Our 'form' in the resurrection
Jan 9, 2014 7:39:14 GMT
Post by Colossians on Jan 9, 2014 7:39:14 GMT
This material is for the teaching of the Body of Christ, however the author reserves copyright over it.
Forward
The subject of the resurrection stands along side that of the law vs grace as the most difficult in theology.
The common (and erroneous) ‘understanding’ of the resurrection is that our current bodies will be enhanced into some sort of super body.
But below we show, via exposition of the most comprehensive passage in scripture on the resurrection, that such idea is rather antithetical to the gospel of Jesus Christ, and born of carnal thinking.
____________________________________________________________
OUR 'FORM' IN THE RESURRECTION: EXPOSITION OF 2 COR 4:18 – 2 COR 5:1-10,16
2 Corinthians 4
[18] “While we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen: for the things which are seen are temporal; but the things which are not seen are eternal.”
Here we are told that things which are physical (able to be seen) are not eternal. Thus we understand that our eternal state will not be physical.
We are also told that we can ‘see’ the things which are invisible (“we look at the things which are not seen”). This means that our spirit, by the power of God, can ‘behold’ Him who is the Truth. This is the spiritual parallel of our physical sight, and is far more glorious. It is the ‘sight’ we shall have in the afterlife.
So this verse is the foundation of that which follows.
2 Corinthians 5
[1] “For we know that if our earthly house of this tabernacle were dissolved, we have a building of God, an house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens”
Note that this verse begins with “For” (“because”) and therefore links most directly to what we have been told in the previous verse. It in fact confirms our rendering of the previous verse: our permanent house is now in heaven and will always be in heaven, and will replace that which is seen, our earthly house, our physical bodies.
Paul uses an “if” statement here not to suggest an ultimate contingency, but simply to relate: “if this were to occur right now”. This is confirmed by the apodosis: it does not say “then (i.e. in such case) we shall have a building of God” (we will only have a building of God if our earthly tabernacle is in fact eventually dissolved), but “we (presently) have a building of God, eternal in the heavens”.
So the protasis constitutes not an “if this ever happens”, which would be pointless to put to paper, but rather, an “if this were to happen right now”.
[2] “For in this we groan, earnestly desiring to be clothed upon with our house which is from heaven”
Here we are reminded that we are not at home, not ultimately happy, in our temporal house of flesh. And we are reminded that our new house is from heaven. (Keep in mind our having been told in the preceding verse that as well as being from heaven, in heaven it will always be.)
Now it is important to understand here that our dissatisfaction with our current housing lies not in the fact that we get coughs and colds and arthritis! Rather, we are not ultimately happy here because, as we are told a little later, while we are present in the body, we are absent from the Lord. For He is our only real joy. And there is also the never ending problem of the flesh’s warring against the spirit.
And we note here the introduction of the notion of being “clothed”, which is integral to the passage from here on.
[3] “If so be that being clothed we shall not be found naked”
This verse is entirely misunderstood by many, including multiple bible versions, the writers of which having rendered it to be declaring that we won’t be spirits without bodies, in so doing (eisegetically) importing to the passage their desire to remain physical in the afterlife.
Thus the Amplified Bible's errant:
“So that by putting it on we may not be found naked – without a body”.
But rather, the true meaning is seen as we focus on Jesus:
At Rev 3:18 Jesus counsels the luke-warm church at Laodicea to “buy of me gold tried in the fire, that thou mayest be rich; and white raiment, that thou mayest be clothed, and that the shame of thy nakedness do not appear; and anoint thine eyes with eyesalve, that thou mayest see”.
And so Paul also declares elsewhere:
“But put ye on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the flesh, to fulfil the lusts thereof” Rom 13:14
and again:
“For as many of you have been baptised into Christ have put on Christ” Gal 3:27 .
And so we see that the clothing of God is qualitative in nature rather than quantitative/corporeal, and speaks to righteousness. This statement at 2 Cor 5:3 then has nothing to do with whether or not we will have physical bodies, but is rather an adjuration that we stand fast in the faith so that, when it comes to being further clothed with the glory of Christ, such further clothes will in fact be waiting for us!
[4] “For we that are in this tabernacle do groan, being burdened: not for that we would be unclothed, but clothed upon
In line with what we have pointed out thus far, Paul is not here indicating, as most think, that we will retain the corporeal, but rather and to the contrary simply declares the coming dissolution of the corporeal (as per v1) relatively insignificant in light of our ultimate desire: he is saying that our groaning is not so much for the part of the final process that will consist of our being unclothed of the physical, but for the part of the final process that will consist of our being clothed with Christ without limitation.
