LEARNING DAILY

 

John 11;25-26, Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in Me, though he may die, he shall live. And whoever lives and believes in Me shall never die. Do you believe this?”

 

I am not finished with Resurrection Sunday yet. Jesus is talking to Martha, the sister of Lazarus. She believed if Jesus had been with them, Lazarus would not have died because Jesus would have healed him; they knew He had power over sickness. However, He had delayed being there to demonstrate He had power over death, not only in the last days but at this moment in time.

 

Jesus was teaching an important concept: for the person who believes in Jesus, physical death is not the end of life. It is instead the gateway, the beginning of abundant life and fellowship with God in heaven. It is like leaving a room in a building, going through the door and standing in another room. In this case, the room being left is life on this earth as we know it, death is the door and God’s eternal kingdom is the next room. “The words “shall live” refer to the resurrection; the words “shall never” mean that resurrected Believers will never cease to exist. They shall have resurrected bodies, immortal, and incorruptible (1 Corinthians 15:42, 54), ones that cannot die or deteriorate (Romans 8:10, 2 Corinthians 4:16) and ones that are perfectly designed by God for the greater life to come hereafter (1 Corinthians 15:35-58)” (LSSB).

 

Our bodily resurrection, as Believers, is guaranteed through the resurrection of Jesus Christ. The Believer’s resurrected body will be like the resurrected body of Jesus (read Philippians 3:20). Our resurrected body will be recognizable with our earthly body as seen in Luke 16:19:31; our resurrected body will be changed however in order to adapt to the new heaven and new earth. 1 Corinthians15:42-45 describes this body as imperishable, free from decay and death, a glorified body, like Christ’s, and a powerful body that is not subject to disease or death. Other scripture refers to this body as not being bound to the laws of nature. For example, after He had talked and eaten with two disciples on the road to Emmaus, he simply vanished. And when He met with the disciples in the Upper Room where they were waiting for Him, He simply appeared to them. At that time, He ate and drank with them indicating the resurrected body will be capable of eating and drinking.

 

The LSSB indicates the immortality of the resurrected body is for three purposes: 1) so Believers may become all that God intended for humans at creation (1 Corinthians 2:9); so Believers may come to know God in the full way He wants them to know Him (John 17:3); so God may express His love to His children as He desires (Ephesians 2:7).

 

For those who are faithful and still alive when the trumpet sounds for the rapture of the Church, they will experience the same bodily transformation as those who have died before this event. They will not experience physical death.

 

From now on DJSB will be used to note information or quotes from the David Jeremiah Study Bible and LSSB will refer to information and quotes from the Life in the Spirit Study Bible.