If you’re honest, the question has crossed your mind: what if I didn’t age? What if I could reach my maximum physical, mental, and intellectual capacities and just stay that way forever? No back spasms or pulled muscles. No forgetfulness or confusion. No limitations to learning. No decline in stamina or endurance. What couldn’t I accomplish if I maintained the strength and capacities I had at the age of 26? What if there really is a fountain of youth in St. Augustine, Florida that will give me the strength, good looks, and clarity of a Greek god?
Wait, what are we talking about again? Oh right, glorified bodies — yeah, that’s not what those are all about. Is it?
..physical death is not the end for the believer.
The Word of God tells us that all believers in the Lord Jesus Christ will get a new body in the resurrection, when we meet Christ face to face. But what will this body be like? The apostle Paul writes about them in 1 Corinthians 15.
1 Corinthians 15:35 But some man will say, How are the dead raised up? and with what body do they come?
Paul begins the chapter talking about those who have placed their faith in the Lord Jesus Christ by believing the gospel (vs. 1-11). The faith of the believer hinges on the hope of the gospel and the fact that Jesus rose from the dead. Without his resurrection, there is no eternal life. So it would be vain to preach about Jesus without preaching his resurrection, and any hope of faith would be vain as well (v. 14). Without the resurrection of Jesus, man is still hopelessly condemned in his sin (v. 17). Paul concludes that, without his resurrection, being a follower of Jesus Christ in this life would be miserable (v. 19). What’s the point in believing, preaching, and hoping in Jesus if, when you die, that’s all there is? Take out the resurrection, and there is no point to faith in Jesus Christ.
But Paul affirmed that Jesus did rise from the dead and that his resurrection was just the first of many more to come (v. 20). Jesus’s resurrection gave him victory over the enemy of all mankind, death, and put that enemy under his feet (vs. 25-27). All those who place their faith in the hope of the gospel will get this same victory over death! This means physical death is not the end for the believer.
1 Thessalonians 4:13 But I would not have you to be ignorant, brethren, concerning them which are asleep, that ye sorrow not, even as others which have no hope. 14 For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so them also which sleep in Jesus will God bring with him.
For the believer, this new house is their glorified body.
Paul tells us here that believers who have died physically are not without hope. So what happens to them? Well, every human being is made up of three parts: body, soul, and spirit.
Genesis 2:7 And the LORD God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul.
Man has a form (body), he has the breath of life (spirit), and he is a living soul – three identifiable parts, but one person.
At physical death (the dissolving of your earthly “tabernacle”), the body separates from the soul and spirit. The spirit (breath of life) departs from the body and the living soul awaits a new “house”.
2 Corinthians 5:1 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. 2 For in this we groan, earnestly desiring to be clothed upon with our house which is from heaven: 3 If so be that being clothed we shall not be found naked. 4 For we that are in this tabernacle do groan, being burdened: not for that we would be unclothed, but clothed upon, that mortality might be swallowed up of life.
For the believer, this new house is their glorified body. It is the “building of God” that was “not made with hands” that is “eternal in the heavens”.
You will finally be changed and returned to the state that God originally created man to be in!
Our earthly bodies cannot enter heaven to be with God because they are corrupted by sin. So, God has designed a new body for every believer in Jesus Christ. This new body is incorruptible and immortal. At death, your physical (corruptible) body will die and go back in the ground, but God will raise you up with a new spiritual (incorruptible) body that is fitted for heaven. This new body is glorious and powerful!
1 Corinthians 15:42 So also is the resurrection of the dead. It is sown in corruption; it is raised in incorruption: 43 It is sown in dishonour; it is raised in glory: it is sown in weakness; it is raised in power: 44 It is sown a natural body; it is raised a spiritual body. There is a natural body, and there is a spiritual body.
I have no idea what it will be like to exist in this kind of body – and neither do you.
I can’t go five minutes without at least a sinful thought – and neither can you.
I can’t go an hour without losing spiritual focus to some degree – and neither can you.
I can’t go a day without a sinful action of some kind – and neither can you.
I can’t go a month without dishonoring God in some way – and neither can you.
I can’t go a year without some kind of major straying or wandering from the Lord – and neither can you.
This is what caused the apostle Paul to cry in distress over his physical flesh, “O wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from the body of this death?” (Rom 7:24)
However, this will not be the case in your glorified body. That new body will have no corruption in it. That new body will have no mortality to it. You will finally be changed and returned to the state that God originally created man to be in! No sinful nature whatsoever!
1 Corinthians 15:51 Behold, I shew you a mystery; We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed, 52 In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump: for the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed. 53 For this corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality. 54 So when this corruptible shall have put on incorruption, and this mortal shall have put on immortality, then shall be brought to pass the saying that is written, Death is swallowed up in victory. 55 O death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory? 56 The sting of death is sin; and the strength of sin is the law. 57 But thanks be to God, which giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.
..it will be glorious.
Besides Jesus, Adam and Eve were the only human beings who experienced the glorified body on earth. No other human being has experienced this since. No other human being knows what it is like to live and exist without sin or disobedience to God. No other human being knows or has known even five minutes of incorruption or immortality. No other human being can relate to complete purity of thoughts, motives, and actions.
However, every believer in Jesus Christ will experience all of these one day, and all believers will receive their incorruptible and immortal glorified body in one of two ways: after they die and are raptured from the grave in the resurrection, or when they are raptured alive from this earth, following those who are raised.
I have no idea what this new, glorified body will look like, but I know for sure that it will be a change from what I am today! I also know that the change will be instantaneous, in the twinkling of an eye, and it will be glorious. I don’t know about you, but I am groaning for that house!
Mark Schaffer is a missionary and church planter in Tampa, Florida. Mark pastors Living faith Tampa and instructs in Living Faith Bible Institute. Today he shares with us what glorified bodies are.
