Resurrection of the Body: What Will We Be Like?

What Will Resurrection Really Be Like?

Having just celebrated Easter and the resurrection of our Lord, it seems fitting that I have been thinking about what resurrection means for each of us. We often imagine living in Heaven with Jesus. Many times I have heard people ask, "What will we look like?" "Will we recognize each other?"  I don't believe we spend enough time trying to understand what the resurrection of the body looks like for us.

Once I took my Sunday School class to a cemetery and told them to look around at the graves, close their eyes, and imagine a time when the dead will break out of those graves and rise to meet their Lord. It was a sobering thought that brought the reality of resurrection front and center to them. Scripture does not leave us guessing about this, and Paul addresses it directly.

Correcting Our Thinking About Resurrection

To answer these questions, Paul corrects our way of thinking about resurrection. The Corinthian Christians are asking questions as though they doubt the resurrection could even be possible. Paul explains that this manner of questioning is foolish. He is not saying we shouldn't be curious. Do our questions about resurrection reveal curiosity, or do they expose doubts about what God has clearly promised?

He says, "But God gives it a body as He pleases, and to each seed its own body" (1 Corinthians 15:38). This is a real and true physical resurrection, not a ghost or an ethereal being (Luke 24:39). Just as God formed us in the womb, so He will form our resurrected bodies as He sees fit. These will be the bodies our Father always intended, the kind Adam and Eve knew before the fall, now perfected and glorified in the New Heaven and New Earth (Genesis 1:31; Romans 8:21). This will really be living.

From Perishable to Glorious: The Body Transformed

Paul describes the change that takes place as going from perishable, weak, and without honor to a body that is imperishable, spiritually powerful, and full of the glory of God (1 Corinthians 15:35-44). We often imagine our bodies in Heaven as if we were 20 years old again, or whenever our best years were, but this is a total transformation. As the plant that the seed grows into is different from the seed buried in the ground, so it will be changed.

To further describe the differences, Paul discusses the different types of flesh in the world. There is the flesh of men, of animals, birds, and fish (1 Corinthians 15:39). All formed by God and all originally good.

In the same way, just as God has already created different kinds of bodies suited for life on earth, so our resurrected bodies will be fitted to the plans God has for us in eternity. If God has already created such variety in this world, why would we struggle to believe He can prepare a body perfectly suited for eternity?

What Jesus’ Resurrection Reveals About Ours

We are not left with explanation alone, because we see this reality in the resurrection of Jesus Himself. He was not some ghostly presence but a living, breathing person in the flesh. After Jesus' resurrection He ate with the disciples. His body was real to the touch.

People didn't always recognize Him immediately though. Think about Mary who thought He was the gardener at the tomb (John 20:14-16). Or the disciples on the road to Emmaus whom He taught, but they never recognized Him until He broke bread with them (Luke 24:13-31). If Jesus rose in a real, physical body, how can we doubt that our resurrection will be just as real?

Jesus also speaks directly about what resurrection means for every person. In John 5:28-29 Jesus tells us this,

"Do not marvel at this; for the hour is coming in which all who are in the graves will hear His voice and come forth—those who have done good, to the resurrection of life, and those who have done evil, to the resurrection of condemnation."

This is not symbolic language. Jesus is describing a real moment every person will face.

Two Resurrections, Two Destinies

From this we understand that it is not just those who have faith in Jesus but everyone will be resurrected. If we have faith in Him and as a result do good as evidence of that faith, then we are resurrected to life eternal, but if we do not believe and have done evil, then our resurrection is only to be condemned. God's love and righteous judgment demand justice.

This raises the question of when these resurrections take place. The resurrection of unbelievers will be at a different time, many Christians understand it will be at the end of the Millennial Kingdom. Revelation 20:12-13 says the wicked will be judged by God at the Great White Throne judgment. Most Christians believe that believers will never face this judgment. While Christians may differ on the timing, the certainty of judgment is what Scripture emphasizes.

