Christ’s Gifts

Christ’s Gifts

But let me tell you a wonderful secret God has revealed to us. Not all of us will die, but we will all be transformed. It will happen in a moment, in the blinking of an eye, when the last trumpet is blown. or when the trumpet sounds, the Christians who have died will be raised with transformed bodies. And then we who are living will be transformed so that we will never die.

1 Corinthians 15:51-52

I wish that as part of today’s reading I could enclose a CD of Handel’s Messiah—specifically, the bass recitative and solo of “The Trumpet Shall Sound.” Being a musician, I get goose bumps when I hear that piece; the marriage of the biblical text to the music creates strong feelings of anticipation. (If you have a recording at home, listen to it with your Bible open to 1 Corinthians 15 and get ready for a meaningful worship experience!)

In order to explain the resurrection of the dead, Paul used the picture of a seed (vv. 35-38). When a seed of any kind is sown in the ground, it first dies and then rises as something much more beautiful. The same is true of the caterpillar, which becomes a butterfly—helpful in explaining the Resurrection to a child. So it is with our bodies too. They are sown weak, but they are raised strong. They are sown as natural bodies, but they are raised as spiritual bodies.

What does all that mean to us today? It’s sobering to realize that every human being who ever lived in a human body will have an eternal spiritual body. But the question is, what kind? Those who have trusted and obeyed Christ will receive the gift of heavenly bodies, and those who have turned their backs on Christ will have bodies suited to their environment in hell.

If we believe what the Bible teaches us about the Resurrection, we will want to trust Christ now and use our bodies to the glory of God.

Gracious Father,

Thank you that someday you will transform our frail bodies. We want to use them for your glory while we’re here on earth. Amen.