We will be everything God created. mankind to be. radiating even the glory of God shining through our redeemed and resurrected humanity. We will be like. Christ in His Transfiguration.
Radiant glory. Welcome to Grace to You, the Bible teaching ministry of John MacArthur. I'm your host, Phil Johnson. Perhaps you sat at the bedside of a loved one ravaged by old age or disease, or your doctor has given you a diagnosis of cancer and followed it up with the words stage four or terminal. In those sobering moments, what hope is there?
Where can you look for encouragement and comfort and peace? John MacArthur helps you answer those questions today as he continues his study titled, The End is Not the End. It's a biblical look at death and what comes after. particularly for followers of Christ. And with that, here's John.
Let's open our Bibles to 1 Corinthians chapter 15. And look at Pause. Chapter on Resurrection. The resurrection of believers is the theme of this chapter. The Bible promises a redemption of the body, not just the spirit, not just the soul, not just the inner person.
Romans 8, 23 says that we are waiting for the redemption of our body.
Now Paul has four lines of argument. First of all, there is an analogy He talks about an analogy to help us understand resurrection. Then he talks about the form of resurrection. Then he talks about the contrasts. And then the prototype of a resurrection body.
Let's begin with the analogy in verse 36: you fool. You're foolish because you think you're smart and you're a fool. Listen to what I have to say to explain resurrection. First, he starts with an analogy. It is the analogy of seed.
The planting of seed that produces Some kind Of result. in what grows out of that seed. Secondly, Paul moves from the analogy to the form of resurrection down in verse 39. It's incredible to realize. The massive, incomprehensible, creative.
Power of God No two people are alike. No two plants are alike. No two animals are alike. No two flowers are alike. No two blades of grass are alike.
So also is the resurrection of the dead. We're not going to be resurrected as cookie-cutter kind of clones. We're going to be who we are. uniquely. As one body differs from another, so the resurrection body.
Of the believer will differ from this body. That's what he said. And There is the possibility That in the resurrection We will be unique. That's the second point that he's making. That is to say, your human personality Your personhood will not be wiped out.
It will be preserved forever in. perfection, but with its distinctives and with its differences. Just as you Differ from everybody else now, you will then. Just as you are you now, you will be then.
So that you will know each other in heaven. You say, well, will we recognize each other? It won't be a matter of recognition, it'll be a matter of innate knowledge. Because there will be nothing that you don't know. You will know as you are known.
So the form Not a problem for God. Not a problem for God. He can prepare a body. Eric Sauer. Wrote, so the graveyards of men become the seed plots.
Of resurrection. And the cemeteries of the people of God. become the resurrection fields of their promised Perfection.
Now having said that, there are two more Points to Paul's thoughts here. Number three, we've seen the analogy in the seed, we've seen the form in looking at all the bodies throughout. Heaven and earth. The contrasts are on his mind, starting in verse. 42.
The contrasts. This is Very interesting. It, speaking of the resurrection of the dead, the body. It is sown. A perishable body.
It is raised. an imperishable body. It is sown in dishonor. It is raised in glory. It is sown in weakness.
It is raised in power. It is sown a natural body. It is raised a spiritual body. If there is a natural body, there is also A spiritual body. The chief objection, of course.
From the typical Greek denier of resurrection. was that the body was corruptible and the body was subject to decay.
So Paul's showing us how this ceases to be a problem in the resurrection by a series of contrasts. We get these contrasts very, very clearly. Verse 42 and 43. Yes, what died was perishable. What is raised is imperishable.
What died was sown in dishonor, but raised in glory, sown in weakness, raised in power.
Sown natural, raised spiritual. These are contrasts. Let me just look a little more closely at them. The authorized version used to say Sown in corruption, raised in Incorruption. The whole of life for man from the cradle to the grave is in the sphere of corruption.
What does that mean? It means that the first breath you take is the beginning of your dying. This is corruption, dust. to dust. The moment you're born, you begin to die.
