The Resurrection Body

Let it be known that most of my thinking on this topic comes from multiple sources, and I've simply synthesized it all together. Besides the Bible itself, my earliest thinking on the subject came from articles in the 1970s writings of "The Spiritual Counterfeits Project", and later expanded by the writings of CS Lewis. The other sources are too many and varied to list here, but the bulk comes from the aforementioned three sources.

Paul speaks of the resurrection body in First Corinthians chapter 15.

But someone will say, “How are the dead raised?” and, “With what kind of body do they come?” You foolish one, that which you yourself sow is not made alive unless it dies. That which you sow, you don’t sow the body that will be, but a bare grain, maybe of wheat, or of some other kind. But God gives it a body even as it pleased him, and to each seed a body of its own. All flesh is not the same flesh, but there is one flesh of men, another flesh of animals, another of fish, and another of birds. There are also celestial bodies and terrestrial bodies; but the glory of the celestial differs from that of the terrestrial. There is one glory of the sun, another glory of the moon, and another glory of the stars; for one star differs from another star in glory.

So also is the resurrection of the dead. The body is sown perishable; it is raised 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. There is a natural body and there is also a spiritual body. So also it is written, “The first man Adam became a living soul.” The last Adam became a life-giving spirit. However, that which is spiritual isn't first, but that which is natural, then that which is spiritual. The first man is of the earth, made of dust. The second man is the Lord from heaven. As is the one made of dust, such are those who are also made of dust; and as is the heavenly, such are they also that are heavenly. As we have borne the image of those made of dust, let’s also bear the image of the heavenly. Now I say this, brothers, that flesh and blood can’t inherit God’s Kingdom; neither does the perishable inherit imperishable. Behold, I tell you a mystery. We will not all sleep, but we will 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 incorruptible, and we will be changed. For this perishable body must become imperishable, and this mortal must put on immortality. But when this perishable body will have become imperishable, and this mortal will have put on immortality, then what is written will happen: “Death is swallowed up in victory.”

Other than Jesus, the handful of other people who were raised from the dead eventually died again. But when Jesus rose, He rose never to die again. What Paul is talking about is the resurrection of believers into their imperishable resurrection bodies - not brought back to life in their old bodies. Thus far, the only example we have of a resurrection body is that of Jesus after He rose from the dead. We'll address that later, but let us examine Paul's description of this new body promised to all believers.

First Paul points out that the resurrection body is inherently different than the bodies that we are familiar with. He compares a seed to the plant that grows from it. Imagine, for a moment, that you have never seen a seed nor have an knowledge of how seeds grow into plants. Then someone shows you a seed and declares that such and such a plant grows from such and such a seed. You would think they were joking! The seed has no resemblance to the plant. The seed is small, hard, unremarkable, and (until planted) unchanging. The plant, on the other hand, grows and changes, absorbs sunlight, produces flowers and fruit, exhibits color and scent and shade. Even that portion that is unseen underground is radically different from the seed. So Paul uses this image to describe how the resurrection body is radically different from our current body. Jesus, talking about the need for us to die to ourselves in order to live to God, uses a similar analogy in John 12:24. He says that if the seed falls to the ground and dies, it is reborn as a wheat plant. I think He was referring to both dying to the old man, and saying something about our physical bodies as well.

Likewise, when Jesus mentions that in the resurrection we will be like angels (Matthew 22:30), although He was specifically talking about the issue of marriage, I think He is also giving us a clue as to our nature in the resurrection. In some sense we will be like angels. We won't *be* angels, but we will be *like* them. I think He was saying something about our resurrection bodies as well.

As if the seed/plant example is insufficient, Paul also compares several other objects to drive home the point that our current bodies and the resurrection bodies are quite different: celestial bodies compared to things on earth, and to each other; animals compared to man and other animals. Then he lists several ways in which the resurrection body differs from the bodies with which we are familar: perishable vs imperishable, dishonor vs glory, weakness vs power, and physical vs spiritual.

When Paul talks about us being changed in an instant, the greek word used for "changed" is allagesometha, which means to "change, alter, exchange, or transform" and that word comes from allos, which means to "make different". The idea is clearly not one of "improvement", but of a fundamental transformation from one thing into another.

Thanks mainly to Hollywood, our idea of spirits is somewhat twisted. The typical idea is that spirits are insubstantial and interact weakly - if at all - with the physical world. But if we look at angels, which are celestial spirits, we see that they often have a very physical effect. The Angel of Death killed all the firstborn of Egypt, except the Israelistes (Exodus 12). Another angel killed 185,000 Assyrian soldiers in one night (2 Kings 19:35). Jacob wrestled with an angel (Genesis 32:22-31). There are other examples, but the point is that spiritual beings can have significant physical effects. Jesus' resurrection body could be touched and could eat food (John 20:17 and Luke 24:43). Jesus evens tells the disciples after the resurrection that he had flesh, but ghosts do not (Luke 24:39). Therefore, when Paul compares physical with spiritual, we must understand that he is not saying that our resurrection bodies are insubstantial, hollywood-style ghosts. He is saying something else.

