Eastertide: The Body You Always Wanted
1 Corinthians 15:35-49
In the first century, in a culture that viewed physical death as the liberation of the soul, Christians believed something radically different. The physical body was not an empty shell to be disregarded but a valuable part of the person to be resurrected! This aspect of the Christian hope was under attack in Corinth and Paul argues vehemently against it. Why is the resurrection of the body so important? It turns out that the Biblical vision for the future of our bodies is far more beautiful than many people are led to believe. Embracing this vision can give us strength and hope to face not just the aches and pains of living in a broken world but terminal illness, injury, and even death itself.
“God’s purpose has never been simply that of ‘saving souls’ for a disembodied existence in heaven, as though creation itself was of merely temporal usefulness and significance… Physical, earthly, and bodily existence have to do with the nature of creation as God made it and, in a completely redeemed and transformed version, is part of the nature of the context and existence that God has in mind for us and the rest of creation throughout eternity. Our life in this world matters, in part, because it turns out to be not merely a waiting room in which we pass our time until being invited into the rest of the building where we will really live. Our life in this world establishes the starting chapters for a story that will continue and flourish in radically new ways (and not merely begin for the first time) upon the resurrection of the dead.” – Roy E. Ciampa and Brian S. Rosner
Prayer Point
Pray that your group and our church would lay hold of the beauty of the hope that we have through God’s promise to resurrect our bodies.