That is, this "clothed" refers not to the same type of clothing to which this "unclothed" refers, but rather and in manner reminiscent of Shakespeare, Paul pivots on the ambiguity inherent in the fact that, unless specified, clothing can refer to either physical or spiritual things, so that he might then maximally impact the reader by shifting from a physically-referencing "unclothed" to a spiritually-referencing "clothed" without notice.
So this being “clothed upon” is not in reference to any clothing over the top of and enhancing our current corporeal tabernacle – which rendering is (also) excluded by 1 Cor 15’s “neither doth corruption inherit incorruption” – but in reference to the clothing of our spirit which lives within our current tabernacle with an unlimited measure of Christ, and which will in turn render our outer tabernacle completely redundant.
For it is we that are “in[(side)]” this tabernacle that do groan, and we know that the outer tabernacle plays no part in the inner man’s yearning for Christ.
that mortality might be swallowed up of life”
And so we are told that our full complement of the clothing of Christ will “swallow up” mortality.
The problem here is that, in line with the errant renderings we have mentioned thus far, most read this “swallow[ ] up” in a literal sense: they take it to imply some sort of transaction which transforms our physical body to some sort of super-body; but the term is simply metaphorical, and speaks to the fact that our physical bodies will be supplanted by the spiritual, and that by reason of the redundancy of the former.1
And so we find from Peter:
"Knowing that shortly I must put off this my tabernacle, even as our Lord Jesus Christ hath shewed me" 2 Pe 1:14
with implication that such would be his final state.
So although as human beings we naturally think in terms of physical form, such will in fact not be the case in the resurrection. Rather, we shall become like Him because, as we are told by John, “we shall see Him as He really is” (1 John 3:2). That is, just as our inner man is renewed day by day as the Holy Spirit reveals Christ to us (2 Cor 4:16), the same will happen to the consummate level when the Lord is finally revealed to us without limitation.
And so in the afterlife we will simply be spirits clothed with the full complement of Christ.
1 Commensurately we are told at 1 Cor 15:51 that we “shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed”, the point being that those who have already gone to be with the Lord will experience the same change as those who are alive at His coming and that therefore the change is not that which transforms our outer man, for the outer man of those who have gone to be with the Lord many centuries ago simply no longer exists so that it might be changed.
One might then ask: "How is it that those who have gone to be with the Lord require any change at all then? Are they not already clothed with Christ?". And the answer to this is that, from a non-temporal viewpoint (which is the eternal viewpoint, for there is no time in the eternal realm), those who go to be with the Lord enter directly into His presence, but from the viewpoint of us who are still in time, they are still asleep.
[5] “Now He that hath wrought for us the self-same thing is God, who also hath given unto us the earnest of the Spirit”
Here we are reminded that the person who has worked for us this system/manner of redemption is God, and that He has accordingly also given us the earnest of the Spirit. This “earnest” is an old word which roughly means “a preliminary deposit” or “a foretaste”. Such foretaste is in accord with our being now only partially clothed (not fully in the realisation of the righteousness of Christ), and therefore also in accord with the fact that what is to come which will complete our ‘quota’ of the Spirit will necessarily be of spirit and not of flesh.
[6] “Therefore we are always confident, knowing that, whilst we are at home in the body, we are absent from the Lord:”
This verse sums up the purpose of the discourse concisely: we are told most specifically in plain language (without metaphors like ‘clothing’ and ‘tabernacle’) that our groaning, in conjunction with the deposit of the Spirit given us, provides for us the confident understanding that our being in the flesh is commensurate with our being absent from the Lord.
And so Paul’s dilemma:
“According to my earnest expectation and my hope, that in nothing I shall be ashamed, but that with all boldness, as always, so now also Christ shall be magnified in my body, whether it be by life, or by death. For me to live is Christ, and to die is gain.
But if I live in the flesh [(if I continue to remain physically alive)], this is the fruit of my labour; yet what I shall choose I wot not. For I am in a strait betwixt two, having a desire to depart, and to be with Christ; which is far better. Nevertheless to abide in the flesh is more needful for you” Phil 1:20-24.
[7] “(For we walk by faith, not by sight: )”
Verse 7 here simply shows us that our being in the flesh facilitates the need for faith, and we therefore declare that therein lies the one and only utility of the flesh with regard to the kingdom of God. And from this we derive that faith is important to God, otherwise He would not have placed us in a situation which prohibits our being in His presence.
