5 Aspects of Our Heavenly Bodies

First, let’s read 1 Cor. 15:39-49

1Co 15:39 All flesh is not the same flesh: but there is one kind of flesh of men, another flesh of beasts, another of fishes, and another of birds. 1Co 15:40 There are also celestial bodies, and bodies terrestrial: but the glory of the celestial is one, and the glory of the terrestrial is another. 15:41 There is one glory of the sun, and another glory of the moon, and another glory of the stars: for one star differeth from another star in glory. 15:42 So also is the resurrection of the dead. It is sown in corruption; it is raised in incorruption: 15:43 It is sown in dishonour; it is raised in glory: it is sown in weakness; it is raised in power: 15:44 It is sown a natural body; it is raised a spiritual body. There is a natural body, and there is a spiritual body. 15:45 And so it is written, The first man Adam was made a living soul; the last Adam was made a quickening spirit. 15:46 Howbeit that was not first which is spiritual, but that which is natural; and afterward that which is spiritual. 15:47 The first man is of the earth, earthy: the second man is the Lord from heaven. 15:48 As is the earthy, such are they also that are earthy: and as is the heavenly, such are they also that are heavenly. 15:49 And as we have borne the image of the earthy, we shall also bear the image of the heavenly.

Context, context, context

1 Cor. 15, for me, is really the summit of this epistle, and arguably, one of the greatest chapters in all of Paul’s epistles. But what prompted the writing of this whole chapter was the fact that some in Corinth were saying that there is no resurrection at all.

So Paul starts with the gospel. 1Co 15:3 For I delivered unto you first of all that which I also received, how that Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures; 1Co 15:4 And that he was buried, and that he rose again the third day according to the scriptures:

Then he goes on to confirm Christ’s resurrection, how He was seen of Peter and the twelve. He was seen of over 500 brethren at once. And he was also seen by me, last of all, as one born out of due time.

This doctrine of Christ’s resurrection, which is crucial to the gospel itself, wasn’t entirely a matter of faith for the Corinthians. This was a confirmed, documented fact, and they could still speak to many of those eye-witnesses. How cool would that have been?

In fact, they have already spoken to an eye-witness – the Apostle Paul himself!

I suppose one could argue that even if you talk to eye-witnesses, accepting His resurrection is still a matter of faith, but what if you talk to 500 people? At some point, it becomes a fact.

I wish someone had written a book at the time: “I Talked to All 500 People who Saw Christ Alive: This is What They Said.”

I’d totally read that book.

So Paul gives the gospel. He confirms Christ’s resurrection, numbering the eye-witnesses, and then he says in 15:12 Now if Christ be preached that he rose from the dead, how say some among you that there is no resurrection of the dead? And then he says in 15:17 And if Christ be not raised, your faith is vain; ye are yet in your sins.

His death was the payment, and His resurrection was the receipt. His resurrection confirms that the Father accepted His sacrifice for all your sins. His resurrection, and our identification with His resurrection, guarantees our victory over sin and death.

Later, Paul highlights in 15:35 But some man will say, How are the dead raised up? and with what body do they come? And do you know what Paul calls them? He calls them fools! Look at 1Co 15:36 Thou fool, that which thou sowest is not quickened, except it die: 1Co 15:37 And that which thou sowest, thou sowest not that body that shall be, but bare grain, it may chance of wheat, or of some other grain: 1Co 15:38 But God giveth it a body as it hath pleased him, and to every seed his own body.

He’s not saying that if you plant a seed it may grow into a wheat or some other grain. He speaks of chance here in the sense that we hope that that planted seed will germinate into that particular grain, which may or may not happen. Not all seeds will always germinate into a plant. This illustration was used to make the counterpoint that, unlike the chance of seeds germinating, there is nothing iffy about us believers being resurrected into our heavenly bodies.

But the bigger point is that the seed dies in order for the plant to come into existence.

Then we arrive at the verses we read.

Paul has to go all the way back to the very basics of elemental milk with these people. It’s almost kind of embarrassing that he has to explain to these people in 1Co 15:39 All flesh is not the same flesh: but there is one kind of flesh of men, another flesh of beasts, another of fishes, and another of birds. 1Co 15:40 There are also celestial bodies, and bodies terrestrial: but the glory of the celestial is one, and the glory of the terrestrial is another.

