The Resurrection Body: Lecture on Continuity and Discontinuity with 1 Thessalonians 4:14-16

2. 1 Thessalonians 4:14-16 13 But I do not want you to be ignorant, brethren, concerning those who have fallen asleep, lest you sorrow as others who have no hope. 14 For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so God will bring with Him those who sleep in Jesus. 15 For this we say to you by the word of the Lord, that we who are alive and remain until the coming of the Lord will by no means precede those who are asleep. 16 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. 28 Do not marvel at this; for the hour is coming in which all who are in the graves will hear His voice 29 and come forth (Jn. 5:28-29a) 35 But someone will say, “How are the dead raised up? And with what body do they come?” (1 Cor. 15:35)

3. The Resurrection Body Continuity and Discontinuity with the Present Body

4. LECTURE 2 LECTURE 1 • Nature of Man • Death • Resurrection • Spiritual • Physical • Resurrection Body of Jesus • Troubling Theories • Nature of the Resurrection Body • 1 Corinthians 15 • 2 Corinthians 5 • Philippians 3 • Romans 8 • Views within Churches of Christ • New Heavens and Earth • Exhortations

5. Nature of Man Death • Dual nature – unity of body and soul/spirit Separation of body and spirit Genesis 35:18 1 Kings 17:21 Ecclesiastes 12:6-7 James 2:26 Creation explains the need of resurrection!

6. “Resurrection” 1.anastasis(ἀνάστασις) “denotes (I) ‘a raising up,’ or ‘rising’ (ana, ‘up,’ and histemi, ‘to cause to stand’)…(II) of ‘resurrection’ from the dead…. 2. exanastasis (ἐξανάστασις) ek, ‘from’ or ‘out of,’ … lit. ‘the out-resurrection from among the dead.” (Vine)

7. Resurrections in the Bible NEW TESTAMENT OLD TESTAMENT • Son of the widow of Zarephath • Son of the Shunammitewoman • Man whose body touched bones of Elisha • Daughter of Jairus • Son of widow of Nain • Lazarus • Saints raised after Jesus’ resurrection • Dorcas [Tabitha] • Eutychus

8. Jesus’ Resurrection Dies no more (Rom. 6:9) Endless life, ever lives (Heb. 7:16, 25) Firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep(1 Cor. 15:20) Beginning portion of harvest Pledge and promise of the rest of the harvest Christian raised after pattern of Christ

9. Spiritual and Physical Resurrection • Spiritual – Rom. 5:12; Jn. 5:24-25; Rom. 6:4; Eph. 2:4-7 accomplished in Christ • Physical – Jn. 5:28-29; Acts 24:15 accomplished in Christ • These two resurrections are the beginning and end of a process of becoming conformed to his glorious image in our inner and outer person (2 Cor. 3:18; Phil. 3:21)

10. The idea is that what was raised was Jesus’ spirit or soul or self, quite apart from his body. His bones might still be decomposing in Palestine, but nevertheless he lives. Jesus’ physiologically identical body was restored in the resurrection to the same sort or condition of life that it experienced before the crucifixion, and that Jesus’ resurrection body had the same properties as it did before his death. Four Views on Jesus’ Resurrection • Bodily Resuscitation • Bodily Transformation • Spiritual Resurrection • Reductive Resurrection Theories in effect deny that Jesus was genuinely dead and later genuinely alive…The resurrection appearances of Jesus are explained psychologically, in terms of the disciples’ inner states of mind. The appearances are called visions, subjective visions, or even hallucinations. In the resurrection, his earthly body was transformed into a new “glorified body” that was indeed physical but possessed strange new properties. There was continuity between the old body and the new body, but the new body was no longer as bound by certain of the laws of nature as was the old…

11. Body of Jesus before Death • The Word • Became Flesh • Underwent Pain and Suffering • Sacrifice for Sin - crucified • Yielded up His Spirit - died • Body of Flesh Buried

