The sign on the door to the nursery read: “We shall not all sleep, but we shall all
be changed.”

Well, babies that won’t go to sleep, and the assurance of timely diaper changes probably were not what Paul had in mind when he originated this statement in a letter to the Corinthian church. As we read more of his letter (see 1 Corinthians 15), we realize that he is talking about the Lord’s return and our future new bodies. Not all of us will experience bodily death before Christ returns; some of us—whether of this generation or one future—will be here on earth to see His coming. But all of us will be changed—given new bodies when He returns.

Through your body, you relate out of your spiritual heart with people, places, and things of your environment through speech, action, and the five senses: sight, hearing, taste, touch, and smell. Your heart speaks with your mouth, hears with your ears, sees with your eyes, smells with your nose, touches with certain body parts, and performs many physical tasks through your body.

God crucified and resurrected your personhood with Christ. He exchanged your old heart’s spirit, life, and soul for new ones. And when He returns He will instantly transform your body into a “glorified” new body like His:

The Lord Jesus Christ...will transform the body of our humble state into conformity with the body of His glory, by the exertion of the power that He has even to subject all things to Himself (Philippians 3:20, 21).

Behold, I tell you a mystery; we shall not all sleep [physically die], but we shall all be changed [physically], in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet; for the trumpet will sound, and the dead [bodies of believers] will be raised imperishable, and we shall be changed (1 Corinthians 15:51, 52).

For the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trumpet of God; and the dead in Christ shall rise first. Then we who are alive and remain shall be caught up [in our new bodies] together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and thus we shall always be with the Lord (1 Thessalonians 4:16, 17).

Your new body will be like Christ’s
Your new body will be glorified as Christ’s resurrected body was glorified. Scripture reveals little about this. Paul writes that our bodies are perishable and earthly or natural, and that they will be changed—made imperishable, heavenly and spiritual (1 Corinthians 15:42-58). The only other hints we have about Christ’s glorified body are found in the account of the transfiguration (Matthew 17) and our Lord’s appearings and disappearings following His resurrection (Luke 24). Since our new body is said to be imperishable, we can speculate that it will be impervious to disease, injury, aging, and death— indestructible! Anything beyond that is simply speculation.

Are we left now to go through the rest of our earthly lives contending with our old mortal bodies that we inherited from Adam? Yes and no. Our mortal bodies are as perishable as ever, and are subject to disease, injury, aging, and physical death. But there is now a spiritual dimension to our mortal bodies that we should be aware of.

Figure 10-1

Bodies Old & New
Adamic Man's Natural Body	The Christian's Sanctified Body	The Raptured Christian's Glorified Body
Has an Adamic heart Vitalized by Adamic life Characterized by Adamic sin nature	Has a new spiritual heart Member of Christ’s body Sanctified dwelling place of the Holy Spirit Vitalized by Christ’s life Characterized by Christ’s holy nature Perishable (will die) Will be resurrected unto glory	Substantively spiritual (like Christ’s glorified body) Complete in Christ’s image Imperishable (everlasting)

Your body was given new life
At the time God gave us new spiritual hearts, He also made some wonderful changes in our mortal bodies (Figure 10-1). He did this for several reasons, two of which I’ll mention here. First, so our bodies could function in harmony with our new spiritual hearts. Second, so our bodies could accommodate and function in harmony with the indwelling Holy Spirit.

While the body of a Christian shares the perishability of the natural person’s body, the two are strikingly different. Paul tells us the mortal “body is dead because of sin” (Romans 8:10), but: “He who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through His Spirit who indwells you” (Romans 8:11) “For we who live are constantly being delivered over to death for Jesus’ sake, that the life of Jesus also may be manifested in our mortal flesh” (2 Corinthians 4:11).

This is here and now! Paul is speaking about our mortal bodies, though our future immortal ones will also be animated by our new life. At the time God gave you a new spiritual heart and placed Christ’s eternal life in your spirit, He also gave this life to your mortal body.

Your body’s former source of life was ultimately in Adam. When you became a Christian your body was given new life which is imparted to your entire being by the indwelling Spirit of Christ. Paul calls this new life a “pledge” in 2 Corinthians 5:4-8. Think of the new life in your body as a deposit or down payment toward your future, glorified body.

By giving new life to your body, God did not change it from perishable to imperishable. New life animates the physical body but does not preserve it. Paul writes that mortal “death is at work in us, but [Christ’s eternal] life is at work in you” (2 Corinthians 4:12, NIV). He elaborates on this at the end of chapter four and throughout chapter five. Here are some excerpts:

Therefore we do not lose heart, but though our outer man is decaying, yet our inner man is being [functionally] renewed day by day. For momentary, light affliction is producing for us an eternal weight of glory far beyond all comparison, while we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen; for the things which are seen are temporal, but the things which are not seen are eternal....For we know that if the earthly tent which is our house is torn down, we have a building from God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens (2 Corinthians 4:16-18, 5:1).

Your body is now a part of Christ
I suspect most Christians understand that believers are members of the spiritual body of Christ. Paul writes of this in several of his letters. For example, in 1 Corinthians 12:27 he states: “Now you are Christ’s body, and individually members of it.” (See also 1 Corinthians 10:10, 17, 12:12, 13; Colossians 1:18, 3:15; Romans 12:4-8; Ephesians 4:16, 25). But not only are you spiritually a part of Christ’s body, your physical body is a member of Christ’s body: “Do you not know that your bodies are members of Christ? Shall I then take away the members of Christ and make them members of a harlot? May it never be! Or do you not know that the one who joins himself to a harlot is one body with her? For He says, “The two will become one flesh.” But the one who joins himself to the Lord is one spirit with him. Flee immorality. Every other sin that a man commits is outside the body, but the immoral man sins against his own body” (1 Corinthians 6:15-18).

