Yesterday, we began an in depth look at the physics of immortality, as promised in salvation by believing on the Lord Jesus Christ. Paul defines believing this way: Believe in the substitutionary death of Christ on the cross, his burial in the borrowed tomb, and victorious resurrection, conquering death, hell, and the grave. Acts 16:30-31; Romans 10:9-13
We looked at three men, and their understanding of the resurrection:
Job gave us the point of view from a gentile before the Mosaic Law, in Job 19:25-27. It will be a physical resurrection for him, occurring at the resurrection of Jesus Christ, when he led all who were in Abraham’s bosom / paradise out of their captivity to heaven.
Ephesians 4:8-10; Matthew 27:50-53
Daniel foretold the resurrection of the dead in Daniel 12:1-2. A companion scripture is found in Isaiah 26:19: Thy dead men shall live, together with my dead body shall they arise. Awake and sing, ye that dwell in dust: for thy dew is as the dew of herbs, and the earth shall cast out the dead.
Remember, no one in the Old Testament had any inkling of the New Testament time known as the mystery period of the dispensation of the grace of God. So, their prophecies of the resurrection had to do with the time before this current economy of the grace of God, and after this current period of grace.
Paul was mocked by the Greek philosophers on Mars Hill for teaching of the resurrection found in the resurrected Christ, in Acts 17:30-31. The world has not changed since the first century. Atheism / Darwinism, and many religions in this world today, do not believe in the physical resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ, or of people in general. Sadly, they believe that once this life is over, there is nothing else. Little do they know that this life is a nanosecond compared to eternity. It will be an eternity of joy for all who believe, and an eternity of suffering in the Lake of fire for all who reject the truth of the empty tomb, and the promise of eternal life to all who believe.
We began our discussion of understanding the difference of the terrestrial body and the celestial body, and will finish that this coming Sunday. Jesus’s body was buried a terrestrial body, but resurrected a celestial body. While on this earth, in his earthly ministry, he humbled himself to the will of the Father, only occasionally revealing his true power, like walking on water, and raising the dead, but after his resurrection, time and space, and physical barriers could not hold him any longer. The morning of his resurrection he traveled to heaven, and poured out his blood upon the mercy seat in heaven, as our great High Priest, and returned to earth, to walk to Emmaus with some disciples, disappear when they recognized him, and then reappear in the evening in the midst of the apostles. Luke 24 describes these events. The risen Lord was a flesh and bone celestial body. His blood, which is the life of the flesh, was poured out for our atonement.
1 Corinthians 15:50: Now this I say, brethren, that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God; neither doth corruption inherit incorruption.
The Kingdom of God is the spiritual kingdom we are part of through the atonement of Jesus Christ. This kingdom is not a physical kingdom. It is the kingdom of the heart in this dispensation of grace. We are spiritual beings in a physical existence. One day this mortal (terrestrial) will put on immortality (celestial). O, glorious day! See you next Sunday!