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THE BELIEVER AND HIS PHYSICAL BODY IN THE FUTURE LIFE
Greek philosophy tried in vain to pierce the unseen world, both that of the present and the future. The Bible, since it is God’s Word, does for the human race that which the philosophers of Athens were not able to do. It pierces into the future life, and tells us what the believer’s physical body will be like at that time.
VII. The Believer and His Physical Body in the Future Life
Salvation has in it, not only a provision for the standing of a person before God’s holy law, and a provision for his present life on earth in relation to sin and righteousness, but it provides for his physical body after death. The first provision we know as justification, the act of God removing the guilt and penalty of sin from the believing sinner, and bestowing a positive righteousness in which the Christian stands uncondemned, guiltless, and righteous before God’s law for time and eternity. This is a judicial matter. The second provision is known as sanctification, the act of God breaking the power of indwelling sin and implanting the divine nature, also giving the believer the Holy Spirit as a permanent indweller, which act is followed by a continuous process in which sin is eliminated from the life of the Christian and righteousness produced in its place by the Holy Spirit, as the believer cooperates with Him in this work. The third provision is glorification, the act of God transforming the physical body of the believer for the eternity which is to come. Of this we wish to speak now.
There are four changes which will take place in the physical body of the believer. The first has to do with the activities of the body and of the person who possesses it. In I Corinthians 15:44 Paul informs us that our present body as constituted, is a natural body, and the future body, a spiritual one. The Greek word translated “natural” is psuchikos (ψυχικος). The word is defined by Souter in his lexicon as “the principle of life and the basis of its emotional aspect, animating the present body of flesh, in contrast to the higher life.” Moulton and Milligan in their Vocabulary of the Greek Testament give the usage of the word in a secular document in the phrase, “My human natural powers.” The noun psuchē (ψυχη) (soul) is defined by them as “the seat of the feelings and desires.” They give examples of its use in the following: “He also persisted in vexing my soul about his slave Antilla;” “while my soul is tempest-tossed;” “I exhort you, my lord, not to put grief into your soul and ruin your fortunes.” It is used in a letter of a Christian in a phrase which reflects the trichotomy of I Thessalonians 5:23 in the words, “to our God and gracious Saviour and to His beloved Son, that they all may succour our body, soul, and spirit;” also in the clause, “who changed her mind, left the mill, and departed, persuaded by her father.” From the above one can construct his own definition of the word psuchē (ψυχη). It is that part of man that knows, reasons, wills, desires, and feels. It refers to the will, the emotions, and the reason. Thus, a physical body that is a natural (psuchikos (ψυχικος)) body is one which is adapted to a life in which the activities of the will, the emotions, and the reason predominate in the sense that these occupy the larger part of the person’s world, the things of time and place, the things of human life as it is lived on this earth.
But the body the believer will have after death is a spiritual body. The Greek word is pneumatikos (πνευματικος). Thayer defines this word as “that part of man which is akin to God, and serves as His instrument or organ.” It is that part of man which gives him God-consciousness. In this sense the animal creation does not have a pneuma (πνευμα) or spirit. With the physical body, man has world-consciousness, with the soul he has self-consciousness, and with the spirit he has God-consciousness. With the spirit, man has to do with the things of God. He worships God by means of his human spirit, that is, when that spirit is energized by the Holy Spirit. He serves God in the same way. The present body is so constituted that it is the efficient organ of the soul. The future physical body will be so adjusted that it will be the efficient organ of the spirit. In this present life most of our time and activity has to do with the things of time and space, making a living, with the creative arts, with recreation, with the material world. The human spirit, however, should be the determining factor as to the character of the soul life. Yet it is in active use but a small part of the time, when we worship God, study the Bible, pray, serve God in some distinctive service in which we are giving out the Word of God to those who do not know Him. But in the future life, conditions will be changed. Then the soul-life as we know it now, will be a thing of the past. We will be occupied entirely with God and His worship and service. Our bodies will then be adjusted to the new life. They will be changed so that they will be efficient instruments of the human spirit. Just what the nature of this change will be, the Bible does not say.
The second change which takes place in the physical body, is that it will be an incorruptible one, and thus, an immortal one. Paul says: “This corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal, must put on immortality” (I Cor. 15:53). This present body has death in it, disease, decay. It becomes tired and exhausted. It may have deformities. Parts of it may have been taken away through an accident or operation. The future physical body will have no death in it, no weakness, deformity, disease. The parts that have been removed, will be restored. What a blessed state that will be, to have a body which can never die, in which there will be no indwelling sinful nature, which will never become weary or exhausted, in which there will never be any pain.