What’s the difference between celestial and terrestrial? Celestial is heavenly and terrestrial is earthly.

Now, even though Paul starts with the basics, he builds on these basic truths to lead these believers to higher planes of truth so they will grow.

Then Paul dives into our future resurrection and he gives us 5 aspects of our Heavenly Bodies.

1) Sown in Corruption; Raised in Incorruption

Our bodies ache sometimes, don’t they? Rom 8:22 For we know that the whole creation groaneth and travaileth in pain together until now. How many of you are groaning right now? Raise your hands! I can’t see you.

So the body sometimes gets sick. The body gets old. The body deteriorates. The body eventually gives out and dies. But God gives us insight into this that we cannot see with our eyes, which we must accept by faith. We sometimes groan because of the “bondage of corruption” that grips all creation. Sin is the reason we get sick and die. “The wages of sin is death” (Rom. 6:23). The wages, the consequence, of sin is the death of the body and the soul (Gen. 2:17; Eze. 18:4; Rev. 20:14).

James wrote, “But every man is tempted, when he is drawn away of his own lust, and enticed. Then when lust hath conceived, it bringeth forth sin: and sin, when it is finished, bringeth forth death” (Jam. 1:14-15). He’s saying that when temptation has been allowed to spark the lust of our corrupt flesh, that lust soon progresses into consent by the soul, which brings forth sin in our behavior. The end result is death. Paul tells us in Rom. 6:19 that because of the infirmity of our flesh, we yielded our bodies to be “servants to uncleanness and to iniquity unto iniquity.” When our souls choose to indulge our corrupted flesh, we sin, which brings about the death of our bodies plus the judgment of a spiritual death by God, called the second death (Rev. 20:14), which is the ultimate consequence of sin, an eternal separation from God in a Lake of Fire, unless we’re made alive in God before the body dies, which only our faith in the Lord’s atonement on the cross at Calvary can resolve for us.

In Rom. 7:23, Paul also talks about the law of sin, elsewhere called the law of sin and death (Rom. 8:2), a natural law working in our physical bodies. The law of sin is the corruption that brings about the death of our bodies because of sin, which is followed by the second death. That corruption of sin in our flesh brings about the death of our bodies (Rom. 6:23).

When Paul acquiesced to the desires of his corrupted flesh, he sinned (Rom. 7:23), which meant he would die in his sins like every unbeliever.

But thanks be to God that we need not ever groan in despair. We do not groan nor sorrow as one who has no hope. Even though we experience now the “bondage of corruption”, we know that sickness and death is not our lot for all eternity. We know that the total victory over sin and death that Christ accomplished for us includes “the redemption of our body.”

Therefore, Paul says, “…even we ourselves groan within ourselves, waiting for the adoption, to wit, the redemption of our body.” (Romans 8:23b). The redemption of our body IS the adoption that we’re waiting for, the moment in which God takes us into His realm as one of His children and gives us the fullness of all our privileges in Christ.

The fullness of the adoption of children, which is our complete admission into all the privileges as the children of God. The fullness of the adoption shall be ours the moment we are redeemed at the Rapture. The “redemption of our body” is coming, and we will receive our new Heavenly bodies on “the day of redemption,” when the Lord ends this dispensation of His grace with the rapture of His church.

Then the total victory over sin and death, which is already ours, will be fulfilled in glory.

On that day, mortality will be “swallowed up of life,” death itself will be fully absorbed by His life. Death will never again exist for us, because it’s been swallowed up by the fullness of His life, annihilated by His immortality and His glory. The fullness of our life in Him will forever keep us from experiencing death again, and “the sufferings of this present time” will be no more.

And Paul tells us that these bodies of ours, which were sown in corruption, shall be raised in incorruption. Why does he say raised here? He’s talking about us in light of the illustration he gave about the planted seed. The seed sown dies and then it becomes transformed into something else more beautiful, more perfect.

So, too, with our resurrection and transformation into our heavenly bodies, the dead in Christ shall rise first, and we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together to meet the Lord in the air. In that moment, we receive our Heavenly bodies. We all as a Body rise-up together to meet the Lord in the air. And in this first aspect, we’re given a stark contrast. We live now and experience life in corrupt bodies, but we’ll receive a body of incorruption, a body that is free from all sin, free from aging, free from the deteriorating effects of sin we have to deal with now.