12. Jesus while Body in the Tomb • Continued Existence • Soul not left in Hades

13. Body of Jesus after his resurrection • Jesus provided abundant evidence that the body that had been placed in the tomb was now alive (raised) • “many infallible proofs” (Acts 1:3)

14. Evidences for Jesus’ Bodily Resurrection • Empty Tomb • Was Seen • Was Heard • Was Touched • Showed Crucifixion Scars • Testified that He had Flesh and Bones • Ate Food = Continuity of the Body of Jesus

15. Significant Differences • Die no more • Declared to be the Son of God • Flesh did not see corruption

16. The apostles witnessed Jesus ascend into heaven in the same physical body that he possessed while with them the forty days since the resurrection. They were told by the two men who stood by them in white apparel, “Men of Galilee, why do you stand gazing up into heaven? This same Jesus who was taken up from you into heaven, will so come in like manner as you saw Him go into heaven” (Acts 1:11). Will this “sameness” they spoke of include the body that Jesus possessed while with them after his resurrection? Paul spoke of Jesus as our “one Mediator between God and men, the Man Christ Jesus” (1 Tim. 2:5). This language speaks of Jesus as a competent and qualified mediator because he is now both God and man; not man just in memory, but in present identity. This same “Man, after He had offered one sacrifice for sins forever, sat down at the right hand of God” (Heb. 10:12). Does this not affirm that Jesus is sitting at the right hand of God in his humanity (“Man”) as well as his deity? Just as the Word did not divest himself of his deity when he came to this earth to become flesh, so also Jesus did not divest himself of his humanity when he ascended to heaven to sit on his divine throne in glory and exaltation. Because of this, Jesus is a perfect Mediator and sympathetic High Priest. Does Jesus Still Maintain His Humanity Today in Heaven? • Acts 1:11 • 1 Timothy 2:5 • Hebrews 10:12

17. John writes, “Beloved, now we are children of God; and it has not yet been revealed what we shall be, but we know that when He is revealed, we shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is” (1 Jn. 3:2). When John says “it has not been revealed what we shall be” he is not saying that we know nothing of our future state, but rather that we are presently unable to see and experiencethose things to come, just as Paul also said that we “walk by faith, not by sight” (2 Cor. 5:7). “By this you know the Spirit of God: Every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is of God, and every spirit that does not confess that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is not of God” (1 Jn. 4:2-3a). “Has come” is translated from a perfect participle in the Greek language which “is formed from the perfect tense stem (including reduplication) and indicates a completed action with results continuing into the present (of the speaker, not the reader)” (Mounce). The tense of the verb argues that Christ not only came in the flesh at a point in the past, but continues to possess that physical existence (humanity) into the present. Does Jesus Still Maintain His Humanity Today in Heaven? the Bible speaks of Jesus being in “bodily form” now in heaven. It is in Jesus that “dwells all the fullness of the Godhead bodily [in bodily form]” (Col. 2:9). At the final day, our lowly bodies will be transformed to be “conformed to His glorious body” (Phil. 3:21). Therefore, we can conclude that one can be in bodily form in heaven. It is not a place where only spirit, or immaterial, beings exist. Heaven, in its very basic meaning, is the realm wherein God in all his glory and exaltation exists along with all whom he has created to be in his presence. Those that inhabit that realm will have been created to do so, and those of other realms, or conditions, will need divine transformation in order to inhabit it. • 1 John 4:2-3a • Colossian 2:9 • 1 John 3:2

18. “What he wished them to understand by touching was not that he was material but that he was real…” (Harris, Raised Immortal, 54) Problematic Theories • Spiritual, immaterial resurrection • Essentially immaterial and invisible, and appeared in flesh on certain occasions “Consequently the material ‘flesh and bones’ that Jesus had during this encounter with his disciples were not integral to his ‘spiritual body’ but had been assumed temporarily, but none the less really, for evidential reasons, as accommodations to the understanding of his disciples. …in his normal or customary bodily state after the Resurrection, Jesus was neither visible to the human eye nor composed of ‘flesh and bones’ (Harris, From Grave to Glory, 392)

