Transformed bodies! - Ruminating in the Word of God

The Lord is awe-inspiring, fearsome, fascinating, intriguing, majestic, and full of splendor: breathtaking! Here is what I saw of him and what came to my mind and heart in Philippians 3:20-21,

"Our citizenship is in heaven. And we eagerly await a Savior from there, the Lord Jesus Christ, who, by the power that enables him to bring everything under his control, will transform our lowly bodies so that they will be like his glorious body."

Paul tells us that since we are citizens of heaven, we await our Savior from there. Reminding us of the power he has within himself, the power to bring everything under control, he will transform these very bodies that we currently have to be "like his glorious body." What a fascinating thought! The make up of the body Jesus Christ deems suitable for himself will be the very likeness, form, design our current bodies will transform into when he comes for us! The wonderful transformation our bodies make will be for all eternity, never to experience aging, illness, infirmity or death. I wonder if I will be bald in heaven?

Paul speaks at length about this in 1 Corinthians 15. In verse 35 he poses a question, "But someone will ask, 'How are the dead raised? With what kind of body will they come?'". He goes on to describe our new bodies, what they will be like, "The body that is sown is perishable, it is raised imperishable;  it is sown in dishonor, it is raised in glory; it is sown in weakness, it is raised in power; it is sown a natural body, it is raised a spiritual body." Verses 42-44. Unlike Adam, he says, "just as we have borne the image of the earthly man... ", our resurrected bodies will bear the image of Jesus Christ, "so shall we bear the image of the heavenly man." Verses 49.

Paul goes on to make a wonderful statement, "Listen, I tell you a mystery: We will not all sleep, but we will all be changed— in a flash, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, the dead will be raised imperishable, and we will be changed. For the perishable must clothe itself with the imperishable, and the mortal with immortality." Verses 51-53. In a similar comment to the church in Thessalonica he said, " According to the Lord's word, we tell you that we who are still alive, who are left until the coming of the Lord, will certainly not precede those who have fallen asleep. For the Lord himself will come down from heaven, with a loud command, with the voice of the archangel and with the trumpet call of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first. After that, we who are still alive and are left will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And so we will be with the Lord forever. Therefore encourage one another with these words." 1 Thessalonians 4:15-18.

Focusing on these verses provides me all I need to follow Paul's admonition to the Philippians, "Rejoice in the Lord always. I will say it again: Rejoice!" Philippians 4:4. How can we know these things and not rejoice?!

 

Anything of the Lord capture your heart from Scripture today? Share what moved you about him from your Bible reading today. I'd love to hear from you!

 

Trevor Fisk

trevor.fisk@gmail.com