Tag Archives: spiritual bodies

What will our bodies be like? February 25, 2019

Today’s Podcast

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Thanks for joining me today for “A Little Walk with God.” I’m your host Richard Agee.

Paul had many people ask him about what heaven would be like since Jesus met him one day on the road to Damascus and he saw a glimpse of what will come. He saw the risen Lord and just a taste of what heaven might be like when time comes to an end. He learned from Jesus’ apostles that we would be changed when he came to take us home with him. So as is common with us, we wanted to know what we would be like. We live in these frail bodies and we suffer all kinds of things in this world. Will we still have the pain, the scars, the memories, and the nightmares that plague us here?

Paul had some interesting things to say to us on that account. We go back to Paul’s letter to the congregation in Corinth as he tries to help them understand just how confused and unknowing they really were. We ask the same question, though, don’t we? We want to know what the other side of life will look like. We want to know for sure if there really is a heaven and hell. We want to know what life will be like when we cross to the other side of eternity.

The people in Corinth were especially concerned because Jesus said he was coming back soon. It had been years since he left. Some of their congregation died. Jesus hadn’t come. The Romans made life difficult for the Christians. The Jewish leaders made life difficult for the Christians. The pagans who believed in a pantheon of gods made life difficult for Christians. The whole world made life difficult for Jesus’ followers just like he said they would. So what happened? Should they still wait? Was Jesus’ promise real? Was he really coming back? And if so, what would really happen to them?

Here are Paul’s words of encouragement to them.

35 Now I know what some of you are thinking: “Just how are the dead going to be raised? What kind of bodies will they have when they come back to life?” 36 Don’t be a fool! The seed you plant doesn’t produce life unless it dies. Right? 37 The seed doesn’t have the same look, the same body, if you will, of what it will have once it starts to grow. It starts out a single, naked seed—whether wheat or some other grain, it doesn’t matter— 38 and God gives to that seed a body just as He has desired. For each of the different kinds of seeds God prepares a unique body. 39 Or look at it this way: not all flesh is the same. Right? There is skin flesh on humans, furry flesh on animals, feathery flesh on birds, and scaly flesh on fish. 40 Likewise there are bodies made for the heavens and bodies made for the earth. The heavenly bodies have a different kind of glory or luminescence compared to bodies below. 41 Even among the heavenly bodies, there is a different level of brilliance: the sun shines differently than the moon, the moon differently than the stars, and the stars themselves differ in their brightness. …

50 Now listen to this: brothers and sisters, this present body is not able to inherit the kingdom of God any more than decay can inherit that which lasts forever. 51 Stay close because I am going to tell you a mystery—something you may have trouble understanding: we will not all fall asleep in death, but we will all be transformed. 52 It will all happen so fast, in a blink, a mere flutter of the eye. The last trumpet will call, and the dead will be raised from their graves with a body that does not, cannot decay. All of us will be changed! 53 We’ll step out of our mortal clothes and slide into immortal bodies, replacing everything that is subject to death with eternal life. 54 And, when we are all redressed with bodies that do not, cannot decay, when we put immortality over our mortal frames, then it will be as Scripture says:

Life everlasting has victoriously swallowed death.[j]

55 Hey, Death! What happened to your big win?

Hey, Death! What happened to your sting?

Have you ever thought about what that change might be like? Jesus talked about how a seed must die before a plant can grow from it. So picture, if you will, an acorn. We know oak trees come from acorn’s the seed that produces those magnificent trees. I’m sure you’ve seen a few of them. Hard shelled things about ¾ of an inch across. Although there are a variety of different nuts we eat, the acorn is one we don’t. If you examine that small receptacle of life, would you ever think a giant oak would grow from that little seed? A tree looks so different from the seed from which it sprouts. So does a corn stalk look different from a single kernel of corn. Or a watermelon seed different from a watermelon. Pick any seed and tell me if you could guess what its plant would look like when mature. I don’t believe you could.

Jesus and Paul tell us this flesh that houses our eternal spirit is just a seed. When it dies, a spiritual bodies emerges from it just as an oak emerges from an acorn. What will our spiritual bodies be like? I can’t tell you. Will we look the same? I don’t think we will. I think we will know each other as we are perfected by his resurrection power. I think we will understand perfectly. I think we will see God in his triune perfection. Paul says we will be changed in the blink of an eye. Paul doesn’t describe that change except that we will be clothed in a new, spiritual body. An immortal one. One that can never decay or die. We will have a body that will live through eternity without pain or sadness or deformity or anything but the perfection of the image of God he placed within each of us.

