12. What if Jesus Promised to Redeem Not Just Our Souls but Our Bodies?
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To celebrate Easter or Resurrection Sunday this month, we’ve started a new series: Epic Resurrection.
E. Stephen Burnett and Zackary Russell explore how Jesus’s resurrection will affect our bodies, the whole Earth, and the stories we love.
In this episode, part 1, we focus on what Scripture says about Christians’ resurrected bodies.
Epic Resurrection series
Concession stand
- Of course, this series will be a very brief survey of the topic.
- We’ll include lots of verses, references, and books in the show notes.
- We do presume you’re familiar with words like “soul,” “resurrection,” etc.
- We know this is part of a bigger conversation about all Jesus’s promises.
- Does this sound “materialistic”? It might. So let’s be clear: materialism’s bad.
- Also, we’ll strive to base any speculation on what the Bible actually says.
Scriptures cited
For we know that the whole creation has been groaning together in the pains of childbirth until now. And not only the creation, but we ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies.
Romans 8:22–23
Behold! I tell you a mystery. We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed, in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised imperishable, and we shall be changed. For this perishable body must put on the imperishable, and this mortal body must put on immortality.
1 Corinthians 15:51–53
For we know that if the tent that is our earthly home is destroyed, we have a building from God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens. For in this tent we groan, longing to put on our heavenly dwelling, if indeed by putting it on we may not be found naked. For while we are still in this tent, we groan, being burdened—not that we would be unclothed, but that we would be further clothed, so that what is mortal may be swallowed up by life.
2 Corinthians 5:1–4
But, as it is written,
“What no eye has seen, nor ear heard,
nor the heart of man imagined,
what God has prepared for those who love him”—these things God has revealed to us through the Spirit. For the Spirit searches everything, even the depths of God.
1 Corinthians 2:9–10 (often misquoted to “shut down” biblical prophecy or biblical speculation about the resurrection)
“He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. To the one who conquers I will give some of the hidden manna, and I will give him a white stone, with a new name written on the stone that no one knows except the one who receives it.”
Revelation 2:17 (regarding our banter about getting new names)
Exploring the resurrection of our bodies
- What does resurrection mean to us?
- Do Christians believe resurrection is physical?
- How is resurrection is a process, first spiritual, then ending when our bodies are made new?
- What verses (such as 1 Corinthians 15:44, 50) are used to deny the material nature of resurrection?
- How does our speculation about our resurrected bodies start with the clear promises Jesus has given in his word?
Explore more
- Resurrection, Part 1: Prelude (first of this Resurrection article series)
- In ‘Heaven’, Randy Alcorn Explores Biblical Imaginations of New Earth
- The Rapture Is Fun, But Resurrection Is Better
- Heaven Will Be the Happiest Place on Earth
In ‘Heaven’, Randy Alcorn Explores Biblical Imaginations Of New Earth
Fantastic fans
David H. shares his fantastic origin story:
For me it was Tom Swift. He was like a young early McGuiver except sci fi. exploration and invention, and he did it with his Dad – a very family adventure, kind of like lost in space.
Kaylena shares her fantastic origin story:
I remember very clearly picking up my first copy of The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe in the basement of a friend’s house when I was around 8 or 9. I read half the book while I was there. It was all over for me after that- I read the series as fast as I could and it jump started my life-long passion for reading and writing fantastical fiction. If I had to put a finger on why the Chronicles of Narnia (in particular) left such an impression on me, I think it’s because even as a child, I could locate the thread of the divine throughout and hang onto it like a lifeline. I grew up in the church and knew God’s Word well, but my home life was a mess. In the instability of family dysfunction, Lewis’s fiction continued that framework of truth I was beginning to understand in the Bible. I could feel safe in Narnia because I knew Aslan would make things right in the end; life outside the wardrobe became a lot less frightening for this little girl trying to understand God’s goodness in a bad world.
Share your origin story, or any resurrection thoughts at Lorehaven.com.
Next on Fantastical Truth
In our next episode, part 2 of this series, we’ll ask: well, if Jesus redeems not just our souls but our whole human bodies, where are we going to live forever and ever? Do we get whisked up to “heaven”? Or (hint, hint) does Jesus actually promise that New Heavens will touch down to New Earth for an eternal union of these realms, so that “the dwelling of God is with man”? This is even more amazing stuff, and for those who love Jesus it is absolutely life-changing.
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