Resurrection Changes

When Adam sinned, he opened Pandora’s box, unleashing a great many problems on humanity, including a myriad of physical and mental health problems, a rebellious attitude, and a propensity for evil.  Every human being struggles with those things, from the most devoted Christian to the most rabid atheist, and years of study of medicine, psychology, economics or politics have done little to alleviate the problems.  People still die of even the oldest diseases, they still end up starving or homeless, have mental breakdowns, commit murders and other crimes, and fight wars just as they always have.  The study of history shows repeated efforts by every culture in the world to resolve these problems, all of which ultimately failed as people became complacent, thinking they had eliminated the problems. 

The wonderful promise of Christianity is that we are not doomed to live in this state forever.  Philippians 3:20-21 tells us, “For our conversation is in heaven; from whence also we look for the Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ: Who shall change our vile body, that it may be fashioned like unto his glorious body, according to the working whereby he is able even to subdue all things unto himself.”  This life is kind of like the time a baby spends in the mother’s womb, growing and developing so as to be prepared to live in the outside world.  While he was alive in the womb. The baby’s life really begins at birth.  In the same way, While a Christian lives here on earth, his real life is the life in eternity with God.    In receiving that new life, our present body will be changed, eliminating the problems and struggles we have faced here on earth, just as birth frees the baby from many of the constraints he had in the womb. 

Just as the unborn baby has no real understanding of what life is like after birth, we have no real understanding of what our life will be like after we are changed.  Paul addresses this point in I Corinthians 15:35-49.  “But some man will say, How are the dead raised up? and with what body do they come?  Thou fool, that which thou sowest is not quickened, except it die: And that which thou sowest, thou sowest not that body that shall be, but bare grain, it may chance of wheat, or of some other grain: But God giveth it a body as it hath pleased him, and to every seed his own body.

All flesh is not the same flesh: but there is one kind of flesh of men, another flesh of beasts, another of fishes, and another of birds.  There are also celestial bodies, and bodies terrestrial: but the glory of the celestial is one, and the glory of the terrestrial is another.  There is one glory of the sun, and another glory of the moon, and another glory of the stars: for one star differeth from another star in glory.  So also is the resurrection of the dead. It is sown in corruption; it is raised in incorruption: It is sown in dishonour; 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. There is a natural body, and there is a spiritual body.

And so it is written, The first man Adam was made a living soul; the last Adam was made a quickening spirit.  Howbeit that was not first which is spiritual, but that which is natural; and afterward that which is spiritual.  The first man is of the earth, earthy: the second man is the Lord from heaven.  As is the earthy, such are they also that are earthy: and as is the heavenly, such are they also that are heavenly.  And as we have borne the image of the earthy, we shall also bear the image of the heavenly.”

In the womb, the baby is dependent on its mother to eat and breathe for it and to get rid of waste.  When he is born, he has to begin to breathe for himself and eat for himself.  His life becomes dependent on his own actions and he becomes an independent person, able to make decisions for himself instead of being limited to what his mother does.  He begins to copy and act like those around him rather than the infant in the womb.  While the changes began in the womb, birth causes an immediate change, just as the resurrection will cause immediate changes in us.