Some might suggest that Jesus is special case when it comes to the resurrection body. But it is clear that we will be like Him. He came into the world enfleshed in physical matter as we are born, and as the firstborn of the true resurrection Who has gone on before us, we can expect that our new bodies will be like His. Paul states it this way: "As we have borne the image of those made of dust, let’s also bear the image of the heavenly." God made man from the dust of the earth. Thus, dust can be understood to indicate physical matter. We are born of physical stuff, but we will be raised of heavenly stuff. Jesus was incarnated in dust and was raised into a heavenly body, as we all will be. In his letter to the Philippians, Paul states it this way: "..the Lord Jesus Christ, who, by the power that enables hin to bring everything under his control, will transform our lowly bodies so that they will be like his glorious body" (3:21).

So, we have one example of a resurrection body: Jesus. After "graduating" to His resurrection body, He exhibited certain abilities beyond what the more mundane physical body is capable of. First, His appearance seemed to change. In the case of Mary Magdalene in the garden, and the travelers to Emmaus, they did not recognize that they were talking to Jesus at first (in fact, Jesus gave a whole exposition to the travelers on their walk without them recognizing Him), but they recognized Him later. But when He appeared to the disciples in the upper room, they immediately recognized Him. And then in John 21:12, it implies that He didn't appear obviously to be Jesus though they knew that it was Him ("Jesus said to them, 'Come and dine'. And none of the disciples dared ask him, 'Who are you?' knowing that it was the Lord."). There was something about His resurrection body that either looked different, or He could choose to look different, or He could inhibit others' ability to recognize Him.

Another thing to note is that normal physical barriers were irrelevant. In Luke 24:36, the disciples were in a locked room and suddenly Jesus was there with them. Some people have said that Jesus walked through the wall, but all that the scripture says is that He came and simply appeared to them in the locked room.

His mode of travel wasn't limited to that of humans. Though He could (and did) move in the world like humans (such as walking the road to emmaus), He could also appear and disappear from view. He could disappear from one place and then appear in another. This is also true of angels. And in the case of Satan, the Devil took Jesus to the top of the temple in Jerusalem and returned Him to the desert afterwards (see Matthew 4). There is no indication of them walking or riding to and from Jerusalem. It simply says that the Devil took Jesus there. So, angels can use a form of travel beyond that of humans.

Here we leave the clear teaching of the Bible and engage in a bit of speculation. Don't take the following as the "gospel truth", but simply as a possible way to look at things. Maybe it is correct, and maybe not. But I find it helpful to view things this way, and though I find nothing in scripture that contradicts my view, that is no guarantee that I've got it right either.

Before we go on, it will be helpful to take a slight detour. We are going to delve into some theories that deal with concepts that are non-intuitive and will require thought to comprehend. In his book "Flatland" by Edwin Abbott Abbott, first published in 1884, the author describes a fictional two-dimensional world. This is a good introduction to what I will attempt to communicate. Imagine a sheet of paper. On that paper exists a being that we will call "George". George is a two-dimensional (2D) being who can only perceive two dimensions: he can see forward and back, and left and right. But he cannot see above the paper or below the paper. The surface of the paper is George's universe. However, I am a three-dimensional (3D) being who can see the two dimensions that George can, and can also perceive a third dimension - up and down - that George cannot perceieve. In fact, even if George could speculate about the existence of another dimension, he couldn't comprehend what that dimension was like, or what it would be like to perceive it. Not only is the third dimension imperceivable to him, it is also incomprehensible to him.

Because George cannot perceive what is above the paper, he has no idea that we are standing there, looking down on him. We could literally be right next to him without him having the faintest idea. But, what if we interact with his 2D world? Let's say that I touch the paper that is George's universe. If I place the tip of my finger on the paper, George could suddenly detect me (or the tip of my finger, anyway). Further, my finger would have suddenly appeared "out of nowhere". If I then remove my finger from the paper, it would suddenly vanish from George's perception. I could manipulate what George sees by deciding what parts of my body to introduce into his 2D universe.