What will we look like? Will we really care? Does the acorn care what the tree looks like that comes from inside its tiny shell? Does the apple seed care how many apple live inside it? Does a wheat germ care how many grains of wheat will come from it when the farmer plants it in the ground? So why should we care what this new spiritual body will be? Suffice it to say our spiritual bodies will be exactly right because God will grow them. He planned this millenia ago. We can trust him to make the spiritual body that springs from the seed of our fleshly body exactly what he plans.

I cannot even imagine what it might be like. Just like I could never imagine what plant would come from a particular seed if you placed it in my hand. I think our spiritual bodies will be as different from our fleshly bodies as a plant is from the seed from which it comes. Does that bother you? It doesn’t bother me. It’s one of those things I figure God has taken care of and I don’t need to worry about it. I trust him to know what he’s doing. I can’t make an oak tree. All I can do is plant an acorn. I can’t create a field of wheat. All I can do is plant some seeds. I can’t create a spiritual body. All I can do is prepare my fleshly body for the next step. I can give myself to God. I can follow his commands to the best of my ability. I can ask forgiveness from him. Then I can let him do his work in me and when time ends, he can change me into something I never dreamed. He will give me a spiritual body something we cannot now imagine.

Will we all be the same? I don’t know. Will we be able to distinguish one person from another? I think so since Paul talks about bodies, plural. Will we remember anything of this body when we put on the next? I don’t know. Does it really matter? Will we care about this life after we move into the next? I’m not sure we will if we find ourselves in heaven with God. I think we will be so engaged in worship and the work he gives us to do in heaven (I really believe he has work for us to do there, also), we won’t think about or worry about what happened here. The only thing we will remember from this side of eternity is that sacrifice he made for us so we could be with him. Everything else from this side of life will just fade away.

The Corinthians wondered what was happening to these frail vessels that kept dying while they waited for Jesus’ return. Paul let them know Jesus was still coming. His delay didn’t mean he wasn’t coming back. It means God is gracious and wants us to share his story to influence as many as possible to come into his kingdom. His delay is because of his mercy and grace. He wants as many as possible to come to him. Paul also wanted them to know our frail, sickly bodies weren’t the things that would survive and follow us into heaven. These things that deteriorate and decay are just seeds and one day from this fleshy seed will sprout a spiritual body like nothing we can begin to imagine.

Do you ever wonder what will become of this lump of clay you reside it? Don’t worry about it. Just like with the acorn and the oak, you can’t begin to imagine the new you. Be ready and then be blown away by the magnificence of God’s creative act in you.

You can find me at richardagee.com. I also invite you to join us at San Antonio First Church of the Nazarene on West Avenue in San Antonio to hear more Bible based teaching. You can find out more about my church at SAF.church. Thanks for listening. If you enjoyed it, tell a friend. If you didn’t, send me an email and let me know how better to reach out to those around you. Until next week, may God richly bless you as you venture into His story each day.

The Voice Bible Copyright © 2012 Thomas Nelson, Inc. The Voice™ translation © 2012 Ecclesia Bible Society All rights reserved. In accordance with the requirements for FTC full disclosure, I may have affiliate relationships with some or all of the producers of the items mentioned in this post who may provide a small commission to me when purchased through this site.

What will your new body be? (2 Corinthians 3:7-18), Apr 3, 2015

Today’s Podcast

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Today’s Scriptures

Today’s Bible reading plans include:
Ready – 2 Corinthians 3:7-18
Set – Psalms 89; 2 Corinthians 3
Go! – Judges 17-18; Psalms 89; 2 Corinthians 3

2 Corinthians 3:7-18
⁷ Now consider this: if the ministry of death, which was chiseled in stone, came with so much glory that the Israelites could not bear to look at Moses’ face even as that glory was fading, ⁸ imagine the kind of greater glory that will accompany the ministry of the Spirit. ⁹ If glory ushered in the ministry that offers condemnation, how much more glory will attend the ministry that promises to restore and set the world right? ¹⁰ In fact, what seemed to have great glory will appear entirely inglorious in the light of the greater glory of the new covenant. ¹¹ If something that fades away possesses glory, how much more intense is the glory of what remains?