That passage underscores the fact that the believer’s body is positionally in the realm of light and spirit: That is where Christ is, and since believers’ bodies are relationally “members of Christ,” both spiritually and physically, that is where we are as well. Yet, a wayward Christian might place his or her body into conditional darkness and flesh by giving it over to various kinds of “harlots” —such as committing spiritual adultery with the world. This includes any behavior or treatment of the physical body that would dishonor Christ.

Your body was sanctified, and how you use it is being sanctified
Paul writes, “Now may the God of peace Himself sanctify you entirely; and may your spirit and soul and body be preserved complete, without blame at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ” (1 Thessalonians 5:23).

At the time of our salvation, every aspect of our being (spiritual heart and physical body) was sanctified (ontological sanctification). So when Paul writes in the above verse of entire sanctification and complete preservation, “entirely” and “complete” transcend ontological sanctification to encompass the progressive sanctification of our walk—heart functioning, behavior, and life-style.

Our body is the Temple of the Holy Spirit, in which He resides and functions: “Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God, and that you are not your own? For you have been bought with a price [literally “redeemed,” from the Greek agorazo]; therefore glorify God in your body” (1 Corinthians 6:19, 20).

Before you became a Christian your body was a substantively unclean vessel that made it unacceptable to God for His Temple. but when you became a Christian God gave the eternal life of Christ to your new heart and to your body as well. And with His life came His holy, righteous and loving nature. Because of this your body is substantively “already clean” (John 15:3). In 1 Corinthians 3:17, Paul leaves no doubt about the holy nature of your body: “the temple of God is holy, and that is what you are” (1 Corinthians 3:16, 17).

The believer’s body experiences redemption in two phases: redemption from the realm of darkness and flesh, and second, when it will be redeemed from its perishable material state through transformation into the imperishable glorified state.

Your body should reflect your true self
What does your body language communicate to others about you? Does it make a true statement about who you are in Christ?

Many people derive much of their self-esteem and identity from physical appearance and abilities. Those play important roles in relating our personality to others, and in getting certain needs and desires met. Entertainers and athletes have extraordinary physical attributes, and many of them rely heavily on their physique and bodily skills to help shape their personalities and to meet their needs and desires.

Have you ever noticed that “successful” people are usually physically attractive by common, worldly standards? The world tends to more readily accept so-called “beautiful” people than others. It is no wonder that many people base self-esteem and identity on their physical appearance and abilities. While this might work for some, it works against many others whose physical attributes don’t quite measure up to worldly standards of attractiveness.

Most of us would agree with the adage that “beauty is only skin deep.” People in contemporary society, many Christians included, collectively spend billions of dollars annually on things to improve physical appearance and ability in a vain attempt to bolster their self-esteem, change their identity for the better, and make themselves more acceptable, if not more desirable. They buy cosmetics and fashions, and even alter their bodies for aesthetic reasons through plastic surgery, breast implants, cosmetic dentistry, hair implantation, hair removal, and other such tactics. But such physical “enhancements” can only produce superficial beauty.

Let me hasten to point out that there may be nothing wrong with such things, in and of themselves; but believers should understand that there is danger in vanity and in basing self-esteem and identity on physical attributes.

In Peter’s first letter in the Bible, he advises that we take every precaution to ensure that our personality reflects our true personhood or “hidden person of the heart,” as he terms it. Here is part of what he wrote to women (the gist of it also applies to men): “And let not your adornment be merely external—braiding the hair, and wearing gold jewelry, or putting on dresses; but let it be the hidden person of the heart, with the imperishable quality of a gentle and quiet spirit, which is precious in the sight of God” (1 Peter 3:3, 4).

Does this mean a Christian woman must be a plain Jane and follow a legalistic code against braided hair, cosmetics, jewelry, and stylish clothes? Not necessarily. We have the liberty to adorn our bodies in any way we wish; but with qualification. Paul is emphatic about this: “All things are lawful for me, but not all things are profitable. All things are lawful for me, but I will not be mastered by anything” (1 Corinthians 6:12).

There are some conditions as well as consequences we should be aware of in exercising our liberty in Christ: We are to magnify His glory, not attempt to glorify ourselves; we are to project our true self—our hidden person of the heart—to others; we must keep in mind that self-esteem and identity are derived from who we are in Christ; and, we must refrain from exercising our liberty if it is done out of lust or vanity, or causes someone to stumble (Romans 14:1-8; 1 Corinthians 8:9). So before you deviate from Peter’s “dress code,” consider your motives, the sensibilities of others, and your reflection of the glory of Christ in you (John 17:22).

At salvation, our bodies were redeemed from the darkness and sanctified. That was the first phase of the redemption of our bodies. Redeemed by whom? By God! What price was paid? The life of the Lord Jesus Christ! Bought from whom? From Satan, sin, the world, and the death curse of God’s law. At present, our bodies are spiritual and physical members of Christ and serve as the Temple of God. And when Christ returns, He will orchestrate the second phase of the redemption of our bodies by transforming them into the state of glory like His own body.

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