The Fundamental Doctrines of the Christian faith

by R. A. Torrey

In Luke 24:5, 6, the angels at the tomb from which the body of Jesus had disappeared are recorded as saying to the women who were seeking the body of Jesus to embalm it, "Why seek ye the

living among the dead? He is not here but is risen." Now what were the women seeking? The body of Jesus to embalm it, and the angels say that what they were seeking was not there but was risen, had been raised. Furthermore, in the remainder of the 6th verse and verse 7, they say: "Remember how he spake unto you when he was yet in Galilee, saying that the Son of Man must be delivered up into the hands of sinful men, and be crucified, and the third day rise again." Here they told the women plainly that what was crucified, which of course was the body of Jesus, was raised. If the actual, literal body of Jesus had not been raised, then these angels were liars. Do you believe that? These are only a few of the very many passages in which it is very clearly taught that the very body of Jesus was raised from the dead. The body of Jesus was raised from the dead and our bodies shall be raised from the dead, else Christianity is a lie from start to finish. But Christ was raised from the dead and we shall be raised. Or, as Paul puts it in the 20th verse of this same chapter, "But now hath Christ been raised from the dead, the first fruits of them that are asleep." Our resurrection, the resurrection of our bodies, will be the harvest that follows the resurrection of the body of Christ, which was "the first fruits."

II. THE CHARACTER OF OUR RESURRECTION BODIES

Having clearly settled the fact of the resurrection of the body of Jesus Christ and of our bodies, let us next consider the character of our resurrection bodies.

1. First of all, we know that the body which is raised will not be exactly the same body that it was when it was laid in the grave. This appears from I Cor. 15:35-38: "But some will say, how are the dead raised? And with what manner of body do they come? Thou foolish one, that which thou thyself sowest is not quickened, except it die: and that which thou sowest, thou sowest not in the body that shall be, but a bare grain, it may chance of wheat, or of some other kind; but God giveth it a body even as it pleased him, and to each seed a body of its own." Here we are told that our bodies when they are raised will not be exactly the same as our bodies when they are buried, any more than the wheat that springs from the kernel of wheat that is planted is the same as the kernel that was planted. But just as what grows from the seed comes from the seed and bears the most intimate relation to the seed, so our resurrection bodies come from the body that is buried and bear the most intimate relation to it. The resurrection body is the outcome of the body that is buried. It is the old body quickened and transformed; or, as Paul puts it in Phil. 3:20, 21: "Jesus Christ

. . . shall fashion anew the body of our humiliation, that it may be conformed to the body of his glory, according to the working whereby he is able even to subject all things unto himself."

2. The next thing that the Bible teaches about our resurrection bodies is that they are like the glorified body of Jesus Christ. This appears from the verses just quoted, Phil. 3:20, 21: "The Lord Jesus Christ . . . shall fashion anew the body of our humiliation, that it may be conformed to the body of his glory, according to the work whereby he is able even to subject all things unto himself." Christ's resurrection body was not the same body that was laid in the sepulchre. It was the old body transformed and delivered from the limitations of the body that He had while living here among men, and new qualities imparted to it, and our bodies will also be transformed into the likeness of this glorious body of Christ and thus delivered from the limitations to which they are subjected now, and new qualities imparted to them. It will be a transformed body; the character of its transformation is indicated by the transformation that took place in the body of Jesus Christ. Some suggestion as to what that transformed body of Jesus Christ was like is found in that anticipation of His resurrection which was seen by Peter, James and John on the mount of transfiguration. Matthew in his description of the appearance of Jesus at His transfiguration, tells us that "His face did shine as the sun, and his garments

became white as the light" (Matt. 17:2). Luke tells us that "the fashion of his countenance was altered and His raiment became white and dazzling" (Luke 9:29). Mark tells us that "He was transfigured before them: and his garments became glistering, exceeding white; so as no fuller on earth can whiten them" (Mark 9:2, 3).

3. The next thing that we are told about our resurrection bodies is that they will not be flesh and blood. In I Cor. 15:50, 51 we read, "Now this I say, brethren, that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God." Paul is here talking about our resurrection bodies. It is in the resurrection chapter he says this, and he distinctly tells us that our resurrection bodies will not be "flesh and blood."