Even though the disciples walked with Christ, they needed faith to believe who He was. The passage we are expounding tells us why: they were in the body. Thus because we are also here told by implication that faith will not be necessary in the afterlife, we irresistibly confirm that we will not be in the body in the afterlife.
[8] “We are confident, I say, and willing rather to be absent from the body, and to be present with the Lord”
Here Paul confirms our rendering, affirming that, despite the utility toward the glory of God that this system of faith provides, we’d rather have the real thing: we’d rather be out of this tabernacle which prohibits the direct and perpetual pleasure of the Lord’s presence, and so to be forevermore.
Accordingly the sense of this “absent from the body” is no mere “temporarily absent - to return later”, but a decided “gone forever”.
[9] “Wherefore we labour, that, whether present or absent, we may be accepted of Him.”
Here we are told that, for the aforementioned reasons, we work in the Lord to the end that, whether we are still in the flesh or departed from it, we may be acceptable to Him.
This statement is of course poetic in nature: Paul is not declaring that, having gone to be with the Lord we will still need to work out our salvation, but rather, expresses the degree of our passion for Him, to wit, “we don’t care where we are or what we are, we want to be acceptable to Him”.
[10] “For we must all appear before the judgement seat of Christ; that every one may receive the things done in his body, according to that he hath done, whether it be good or bad.”
Paul reminds us here of two things:
a) The seriousness of the whole thing (judgement is coming).
b) When we stand before the throne, we shall not be in our physical bodies anymore, but rather, will receive our rewards according to what we did when we were in our physical bodies.
[16] “Wherefore henceforth know we no man after the flesh: yea, though we have known Christ after the flesh, yet now henceforth know we Him no more [after the flesh]”
We jump a few tangential verses now and proceed to our final verse.
Here we are told that we are not to esteem people according to the principles of the flesh, whether with regard to their outward appearance and status in life, or our own impure motives which might attach to such.
And we are reminded that the impetus for such consists of the fact that Christ is no longer in the flesh.
That is, we are here being taught that in Christ, one's form, and one's spiritual disposition, will ultimately come together as one in the afterlife.
So then:
“flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God; neither doth corruption inherit incorruption” 1 Cor 15:50.
Summary
"I am the resurrection" John 11:25
Amen.
Forward
The subject of the resurrection stands along side that of the law vs grace as the most difficult in theology.
The common (and erroneous) ‘understanding’ of the resurrection is that our current bodies will be enhanced into some sort of super body.
But below we show, via exposition of the most comprehensive passage in scripture on the resurrection, that such idea is rather antithetical to the gospel of Jesus Christ, and born of carnal thinking.
____________________________________________________________
OUR 'FORM' IN THE RESURRECTION: EXPOSITION OF 2 COR 4:18 – 2 COR 5:1-10,16
2 Corinthians 4
[18] “While we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen: for the things which are seen are temporal; but the things which are not seen are eternal.”
Here we are told that things which are physical (able to be seen) are not eternal. Thus we understand that our eternal state will not be physical.
We are also told that we can ‘see’ the things which are invisible (“we look at the things which are not seen”). This means that our spirit, by the power of God, can ‘behold’ Him who is the Truth. This is the spiritual parallel of our physical sight, and is far more glorious. It is the ‘sight’ we shall have in the afterlife.
So this verse is the foundation of that which follows.
2 Corinthians 5
[1] “For we know that if our earthly house of this tabernacle were dissolved, we have a building of God, an house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens”
Note that this verse begins with “For” (“because”) and therefore links most directly to what we have been told in the previous verse. It in fact confirms our rendering of the previous verse: our permanent house is now in heaven and will always be in heaven, and will replace that which is seen, our earthly house, our physical bodies.
Paul uses an “if” statement here not to suggest an ultimate contingency, but simply to relate: “if this were to occur right now”. This is confirmed by the apodosis: it does not say “then (i.e. in such case) we shall have a building of God” (we will only have a building of God if our earthly tabernacle is in fact eventually dissolved), but “we (presently) have a building of God, eternal in the heavens”.
So the protasis constitutes not an “if this ever happens”, which would be pointless to put to paper, but rather, an “if this were to happen right now”.
[2] “For in this we groan, earnestly desiring to be clothed upon with our house which is from heaven”
Here we are reminded that we are not at home, not ultimately happy, in our temporal house of flesh. And we are reminded that our new house is from heaven. (Keep in mind our having been told in the preceding verse that as well as being from heaven, in heaven it will always be.)