¹² In light of this hope that we have, we act with great confidence and speak with great courage. ¹³ We do not act like Moses who covered his face with a veil so the children of Israel would not stare as the glory of God faded from his face. ¹⁴ Their minds became as hard as stones; for up to this day when they read the old covenant, the same veil continues to hide that glory; this veil is lifted only through the Anointed One. ¹⁵ Even today a veil covers their hearts when the words of Moses are read; ¹⁶ but in the moment when one turns toward the Lord, the veil is removed. ¹⁷ By “the Lord” what I mean is the Spirit, and in any heart where the Spirit of the Lord is present, there is liberty. ¹⁸ Now all of us, with our faces unveiled, reflect the glory of the Lord as if we are mirrors; and so we are being transformed, metamorphosed, into His same image from one radiance of glory to another, just as the Spirit of the Lord accomplishes it.

Today’s Devotional

From today’s background scripture God might say:

Most of you probably haven’t seen a caterpillar turn into a butterfly since you saw a film in grade school. Few have watched the miracle of the metamorphosis in person today. And fewer still could contemplate that I could turn that caterpillar into something as beautiful as the winged creature that breaks out of that cocoon at just the right time to float on the breeze in all its beauty.

Paul tries to describe the change My children experience as they transform into what I want you to become. You will become as different as the caterpillar is from the butterfly. The world will not recognize the old you, but will see the beauty of My spirit in you instead. They will see the changed created by the metamorphosis you undertake if you let Me transform your heart and mind into the person I made you to be.

Then when I come again and take you to be with Me forever, you will transform physically into your spiritual bodies, more radiant and glorious that your human language can describe. There are no words in any human tongue that can begin to explain the heavenly bodies you will inherit when you come to live with Me. People have tried, but it’s impossible for you to do so.

But really, what does it matter. Just know that you will live with Me. I have more in store for you. You will enjoy your new life, your new home, your new body. You won’t care what it looks like. You’ll just enjoy being with Me and your fellow believers in heaven. You’ll enjoy having all your questions answered. You’ll enjoy the fellowship of those that though the centuries put their trust in Me.

And that will be enough.

The Voice Bible Copyright © 2012 Thomas Nelson, Inc. The Voice™ translation © 2012 Ecclesia Bible Society All rights reserved.
In accordance with the requirements for FTC full disclosure, I may have affiliate relationships with some or all of the producers of the items mentioned in this post who may provide a small commission to me when purchased through this site.

Seeds, trees, bodies, and more (1 Corinthians 15:35-58), Mar 30, 2015

Today’s Podcast

Subscribe in: iTunes|Download

Today’s Scriptures

Today’s Bible reading plans include:

Ready – 1 Corinthians 15:35-58
Set – Psalms 42; 1 Corinthians 15
Go! – Judges 8; Psalms 42; 1 Corinthians 15

1 Corinthians 15:35-58
³⁵ Now I know what some of you are thinking: “Just how are the dead going to be raised? What kind of bodies will they have when they come back to life?” ³⁶ Don’t be a fool! The seed you plant doesn’t produce life unless it dies. Right? ³⁷ The seed doesn’t have the same look, the same body, if you will, of what it will have once it starts to grow. It starts out a single, naked seed—whether wheat or some other grain, it doesn’t matter— ³⁸ and God gives to that seed a body just as He has desired. For each of the different kinds of seeds God prepares a unique body. ³⁹ Or look at it this way: not all flesh is the same. Right? There is skin flesh on humans, furry flesh on animals, feathery flesh on birds, and scaly flesh on fish. ⁴⁰ Likewise there are bodies made for the heavens and bodies made for the earth. The heavenly bodies have a different kind of glory or luminescence compared to bodies below. ⁴¹ Even among the heavenly bodies, there is a different level of brilliance: the sun shines differently than the moon, the moon differently than the stars, and the stars themselves differ in their brightness.

