DEATH
FOR THE BELIEVER – An overview of 1 Corinthians 15
35 But someone will 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. When you plant a seed, it looks a certain way and you cannot imagine what the plant will be like. As it grows, it turns out completely different, like an acorn that becomes a huge oak tree……. It will be the same thing with your body when it dies. You are going to receive a resurrection body that will be as different to your actual body as the seed is to the plant.
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.
We are limited in this physical body, but Jesus, in His glorified body, could just walk inside a room with all windows and doors locked. Apparently He could just go through things, and be transported in an instant from a place to another ! There are not the same limitations on a spiritual body that on this physical body.
50 … flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God, nor does the perishable inherit the imperishable. 51 … we will all be changed— 52 in a flash, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet…. 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.”
God designed our bodies in an amazing way, we are truly wonderfully made in all details. However, this physical body is perishable and subject to corruption. We have sickness and diseases, we die, and beyond these physical things, we are subject to sin and immorality. But our celestial body is going to be incorruptible. It will never know sickness, pain and suffering, and sin.
That glorified body will be able to go from place to place, without the same limitations that we have in this physical body, it is going to be awesome !
Most people want to prolong their lives as long as they possibly can but when you understand this concept correctly, instead of looking at death as a tragic end, it is actually a positive thing. You may struggle with this idea because you only see things in this present life, but the truth is that we could never exist in the spiritual realm with God without the death of our physical body. Death is actually a transition into something far better than our current life.
The apostle Paul had such a longing to live with God without the limitations and the hindrances of this flesh, this old self, dominated by our feelings and by our émotions, that lusts after things contrary to God, that he was hard-pressed between the two and was bitterly struggling to decide whether he should live or die ! (Phil 1.21-25) But he decided to stay because it was needful to help other believers to grow in faith. That’s a good attitude.
If we could only get a glimpse of what it’s like to be on the other side, to live in a body that is not corruptible, that does not feel pain, suffering, grief, anger, bitterness and the corruption that is in the mind and in the soul, if we could really get a picture of what Heaven is like, I guarantee we’d be like the apostle Paul and having a hard time staying in the flesh.
You are more than a physical, material being, you are a spiritual being. For believers, death is a new chapter in our continuing existence and it is actually better than this life because of the resurrection and the promise of Heaven.