19. Problematic Theories • Essentially immaterial because body could appear and vanish • Jesus ascended to heaven immediately at resurrection to receive immaterial body

20. Problematic Theories • Believer receives ethereal, heavenly body at resurrection • Jesus had ordinary human body and underwent transformation after the ascension

21. …that I may gain Christ 9 and be found in Him, not having my own righteousness, which is from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness which is from God by faith; 10 that I may know Him and the power of His resurrection, and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death, 11 if, by any means, I may attain to the resurrection from the dead (Phil. 3:8-11)

23. The Resurrection Body • Ethreal, immaterial?? • Material, Physical? • Changed or Replaced?

24. Scriptures concerning the Resurrection Body • 1 Corinthians 15:35-54 • 2 Corinthians 4:16 – 5:8 • Philippians 3:21 • Romans 8:32

25. The NEED for CHANGE!! Let us understand at the very first that it is evident that our bodies in their present condition are not fit for the eternal realm that God has prepared for his faithful people. The theme of 1 Corinthians 15:35-54 is “change” – a change in the body from what it is when it dies to what it will be when raised at the last day (vv. 42-44). There will also be a change in those who are alive at Christ’s coming (vv. 51-52). 2 Corinthians 4:16-5:8 speaks of the outward man perishing and being dismantled, and the anticipation of being clothed with a heavenly habitation. Philippians 3:21 promises that our “lowly” body will be transformed to conform to Christ’s glorious body, and Romans 8:23 states that we eagerly wait for the redemption of the body. It is clear that man, in the body that he has now, cannot inherit the eternal kingdom of God that awaits the faithful. A change, and a significant change, must take place. The nature of that change is the key issue, along with highlighting the continuity and discontinuity of the pre- and post-resurrection body, just as was done in the previous sections on the pre- and post-resurrection body of Jesus.

26. 1 Corinthians 15:1-4, 11 Moreover, brethren, I declare to you the gospel which I preached to you, which also you received and in which you stand, 2 by which also you are saved, if you hold fast that word which I preached to you—unless you believed in vain. 3 For I delivered to you first of all that which I also received: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, 4 and that He was buried, and that He rose again the third day according to the Scriptures…11 Therefore, whether it was I or they, so we preach and so you believed.

27. 1 Corinthians 15:12-19 12 Now if Christ is preached that He has been raised from the dead, how do some among you say that there is no resurrection of the dead?13 But if there is no resurrection of the dead, then Christ is not risen. 14 And if Christ is not risen, then our preaching is empty and your faith is also empty. 15 Yes, and we are found false witnesses of God, because we have testified of God that He raised up Christ, whom He did not raise up—if in fact the dead do not rise. 16 For if the dead do not rise, then Christ is not risen. 17 And if Christ is not risen, your faith is futile; you are still in your sins! 18 Then also those who have fallen asleep in Christ have perished. 19 If in this life only we have hope in Christ, we are of all men the most pitiable.

28. 1 Corinthians 15:20-23 20 But now Christ is risen from the dead, and has become the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep. 21 For since by man came death, by Man also camethe resurrection of the dead. 22 For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ all shall be made alive. 23 But each one in his own order: Christ the firstfruits, afterward those who are Christ’s at His coming.

29. 1 Corinthians 15:35-38 35 But someone will say, “How are the dead raised up? And with what body do they come?”36 Foolish one, what you sow is not made alive unless it dies. 37 And what you sow, you do not sow that body that shall be, but mere grain—perhaps wheat or some other grain.38 But God gives it a body as He pleases, and to each seed its own body.

30. 1 Corinthians 15:39-41 • 39 All flesh is not the same flesh, but there is one kind of flesh of men, another flesh of animals, another of fish, and another of birds. • 40 There are also celestial bodies and terrestrial bodies; but the glory of the celestial is one, and the glory of the terrestrial is another. 41 There is one glory of the sun, another glory of the moon, and another glory of the stars; for one star differs from another star in glory.

31. 1 Corinthians 15:42-44 42 So also is the resurrection of the dead. The body is sown in corruption, it is raised in incorruption. 43 It is sown in dishonor, 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.

