Hints of Heaven #2: The Great Change

Hints of Heaven:
Reflections on the Realm of the Righteous—
#2 The Great Change (1 Cor 15:42-52)
pdf
Dr. Paul Manuel—2013

What happens to you when you die, and how will you know it when that time comes?

An elderly couple is lying in bed one morning, having just awakened from a good night's sleep. He takes her hand, and she responds, "Don't touch me." "Why not," he asks. "Because I'm dead," she replies. "What do you mean?" We're both lying here in bed together, talking to one another." But his wife insists, "No, I'm definitely dead." Puzzled, he assures her, "You're not dead. What in the world makes you think that?" "I know I'm dead," his wife answers, "because I woke up...and nothing hurts!"

What happens when you die, and how will you know it when that time comes?

Will you suddenly discover that nothing hurts? You will, indeed, notice a difference, and far more than the absence of pain, especially as you realize that difference will lead ultimately to "The Great Change" of the resurrection.

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First, here is a question people often have about the condition of the dead. Do those who die enter an unconscious and timeless state, or are they immediately awake and aware.¹ The former is called 'soul sleep,' but...

Is Soul Sleep a Biblical Doctrine?

Proponents of this doctrine include Seventh-Day Adventism, Church of God 7th Day, Jehovah's Witnesses, and offshoots from the Worldwide Church of God, but does their view have the support of scripture. At first glance, it may seem so.

• Passages that depict the dead from the perspective of the living, describe them as unconscious, because that is how they appear to us who remain in this world.

• Moses writes in...

Ps 90:5 You sweep men away in the sleep of death.

• David writes in...

Ps 13:3b Give light to my eyes, or I will sleep in death.

This same description also occurs in contrast to the resurrection.

• Daniel writes in...

Dan 12:2a Multitudes who sleep in the dust of the earth will awake....

• Paul writes in...

1 Cor 15:51a We will not all sleep, but we will all be changed—

When we attend a viewing, the deceased often looks as if he is merely asleep, and the comment may be that he seems to be resting quite peacefully. But such biblical passages as these I quoted use sleep in a figurative sense, not literally, That is not how the dead really are.

The difference becomes clear as we broaden our investigation to include other scripture. For...

• Passages that depict the dead from the perspective of the dead, describe them as conscious, because that is how they are to God.²

• In Matt 17, Moses and Elijah are conversing with Jesus at his transfiguration before the crucifixion, and they are not talking in their sleep (v. 3).

• In Luke 16. Abraham, with Lazarus in heaven, is explaining to the rich man in hell that his suffering is irreversible (vv. 23-3 1).

• In Heb 12, Old Testament saints are watching our progress in the race of life and are waiting for us at the finish line (v. 1).

• In Rev 6, martyrs from the Great Tribulation are under the heavenly altar, petitioning God to avenge their blood (vv. 9-11).

• In Rev 7, multitudes "from every nation, tribe, people and language" are worshiping at God's heavenly throne (vv. 9-10).

All these individuals died. Their bodies went into the grave and were subject to decay, but their souls went to be with the Lord in heaven³ as they await their resurrection when Jesus returns in glory. Are they sleeping? No, they are conversing, explaining, watching, petitioning, worshiping—all conscious not unconscious activities.

Contrary to what some assert, the dead are not asleep. They are awake and aware, conscious and cognizant of what is happening to them, and interacting, not with us but with those around them. In other words, soul sleep is not a biblical doctrine.

The specifics we read in scripture about the afterlife vary according to what stage of God's plan the biblical author is describing. As I mentioned last time, those who die before Jesus' return (i.e., before resurrection) enter the intermediate state, where the dead await their new bodies. The people I just listed are in that intermediate state. They are comforted but do not yet possess all God has prepared for the final state, for what they will receive at the resurrection.⁴ Nevertheless, the general nature of the dead's existence is fixed when they die, no matter when that happens: It is pleasant for the righteous and unpleasant for the unrighteous.