Corruption begins to function and operate. It is a property of man's earthly body. And second, he says, Not only Is this Resurrection body sown, a perishable body, but raised an imperishable, verse 43, it is sown in dishonor, it is raised in glory. There is a sowing in dishonor. This is the dishonor of death.
This is the dishonor of. of dying. No matter how intelligent you are, no matter how handsome you are, no matter how brilliant you are, no matter how successful you are, no matter how much you've accomplished. You begin to show signs of dishonor. Corruption.
Since takes its toll. And all your beauty and youth and Brilliance. and strength and power and influence. begin to fade. And you go from whatever honor you received.
to dishonor And if you ever wonder about that, Just go visit. A home For all people. And see some of the brightest and the most honorable people. in a state of utter dishonor. We all get there.
unless our life is snatched away. Before Sin is ultimately going to dishonor us. It's going to turn us into something. That needs to be Removed. from society and put away and locked up.
Human life eventually becomes dishonorable. in that sense, in the bodily sense. It always amazes me to go to a funeral. and see what they do to the body. to try to give it some honor.
Makeup? Dressing corpses in their Sunday best. Putting them in a fine casket. And yet we all No, this is the ultimate. Indignity.
The ultimate dishonor. But says Paul. It is raised in glory. It is raised in glory. What does that mean?
In the picture of that, Matthew 17, transfiguration glory of Christ. It is raised in radiant glory. It is raised in the full manifestation of divine creation intention. This doesn't mean we'll be like Adam. No, we will not be like Adam before he fell.
We will be like Adam would have been if he had never sinned. We will be glorified. Romans 8. He says that. whom he has chosen.
He justified And he glorified. When we come out of the grave, there will be no dishonor. We will be everything God created. mankind to be. Four Human Glory.
radiating even the glory of God shining through our redeemed and resurrected humanity. We will be like. Christ in His Transfiguration. Radiant glory. Saints are viewed in pictures in the book of Revelation as Literally radiating light, garments of radiating light and glory.
When we die, we are sown in the ground like a seed. that is perishable, we are raised imperishable. We are sown like a seed that is in dishonor. We are raised in glory. Thirdly, in verse 43, we are sown like a seed in weakness, raised in power.
Nothing is weaker than a dead body. We are even weak when we're alive. We get weaker as life goes on. We're subject to disease. Heartache.
Failure. Injury. We can't fulfill our dreams. We can't fulfill our desires. We can't conquer our weaknesses.
We can't overcome our Temptations. Finally, in death, we are utterly helpless. We are sown then in Weakness. Nothing weaker than a dead body. But we are raised in power.
raised in power. When we are raised, there will be no weakness. We will be raised. Possessing eternal power, divine power. The power that is generated in and through us by the very life of God in us.
No more the sting of defeat. No more the bitterness of disappointment. No more the shame of failure. No more the impossibility of certain accomplishments and efforts. We will live in a sphere of power and triumph and victory.
That's why over in verse 54 says, Death is swallowed up in victory. We come out of the grave victorious. Death, where is your victory? Death, where is your sting? The sting of death is sin.
The power of sin is the law. But thanks be to God who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. Martin Luther said about the human body, as weak as it is now, without all power and ability when it lies in the grave, so strong will it eventually become when the time arrives, so that not a thing will be impossible for it. It will have the mind for it. And it will be so light.
Says Luther, so agile that in an instant it can float here below on earth or above in heaven. describing our moving back and forth in the new heavens and the new earth. Yes, the grave does declare the body to be sown in. Corruptibility. Dishonor And weakness.
And it decays. No matter how grandiose the eulogy is. No matter how well dressed the corpse is, no matter how ornate the funeral. No matter how sweet the fragrances, no matter how beautiful the flowers. It is death.
It is decay. The seed sown. But when the resurrection comes, Out of the grave, will come for the believer. A new body. It will be a body.
Raised imperishable, raised in glory, and raised in power. And summing it up in verse 44. It is sown a natural body It is raised a spiritual body. If there's a natural body, there's also a spiritual body. Natural means pertaining to the flesh.