32. 1 Corinthians 15:42-44 42 So also is the resurrection of the dead. The bodyis sown in corruption, it is raised in incorruption. 43 It is sown in dishonor, 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.

33. The Body “IT” = continuity IT IS RAISED… IT IS SOWN… • In corruption • In dishonor • In weakness • A natural body • In incorruption • In glory • In power • A spiritual body

34. The word “natural” (psuchikos) is from psuche meaning “soul, life.” It is set opposite of “spiritual” (pneumatikos). This is not a corporeal distinction between material and nonmaterial, but between a body afflicted with the nature of the corruption, dishonor, and weakness of this earthly realm, which is then changed [transformed] into the nature of the incorruption, glory, and power of the heavenly realm…The image of the man of dust is corruption, dishonor, and weakness. The image of Christ is incorruption, glory, and power. We are changed [transformed] spiritually into the image of the glory of the Lord (2 Cor. 3:18), and we shall be changed [transformed] to conform to the glorious body of our Lord (Phil. 3:21). Again, the emphasis is not on the substance of the resurrection body, but the nature of that substance as to its immortality and incorruption. 1 Corinthians 15:45-49 • 45 And so it is written, “The first man Adam became a living being.” The last Adam became a life-giving spirit. • 46 However, the spiritual is not first, but the natural, and afterward the spiritual. 47 The first man was of the earth, made of dust; the second Man is the Lord from heaven. 48 As was the man of dust, so also are those who are made of dust; and as is the heavenly Man, so also are those who are heavenly. 49 And as we have borne the image of the man of dust, we shall also bear the image of the heavenly Man.

35. When Paul uses the phrase “flesh and blood” (σάρξ καὶ αἱ̂µα) he is doing one of two things: either he is speaking of the literal substance of the body itself or metaphorically speaking of the corruptible condition of man prior to death and the resurrection. The latter would fit the context better. The body raised will be incorruptible. It is not a replacement of the body, but a change in the body. Paul reveals these hidden truths (“I tell you a mystery”) so that we may know that corruptible flesh and blood cannot inherit the heavenly realm of God’s kingdom, no more than a natural man can discern the spiritual truths of God’s revelation (1 Cor. 2:14-15). The nature of the corruptible body must be changed – it must “put on” incorruption and immortality…The verb translated “put on” (enduo) means “to dress, to clothe someone” or “to clothe oneself in, to put on.” Our mortal body will be “clothed” with immortality. The body itself remains constant while a mortal-to-immortal, corruption-to-incorruption change of its nature takes place for the dead and the living. 1 Corinthians 15:50-53 …it is logical to understand Paul, in this context, as continuing to speak of our bodies in their corruptible, dishonorable, and weak (vulnerable) state due to sin. Physical bodies in such a condition cannot inherit the incorruptible and glorious kingdom of God. A change must take place! But would it necessarily involve a wholesale change in the material nature of the body to something immaterial? God can bring new life out of death (“death is swallowed up in victory”), the body of dust putting on the image of the heavenly, the corruptible putting on incorruption. Man, as body and spirit, will be properly fitted for the realms of eternal life and heavenly habitations. The nature of man in his present state of being is unfit for such a place, but his body shall be transformed so that he may gain that inheritance “incorruptible and undefiled and that does not fade away, reserved in heaven for you” (1 Pet. 1:4). 50 Now this I say, brethren, that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God; nor does corruption inherit incorruption. 51 Behold, I tell 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 trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed. 53 For this corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal mustput onimmortality.

36. 2 Corinthians 4:16-18 16 Therefore we do not lose heart. Even though our outwardman is perishing, yet the inward man is being renewed day by day. 17 For our light affliction, which is but for a moment, is working for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory, 18 while we do not look at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen. For the things which are seen are temporary, but the things which are not seen are eternal.