* * * * * * * * * *

Today, we will concentrate on the final state of our existence, on how we shall be spending eternity. Our passage is in 1 Cor 15, where Paul speaks about...

II. The Great Change (1 Cor 15:42-52)

...we will undergo in the resurrection. The apostle has been answering a question about the kind of body those raised from the dead will have, explaining that just as different life forms have different bodies (e.g., animals, birds, fish) and different environments require different bodies (e.g., on planet earth, in outer space)...

1 Cor 15:42 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; 44a it is sown a natural body, it is raised a spiritual body.... 49 And just as we have borne the likeness of the earthly man, so shall we bear the likeness of the man from heaven. 50 I declare to you, brothers, that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God,⁵ nor does the perishable inherit the imperishable. 51 Listen, I tell you a mystery: We will not all sleep, but we will all be changed—52 in a flash, in the [blink] of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, the dead will be raised imperishable, and we will be changed.

In the Garden of Eden, Adam and Eve had access to the Tree of Life, which apparently would have enabled them to live indefinitely.⁶ Whether loss of access to that tree placed immortality out of man's reach or the Fall introduced a design flaw into man's genetic code, mortality is now part of his make-up...part of our makeup. Hence, it impossible for us to have a lasting relationship with God. It is also impossible for us to enter the presence of God. We need a radical transformation (n. 5) which, Paul says, is what the resurrection accomplishes. This model for "The Great Change" is the one God has already raised. Paul writes,

Rom 8:29 ...those God foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the likeness of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many....

So Paul also says here that "we [shall] bear the likeness of the man from heaven."⁷ What will that likeness be? How is Jesus now different from us, and how will we be different as a result of our change? First,

A. We will be transformed quantitatively.

 including a change...

1. From perishable to imperishable

The figure Paul uses relates to food preservation, a difficult task in the first century, before refrigeration. (Linda and I got a lesson on how quickly things spoil when our refrigerator went out one summer and several things perished.) Certain items, of course, have a longer shelf-life than others. Archaeologists discovered some grain from the time of David in an ancient storage room. It survived for 3000 years because a fire had swept through the room and carbonized it (Kochavi 1992:33, 36-37). Nevertheless, you could neither plant it nor eat it. Only ideal conditions allow foods to last for any extended period, and even such conditions will not preserve them indefinitely. Eventually, they perish. Our bodies are similar. Like that ancient grain, some people last longer than others, although they may start to look carbonized.⁸ Still, even the most senior of us has an expiration date.⁹

Jeanne Calment, at 120 years, was the oldest living human whose birth date could be authenticated. When asked to describe her vision for the future, she replied... "Very brief." (Born in 1875, she was 122 when she died in 1997.)

Paul says our new bodies will have no expiration date, no built-in obsolescence. They will not spoil or decay but go from perishable to imperishable.¹⁰ They will also go...

2. From weakness to power

Here, Paul may be alluding to a related symptom of the aging process, whereby weakness ultimately displaces vigor. Jeanne Calment (again), who certainly understood this process, once said, "I have legs of iron, but...they're starting to rust and buckle a bit." Some of us, of course, take a more optimistic view of physical decline than others.

A woman in a convalescent home was celebrating her one-hundredth birthday. A reporter who came to interview her asked about her family. "Do you have any children?" She paused for a moment and then answered... "Not yet." (Hodgin 1994:18-19)¹¹

Nevertheless, our bodies do run down and break down, more frequently as we get older.¹² I did not need glasses when I first came to the church, but long periods in front of a computer screen and reading tiny Hebrew vowels weakened my eyes. It is also a natural yet, still, unpleasant part of growing older, and has given me an appreciation for the biblical description of aging: 'His eyes grew dim.'¹³ According to Paul, however, our new bodies will have vigor that will not diminish over time but will go from weakness to power.

Not only will we be transformed quantitatively, so that we no longer show the signs of aging or decline in vigor...

