WHEN we remember that in resurrection our bodies are to be fashioned like to the body which Christ has now in glory, we can well understand it will be something very wonderful, and very glorious. And this is just what Scripture tells us. The bodies we now have are like the body Adam had—earthly bodies. The bodies we then shall have will be like Christ’s body— heavenly bodies. “As we have borne the image of the earthy, we shall also bear the image of the heavenly.” (1 Cor. 15:4949And as we have borne the image of the earthy, we shall also bear the image of the heavenly. (1 Corinthians 15:49).)
Christ has a body suited to the glorious place in which He dwells—a glorified body. God has crowned Him with glory and honor. All the beauty and all the glory He could put upon a man, He put upon His own Son, when He glorified Him. And we shall be like Him. How wonderful this is!
The body we put in the grave is a body of corruption, dishonor, and weakness, humbled and ruined through sin. Because of the redemption which is in Christ Jesus, the body will come forth again in resurrection in incorruption, glory and power. It will indeed lie a wonderful change, but a necessary change, if we are to have part in the kingdom of God in glory. In our present condition we could not be there; and so the word of God tells us of the great change that will pass upon all the living and the dead who are the Lord’s. He is going to have us with Himself in glory; and when He comes to take us there, He will change our bodies into a condition suited to that wonderous scene.
The Lord Jesus wants to have us there in a state and condition worthy of Himself. As the fruit of His death and resurrection, He is going to bring us into the place He has gone to prepare for us in His Father’s house—the place of highest blessedness. He wants us with Himself, and he will have us like Himself. And this great change He will work when He comes to take us away. When He comes, there will be some living and some dead. He will change the living in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, when the trumpet sounds; and He will raise the dead incorruptible. The dead saints will then be in a state in which they will no more die, or their bodies go to corruption: and the changed living will never die at all; their bodies will then be immortal.
When this glorious change takes place, not only will Christ have the victory over death and the grave, but, He will give us the victory, too. Death will be swallowed up in victory, and we will be able to say, “O death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory?” Oh! what a triumph this will be for those who believe in Jesus! What blessedness and glory will be ours then!
Reader, do you believe in Jesus? Can you look forward to this “better resurrection?” Happy all those who have part in it.
ML 12/06/1903