The Conditionalist Faith of Our Fathers, vol. 1

III. Glory of Our Immortalized Resurrection Bodies

1. RESURRECTION OF BODY INDISPENSABLE TO FUTURE LIFE

According to the New Testament, a bodily resurrection is indispensable to our future Immortality. Paul declares that without such a consummation of God’s redemptive purpose, “they also which are fallen asleep in Christ are perished” (1 Corinthians 15:16-18). There would be no restoration of the person. So the resurrection body is involved in the promised gift of immortal life, bestowed at the Advent. “This mortal must put on immortality” (1 Corinthians 15:53)—something it had not before possessed. It is a bodily resurrection that gives reality and substance to our forthcoming immortal life. (The thought of discarnate immortal souls is wholly un-Biblical. Shades, floating about in mystic aerial regions, are totally foreign to Holy Writ. Such a notion stems from Greek philosophy.) CFF1 476.4

The human personality requires a resurrection body as an instrument for further life, thought, and activity. That is an integral part of the change, or quickening (Romans 8:11) process, a resurrection-translation act of God, to take place at the Second Advent. The record is clear: “He which raised up the Lord Jesus shall raise up us also by Jesus” (2 Corinthians 4:14). His was an actual bodily resurrection, albeit with a glorified body. But this involves the quickening of our mortal bodies. And this too is imperative but conditional: CFF1 477.1

“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 [from zoopoieo, “to make alive,” “give life,” especially eternal life] your mortal bodies by his Spirit that dwelleth in you” (Romans 8:11). CFF1 477.2

This relationship between the present mortal body and the future glorified body is highly important. It is sown in “dishonour” and “weakness,” and raised in “glory” and “power” (1 Corinthians 15:43). Here is the inspired description: CFF1 477.3

“It [the body] is sown in corruption; it is raised in incorruption: ... it is sown a natural body; it is raised a spiritual body.” “To every seed his own body” (1 Corinthians 15:42-44, 38). CFF1 477.4

This latter expression cannot be overemphasized. Identity and personality will be preserved. CFF1 477.5

2. CONTINUITY OF IDENTITY AND PERSONALITY PRESERVED

This does not mean that the same identical particles of matter at the moment of death will reunite to form the same body in the resurrection. There is a progressive change of bodily structure throughout our present life. But the same essential organization is maintained in the provision of God, and the same personality is preserved without change. The body of the resurrection will maintain the same recognizable pattern and personality. CFF1 477.6

Even the identity of the same Rhine or Mississippi, the Nile, Hudson, or Amazon, remains despite the passage of thousands of years. Not a drop of water now flowing is identical with the river that flowed at the time of its discovery, yet it is the identical, recognizable river. This, of course, is a crude illustration, but it affords a suggestion. CFF1 478.1

Further, Paul’s reference to the body as the “seed,” suggests some sort of vital connection—the future counterpart and the seed from which it springs. There is identity, but not a physical connection in the sense that the stalk is built directly from the structure of the seed. “Thou sowest not that body that shall be, but bare grain” (1 Corinthians 15:37). There is continuing personal identity, the continuing core of personality. However, the death of the seed is involved—“That which thou sowest is not quickened, except it die” (1 Corinthians 15:36). Christ touches on this same thought: “Except a corn of wheat fall into the ground and die, it abideth alone: but if it die, it bringeth forth much fruit” (John 12:24). CFF1 478.2

Then comes His explanation: “He that loveth his life shall lose it; and he that hateth his life in this world shall keep it unto life eternal” (John 12:25). CFF1 478.3

As noted, though the physical form of man is constantly changing and being renewed throughout this life, he continues to be the same person—as the new materials are organized and integrated into the same continuing body. We are able to identify the child we knew with the man we now see. CFF1 478.4

3. RESURRECTION BODIES TO BE VASTLY DIFFERENT

As to the precise nature of the resurrection bodies—“How are the dead raised up? and with what body do they come?” (1 Corinthians 15:35)—the answer is not revealed. John says, “It doth not yet appear what we shall be: but we know that, when he shall appear, we shall be like him” (1 John 3:2). There were quibblers in apostolic days as in ours. These Paul rebuked. ¹⁰ CFF1 478.5

Whatever the exact connection between our present mortal bodies and our resurrection bodies, we know that they will be vastly different. There will be a tremendous “change” (1 Corinthians 15:51, 52), as Paul twice emphasizes. All infirmities and defects and earthly limitations will vanish. In Old Testament times job was waiting until his “change” should come (Job 14:14). CFF1 479.1

As stated, the precise nature of that change has not been revealed. It is beyond our present knowledge and comprehension. It is a “spiritual body” in contrast with our present “natural body.” Paul compares it with a bare kernel of wheat planted in the ground and the sturdy stalk that comes from it. In the glory of the resurrection body the contrast is between mortality and corruption, and Immortality and incorruption. Christ’s risen body, with its exemption from the previous laws of time, space, and movement, suggests the nature of the change, or contrast. But we must leave it there. CFF1 479.2

4. “SPIRITUAL BODIES” PERFECTLY ADAPTED TO RESURRECTION LIFE

Paul assures us that Christ will “fashion anew the body of our humiliation, that it may be conformed to the body of his glory” (Philippians 3:21, A.R.V.). He presses on the tremendous “change” (1 Corinthians 15:50, 51) that will take place, and compares our present and future bodies as being that of “bodies terrestrial” and “celestial bodies” (1 Corinthians 15:40). He makes the contrast between the pale, dim “glory of the moon” and the brilliant, vitalizing “glory of the sun” (1 Corinthians 15:41). And he adds, “So also is the resurrection of the dead” (1 Corinthians 15:42). CFF1 479.3

He contrasts the “image of the earthy” with the “image of the heavenly,” and the “bare grain” with the “body that shall be” (1 Corinthians 15:37-49). The contrast is between “dishonour” and “glory,” and “weakness” and “power.” Paul categorically declares, “There is a natural body [for this life], and there is a spiritual body” (1 Corinthians 15:44), for the life to come. “As we have borne the image of the earthy, we shall also bear the image of the heavenly” (1 Corinthians 15:49). He does not define or explain the spiritual body. But this we do know: This present, earthly “flesh and blood” body “cannot inherit the kingdom of God” (1 Corinthians 15:50), any more than corruption can “inherit” incorruption. CFF1 479.4

Of this we may be sure: The “spiritual body” will be perfectly adapted to the plane of the resurrection or immortal life to come. And the earthly limitations of corruption and mortality will be put off forever. And what we “put on” is a “building of God, an house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens” (2 Corinthians 5:1). That is the source of the resurrection body, and its glorified character. Death and disintegration will be vanquished forevermore. And all this is through Christ Jesus. For “when Christ, who is our life, shall appear, then shall ye also appear with him in glory” (Colossians 3:4). CFF1 480.1