Decay and death will be no more. We will no longer be subject to the present “bondage of corruption” with all of its sufferings and afflictions. We will no longer be in mortal bodies. We will be housed in a body incapable of corruption, incapable of sickness, incapable of death.

2) Sown in Dishonour; Raised in Glory

Then Paul tells us that we are sown in dishonor, but we’ll be raised in glory. The effects of sin taking its toll on our bodies is a form of dishonor, which only serves to contrast the brilliance of our future glory.

In the Bible across all ages, “glory” is usually mentioned with the “sufferings” (Isaiah 11; 32; 35; 40; 60). The same is true in Paul’s letters. Rom 8:18 “For I reckon that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us.” Not only that, Paul writes, in 2Co 4:17 For our light affliction, which is but for a moment, worketh for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory. The affliction is light, but the glory has eternal weight to it.

What is the blip of our suffering now in light of an eternity of glory shining from within us? There will be so much glory that that glory has weight to it. We will have glory emanating from within us, which reminds me of the Lord’s transfiguration. His body was altered, as His face was, so that beams of light shot out from every pore of His being through His clothes, making them white and glittering because of the pureness of His holy essence.

We share in Christ’s glory because of our identification with Him and what His father has made us in His Son. And the time will come when we will all have glorified bodies, a glory beyond comprehension, like His Transfiguration, because we’ll share in His glory.

And that glory will be seen by all. In Eph 2:7, Paul writes how, “in the ages to come he might shew the exceeding riches of his grace in his kindness toward us through Christ Jesus.” God will bring forth something new in glory, new riches of Himself for those who are one with His well-beloved Son. [For all eternity God will display] the surpassing riches of His grace in kindness towards us in Christ Jesus. We will be the shining trophies of His grace for all to see! How one is overwhelmed by such a thought!

3) Sown in Weakness; Raised in Power

Our bodies are weak because of sin, but our new bodies shall be raised in power. We shall live in a state of eternal vigorous strength opposite of the weakness we experience now in our frail bodies. Time takes its toll on our bodies.

Every night, we have to sleep and rest our bodies for a time just to be able to face another day. As time moves on, the capacity of our body to do work lessens and lessens. Our bodies are defeated by the burden of time.

But power will be a characteristic of our Heavenly bodies because our new bodies will never weaken for all eternity, will never lose its life, will never lose its glory and this, for all eternity.

We often don’t think of the power that it takes for our bodies to remain in that consistent state of glory for all eternity. It’s a battery that never dies! Imagine the power that it takes to keep our bodies in that continual state of perfection and glory for all eternity. It’s incomprehensible!

The kind of power that will exist in us to keep us in that state for all eternity is more power than exists in the known universe today. This is eternal power! This power preserves our incorruptible, glorified bodies for all eternity. Our bodies will never grow tired, never depreciate, never to become sick again, never to be ravaged by the corruption of sin, but in power, we shall display His glory for all eternity.

4) Sown a Natural Body; Raised a Spiritual Body

There is a bit of controversy over the phrase “a spiritual body.” Some say that we’ll be spiritual beings, like angels, but to me, this just doesn’t line up with Scripture.

Paul tells us in Php_3:21 Who shall change our vile body, that it may be fashioned like unto his glorious body, according to the working whereby he is able even to subdue all things unto himself. Well, the Lord’s resurrected body had earthly elements. Remember how the Lord told the disciples in Luk 24:39 “Behold my hands and my feet, that it is I myself: handle me, and see; for a spirit hath not flesh and bones, as ye see me have.”

This He says after He suddenly appeared in the room!

Fascinating that the physics of this world had no application to the Lord’s resurrected body. The Lord was able to appear and disappear like a spirit, or some say perhaps walk through walls, even though His body had flesh and bones, which are earthly elements that made up His heavenly resurrected body. If we’re to be fashioned like unto His glorified body, then at best we can say that it’s spiritual in the sense that the laws of physics in this world don’t apply. Our glorified bodies will probably contain touchable elements of flesh and bones like the Lord’s resurrected body, but hopefully, we can appear and disappear like Christ, too.