B. We will be transformed qualitatively. including a change...

1. From dishonor to glory

Before we came to know God, we were not simply bound for a different end, we faced an ignoble end, one that entailed dishonor. The punishment for our sin included the stigma of shame that would have accompanied our conviction, because the final trial before the "great white throne" (Rev 20:11) that determines people's guilt is public, so that they must bear not only the penalty the heavenly court imposes but also the disgrace of others' knowing what they have done and where it has brought them.¹⁴ As God says through Daniel,

Dan 12:2 Multitudes who sleep in the dust of the earth will awake: some to everlasting life, others to shame and everlasting contempt.

Having received God's forgiveness through Jesus, we are now in that first group, the one that will receive "everlasting life." Yet, just as condemnation includes more than punishment, so acquittal includes more than pardon. It includes glory.

The word "glory" can have the abstract sense of "honor," and the resurrection will surely involve that.¹⁵ Yet "glory" can also have the concrete sense of "brilliance," as in the light that often accompanies a manifestation of God's presence. Because Paul is discussing our new body, he may have this physical definition in mind. He writes to the Philippian church,

Phil 3:21b [Jesus] will transform our lowly bodies so that they will be like his glorious body.

Paul caught a glimpse of the Savior's glory on the road to Damascus, which he described as "brighter than the sun" (Acts 26:13).¹⁶ Our body—your body—will be like Jesus' body. Perhaps it is with this in mind that Jesus himself says,¹⁷

Matt 13:43a ...the righteous will shine like the sun in the kingdom of their Father.

It gives new meaning to the phrase "glowing personality." Paul says our new bodies will be brilliant (contra Fee 1987:785). When was the last time you were brilliant? Yet, you will be, going from dishonor to glory. ...We will also go...

2. From natural to spiritual

Paul states "that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God." Does that mean the resurrection body will be a ghost-like apparition, vaguely recognizable yet without substance? No, not if Jesus' resurrection body is the model for ours, which it is. When Jesus came to his disciples after he had risen, they knew him. Though he had a spirit-like quality (being able to pass through a solid wall), Jesus assured them that he was quite real.¹⁸

Luke 24:39 Look at my hands and my feet. It is I myself! Touch me and see; a ghost does not have flesh and bones, as you see I have.

Then Jesus ate with them, which is not a very ghost-like activity, and eating is something we will do in the Messianic Age.¹⁹ What Paul meant is "that flesh and blood [alone] cannot inherit the kingdom of God."²⁰ The physical body must undergo a transformation that adapts it for life in both realms, the spiritual and the physical. In this sense, we will be similar to angels, who can stand before God and visit among men. Paul says our new bodies will not be confined to the earthly plane; their redesign will also equip them also for life in heaven.²¹ They will go from natural to spiritual.

What happens to us when we die? One of the Hints of Heaven in scripture is "The Great Change" God has planned for us. He will transform our bodies, altering their elemental composition in both quantitative and qualitative ways. So...

• The next time you look in the mirror and notice a few more wrinkles or gray hairs or even fewer hairs, give thanks that one day God will transform your body from perishable to imperishable.

• The next time you cannot read the prescription bottle because the print is too small, and you do not even remember where you left your glasses, be glad that one day God will transform your body from weakness to power.

• The next time you lament the fact that your once stunning good looks have gone missing or that the sand in your hour-glass figure has all settled to the bottom, take heart that one day God will transform your body from dishonor to glory.

• The next time you round the corner too sharply and hit your shoulder painfully against the door frame, or when you bang your shin against the coffee table, after you yell painfully, shout joyfully that one day God will transform your body from natural to spiritual.

In "The Great Change," what God did to Jesus' body, by raising him from the dead and preparing him for the spiritual realm, is also what God will do to your body when He raises and prepares you. God does this so that you can live forever with Him and, unlike your current decline, that final transformation will not be a gradual process. It will happen instantaneously...²²

1 Cor 15:52 in a flash, in the [blink] of an eye.... For the trumpet will sound, the dead will be raised imperishable, and we will be changed.

For the Bibliography and the Endnotes see the pdf here.