WHAT WILL BE THE NATURE OF THE GLORIFIED,
RESURRECTED BODY THAT BELIEVERS
WILL RECEIVE AT THE RAPTURE?
What does the Bible mean when it says that we will be resurrected?
· What does it mean to be resurrected?
· What does it mean to become glorified?
· Have some already been resurrected? Who?
· Who is resurrected? What about unbelievers?
· When do these resurrections take place?
· Why should we believe this will actually take place?
· What does the Bible mean when it says that we will become like Jesus?
See Phil 3:10-11, 20-21, 1 Cor 15:20-23, 2 Cor 5:1-5, Rom 8:23, Rev 20:4-15 below.
What does the Bible mean when it says that believers will one day be like Jesus? What does it mean to become glorified?
· John 12 tells us that Jesus became “glorified.” When did this take place?
JOHN 12:16 At first his disciples did not understand all this. Only after Jesus was glorified did they realize that these things had been written about him and that they had done these things to him.
· Phil 3:21 uses “glorious” to describe Jesus’ resurrected body.
Phil 3:20-21 20 But our citizenship is in heaven. And we eagerly await a Savior from there, the Lord Jesus Christ, 21 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.
What did this word “glorified” mean in first century Greek?
One of the things it could mean was “to honor, to make glorious, adorn with luster, clothe with splendor.”
· John 12:23-26 tells us more about Jesus becoming glorified.
JOHN 12:23-26 23 Jesus replied, “The hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified. 24 I tell you the truth, unless a kernel of wheat falls to the ground and dies, it remains only a single seed. But if it dies, it produces many seeds. 25 The man who loves his life will lose it, while the man who hates his life in this world will keep it for eternal life. 26 Whoever serves me must follow me; and where I am, my servant also will be. My Father will HONOR the one who serves me.
· What does this scripture say about what happens to us when we die?
· Does this passage say that everybody goes to the same place when they die?
· Who does it say will be glorified? Followers of Jesus will be “honored, glorified.”
· When, specifically was Jesus glorified? 1 Pet 1:21 gives us the answer. At his resurrection.
1 PET 1:21 21 Through him you believe in God, who raised him from the dead and glorified him, and so your faith and hope are in God.
One of our original questions was about believers becoming like Jesus. Since Jesus was glorified and we will one day become glorified this helps us understand how we will one day become like Jesus.
ROM 6:5 If we have been united with him like this in his death, we will certainly also be united with him in his resurrection.
· Are there other scriptures that confirm that we will one day become like Jesus?
PHIL 3:10-11, 20-21 10 I want to know Christ and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of sharing in his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, 11 and so, somehow, to attain to the resurrection from the dead.
20 But our citizenship is in heaven. And we eagerly await a Savior from there, the Lord Jesus Christ, 21 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.
1 JOHN 3:2 Dear friends, now we are children of God, and what we will be has not yet been made known. But we know that when he appears, we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is.
1 COR 15:20-23 20 But Christ has indeed been raised from the dead, the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep. 21 For since death came through a man, the resurrection of the dead comes also through a man. 22 For as in Adam all die, so in Christ all will be made alive. 23 But each in his own turn: Christ, the firstfruits; then, when he comes, those who belong to him.
· If we become like Jesus when we receive our glorified bodies, what will our relationship be to the Father?
When we receive our glorified bodies at the rapture we are at that time adopted as sons of God, as children of God. Romans 8:23-25 tells us this.
ROM 8:23-25 23 Not only so, but we ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for our adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies. 24 For in this hope we were saved. But hope that is seen is no hope at all. Who hopes for what he already has? 25 But if we hope for what we do not yet have, we wait for it patiently.
· If we are children of God does that also imply that we will be heirs of God? Rom 8:17 tells us that is the case.
Rom 8:17 Now if we are children, then we are heirs—heirs of God and co-heirs with Christ, if indeed we share in his sufferings in order that we may also share in his glory.
· If we are heirs of God when will we receive our inheritance?
At the judgment seat of Christ, which apparently takes place soon after the rapture. See 2 Cor 5:10, Matt 16:27, 1 Cor 3:8-15, Rom 8:17, Eph 3:6, Titus 3:7.
Are there scriptures that tell us the characteristics of the glorified resurrected body? If so what are they?
It will be like Jesus body, it will be imperishable, glorious, powerful, and spiritual. It will also be immortal. There will no longer be any death. It will have flesh and bones, but apparently no blood. Obviously it will run on a very different type of energy source. There will be no marriage in this new order, no children will be born.