Natural means pertaining to this life. Has to do with the present life. It's the natural man, 1 Corinthians 2.14. That's what this body is for. When we go into the grave, we go sowing, that body is being sown as a natural body, a body designed to fit this present life.
It's sukikan, it's sukai, flesh. Natural life. As long as we live on earth, we're plagued by being natural. Thus corruption, dishonor, and weakness. That all is a part of sin, of course.
The natural body then is not suitable for the life to come. It has to be sown. It has to die so that another body can come forth. Not a natural body, but. that it be raised a spiritual body.
That is, a body which is fit for the spiritual realm. Not a spirit, but a body suited for the spiritual realm. And again, I perhaps should read 2 Corinthians 5. Paul says, if this 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. It's an eternal body.
Indeed, in this house we groan, longing to be clothed with our dwelling from heaven. Inasmuch as we having put it on will not be found naked. Indeed, while we are in this tent, we groan, being burdened, because we don't want to be unclothed, but to be clothed, so that what is mortal will be swallowed up By life, and then he goes on to say, This is God's purpose for us. We give up. Masuke flash.
For pneumaticon soma. A body that fits the spiritual realm. The realm where God dwells. fit for spiritual life. The body we have now is adapted to this.
Lower place. The body we receive in resurrection will be adapted to that. Higher place. It is pneumaticon soma, a body transformed by the life-giving power of the Holy Spirit and adapted for our new residence in heaven. It will be a body of glory.
Glory means it'll be a body where God's manifestation will radiate from us. We will possess divine life. In every sense. We will radiate the very glory of God.
Now you're saying to yourself, no, wait a minute, I still don't know what this thing's going to look like.
So let me give you the final point that Paul makes, the prototype. Verse 45.
So also it is written. The first man, Adam, became a living soul. The last atom became a life-giving spirit.
However, the spiritual is not first, but the natural, then the spiritual. The first man is from the earth, earthy. The second man is from heaven. As is the earthy, so also are those who are earthy, and as is the heavenly, so also are those who are heavenly. Just as we have borne the image of the earthy, We will also bear the image of the heavenly.
Hmm. Paul loves to make Comparisons between Adam and Christ. He does it a lot. He does it a lot. And he does it here again.
comparing Adam to Christ, the heads of two families. Adam, of course, is the head of all those who are earthy. Christ is the head of all those who are heavenly. He contrasts these two. There is Adam Who became a living soul.
Quoting from Genesis 2. And he has given us Natural life. Life that is from the earth. Earthy. But then there is Christ.
Who is The last atom. who becomes a life-giving spirit. who gives us spiritual life This is heavenly life. The last Adam. Gives us life suited for heaven.
As the first Adam gave us life suited for Earth. We all descend from Adam. We were all there in the loins of Adam. All of us have come from Adam and Eve, and Adam's nature basically is our nature. We're like Adam.
Adam is the prototype of man's natural life and a natural body with sin. Jesus Christ is the prototype of man's spiritual life and his spiritual body.
So if you ask the question, what will your body be like? It'll be like the resurrected body of Christ. That's the best that we can say. And they saw him, they recognized him, they talked with him, he ate with him, he walked through walls, he moved himself from one place to another instantaneously without traversing the space in between. He had a glory about him that was transcendent.
We moved from earth to heaven. Adam was originally created. gave us all our natural life. And with it death. Christ.
As risen from the dead, gives us our spiritual life. incorruptible, glorified. Powerful. spiritual life. Paul actually says in Philippians 3.21, We will have the body of his glory.
There's that word glory again. 1 John 3, 2, we will see him. As he is. We will be like him. Different.
Radiant Transcendent, powerful. Yet to be touched and felt, and Christ still had the scars of the wounds. Still recognizable, the same Jesus. Do you remember Acts 1.11, Jesus ascended to heaven? The angel said, this same Jesus.
who is taken up from you will come. It's the same Jesus. That is the prototype for resurrection.
So, all that we know about the resurrected Christ. Is what we know about our resurrection bodies. Again, look at. Philippians 3, 20 and 21 for yourself. Look at all the records in the Gospels of Christ after his resurrection.