Now it is important to understand here that our dissatisfaction with our current housing lies not in the fact that we get coughs and colds and arthritis! Rather, we are not ultimately happy here because, as we are told a little later, while we are present in the body, we are absent from the Lord. For He is our only real joy. And there is also the never ending problem of the flesh’s warring against the spirit.
And we note here the introduction of the notion of being “clothed”, which is integral to the passage from here on.
[3] “If so be that being clothed we shall not be found naked”
This verse is entirely misunderstood by many, including multiple bible versions, the writers of which having rendered it to be declaring that we won’t be spirits without bodies, in so doing (eisegetically) importing to the passage their desire to remain physical in the afterlife.
Thus the Amplified Bible's errant:
“So that by putting it on we may not be found naked – without a body”.
But rather, the true meaning is seen as we focus on Jesus:
At Rev 3:18 Jesus counsels the luke-warm church at Laodicea to “buy of me gold tried in the fire, that thou mayest be rich; and white raiment, that thou mayest be clothed, and that the shame of thy nakedness do not appear; and anoint thine eyes with eyesalve, that thou mayest see”.
And so Paul also declares elsewhere:
“But put ye on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the flesh, to fulfil the lusts thereof” Rom 13:14
and again:
“For as many of you have been baptised into Christ have put on Christ” Gal 3:27 .
And so we see that the clothing of God is qualitative in nature rather than quantitative/corporeal, and speaks to righteousness. This statement at 2 Cor 5:3 then has nothing to do with whether or not we will have physical bodies, but is rather an adjuration that we stand fast in the faith so that, when it comes to being further clothed with the glory of Christ, such further clothes will in fact be waiting for us!
[4] “For we that are in this tabernacle do groan, being burdened: not for that we would be unclothed, but clothed upon
In line with what we have pointed out thus far, Paul is not here indicating, as most think, that we will retain the corporeal, but rather and to the contrary simply declares the coming dissolution of the corporeal (as per v1) relatively insignificant in light of our ultimate desire: he is saying that our groaning is not so much for the part of the final process that will consist of our being unclothed of the physical, but for the part of the final process that will consist of our being clothed with Christ without limitation.
That is, this "clothed" refers not to the same type of clothing to which this "unclothed" refers, but rather and in manner reminiscent of Shakespeare, Paul pivots on the ambiguity inherent in the fact that, unless specified, clothing can refer to either physical or spiritual things, so that he might then maximally impact the reader by shifting from a physically-referencing "unclothed" to a spiritually-referencing "clothed" without notice.
So this being “clothed upon” is not in reference to any clothing over the top of and enhancing our current corporeal tabernacle – which rendering is (also) excluded by 1 Cor 15’s “neither doth corruption inherit incorruption” – but in reference to the clothing of our spirit which lives within our current tabernacle with an unlimited measure of Christ, and which will in turn render our outer tabernacle completely redundant.
For it is we that are “in[(side)]” this tabernacle that do groan, and we know that the outer tabernacle plays no part in the inner man’s yearning for Christ.
that mortality might be swallowed up of life”
And so we are told that our full complement of the clothing of Christ will “swallow up” mortality.
The problem here is that, in line with the errant renderings we have mentioned thus far, most read this “swallow[ ] up” in a literal sense: they take it to imply some sort of transaction which transforms our physical body to some sort of super-body; but the term is simply metaphorical, and speaks to the fact that our physical bodies will be supplanted by the spiritual, and that by reason of the redundancy of the former.1
And so we find from Peter:
"Knowing that shortly I must put off this my tabernacle, even as our Lord Jesus Christ hath shewed me" 2 Pe 1:14
with implication that such would be his final state.
So although as human beings we naturally think in terms of physical form, such will in fact not be the case in the resurrection. Rather, we shall become like Him because, as we are told by John, “we shall see Him as He really is” (1 John 3:2). That is, just as our inner man is renewed day by day as the Holy Spirit reveals Christ to us (2 Cor 4:16), the same will happen to the consummate level when the Lord is finally revealed to us without limitation.
And so in the afterlife we will simply be spirits clothed with the full complement of Christ.
1 Commensurately we are told at 1 Cor 15:51 that we “shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed”, the point being that those who have already gone to be with the Lord will experience the same change as those who are alive at His coming and that therefore the change is not that which transforms our outer man, for the outer man of those who have gone to be with the Lord many centuries ago simply no longer exists so that it might be changed.
