Joy in Our Future Bodies
Wednesday, September 8, 2021
Philippians 3:21
I've been working really, really hard. I have been trying to work out, lose a little weight, work on my conditioning, get my heart rate up for a healthy heart, and work on what I affectionately call Uncle Eddie. Uncle Eddie has gotten bigger, and I don't like how Uncle Eddie is growing. I've been doing a lot of different things, including some core work and some brisk walking. I walk about a mile and a half to two miles every morning. I'll tell you what, it's harder to lose weight as you get older. Those of you who are like me, in your 40s (and who lie), as we get older I get more sore. I mean, I do brisk walks and the next morning I get up and every joint is creaky and old. I've had some stents put in me, I've had health things, you've had health things. Your body just breaks down. Even if you're on the TB12 Tom Brady health plan, or if you don't eat meat, or some other type of diet - those things are really good, I applaud all of that, and I'm going to fight tooth and nail to stay healthy. But at the end of the day, our bodies will lose and our life will be over. We should fight it all we can, but we should also remember that that's how life goes. One day we will not have that problem. One day, we will have bodies that don't ache, we will have bodies that don't get sick, will have bodies that don't have an Uncle Eddie, bodies that are pain free, sin free, disease free, and problem free. In fact, they will be like Jesus Christ, and that brings me joy.
So, I want to tell you about joy and our future bodies. When your body is hurting today, remember that one day you'll have a future body that will never hurt if you are a Christian. I get that from Philippians 3:21. I want to start in the previous verse and explain the context. It says, "But our citizenship is in heaven. And we eagerly await a Savior from there, the Lord Jesus Christ, who, by the power that enables him to bring everything under his control, will transform our lowly bodies so they will be like his glorious body." So, Christ will transform our lowly bodies, our broken-down bodies, our sin-stained bodies, our disease-potential bodies, so they will be like his glorious body. That's a fascinating thought. When Jesus Christ rose from the dead, he put on what theologians call a "glorified body." Jesus Christ is God in His essence, but he took on a human body that was tempted in every way, yet never sinned, as Hebrews tells us.Then, that human body was crucified on the cross, put into a tomb, and, if you know the Easter story, three days later rose again. When Jesus Christ rose again, he rose in what is called a glorified body. That means he could teleport to different places, he no longer feels disease, sickness or any of that. The Bible says we will have a body like that in heaven.
What a fascinating thought. We'll have a body that's never sick, never sin-laden, never diseased, and never dies. It will be a glorified body like Jesus Christ's body. Some of you are hurting right now. Some of you are in pain, some of you hate the aging process (I think we all do unless you're young), some of you have the Battle of the Bulge that I have with Uncle Eddie. But here's the thing, one day our bodies will be like Jesus Christ's: glorified and pain free. I hope that brings you joy and encouragement to know that the body we have now will one day be replaced with a glorified body. People ask me, "Vince, when a person dies do they get the glorified body then?" No, we don't get the glorified body until the rapture of the church, the next great event in the future. We'll talk more about that at Lakeshore in our series How It All Ends in October of 2021. I hope you'll check that out. But here's the thing, you will get that new body. Then you ask, "What happens when a Christian dies now?" Their soul and spirit, their immaterial being, goes to heaven. Their body goes to the ground, and one day that body will be resurrected and reconstituted into the glorified body that will never feel pain. I hope that encourages you.
Father, whoever is hurting physically, I pray that you would help them and heal them. Whoever is struggling with health things, I pray that you will help their bodies recover. In the meantime, give us the joy that one day we'll have a new body to replace this lowly body. Encourage us with that thought. In Jesus' name, amen.