1 COR 15:35-54 35 But someone may ask, “How are the dead raised? With what kind of body will they come?” 36 How foolish! What you sow does not come to life unless it dies. 37 When you sow, you do not plant the body that will be, but just a seed, perhaps of wheat or of something else. 38 But God gives it a body as he has determined, and to each kind of seed he gives its own body. 39 All flesh is not the same: Men have one kind of flesh, animals have another, birds another and fish another. 40 There are also heavenly bodies and there are earthly bodies; but the splendor of the heavenly bodies is one kind, and the splendor of the earthly bodies is another. 41 The sun has one kind of splendor, the moon another and the stars another; and star differs from star in splendor.
42 So will it be with the resurrection of the dead. The body that is sown is perishable, it is raised imperishable; 43 it is sown in dishonor, it is raised in glory; it is sown in weakness, it is raised in power; 44 it is sown a natural body, it is raised a spiritual body.
If there is a natural body, there is also a spiritual body. 45 So it is written: “The first man Adam became a living being”; the last Adam, a life-giving spirit. 46 The spiritual did not come first, but the natural, and after that the spiritual. 47 The first man was of the dust of the earth, the second man from heaven. 48 As was the earthly man, so are those who are of the earth; and as is the man from heaven, so also are those who are of heaven. 49 And just as we have borne the likeness of the earthly man, so shall we bear the likeness of the man from heaven.
50 I declare to you, brothers, that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God, nor does the perishable inherit the imperishable. 51 Listen, I tell you a mystery: We will not all sleep, but we will all be changed— 52 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. 53 For the perishable must clothe itself with the imperishable, and the mortal with immortality. 54 When the perishable has been clothed with the imperishable, and the mortal with immortality, then the saying that is written will come true: “Death has been swallowed up in victory
LUKE 24:39 39 Look at my hands and my feet. It is I myself! Touch me and see; a ghost does not have flesh and bones, as you see I have.”
Taken with 1 Cor 15:50 from above we can see that the resurrected body has flesh and bones but no blood. The resurrected body runs on a very different type of energy source.
LUKE 20:34-36 34 Jesus replied, “The people of this age marry and are given in marriage. 35 But those who are considered worthy of taking part in that age and in the resurrection from the deadwill neither marry nor be given in marriage, 36 and they can no longer die; for they are like the angels. They are God’s children, since they are children of the resurrection
The new dwelling that will house our spirit can obviously dwell in both heaven and on earth, both in spiritual and physical realms. We see in the scripture below that it is a heavenly dwelling, so it can obviously function in a spiritual realm. We also know that the new dwelling has flesh and bones as we saw above. We also know that Jesus could function on the physical earth in his new dwelling after his resurrection. We also know from the gospel accounts that Jesus could eat and generally function as a physical being in his glorious body, but that he also could suddenly disappear and reappear in a room behind locked doors. Likewise, we should be able to do the same, function both in spiritual and physical domains. In fact Revelation 21-22 tells us that after the final judgments we will then live with God forever in a new heaven and on a new earth. We will likely live in both at the same time, in a unified physical and spiritual domain. Rev 21 tells us that it will be a new order.
2 Cor 5:1-5 tells us something very startling. It says that glorified resurrected body is tied in to the very purpose for which we were created? Please explain what this means?
2 COR 5:1-5 Now we know that if the earthly tent we live in is destroyed, we have a building from God, an eternal house in heaven, not built by human hands. 2 Meanwhile we groan, longing to be clothed with our heavenly dwelling, 3 because when we are clothed, we will not be found naked. 4 For while we are in this tent, we groan and are burdened, because we do not wish to be unclothed but to be clothed with our heavenly dwelling, so that what is mortal may be swallowed up by life. 5 Now it is God who has made us for this very purpose and has given us the Spirit as a deposit, guaranteeing what is to come.
Note that the above scripture says that we were made for this very purpose, namely to one day to be able to live with God. We will only be able to live with him in the new heaven and on the new earth if we have our glorified bodies. We will also reign with Christ in our glorified bodies for 1000 years on the present earth.
REV 20:4-6 I saw thrones on which were seated those who had been given authority to judge. And I saw the souls of those who had been beheaded because of their testimony for Jesus and because of the word of God. They had not worshiped the beast or his image and had not received his mark on their foreheads or their hands. They came to life and reigned with Christ a thousand years. 5 (The rest of the dead did not come to life until the thousand years were ended.) This is the first resurrection. 6 Blessed and holy are those who have part in the first resurrection. The second death has no power over them, but they will be priests of God and of Christ and will reign with him for a thousand years.
Does God consider knowledge of the glorified body and resurrection from the dead to be important? How important?
Heb 6:1-3 tells us that there were six elementary teachings in the early church. Teachings about the resurrection of the dead was one of these. Wonder why that is not the case in the church of our day.
HEB 6:1-3 Therefore let us leave the elementary teachings about Christ and go on to maturity, not laying again the foundation of repentance from acts that lead to death, and of faith in God, 2 instruction about baptisms, the laying on of hands, the resurrection of the dead, and eternal judgment. 3 And God permitting, we will do so.