One might then ask: "How is it that those who have gone to be with the Lord require any change at all then? Are they not already clothed with Christ?". And the answer to this is that, from a non-temporal viewpoint (which is the eternal viewpoint, for there is no time in the eternal realm), those who go to be with the Lord enter directly into His presence, but from the viewpoint of us who are still in time, they are still asleep.
[5] “Now He that hath wrought for us the self-same thing is God, who also hath given unto us the earnest of the Spirit”
Here we are reminded that the person who has worked for us this system/manner of redemption is God, and that He has accordingly also given us the earnest of the Spirit. This “earnest” is an old word which roughly means “a preliminary deposit” or “a foretaste”. Such foretaste is in accord with our being now only partially clothed (not fully in the realisation of the righteousness of Christ), and therefore also in accord with the fact that what is to come which will complete our ‘quota’ of the Spirit will necessarily be of spirit and not of flesh.
[6] “Therefore we are always confident, knowing that, whilst we are at home in the body, we are absent from the Lord:”
This verse sums up the purpose of the discourse concisely: we are told most specifically in plain language (without metaphors like ‘clothing’ and ‘tabernacle’) that our groaning, in conjunction with the deposit of the Spirit given us, provides for us the confident understanding that our being in the flesh is commensurate with our being absent from the Lord.
And so Paul’s dilemma:
“According to my earnest expectation and my hope, that in nothing I shall be ashamed, but that with all boldness, as always, so now also Christ shall be magnified in my body, whether it be by life, or by death. For me to live is Christ, and to die is gain.
But if I live in the flesh [(if I continue to remain physically alive)], this is the fruit of my labour; yet what I shall choose I wot not. For I am in a strait betwixt two, having a desire to depart, and to be with Christ; which is far better. Nevertheless to abide in the flesh is more needful for you” Phil 1:20-24.
[7] “(For we walk by faith, not by sight: )”
Verse 7 here simply shows us that our being in the flesh facilitates the need for faith, and we therefore declare that therein lies the one and only utility of the flesh with regard to the kingdom of God. And from this we derive that faith is important to God, otherwise He would not have placed us in a situation which prohibits our being in His presence.
Even though the disciples walked with Christ, they needed faith to believe who He was. The passage we are expounding tells us why: they were in the body. Thus because we are also here told by implication that faith will not be necessary in the afterlife, we irresistibly confirm that we will not be in the body in the afterlife.
[8] “We are confident, I say, and willing rather to be absent from the body, and to be present with the Lord”
Here Paul confirms our rendering, affirming that, despite the utility toward the glory of God that this system of faith provides, we’d rather have the real thing: we’d rather be out of this tabernacle which prohibits the direct and perpetual pleasure of the Lord’s presence, and so to be forevermore.
Accordingly the sense of this “absent from the body” is no mere “temporarily absent - to return later”, but a decided “gone forever”.
[9] “Wherefore we labour, that, whether present or absent, we may be accepted of Him.”
Here we are told that, for the aforementioned reasons, we work in the Lord to the end that, whether we are still in the flesh or departed from it, we may be acceptable to Him.
This statement is of course poetic in nature: Paul is not declaring that, having gone to be with the Lord we will still need to work out our salvation, but rather, expresses the degree of our passion for Him, to wit, “we don’t care where we are or what we are, we want to be acceptable to Him”.
[10] “For we must all appear before the judgement seat of Christ; that every one may receive the things done in his body, according to that he hath done, whether it be good or bad.”
Paul reminds us here of two things:
a) The seriousness of the whole thing (judgement is coming).
b) When we stand before the throne, we shall not be in our physical bodies anymore, but rather, will receive our rewards according to what we did when we were in our physical bodies.
[16] “Wherefore henceforth know we no man after the flesh: yea, though we have known Christ after the flesh, yet now henceforth know we Him no more [after the flesh]”
We jump a few tangential verses now and proceed to our final verse.
Here we are told that we are not to esteem people according to the principles of the flesh, whether with regard to their outward appearance and status in life, or our own impure motives which might attach to such.
And we are reminded that the impetus for such consists of the fact that Christ is no longer in the flesh.
That is, we are here being taught that in Christ, one's form, and one's spiritual disposition, will ultimately come together as one in the afterlife.
So then:
“flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God; neither doth corruption inherit incorruption” 1 Cor 15:50.
Summary
"I am the resurrection" John 11:25
Amen.