In the Bible study tonight, looking at 1 Cor 15:35-44, we looked at the different kinds of new life mentioned in the Bible. What do we really mean by resurrection? What will resurrection ‘look’ like? These were some of the questions the Corinthians had, and people nowadays are just as interested in ‘life after death’ as ever.
In the Bible, we see several cases of people being brought back to life after having died. 1 Kings 17:17-23 tells us how Elijah raised the widow’s son from the dead, something Jesus later did with another widow’s son (see Luke 7:11-15). Both Peter and Paul were also involved in this ministry of ‘healing +’ (Peter with Tabitha in Acts 9:36-41, Paul with Eutychus who fell from a 3rd storey meeting during a long teaching sessions before being raised to life to continue listening for another six hours in Acts 20:7-12). Technically, these instances (along with the raising of Lazarus and others) are known as resuscitation (not in the sense we use this word today, but meaning to bring back to life in the same body.) With all these examples, however, the person ‘inhabited’ the same body and ultimately would die at a later date.
Translation occurs when death is not tasted. Enoch (Gen 5:18-24) walked with God and then ‘was no more’; he disappeared; his body could not be found. Elijah (2 Ki 2:9-18) was taken directly to heaven in chariots of fire with horsemen, and though the band of prophets searched high and low for his body, they did not find it.
Resurrection, however, involves being brought back to life after having died, never to die again. Jesus is the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep, our ‘foretaste’ of what resurrection will look like. Here, we see that the physical body is transformed. Just as a seed doesn’t look like the plant it grows into, it’s hard for us to imagine what our resurrection bodies will look like. There will probably be similarities to our present bodies, but there will also be huge changes: ‘sown perishable, raised imperishable.’ We can’t quite grasp the mysteries of resurrection (will we look ‘young’ or ‘old’, depending on our age on death?), but it is clear that this new spiritual body, received at the Second Coming of Christ (see 1 Thess 4:13-18), will never again taste suffering, pain or death. Our ‘lowly bodies’ will be transformed like Jesus’ body (Phil 3:20-21). What a day that will be!