Jesus’ teaching of the “resurrection of damnation” (John 5:29) explains the eternal fate of non-believers in the lake of fire. Some Christians, however, do teach that all of us will appear before the Great White Throne judgment, but believers will be safe because their names are written in the Book of Life.

While the reality of judgment and the resurrection of the condemned should sober us and stir us to share the gospel, Scripture does not leave believers there. For those who are in Christ, the resurrection is a glorious promise. Our names are already secure in the Book of Life, not because of our own goodness, but because of the perfect righteousness of Jesus credited to us.

This is why Paul moves from death and judgment to triumphant hope: “But thanks be to God! He gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ” (1 Corinthians 15:57). The same power that will raise our bodies up has already secured our home with God because we have victory in Jesus. Judgment for the believer has already fallen on Christ at the cross. Therefore, we do not dread the resurrection, but long for it.

Resurrection of the Body

Every person will be physically resurrected, but not all at the same time, and not all to the same destiny. Believers will be raised imperishable at the Lord’s return (John 6:40; 1 Thessalonians 4:16-17). We learn "that we who are alive and remain until the coming of the Lord, will not precede those who have fallen asleep" (1 Thessalonians 4:15).

Imagine how incredible this will be. All the saints who ever lived will rise on the last day. Think of it: Moses, Elijah, the apostle Paul, Peter, John and your beloved great-great-grandmother will rise together with new bodies to meet the Lord in the air on that great day.

Our lives lived for Christ are intimately tied to each other across time in a way that is hard to imagine. Picture your own loved ones rising together with you. How does this truth make you feel connected to the whole body of Christ across history?

Because this future is certain, it changes how we see our present life. Where today our life is just a vapor, as the Bible describes it, our resurrected life will be for eternity (James 4:14). It will be either an eternity of joy or an eternity of misery without God.

It is very tempting to live life and shove away the thoughts of what happens after we die. Especially when we are young and feeling quite invincible, it may be difficult to realize that on the other side of death lies our everlasting fate.

Because we live with eternity in sight, Paul shares how believers can endure present suffering. He tells us that in spite of the bad things that happen in this life, we don't have to just give up. We can have hope (2 Corinthians 4:8-12).

Paul sees his natural body decaying, growing old, and wearing out, but he is also able to see beyond this present life to things that are not so obvious. These things he only sees by keeping his eyes fixed on Jesus and the reward He promises us (Hebrews 12:2). He knows this hurt he is experiencing in this life will produce a harvest of glory with God forever. This is the perspective that allows a believer to endure whatever trials may come.

Why the Resurrection Changes Everything

All of this rests on one essential truth. In 1 Corinthians 15 Paul tells us that our faith is futile if Christ did not rise from the dead. His resurrection is required because through it death is defeated and a new life in Christ becomes possible. As we are told death entered through one man—Adam and death is defeated through one man—Jesus.

Paul says plainly that we really have no hope if all we believe is that Christ only lived and died. When we as the body of Christ are raised from the dead, then Christ "will deliver the kingdom to God the Father" (1 Corinthians 15:24). Through this all of Christ's enemies will be defeated. And death will be the last. In fact, Paul says if the resurrection isn't true then we should just “... eat and drink, for tomorrow we die!” (1 Corinthians 15:32)

This is exactly where rejecting the resurrection leads. Isn't this the way the world lives? Don't they live as if life has no meaning or hope without a belief in the resurrection? Without hope what is there to live for except fulfilling their own wants and desires?

But we have something far better. No other religion worships a founder who came back from the dead. No other religion believes in a promise of a transformed physical resurrection of the body. They are not all the same.

Our hope, as believers, is in the New Heaven and the New Earth with our Lord for eternity (Revelation 21:1-4). Even Heaven and Earth itself will ultimately be renewed. From Eden's tree of life to the New Jerusalem, Scripture shows we are looking forward to a renewed creation. We will be changed by His design and no transformation could ever be more blessed.

Christ Arose

by Robert Lowry

Up from the grave He arose;

with a mighty triumph o'er His foes;

he arose a victor from the dark domain,

and He lives forever, with His saints to reign.

He arose! He arose! Hallelujah! Christ arose!