Even more, let us imagine that this sheet of paper universe of George's is not solid to us, but we could pass through it like it were air to us. As we pass through this plane in which George lives, our appearance would change shape and size from George's perspective, depending on how much, and which part, of our body intersects with that plane. That gives us even more latitude in how we interact with George. Our abilities would seem supernatural to George because we could do things that are beyond his abilities. Let us say that George enters his 2D house and closes all the doors and windows. He thinks he is safe because any fellow 2D beings would be blocked by the door and walls. But we look down on his house and it is open to us because he cannot create a barrier in a third dimension. Thus, we could touch our finger to the paper at a point inside the walls of his house. Suddenly, we would appear in the room with him. From his perspective, we must have come through the wall or locked door because he cannot comprehend that his secure house is entirely open to another dimension that he is not aware of. George might consider that we exist in another 2D universe and travel between those universes as if through a door. But we aren't just 2D beings from another "dimension". Rather, we are "hyperdimensional" beings from George's perspective. Further, we are not insubstantial at all. We could squish George with our finger, or break his house, or even pick him up and move him to another spot on the paper. We aren't really supernatural, but we are superdimensional compared to George.

Now, we are just as limited by our three dimensions as George is limited by his two dimensions. Let us imagine that there is a fourth spatial dimension. We can no more perceive it that George could perceive the third dimension. (I recognize that some people refer to time as the fourth dimension, but we leave time as another thing separate from the fourth dimension that we are talking about). What if the resurrection body is a 4D body? With such a body, we could appear as we wanted to 3D beings. We could suddenly appear inside the most secure room in the world. No one could detect us unless we decided to interact with the 3 dimensions that the 3D creatures were aware of. We could listen in on their conversations. We could watch their every move made in secret. To 3D beings, a 4D being would seem to have unexplainable powers.

Despite this, we wouldn't be supernatural. Supernatural implies that something is beyond or above the creation. But since God is the only being that isn't created, only He is supernatural. All other beings, including angels and demons are natural. But because they are 4D beings, they can do things we cannot. In a way, it would be like the advantage a person with sight would have over a blind person. Except more extreme, because a blind person still has other senses, but no matter what senses one has, we cannot perceive something outside of our 3D universe. Nor could any technology we create be able to help, because it would be likewise limited to our 3D universe, being made out of 3D "dust".

I do not believe that 4D creatures can violate the laws of nature that God has put into effect, because that would require that they be supernatural. But we do not comprehend the laws of 4D physics (we barely comprehend 3D physics), so things that a 4D being does might appear to violate our understand of physics, but that is merely due to our limited understanding. Perhaps some of the oddness we are aware of on the quantum level is a byproduct of spatial dimensions that we are unable to perceive.

So, let us relate the idea of 4D resurrection bodies back to our earlier discussion. First, the entire expanse of the universe that we marvel at would be nothing more than a thin layer of dust in a much, much, larger realm of existence. Isaiah, Hebrews, and Revelation all make reference to the earth and heavens being rolled up, and Revelation talks about a new earth and heavens being created. It is like God simply sweeps up the old dust and then creates something new. But, like the angels, we aren't swept up as well. Instead, we watch as God creates another 3D universe within the larger 4D reality.

Hebrews 12:1 talks about a "cloud of witnesses" watching us. There is some difference of opinion about what these witnesses are (angels, those who have gone on before us, both...) but it says to me that the inhabitants of the spiritual world are watching us - not via some sort of heavenly television that they can change channels to different people or homes, nor by invisibly "popping" into our presence to observe us - but they can watch us without our ever being aware of their presence. They see us because they can perceive all 4 dimensions, while we cannot perceive them unless they intersect with our 3 dimensions.

As 4D beings, instead of being less substantial than things in the 3D universe, we will actually *more* substantial. We'll inhabit a larger reality than we used to as 3D creatures. Before, we were like paintings. Afterward, we will be like the real thing that the paintings represented. This is the resurrection body we will have. It has no resemblance to the old body, other than the soul inhabiting it. Note that I'm not being neo-gnostic and saying that matter is evil or unreal. The Bible is clear that matter matters! I simply mean that our 3D matter is *comparatively* less substantial than the larger reality that we are unable to perceive.

Now, instead of calling this a 4th spatial dimension, let's call it the spiritual dimension. That is, the greater reality that spiritual creatures, such as angels and demons, inhabit. Because they are hyperdimensional, they can choose (or choose not) to interact with our 3D reality, but they can see it without intersecting with it. Jesus appeared in the room with the disciples not because he could walk through walls, but because the room was completely open to the spiritual dimension. In other words, the resurrection body is more than merely our normal bodies given some superhuman powers as if we were bitten by a radioactive angel. It is something different. It is someone more.

Like a three-year-old trying to comprehend astrophysics, I do not see clearly beyond my limited human understanding. It is hard to speak accurately of it this side of heaven. But one thing is clear from scripture - and that is that our resurrection bodies are going to be something quite different and quite spectacular compared to what we are used to.