The Hope of the Resurrection

Today I want to address what may be the most important topic in the life of every believer, and that would be the "one hope" of the Gospel (Eph. 4:5; I Thess. 5:8). The apostle Paul said it best when addressing the council of Pharisees and Sadducees in Jerusalem: "But when Paul perceived that the one part were Sadducees, and the other Pharisees, he cried out in the council, Men and brethren, I am a Pharisee, the son of a Pharisee: of the hope and resurrection of the dead I am called in question" (Acts 23:6). The one hope of the Gospel of Jesus Christ is the resurrection of the dead, as the great apostle clearly stated. The hope of the Gospel is not 'going to heaven,' and it is not 'being in the rapture,' but it IS being raised from the dead at the second coming of Jesus to this world. The same apostle outlined it for us just like it is: "For this we say unto you by the word of the Lord, that we which are alive and remain unto the coming of the Lord shall not prevent them which are asleep. For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first: Then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord" (I Thess. 4:15-17). While it is true that there will be some who are alive at the Lord's coming, 99.9% of those who meet him in the air will be saints who had died. But whether dead or living, all of those who are counted worthy to obtain salvation, which in fact IS the resurrection of the dead; will have the same experience, and that is what I would like to define here today. To get us started on that I will again quote the apostle Paul in the matter: "For our conversation [citizenship] is in heaven; from whence also we look for the Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ: 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" (Philip. 3:20,21). So when Jesus comes from heaven, those who are found in holiness, whether dead or living, will be 'changed' bodily to be like Jesus. That is what we just read. Now the word 'change' in that verse is from the Greek word 'met-askh-ay-mat-id'-zo,' and it literally means "to change the figure of, to transform." What this means is that the bodies of the dead who were faithful in their lives, will be literally raised and transformed into a 'glorious' body like Jesus has. Philippians 3:21 also says that we now possess a 'vile' body, and the word vile comes from the Greek word 'tap-i'-no-sis,' which is defined as "lowness, or low estate." Paul better explained that point in another place: "And as we have borne the image of the earthy, we shall also bear the image of the heavenly" (I Cor. 15:49).

So it's evident that our current body is of low estate, being earthly, but the transformation of our body at the Lord's coming will result in a body of high, or heavenly estate. It is very important to understand that our body will not be 'replaced' by another body, but rather our same earthly body will be raised and transformed by the coming of Jesus. We are also told in Philippians 3:21 which I have used as a text, that Jesus has a 'glorious' body, and that we will have a body like his. That brings me to the real point here, which is what it means to have a 'glorified' body. Jesus in his memorable prayer to his Father in John 17, said this: "And now, O Father, glorify thou me with thine own self with the glory which I had with thee before the world was" (Jn. 17:5). Let's remember here that Jesus left his glory in heaven to come here and become a man (Heb. 2:14,16,17). So it is evident that when Jesus went back to heaven he received the bodily 'glory' that he had before he left heaven. If our body is to be changed into a body "like unto his glorious body," then that means that our body will be glorified with the same glory that his body was glorified with upon returning to heaven. So the question is, exactly what is the 'glory' that Jesus was glorified with bodily when he left earth and went back to his Father? Well, as he said in his prayer, "glorify thou me with thine own self." This obviously means that Jesus was glorified with the glory of God, so what is the 'glory' of God? We can look directly to the scriptures for the simplistic answer: "Therefore we are buried with him by baptism into death: that like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life" (Rom. 6:4). So it was the Father's glory that brought Jesus back to life, and one more verse will tell us exactly what that glory is: "For Christ also hath once suffered for sins, the just for the unjust, that he might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh, but quickened [brought back to life] by the Spirit" (I Pet. 3:18). There it is, the 'glory' of God is the holy Ghost, or the Spirit that indwells him and makes him God. That is how the Father glorified Jesus with himself when he went back to heaven, because the Father has a holy Ghost comprised body. The Father's spirit is holy Spirit, and his body is of the same holy Spirit substance, howbeit in another form. The scripture tells us that "God is a Spirit," and we know that God is holy, so that means that God is comprised of holy Spirit; both in spirit and in body (Jn. 4:24; I Pet. 1:15,16). When Jesus returned to heaven God gave him back the same holy Ghost comprised body that he had before he left heaven, but now there was something different and unique about Jesus. Jesus came back to heaven with the body of a man, and that earthly body was changed, or transformed into a heavenly body.

Jesus did not LOSE his earthly body when he went back to heaven, but rather it was changed into a heavenly form by the integration of the holy Ghost into his earthly body. What that means is that there is no other being in all of existence like Jesus, who actually has a hybrid body consisting of both man and God. That is how Jesus can be our high priest and mediator, because he is still a man even as the scriptures states (I Tim. 2:5). He is also God because he was begotten directly of the Father and is comprised of the same substance that the Father is comprised of, which is holy Spirit (Jn. 1:1,14; I Tim. 3:16). So what this all means is that we will be changed bodily at the coming of the Lord, into a hybrid holy Ghost/earthly body like Jesus has. In saying that we will have "a body like unto his glorious body," is to say we will have a 'glorified' body, even as he was glorified by the Father when he went back to heaven. Whether we say 'glorious' or 'glorified,' we are still talking about the 'glory' of God, which is his Spirit. That is how we will have eternal life, because the same eternal "Spirit of life" that we have received into our spirits now, will also be received into our bodies when Jesus returns (Jn. 5:26; Rom. 8:2; Heb. 9:14). We have not lost our human spirit because we have received God's Spirit, and we will not lose our earthly body because we receive God's holy Spirit into it. As our spirit is now "joined to the Lord," so our body will also be joined to the Lord, completing the process of eternal life in us (I Cor. 6:17). This scriptural understanding also dispels the age old erroneous tradition known as 'the trinity, which claims that God's Spirit is a third person of the God family in heaven. It is not a person, but rather it is the very eternal substance that comprises God and his only begotten Son; and it is that same eternal life substance that Jesus came here to provide for us (Mk. 1:7,8; Jn. 5:26; Jn. 10:10; Rom. 8:2). And when he comes again he will provide that same eternal life substance for our bodies, and we will never again suffer damage in any way, or die. To sum up everything that has been stated here from the scriptures, I'll quote one more verse from the apostle Paul on this matter: "And if Christ be in you, the body is dead because of sin; but the Spirit is life because of righteousness. But if the Spirit of him that raised up Jesus from the dead dwell in you, he that raised up Christ from the dead shall also quicken [bring back to life] your mortal bodies BY HIS SPIRIT that dwelleth in you" (Rom. 8:10,11). Much more could be said, and many more scriptures could be used for even further confirmation, but I'll leave that for a book at some later point. But may we all have the testimony of Paul, who said in the same chapter that our text was taken from, "That I may know him, and the power of his resurrection, and the fellowship of his sufferings, being made conformable unto his death; If by any means I might attain unto the resurrection of the dead" (Philip. 3:10,11). That is the hope of the Gospel. Amen.