37. Our “groaning” is due to our existence in this earthly realm of corruption, weakness, and sin. We seek the transformation to the habitation from heaven, the body in an incorruptible, immortal state. Paul states this same thing in verses 2 and 4 using the double compound word ependuo that intensifies the “putting on” of 1 Corinthians 15:53-54 to a “putting on over” (ependuomai). Again, the continuity of the body itself is maintained, while its present nature of corruption and mortality will be changed by the “putting on over” the body a “garment” of incorruption and immortality. 2 Corinthians 5:1-3 For we know that if our earthly house, this tent, is destroyed, we have a building from God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens.2 For in this we groan, earnestly desiring to be clothed with our habitation which is from heaven, 3 if indeed, having been clothed, we shall not be found naked.

38. 2 Corinthians 5:4-8 4 For we who are in this tent groan, being burdened, not because we want to be unclothed, but further clothed, that mortality may be swallowed up by life. 5 Now He who has prepared us for this very thing is God, who also has given us the Spirit as a guarantee. 6 So we are always confident, knowing that while we are at home in the body we are absent from the Lord. 7 For we walk by faith, not by sight. 8 We are confident, yes, well pleased rather to be absent from the body and to be present with the Lord.

39. The continuity of the body itself is seen here again as well as the change of its nature from lowly to glorious. Christ’s body is the pattern to which our own body will be conformed. The adjectives “lowly” and “glorious” are parallel to the categories of the pre- and post-resurrection body in 1 Corinthians 15:42-44. “Transform” means to change, and is also used in 2 Corinthians 3:18 and Romans 12:2. We will still have our body, but it will be transformed by God to be incorruptible and immortal. Philippians 3:20-21 20 For our citizenship is in heaven, from which we also eagerly wait for the Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, 21 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.

40. This groaning “within ourselves” recalls Paul’s words in 2 Corinthians 5:2, 4 about our groaning in the burdens of our “tent.” The “redemption of our body” (Please note that Paul says that it will be the redemption “of our body,” not “from our body”) is the hope that we have of the transformation of our lowly body to be conformed to his glorious body (Phil. 3:21). Paul had already mentioned being “glorified together” with Christ (v. 17). This hope, which is not yet seen (“it has not been revealed what we shall be” - 1 Jn. 3:2), we wait for with perseverance. Romans 8:23-25 23 Not only that, but we also who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, eagerly waiting for the adoption, the redemption of our body. 24 For we were saved in this hope, but hope that is seen is not hope; for why does one still hope for what he sees? 25 But if we hope for what we do not see, we eagerly wait for it with perseverance.

41. Romans 8:18-25 2 corinthians 4:16 – 5:10 23 Not only that, but we also who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, eagerly waiting for the adoption, the redemption of our body. 24 For we were saved in this hope, but hope that is seen is not hope; for why does one still hope for what he sees? 25 But if we hope for what we do not see, we eagerly wait for it with perseverance. • Outward man decays (4:16) • We groan, being burdened (5:2) • Look at things not seen (4:18) • Desire to be clothed with heavenly house (5:2) • Momentary, light affliction works eternal weight of glory (4:17) • Creation subject to vanity; bondage of corruption (8:20-21) • Whole creation groans, travails (8:22) • Hope for things not seen (8:25) • Wait for redemption of the body (8:23) • Sufferings of present time not worthy to be compared with the glory to be revealed (8:18)

42. There will be no recognizable relation between the physical bodies we “plant” in the grave, and the resurrection bodies which are produced on the Day of Resurrection…. (Smith) Views – Churches of Christ(no continuity - replacement) • Steve Rudd • F. LaGard Smith • Burton Coffman The entire language of 1 Cor 15 show [sic] us that “the body to be” is nothing like what we have now. A “seed that is sown” (present body) has absolutely nothing in common with “the plant that is to be” (resurrected body). (Rudd)