The third change will have to do with the composition of the body. Our present body is made of flesh, blood, and bones. Its life principle is in the blood. Moses knew this latter fact and stated it over 3000 years before medical science discovered it. He said in Leviticus 17:11, “The life of the flesh is in the blood.” In our future physical body there will be a different life principle. The body will be devoid of blood, a body of flesh and bones. Paul in Philippians 3:21 speaks of the Lord Jesus “Who shall change our vile body, that it may be fashioned like unto His glorious body, according to the working whereby He is able to subdue all things unto Himself” (a.v.) An expanded translation here would give us the following: “Who shall change our humiliated body (that is, humiliated by the presence of sin and death), conforming it as to its outward expression to the body of His glory, according to the energy whereby He is able to marshall all things under Himself.” Our future body will be like that which our Lord possesses now. He tells something about His present physical body in His words in Luke 24:39. He said, “Behold my hands and my feet, that I am I myself. Handle me with a view to investigation and see; because a spirit does not have flesh and bones as you with critical, understanding sight see that I have.”
Those words tell us some interesting things about our Lord’s body. There were the marks of the nails of the crucifixion still in His hands and feet, left there, even though His resurrection body was perfect, for purposes of identification. The body our Lord had after His resurrection, was the same body He had previous to the Cross, and in which He died. We will possess the same body in the future life which we have now, except changed. Since that is true, we will have the same facial expression, however, with all the sin-wrinkles ironed out. Since that is true, we will know each other in the future life.
Second, our Lord’s body was a solid, physical body. The disciples handled His body with their hands, depending upon what their sense of touch would tell them as to its reality and composition. John says in his first epistle, “That which we handled with a view to investigation” (1:1). He uses the same Greek word Luke uses to report our Lord’s words. It was therefore a body that would respond to the sense of touch, a body made of solid material. Our bodies will be like that.
Third, it was a body made up of flesh and bones, but changed in composition. Our future bodies will be made of flesh and bones, the same flesh and bones we have now, but changed as to composition.
Fourth, it was a body without blood. If our Lord’s resurrection body had had blood, He would have mentioned that fact when He spoke of flesh and bones. His precious blood had all run out from a heart pierced by the spear of the Roman soldier. It paid the penalty for your sins and mine. Peter tells us we Christians were redeemed with the precious blood of Christ. Since our Lord’s resurrection body did not have any blood in it, it must have had a new life principle animating it. Our future bodies will have a new life principle in them.
Fifth, our Lord in His physical body of flesh and bones went through the stone wall of the building in which the disciples were meeting. The doors of the room were closed. We will be capable of the same thing also. He had new powers of locomotion. He could make Himself visible or invisible at will. He was here one minute and in another place, the next. So will it be with us in the future life.
Finally, our Lord’s resurrection body needed no clothing for a covering, but had a covering which was produced from within. Our Lord’s body after the resurrection was not covered with clothing. The only clothes He had at the time of His death, were taken away from Him. His grave clothes He left in the sepulchre of Joseph. He emerged through the stone walls of the resurrection tomb clad in a new covering for His body that was produced from within. All this is given us in the Greek word Paul uses in the above scripture, translated “fashioned.” It is the word morphē (μορφη), which refers to an outward expression which is not put on from without, but one that comes from within and which is a true representative of one’s inner nature. This, in the case of our Lord, was a glory covering, an enswathement of glory which covered His resurrection body. On the Mount of Transfiguration, our Lord’s face and clothing shone with a radiance that came from within. A radiance similar to this, was the covering of His body after the resurrection.
It has always been God’s plan for His creatures to cover themselves with a covering produced from within. Adam and Eve covered their bodies with an enswathement of glory which was produced from within their beings. When they sinned, they lost the power to produce such a covering from within. To cover their naked bodies which now had sin and death in them, they made clothing for themselves. Birds cover themselves with beautiful plumage which is produced from within. Animals cover themselves with fur which is produced from within. Thus, in the life to come, believers will cover their bodies with an enswathement of glory, a light covering, which will be produced from within.
Now, to gather together our information regarding the future body of the believer. It will be a body adapted to a spiritual life in which all one’s time and activity have to do with God, His worship and service. It will be a body which will be incorruptible and immortal. It will be a body of flesh and bones, but no blood. This body will have a new life principle animating it. It will be a body, the covering of which will be produced from within.
Kenneth S. Wuest, Wuest’s Word Studies from the Greek New Testament: For the English Reader, vol. 22 (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1997), 143–152.
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