The Promise of Embodied Immortality
A Hope Rooted in Scripture
To be absent from the body is to be present with the Lord, but there’s something even more extraordinary: to be raised in the body is to be glorified with the Lord. This is the ultimate destiny for which we were created. The earthly body will give way to the glory of embodied immortality at the coming of Christ.
The Old Testament Roots of Resurrection Hope
The hope of resurrection is not a New Testament innovation, but rather an Old Testament idea that grew from earlier divine revelation. Death is an Old Testament problem, and God’s steadfast love is an Old Testament reality. Divine love is greater than death, and resurrection will establish this truth forever.
The Promise of New Physical Life
In Daniel 12:2, we’re reminded that people go to the dust at death, but they will awake, some to everlasting life, and some to shame and everlasting contempt. The solution to physical death is new physical life. Resurrection is waking up to a kind of life that won’t end, an everlasting bodily existence that reflects the risen life of the Lord Jesus.
The Power of God
At our Savior’s return, he will transform our lowly body to be like his glorious body, by the power that enables him even to subject all things to himself. Jesus has inaugurated the glory of resurrection in his own third-day vindication, defeating death from the inside.
The Image of Death Being Swallowed
In Isaiah 25:8, we’re told that God will swallow up death forever, wiping away tears from all faces, and taking away the reproach of his people from all the earth. This image is striking, as death itself is a devourer that consumes life on earth. But God, the almighty God of life, will close its jaws, and death will die.
Bodily Resurrection: The Death of Death
For death to die, the dead must be delivered. Bodily resurrection is the death of death. The rumor is that a Jerusalem tomb became ground zero for embodied glory, where God did not abandon his Son to corruption but raised him up as the first fruits of resurrection life.
The Promise of Inheritance
In Romans 4:13, Paul says that Abraham would be “heir of the world.” The promised land foreshadowed the new creation, the heavenly city on earth. The patriarchs died in faith, desiring a better country which God had prepared for them. God’s promises are so sure, so trustworthy, that the forces of death will not prevail over them. Bodily resurrection will result in the full inheritance of God’s promises.
The Organic Outgrowth of Divine Faithfulness
Resurrection hope is the organic outgrowth of divine faithfulness and divine power. God will be faithful to his promises, and he has the power to accomplish everything he has pledged. Abraham believed this, trusting that God could raise Isaac from the dead. If God promised offspring through Isaac, and if God had told Abraham to offer up Isaac, then God must be able to raise Isaac from the dead.
The Tree of Life
In Eden, we see a tree holding forth the life we were made for. God placed a tree of life in the garden, and when he exiled Adam and Eve, he prevented them from taking the fruit lest they eat and live forever. The design of bodily life is clear in Genesis 2, where God created his image-bearers as embodied creatures. The fruit of the tree of life was a sign of what God made his people to experience: embodied immortality.
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