May 30 – LD 22, Day 3: The Resurrection of the Body

Read: I Corinthians 15:1-11

Many things will happen when our Lord Jesus Christ comes again at the end of time. Christ is seen in the heavens coming on the clouds, which He makes His chariot, and coming with the host of angels. He will, at the moment of his coming, be seen by all men.

This will indeed be a miracle, for we cannot imagine how, if the Lord is seen in the sky above Singapore, He can also be seen on the other side of the world in the States. But nevertheless, so it will be.

Further, when He comes not only will the bodies of God’s people be raised, but the people of God still on the earth will be changed (I Cor 15:51, 52). The bodies of all the wicked shall also be raised and those living will also be changed, but their bodies will be united with their souls that have been in hell and their bodies will be changed to exist in hell.

The last judgment will take place at that time. All men who ever lived will be gathered before the great white throne on which Christ sits, and all men will be judged. The righteous will be taken into heaven and the wicked cast into hell. New heavens and a new earth will be created, and we shall inherit this new creation.

What a day that will be!

But here, in Lord’s Day 22, our teacher wants us to think especially about the resurrection of our bodies.

Our bodies are important to us, but they are also important to God. When God created man, God formed him body and soul, and so, if for no other reason, our bodies are important because God created them. We are to take care of our bodies and the mutilation or endangering of our bodies is always a sin.

In the Old Testament times, respect for the bodies of those that died was characteristic of all the saints. Abraham bought a parcel of ground in Canaan for a burial place for Sarah; and in that grave, Abraham himself was buried, Isaac and Rebekah his wife were buried, and Jacob and his true wife, Leah, were buried. Burial is the way in which we show respect for our bodies.

But believers put the bodies of loved ones in the ground because they bury them in the hope of the resurrection. Paul talks, in I Cor 15:36-38 of a seed that cannot grow into a new plant until it is put into the ground. And so our bodies become new only by being planted in the earth.

And so God considers our bodies so important that he saves our bodies as well as our souls. Only the salvation of our bodies does not come about until the resurrection, for it must first be planted in the earth. But God will raise up our bodies at the coming of Christ.

Thus we are taught that our only comfort in life and in death, for body and soul, is that we belong to Jesus (See Lord’s Day 1).