Our Bodies and Heaven

“⁵⁰I tell you this, brothers: flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God, nor does the perishable inherit the imperishable.” – 1 Corinthians 15:50 (ESV)

“When Paul says that ‘flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God,’ he’s referring to our flesh and blood as they are now: cursed and under sin.” – Randy Alcorn And he is right. Our bodies as we know them are not the bodies that God created. Adam sinned and because of it, we are cursed with this perishable, dishonorable, weak natural body as noted by Paul in 1 Corinthians 15:42-44.

We have to remember that Heaven is the glorious place that it is and as such is not the place for the perishable, dishonorable, and weak. It is a place for the imperishable, glorious, powerful and that is what we get with out transformed/upgraded spiritual body. When we are reunited with our bodies, they are made in the likeness of Christ and back to the form that God created as His pinnacle creation that was “very good”. “With them you’ll be better able to serve and glorify God and enjoy an eternity of wonders He has prepared for you.” – Randy Alcorn

So, what do we do in the meantime. I wrote this back in July of 2024 in a post titled “Our Natural and Spiritual Bodies”, “Before I can look for what I will become, I have to look at what I am and do with it all that I am to do with it. I have to use the body I was given by God in this world to make a difference”. Even with this perishable, dishonorable, and weak natural body, I still have work to do. I have to, as I have written in the margin of my bible, wear out the earthly body for God and be rewarded with a heavenly body I cannot wear out in eternity.

Our earthly natural bodies are temporary, and that is indicated in the word perishable that Paul uses. It is breaking down at this moment as it is not for eternity. And it is not for us to have when we are with Christ in Heaven. We will be reunited with the upgraded version of our bodies for our heavenly existence. We will have the body that will be physical and spiritual in that it will be ours and we will be recognized, but it will also last forever, imperishable, glorious, and powerful. Built to “serve and glorify God”.

How are you looking at your body now? Are you wondering how it will make it? What if you see it as Paul does, perishable, dishonorable, weak and that your spiritual body will be the opposite, imperishable, glorious, and powerful?

Our Glorious Resurrected Body

“⁴⁹Just as we have borne the image of the man of dust, we shall also bear the image of the man of heaven.” – 1 Corinthians 15:49 (ESV)

We will be reunited with our bodies when Christ comes again. Our bodies will be recognized. But, we will also take on some of the glory of Christ. We will still be human, but also glorious. We will be back to the design that God created us to be from the beginning.

As Randy Alcorn writes, “the glorified Christ will be by far the most glorious Being in Heaven”. If we are taking on the glory of the LORD, then just what is that. Well, we look to Revelation and John’s account.

“¹⁴The hairs of his head were white, like white wool, like snow. His eyes were like a flame of fire, ¹⁵his feet were like burnished bronze, refined in a furnace, and his voice was like the roar of many waters. ¹⁶In his right hand he held seven stars, from his mouth came a sharp two-edged sword, and his face was like the sun shining in full strength.” – Revelation 1:14-16 (ESV)

And the account of Paul on the road to Damascus.

“⁶As I was on my way and drew near to Damascus, about noon a great light from heaven suddenly shone around me…⁹Now those who were with me saw the light but did not understand the voice of the one who was speaking to me.” – Acts 22:6&11 (ESV)

Both men saw Christ is His glory, although John’s view was much clearer. They both saw the brightness and standing of Christ. He shone and was brighter than all around. Yet He was still in a physical human form as John describes. And so will we.

We will be brighter than the world, although Christ will certainly be the brightest. We will be glorious and yet will still be human. The difference in our human form is that we will return to the form that God designed and intended for us. Look back at 1 Corinthians 15:49 and see that we will take on the image of man and will also have characteristics of the image of God and His glory.

Again, What is your view of resurrected body? Are you still looking at it from only the physical form? How does your view change knowing that we will take on glory from Christ and just what His glory is?

Resurrected Body, Yes, Ours

When Jesus died, He rose from the dead, not in spirit, but in body, His body. He left the tomb, all of Him, not just part of Him. He appeared to Mary Magdalene and she knew Him. He appeared to the disciples and they recognized Him. Thomas saw Christ, and touched the scars in His hands and in His side and knew it was Jesus.

“¹⁶Jesus said to her, ‘Mary.’ She turned and said to him in Aramaic, ‘Rabboni!’ (which means Teacher).” – John 20:16 (ESV)

“²⁷Then he said to Thomas, ‘Put your finger here, and see my hands; and put out your hand, and place it in my side. Do not disbelieve, but believe.’ ²⁸Thomas answered him, ‘My Lord and my God!’” – John 20:27-28 (ESV)

Jesus is our example. He showed us how to live and what happens when we pass from this world. We He was resurrected with His body and so will we. We will follow the example of Christ in our resurrection with our bodies only better than we knew before.