Because that would be awesome.

So how do you explain the expression “a spiritual body”? It’s a body not of this world like the Lord’s that’s perfectly created to house the soul of man.

5) We Shall also Bear the Image of the Heavenly

And finally, Paul says that we shall also bear the image of the heavenly, and this follows a mighty section comparing Adam to Christ.

He writes in 15:45 And so it is written, The first man Adam was made a living soul; the last Adam was made a quickening spirit. 15:46 Howbeit that was not first which is spiritual, but that which is natural; and afterward that which is spiritual. 15:47 The first man is of the earth, earthy: the second man is the Lord from heaven. 15:48 As is the earthy, such are they also that are earthy: and as is the heavenly, such are they also that are heavenly. 15:49 And as we have borne the image of the earthy, we shall also bear the image of the heavenly.

Today, in God’s eyes, we are either in Adam dead in our sins or we are in Christ alive unto God through His perfect work on the cross. Paul wrote in Eph. 2:1,5, “And you hath he quickened, who were dead in trespasses and sins… Even when we were dead in sins, hath quickened us together with Christ, (by grace ye are saved;)”. We become quickened, made alive, by God the Father through the instrumentality of the Spirit made possible by the sacrifice of the Lord Jesus Christ.

I love the contrast between Adam and Christ in Romans 5:12-19 and 1 Cor. 15:45-49. Adam is the first Adam whereas Christ is the last Adam. Adam was made a living soul whereas Christ was made a quickening spirit. Adam was the First Man, earthly, whereas Christ was the Second Man, heavenly. Sin entered the world by one man’s disobedience whereas the righteousness of God is now extended to the world because of Christ’s obedience. In Adam all become dead in sins whereas in Christ all become alive unto God. In Adam we have death whereas in Christ we have eternal life. In Adam, we bear the image of the earthy whereas in Christ we bear the image of the heavenly. In Adam we have judgment whereas in Christ we have justification. In Adam sin reigns whereas in Christ His grace reigns. In Adam we become unrighteous whereas in Christ we become righteous. By one man’s disobedience all were made sinners whereas by Christ’s obedience all who place their faith in Him are made righteous. In Adam, the law entered so the offense might abound whereas in Christ, where sin abounded, His grace did much more abound! In Adam, sin has reigned unto death whereas in Christ, His grace reigns unto eternal life! Halleluiah!

In a wonderful booklet called “The Second Things of the Bible,” J.C. O’Hair made these fantastic comparisons between the first man and the Second Man. The first man is Adam and the Second Man is Christ. He writes, “The Second Man made the first man. But the Second Man was the seed of the first man. Satan gained the power of death by separating the first man from God. He lost the power of death when the Second Man was separated from God on the cross, and then arose from the dead.” Later, he writes, “Because the first man partook of the tree; the Second Man died on the tree. Because the first man tasted of the fruit of the tree; the Second Man tasted death for every man on the tree. Because the first man was disobedient unto death; the Second Man was obedient unto death, even the death of the cross. Because the first man hid in the garden from God; the Second Man was hid from God on the cross. Because the first man brought the thorns; the Second Man wore the thorns. Because the first man was driven from the garden; the Second Man went into the garden. Because the first man brought the curse; the Second Man bore the curse.”

And now we shall also bear the image of the heavenly. We now bear the image of His righteousness in the outliving of our faith in our walks, but after it’s all over, our bodies, our outward appearance, will physically bear the image of the heavenly, being fashioned like unto His glorified body. We’re fashioned like unto His glorified body because Christ functioned as our substitute Redeemer who came to destroy sin and death on our behalf, which is why He’s called “the second man.” Adam brought death but Christ brought life. Christ was resurrected from the dead in a heavenly body, fit to exist and operate in Heaven from which He came. So, too, our bodies will be changed and made fit to exist and operate in heavenly places, enabling us to fulfill the heavenly vocation into which God has called us, because we are all now “one new man” in Him.

Conclusion

So to recap: our bodies are raised in incorruption, raised in glory, raised in power, raised a spiritual body, and we shall also bear the image of the heavenly.

If our present bodies are already “fearfully and wonderfully made,” how much more our new bodies given on “the day of redemption?”