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It has been—and continues to be—tempting for people to elevate the spiritual over the material. Historical theologian R. Scott Clark points out how the second-century heresy of Gnosticism attempted to do this very thing by falsely teaching that "those who are ultimately delivered from the evil material world (which, they said, is evil because it is material) are those who gain the secret gnosis (knowledge)."
The Bible, however, teaches us that God made the material world and he called his creation "very good":
And God saw everything that he had made, and behold, it was very good. And there was evening and there was morning, the sixth day. (Gen. 1:31)
When it comes to life after death for Christians, people often think they will become angels, or at least like angels. They view a non-embodied state of existence as being somehow more “spiritual” than one with a physical body. What does the Bible say?
God has planned an embodied future for his children in eternity.
Most people are familiar with the trope of people becoming angels and playing harps while sitting on clouds when they go to heaven. Yet, this is not what the Bible teaches about the state of humans after death. It is true that until Jesus' second coming the souls of people who have died in Christ are separated from their physical bodies while in the presence of the Lord (2 Cor. 5:8). The day will come, though, when the dead in Christ and those who are alive will receive resurrected physical bodies that will be unable to sin:
For the Lord himself will descend from heaven with a cry of command, with the voice of an archangel, and with the sound of the trumpet of God. And the dead in Christ will rise first. Then we who are alive, who are left, will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and so we will always be with the Lord. Therefore encourage one another with these words. (1 Thess. 4:16-18)
What will our resurrected bodies will be like?
The Bible most certainly gives us some clues regarding the nature of our resurrected bodies. First, the apostle Paul tells us that Christ is the firstfruits of our own personal resurrection:
But in fact Christ has been raised from the dead, the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep. For as by a man came death, by a man has come also the resurrection of the dead. For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ shall all be made alive. But each in his own order: Christ the firstfruits, then at his coming those who belong to Christ. (1 Cor. 15:20-23)
Second, Paul also specifies that our resurrected bodies will be imperishable, unlike our current mortal bodies:
So is it with the resurrection of the dead. What is sown is perishable; what is raised is imperishable. It is sown in dishonor; it is raised in glory. It is sown in weakness; it is raised in power. It is sown a natural body; it is raised a spiritual body. If there is a natural body, there is also a spiritual body. (1 Cor. 15:42-44)
Third, we shall bear Christ's image in our resurrected state:
As was the man of dust, so also are those who are of the dust, and as is the man of heaven, so also are those who are of heaven. Just as we have borne the image of the man of dust, we shall also bear the image of the man of heaven. (1 Cor. 15:48-49)
Jesus didn't want his disciples to doubt the material reality of his resurrected state.
In the book of Luke we read about how Jesus ate food after his resurrection (Luke 24:42). He walked with his disciples (Luke 24:15). He had the same bodily form as his disciples. Thus, we can reasonably assume that our resurrected bodies will look like human bodies.
In Luke 24 we also read about how two disciples didn't know they were speaking to Jesus on the road to Emmaus: "But their eyes were kept from recognizing him" (Luke 24:16). Their inability to perceive they were speaking with Jesus likely wasn't because he looked significantly different but rather because God chose to delay revealing Jesus' identity to them.
For the rest of eternity Jesus will be truly God and truly human.
When Jesus later appeared to the disciples in Jerusalem, they all readily recognized him (Luke 24:36-37), but at first they thought they saw a spirit because they knew Jesus died on the cross (Luke 23:46). To take away their doubts, Jesus showed them his hands and feet and told the disciples to touch him. He even ate food in front of them to further prove his bodily existence (Luke 24:41-42).
When Jesus was born in the flesh, he didn't take on a human nature for just a limited time. For the rest of eternity Jesus will be truly God and truly human, and he will always have both a divine nature and a human nature. Jesus will always have his resurrected physical body, and believers will always have their resurrected physical bodies. This is truly amazing!
Our good God has a good, eternal, and glorious embodied existence awaiting all who belong to Christ.
Gnosticism and its contemporary forms (such as transhumanism) that still circulate today are direct attacks against the Bible's teaching regarding the goodness of God's creation and his eternal plan for his children's existence in a physical realm. God's creation, while now under a curse because of Adam's fall, will be set free when Christ returns:
For the creation was subjected to futility, not willingly, but because of him who subjected it, in hope that the creation itself will be set free from its bondage to corruption and obtain the freedom of the glory of the children of God. (Rom. 8:20-21)
For now all who are in Christ wait with sure hope for their future eternal embodied existence in which they will live forever in glory, eating and drinking and rejoicing and living in the presence of God, our good, loving, and faithful Creator and Redeemer.
This article is adapted from “Embodied in Glory for Eternity” in BCL’s April 2023 monthly newsletter “Our Own Personal Resurrection.”
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How Is the Day of Firstfruits Related to Every Believer's Personal Resurrection?
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"If Christ Is Not Risen..." — 8 Implications of Denying the Resurrection
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