It is true, Jesus resurrected with His body and we will also. But, just as Jesus was, we will also be recognized in that body. When Christ comes again, we will be reunited with our bodies from this world. That body will be in the image as we were created by God. Any defects that we had in this world will be gone, recognized, but gone. Randy Alcorn gives a good analogy of an upgrade to describe our resurrected bodies. “It’s like the new upgrade of my word processing software…I knew that for the most part it would be like the old program, only better.” The good thing is that our new upgraded bodies may have “some new features (though no glitches or programming errors).”

We will get our bodies back. We will be recognized as ourselves. We will be better off than we were in this world. We will follow the example of Christ in His resurrection.

What is your view of resurrected body? Are you of the idea that you somehow get a new body? Reading scripture, think about the example of Christ and His body at resurrection. Knowing He is our example, what would your body look like resurrected?

Resurrection’s Importance

Why is resurrection so important? – Randy Alcorn

Well, there is so much in the above. I am not a theologian and it would take a lot more study and learning than the 30 minutes or so I devote to the lesson in my MasterWork study. But, I will say that there are a few things that we have to look at to see the importance of resurrection.

First, look at the way I wrote resurrection. I did not say “the resurrection”. Resurrection is important in that there is a transformation of our physical bodies and not just a removal of the old body and the getting of a new one. “Despite the radical changes that occur through salvation, death, and resurrection, we remain who we are. We have the same history, appearance, memory, interests, ans skills.” – Randy Alcorn We are not turned to be different, our current selves are transformed back to how we were created, as the pinnacle of His work.

Next, resurrection is a physical thing. Our bodies do not remain in this world. We are reunited with our bodies that were created as God intended. We were meant to be body and soul. Thinking of our creation, God created our bodies from the earth and then breathed life into us. Until He breathed life into us, we were not. Once our soul, God’s Breath, was united with our bodies, we were created. Resurrection is important to reunite our bodies with our soul.

Then we have “the resurrection”, Christ’s resurrection, “without Christ’s resurrection and what it means—an eternal future for fully restored human beings dwelling on a fully restored earth—there is no Christianity.” – Randy Alcorn If Christ was not physically resurrected, then everything we believe cannot be true. Our preaching is not true. Our faith is not true. Our dead are not resurrected. We are not free from our sins. All who died before us have perished. Paul tells us all that without the truth of the resurrection in 1 Corinthians 15:14-19 we are simply living a lie.

So, why resurrection. We are transformed back to God’s perfect creation. Our soul and body are reunited. Without Christ’s resurrection, we would be living a lie. Resurrection is what we hang our hats on in Christianity. Without it all else is futile.

Where are you on the importance of resurrection? Are you of the thought that it is or isn’t, and that the idea of Christianity is okay too? What if you looked at resurrection as “THE” importance of Christianity?

In Spirit When We Die?

When we die, we go to be with Christ in spirit as our bodies stay behind to be resurrected when Christ comes again. Our spirit leaves this world and joins Jesus in the intermediate Heaven, but what about when we arrive there. Do we get some sort of body while there? Do we have a form? What does scripture say?

“²⁴And he called out, ‘Father Abraham, have mercy on me, and send Lazarus to dip the end of his finger in water and cool my tongue, for I am in anguish in this flame.’” – Luke 16:24 (ESV)

“⁸Then the voice that I had heard from heaven spoke to me again, saying, ‘Go, take the scroll that is open in the hand of the angel who is standing on the sea and on the land.’ ⁹So I went to the angel and told him to give me the little scroll. And he said to me, ‘Take and eat it; it will make your stomach bitter, but in your mouth it will be sweet as honey.’” – Revelation 10:8-9 (ESV)

Here are two passages where a physical form of some kind is mentioned in scripture, the first by Jesus himself, and the second by John when he visited Heaven. So, yes, it would seem to be that we have some sort of body when we arrive in Heaven. But, we have to remember that the body we have would be temporary as we will receive our resurrected body when Christ come again.

But what about the thoughts that all of this language is just figurative to paint a picture for the human to grasp and we have no real body at all? Well, that deserves to be mentioned as it is a debated thought. In fact, Randy Alcorn asks for my opinion in the MasterWork study: “do you think Jesus would have included these references if those in the present Heaven are disembodied spirits?” To which my answer is no. Although they may be references to give the mental image, Jesus is truth and why would he tell of something that would not be true.

Remember, all of this is related to when we die and not when Jesus comes again. This intermediate body would be just that, intermediate and temporary as we will unite with our resurrected body at the time of Christ’s return.

So, when we die, our spirit leaves this world and unites with Jesus in the intermediate Heaven. There we will take on a bodily form for the temporary until Christ comes again. At that time, we will reunite with our resurrected bodies in Heaven as it comes down.

What is your thought or view of bodies when you die? Are you of the thought that we are just spirits waiting? What if we were to receive a temporary body to dwell with Jesus until His return?