you will be blessed, because they cannot repay you; for you shall be repaid at the resurrection of the just” (Luke 14:14).
“Behold, I tell you a mystery: We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed—in a moment, in a twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised incorruptible and we shall be changed” (First Corinthians 15:51-52).
“For the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of an archangel, and with the trumpet of God. And the dead in Christ will rise first” (First Thessalonians 4:16).
“For our citizenship is in heaven, from which we also eagerly wait for the Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, who will transform our lowly body that it may be conformed to His glorious body, according to the working by which He is able even to subdue all things to Himself” (Philippians 3:20-21).
“Behold My hands and My feet, that it is I Myself. Handle Me and see, for a spirit does not have flesh and bones as you see I have” (Luke 24:39).
“Do not marvel at this; for the hour is coming in which all who are I the graves will hear His voice and com forth—those who have done good to the resurrection of life, and those who have done evil, to the resurrection of condemnation” (John 5:28-29).
“And Jesus cried out again with a loud voice, and yielded up His spirit. Then, behold, the veil of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom; and the earth quaked, and the rocks were split, and the graves were opened; and many bodies of the saints who had fallen asleep were raised; and coming out of the graves after His resurrection, they went into the holy city and appeared to many” (Matthew 27:51 – 53).
“And many of those who sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake, Some to everlasting life, Some to shame and everlasting contempt” (Daniel 12:2)
“For I know that my Redeemer lives,
And He shall stand at last on the earth;
And after my skin is destroyed, this I
know,
That in my flesh I shall see God,
Whom I shall see for myself,
And my eyes shall behold, and not
another,
How my heart yearns within me!” (Job 19:25-27).
May your heart yearn within you, dear reader and child of God, for the bodily resurrection you will enjoy, the eternal spirit that already resides within you, and the promise of seeing our precious Savior—in our renewed, restored, and revitalized bodies—face-to-face!
Until NEXT WEEK (when we’ll explore more about the importance of our bodies), may you revel in these truths and meditate on them in supreme joy!
For more reading on this subject see this article on the “desiring God” website.
Blessings,
Andrea
May you prosper in all things and be in health, just as your soul prospers (3 John 2).
(Scripture taken from the New King James Version text, © 1982 by Thomas Nelson Incorporated. Used by permission. All rights reserved. Italics and color font my emphasis.)
Hand and Sea photo by Ian Espinoza
Bible photo by Colin Carey