When we come to the Bible, we come with all sorts of questions. Though God is very generous with his revelation, his primary purpose in the Bible is not to answer every question we can imagine. God, in his wisdom, uses Scripture to reveal to us what we need to know to live in a way that is fully pleasing to him.
One glorious truth taught in the Scriptures is that we will be given resurrected bodies when Christ returns. The resurrection of Jesus was the “first fruits” of our coming resurrection, Paul tells us in 1 Corinthians 15:20. The first fruits of a farmer’s crops were an indication of the quality and quantity of the full harvest to come. The New Living Translation puts Paul’s words this way: “But in fact, Christ has been raised from the dead. He is the first [firstfruits] of a great harvest of all who have died.” Paul teaches that the resurrection of Jesus, an established historical event, makes the future resurrection equally assured.
But what can we find out about our resurrected selves from the Scriptures? Let’s look briefly at what the Bible tells us. Other characteristics could be listed, but I’ve given six of them here.
Six Characteristics of God’s Resurrected People
- The Same (and Different): Our resurrected body will be continuous with our first body, and yet our resurrected body will be significantly changed.
John 20:26-29: 26 Eight days later, his disciples were inside again, and Thomas was with them. Although the doors were locked, Jesus came and stood among them and said, “Peace be with you.” 27 Then he said to Thomas, “Put your finger here, and see my hands; and put out your hand, and place it in my side. Do not disbelieve, but believe.” 28 Thomas answered him, “My Lord and my God!” 29 Jesus said to him, “Have you believed because you have seen me? Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed.”
In these verses Jesus is shown to have a physical body. He tells Thomas, “Put your finger here, and see my hands; and put out your hand, and place it in my side.” This is after Jesus has entered the locked room where the disciples are gathered. It could be that God miraculously causes the walls to become permeable, or it could equally be the case that the nature of Jesus’s resurrected allows him to do so. Either way, we see in the New Testament that there are similarities and differences (or, continuity and discontinuity) between the physical body we now have and our future resurrected body. For example, we could point to other passages like 1 Corinthians 15:42 which make it clear that the resurrection body, unlike our current physical bodies, will never decay.
- Complete: The reuniting of body and soul will be complete, no longer separated.
2 Corinthians 5:8: 8 Yes, we are of good courage, and we would rather be away from the body and at home with the Lord.
1 Corinthians 15:51-53: 51 Behold! I tell you a mystery. We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed, 52 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. 53 For this perishable body must put on the imperishable, and this mortal body must put on immortality.
In 2 Corinthians 5:8, Paul tells us that believers in Christ who die before Jesus returns (Second Coming) are “with the Lord.” But this is not the final state for God’s people. Paul also says in his earlier letter to the Christians in Corinth, “this perishable body must put on the imperishable” (1 Corinthians 15:53). At the resurrection, body and soul are brought back together as God intended. The teaching of Scripture is that humans are both physical and spiritual beings. Death separates the two; resurrection reunites them. The idea that the afterlife is intended only for the soul is more akin to ancient Greek philosophy than biblical teaching.
- Physical: Our resurrected body will be physical but fit for living in the uniqueness of the spiritual world.
Romans 8:22-23: 22 For we know that the whole creation has been groaning together in the pains of childbirth until now. 23 And not only the creation, but we ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies.
Paul speaks here of the “redemption of our bodies.” This redemption, or the salvation of our bodies, refers to our physical bodies. Our physical bodies are not cages for our souls to escape at death. Our bodies, though corrupted with the effects of sin, were created by God as “very good” (Genesis 1:31), and will be fully redeemed at the resurrection. Notice also that Paul begins verse 22 by referring to the groaning of the “whole creation.” Redemption extends across the created realm. Wherever sin’s effects are felt, redemption reaches.