⁴² It’s like this with the resurrection of those who have died. The body planted in the earth decays. But the body raised from the earth cannot decay. ⁴³ The body is planted in disgrace and weakness. But the body is raised in splendor and power. ⁴⁴ The body planted in the earth was animated by the physical, material realm. But the body raised from the earth will be animated by the spiritual. Since there is a physical, material body, there will also be a spiritual body. ⁴⁵ That’s why it was written, “The first man Adam became a living soul”; the last Adam has become a life-giving spirit. ⁴⁶ Everything has an order. The body is not animated first by the spiritual but the physical; then the spiritual becomes its life-giving source. ⁴⁷ The first man, Adam, came from the earth and was made from dust; the second man, Jesus, has come from heaven. ⁴⁸ The earth man shares his earth nature with all those made of earth; likewise the heavenly man shares His heavenly nature with all those made of heaven. ⁴⁹ Just as we have carried the image of the earth man in our bodies, we will also carry the image of the heavenly man in our new bodies at the resurrection.

⁵⁰ Now listen to this: brothers and sisters, this present body is not able to inherit the kingdom of God any more than decay can inherit that which lasts forever. ⁵¹ Stay close because I am going to tell you a mystery—something you may have trouble understanding: we will not all fall asleep in death, but we will all be transformed. ⁵² It will all happen so fast, in a blink, a mere flutter of the eye. The last trumpet will call, and the dead will be raised from their graves with a body that does not, cannot decay. All of us will be changed! ⁵³ We’ll step out of our mortal clothes and slide into immortal bodies, replacing everything that is subject to death with eternal life. ⁵⁴ And, when we are all redressed with bodies that do not, cannot decay, when we put immortality over our mortal frames, then it will be as Scripture says:

Life everlasting has victoriously swallowed death.
⁵⁵ Hey, Death! What happened to your big win?
Hey, Death! What happened to your sting?
⁵⁶ Sin came into this world, and death’s sting followed. Then sin took aim at the law and gained power over those who follow the law. ⁵⁷ Thank God, then, for our Lord Jesus, the Anointed, the Liberating King, who brought us victory over the grave.

⁵⁸ My dear brothers and sisters, stay firmly planted—be unshakable—do many good works in the name of God, and know that all your labor is not for nothing when it is for God.

Today’s Devotional

From today’s background scripture God might say:

Since the resurrection on that first Easter morning, My followers wondered what their spiritual bodies would be like. Many speculate on the substance, shape, and size of something you cannot comprehend. I returned after the resurrection in a form all of My disciples could understand, in a way. Even then, My form was incomprehensible. I appeared behind closed doors, yet didn’t fit their criteria for their legends of ghosts and spirits. I appeared as flesh and blood with scars in My hands, feet, and side. I ate and those around Me could see Me, talk to Me, hear Me. Yet I came at went at will at distances the people of those times could not understand.

Paul glimpsed a piece of heaven and the spiritual bodies there when I met him on the road to Damascus. What he saw, he could not describe. Ezekiel caught a glimpse of My glory and words failed him when he tried to describe the scene. John tried his best to describe the throne room of heaven, but couldn’t begin to share the splendor of his vision with the limitation of the words in his vocabulary.

Paul’s description to settle the questions of early believers provides some thought and insight into just how difficult it is for you to comprehend something to incredible to begin to understand. The best Paul could do is share the change that happens between seeds and the plants they produce. It’s a good analogy, though.

From a tiny acorn, I produce the mighty oak tree. To look at that small seed, the size of the end of your finger, I grow something you could never imagine it housing. I talked about a mustard seed, barely visible, that produces a plant in which birds build their nests. Who would dream it could happen.

Now imagine your bit of creation dust as the physical casing of that spiritual body Paul talks about. The body that seed produces at the final resurrection of the dead is as incomprehensible as those scenes that Paul and John saw of heaven. If I tried to describe those new bodies to you, you could not comprehend them. Just know that there awaits those who trust in Me new bodies, spiritual bodies, unlike anything you know.

You will know each other. You will know Me. You will live forever. You will experience no pain or suffering. You will know no night or darkness. You will labor in love as I created you. You will worship Me throughout eternity as I intended at creation. All things will become new. Indescribable. Incomprehensible. Paul says earlier in his letter, “Now you see as through a darkened, distorted piece of glass, but then you will see and know clearly even as I have known you throughout your life.

Don’t worry about what the next life will be like or what kind of body you will have. It doesn’t really matter. Just know that you’ll like it…But only if you love Me more.

The Voice Bible Copyright © 2012 Thomas Nelson, Inc. The Voice™ translation © 2012 Ecclesia Bible Society All rights reserved.
In accordance with the requirements for FTC full disclosure, I may have affiliate relationships with some or all of the producers of the items mentioned in this post who may provide a small commission to me when purchased through this site.