43. Our fleshly, mortal bodies cannot inherit the immortal kingdom; neither doth the fleshly body, subject to decay and corruption, inherit the incorruptible state in heaven…The natural body must undergo a change and become incorruptible before it can enter the immortal state…The fleshly, mortal, must be immortalized. (Lipscomb) Notice that we will be changed. The human spirit remains the same, and yet a change occurs. The change is in the nature of the body. And the change takes place whether it is by resurrection or transformation…Regardless of the “mechanics” of the change (as to “how” a physical body gives way to its spiritual counterpart), the Bible affirms that fact of change…The Christian exchanges that which presently and temporarily clothes his human spirit for that future permanent clothing that will throughout eternity cover it. (Deaver) Views – Churches of Christ(continuity – spiritual body) • Mac Deaver • David Owen • Johnny Ramsey • David Lipscomb • Mike Willis • Pat McIntosh • John Gardner • Hollis Talley • Leon Crouch • Wayne Jackson Notice a few truths about the new body that awaits us. First, it will be the same body, yet a very different body. There is a connection between the body sown and the body raised that cannot be severed. “It is sown… it is raised…” (Vv. 43, 44). Changed? Yes. Different in many ways? Surely. But totally “other” from the body planted in the earth? No. (Gardner)

44. …it is possible, it will happen in fact, that we humans can have that life physically, even physically beyond the grave…Folks, when the Bible talks about resurrection…it is talking about physical resurrection. It’s talking about with this body. (West) Thus also is the resurrection of the dead. The flesh is changed, and yet it is in a sense flesh—humanity; there may be modifications in the form, and yet it will be the same body. There may be great changes in glory, yet the glory will still be glory, and not essentially different. Thus man may still be man, and yet be vastly improved. (McGarvey) Views – Churches of Christ(great continuity – material body) • J. W. McGarvey • Ashley Johnson • Jim McGuiggan • Larry West if I come out again, I shall be what I was only more so…. I fully believe that if I were to die this morning, that at the coming of the Lord I would be raised again from the dead and look exactly as I do now, except that I would be raised to immortal vigor. That is the hope of the gospel. There is no other hope. (Johnson)

45. What Will Resurrected Bodies Look Like? • Recognition • No Marriage • No Stomach

46. I believe that this “new heavens and earth” is synonymous with, and is a part of, the heavenly realm as part of the eternal abode of God, sometimes called the heavenly kingdom of God (2 Tim. 4:18). This is the “kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world” (Mt. 25:34). In this heavenly kingdom we will exist in our new habitation/body which will be “eternal in the heavens” (2 Cor. 5:1). We are promised that our hope is laid up for us in heaven (Col. 1:5) as well as our treasures (Mt. 6:20-21). The “incorruptible and undefiled” inheritance of those who have been begotten to a “living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead” is “reserved in heaven” for those “kept by the power of God through faith for salvation ready to be revealed in the last time” (1 Pet. 1:3-5). Even long ago, Abraham and those with him “waited for the city which has foundations, whose builder and maker is God” (Heb. 11:10). They desired a “better, that is, a heavenly country. Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God, for He has prepared a city for them” (v. 16). That same wonderful place is prepared by God for us whose lowly bodies will be transformed for glorious and immortal existence, an incorruptible and undefiled inheritance that can correctly be said to be both “heavenly” and in heaven. Resurrection Body and the New Heaven and New Earth • “New” – kainos – new in form or quality • Parallel (analogy) drawn between renewal of earth and continuity of resurrected body • Bible speaks of a transformation of body, but no “transformation” of earth • Language of annihilation – no parallel where there is no numerical continuity

47. If a man dies, shall he live again?(Job 14:14) I am the resurrection and the life, He who believes in Me, though he may die, he shall live(John 11:25) And this is the testimony: that God has given us eternal life, and this life is in His Son(1 John 5:11) Exhortations to Godly Living in View of Our Resurrection • 1 Corinthians 15:54-58 • 2 Corinthians 5:9b-11a • Romans 8:18, 25 • Philippians 3:20-21

49. Three Questions: • How much is the resurrected body of Christ a pattern of what we shall be in our resurrection (“the firstfruits”)? • Can that which is corruptible material-physical-fleshly be made incorruptible and thereby inhabit the spiritual realm of God/heaven in the same material form? • How does God’s creation of man answer the need for the continuity of a bodily resurrection?