“Who is this guy with the wrinkles and droopy skin?” I asked myself as I stretched in front of a mirror at the gym (in a room with lights that revealed everything!). I looked every bit my age and for a moment I felt depressed.
Then I remembered Paul’s words in 1 Corinthians 15:19, “If in Christ we have hope in this life only, we are of all people most to be pitied.” I think this is becoming one of my favorite verses! Even as believers, we have so much more to hope for than what this world can offer us even in the best of circumstances.
A little later in the chapter the apostle expanded upon our spectacular hope in verses 51-53, “Behold! I tell you a mystery. We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed, in 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 shall be changed. For this perishable body must put on the imperishable, and this mortal body must put on immortality.”
Forever Young
In 1 Corinthians 15:42-55, the apostle describes our new future bodies that we will receive when Jesus comes for us, His true church. Whether we have died in Christ or remain alive in Him at the time, our hope is the same. Jesus will change our bodies into wondrously imperishable and immortal ones. They will last forever no longer subject to the rigors of the clock.
Gone will be all the signs of aging I saw staring back at me in the mirror that day. I believe Christ will restore our bodies to what we looked like in early adulthood. He will not only erase all the signs of aging, but also all the scars and physical infirmities we have incurred during the course of our lives. We will have bodies like Jesus’ glorious resurrected body.
This means no more flu! This has been a particularly awful season for flu and a host of other sicknesses. Most people have either gotten sick with the flu or know someone they love who has succumbed to it. The good news about our new bodies is they will never again suffer with any sickness or infirmity.
Forever Whole
In a post last week, I quoted John Eldredge as saying this, “We are all traumatized and fragmented; no one passes through this vale of tears without it. And our Healer will make us whole again. . . . Think of it—to be whole hearted. To be filled with goodness from head to toe. To have an inner glory that matches the glory of your new body . . . .”[i]
Along with our glorious bodies, Jesus will also give us an inner wholeness or soundness such as we have never experienced. Think of it, absolute and total emotional, spiritual, and mental wholeness! Total wellness from head to toe, inside and outside!
In Revelation 21:4-5 we read, “He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away. And he who was seated on the throne said, ‘Behold, I am making all things new.’” Death, tears, and sorrow will all be things of the past.
In eternity we will be free from the presence of sin and all its ravages that have wreaked havoc in our lives on earth in one way or another. We will be complete experiencing sinless perfection throughout our being.
As a young pastor many years ago, I suffered greatly as the result of the actions of others along with my own foolish mistakes. It took a long time for the Lord to perform His healing work on the all the wounds stemming from those years of brokenness.
Although the Lord has restored my life and healed past wounds in truly miraculous ways, I still identify with Eldredge’s words regarding the trauma and fragmentation we all feel to some extent even as beloved children of God. I long for the complete wholeness that Jesus will give me someday in the resurrection!
Forever young, forever whole! Can you understand why Paul said that if our hope resides solely in this life “we are of all people most to be pitied?” If this life is all we have, we would have no hope at all.
However, when we look at what the Lord promises us, is not our expectation of eternal joy more than we can fully grasp in this life?
Spend some time today trying to imagine what your future life will be like without any of the ravages of sickness, aging, and emotional brokenness. What will your life be like with an imperishable body free from all the constraints of time?
[i] John Eldredge, All Things New (Nashville: Nelson books, 2017), p. 86.