The Mystery of the Resurrection: How Our Bodies Will Be Changed

In our daily meditations, we reflect on preparing for eternity and what believers in Christ can expect when they go home to the place Christ has prepared for us. I believe the event called the rapture is the same as the resurrection mentioned elsewhere in Scripture. When believers are taken up, our bodies will be instantly transformed, just like Jesus' body was when He rose from the dead. Paul addressed the church in Corinth about the resurrection of the dead:

⁵⁰Now I say this, brethren, that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God; nor does the perishable inherit the imperishable. ⁵¹Behold, I tell you a mystery; we will not all sleep, but we will all be changed, ⁵²in 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 will be changed (1 Corinthians 15:50-52).

The blast of a trumpet will announce the coming of the Lord for His Church, and the dead will be raised at that time. There are not two resurrections of the dead. The rapture and the resurrection are the same event. Our earthly tent, this sinful body we all possess, will be changed instantaneously. This change occurs in "a moment" (v. 52). The Greek word used is atomō; we derive the English word “atom” from this term. It describes an atomic particle of time—instantaneously, our bodies will transform. The term "changed" appears twice in the Scripture verses above and only in this passage. The Greek word is allagēsometha, which means to change, alter, and transform. Before he discussed this transformation, the Apostle Paul introduced the topic by speaking about seeds. Let’s strive to understand what he is conveying. We need to revisit the passage a bit as he explains the process by which we, as Christians, receive a glorified body:

³⁵But someone may ask, "How are the dead raised? With what kind of body will they come?" ³⁶How foolish! What you sow does not come to life unless it dies. ³⁷When you sow, you do not plant the body that will be, but just a seed, perhaps of wheat or of something else. ³⁸But God gives it a body as he has determined, and to each kind of seed he gives its own body. ³⁹All flesh is not the same: Men have one kind of flesh, animals have another, birds another and fish another. ⁴⁰There are also heavenly bodies and there are earthly bodies; but the splendor of the heavenly bodies is one kind, and the splendor of the earthly bodies is another. ⁴¹The sun has one kind of splendor, the moon another and the stars another; and star differs from star in splendor. ⁴²So will it be with the resurrection of the dead (1 Corinthians 15:35-42).

Paul uses the analogy of a seed. Just as a seed differs significantly from the plant that grows from it, so our physical body, when sown at the body's death, will undergo significant change when this sinful age ends and the resurrection of the body occurs. In another letter, Paul wrote that God “will transform our lowly bodies so that they will be like his glorious body” (Philippians 3:21). The older I get, the more I long for that day of transformation. It will happen! Just as the sun will rise tomorrow, this transformation will come to all who repent, turn away from their lives of serving themselves, and receive the gift of new life from the Lord Jesus. Before we discuss the resurrection body further, we need to talk about how this transformation takes place. We'll do that tomorrow. If you can't wait, click the link below to access the complete study of what the resurrection body will be like. Keith Thomas

Continue Your Journey…

This devotional is part of our series, Insights into Eternity. If you want to dive deeper into what God has planned for your future, continue to the next lesson: Study 3: What Will Your Resurrection Body Look Like?