And you'll see the prototype Of our resurrected bodies. We bear now the image of Adam. The body of decay, then we will bear the image of Christ, the body of Glory.
Now we are earthy. Then we will be heavenly.
Now we bear the image of the earthy. Verse 49. Then The image Of the Heavenly. We will be copies of the Lord Jesus Christ after His resurrection. It's just an incredible thing.
to realize. What an astonishing and amazing gift. That's going to happen. That resurrection is going to happen. When our Lord comes, listen to 1 Thessalonians 4.
We believe, verse 14, that if Jesus That Jesus died and rose again, even so God will bring with him those who've fallen asleep in Jesus. For this we say to you by the word of the Lord, that we are alive and remain, till the coming of the Lord will not precede those who have fallen asleep. In other words, the dead. Will rise first. The Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, with the trumpet of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first.
Then we who are alive and remain at the rapture will be caught up together. With them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, so shall we always be with the Lord.
Well what happens at the rapture when We're all going up into the air, those who are alive and those who are coming out of the graves. Verse 51 of 1 Corinthians 15 tells us. I tell you a mystery. We will not all sleep. We will all be changed.
in a moment. In the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet, for the trumpet will sound and the dead will be raised imperishable and we will be changed. And that is when this perishable must put on the imperishable and this mortal must put on immortality. That is when death is swallowed up. in victory.
That's the resurrection. That's what the Lord has prepared for us. A body fit for the full life of heaven. A body From which the glory of God will radiate, a body of power. A body without any human restrictions of time or space.
A body that can eat but never need to. A body that can fly and move from one place to another. freely. A body with no age. No time limitation.
A body that exists in an eternal present of joy and peace. that knows no past and knows no future. The just and eternal Moment of peace. and joy. A body Exalted to be capable of doing everything that God designed man to do, and far beyond what we can imagine.
A body totally happy, totally content, totally at peace, totally satisfied. where there is no pain, no tears, no sorrow, no crying, no dying. A body of splendor. described as dazzling as transparent as shining like the moon and the stars. As the brightness of the sky, as the sun in its strength, and as the Lord Jesus Christ in full resurrection glory.
This is an amazing and astonishing promise. We will Rise. You're listening to Grace to You, the Bible teaching ministry of John MacArthur. John's current study is called The End is Not the End. In this study, John has been making the point that people live out their theology.
They apply what they believe in the way that they live. Connecting that to our current topic, death and what comes after, I asked John in studio some years ago about how an accurate biblical understanding of what heaven is like should change the way believers live to day. Here's what John said. The more you know about heaven the more attractive it becomes. the more you exhaust every single thing that you can find in the Bible about heaven.
the more welcoming it is. And I'm not talking about foolish books. That lie about people having trips to heaven. That doesn't happen. People going to heaven, coming back, and telling all kinds of crazy stories about what supposedly happened.
That kind of uh Of deception, that kind of falsehood has no place among Christian people, even though those books sell in the millions. But the Bible does say a lot about heaven. And there's only been one person. who came from heaven to earth, and that was the Lord Jesus Christ. He's the only one who came from heaven to earth.
So, what we know about heaven comes from him. The person of Christ who came from heaven, and from the book that God wrote, the scriptures, the Bible. and instructed us concerning heaven. I've written a book called The Glory of Heaven. This is the truth about heaven.
This isn't some kind of fantasy. This isn't some kind of deception, some lies and curious imaginations about what heaven is like. This is the truth of what the Bible says. What is heaven really like? What will we do there?
What is the role of the angels? Will we know each other? And so forth and so on. How do we comfort one another in the midst of the suffering of the loss of a friend or family member in the light of the fact they're going to heaven? Tremendously important for us to know that that's why the Bible gives us so much information.
Look, this is where we're going to spend forever. And we need to know all we can about it. That's right, friend, we do. And John's book, The Glory of Heaven, paints a biblical portrait of life in heaven, your glorious future home, if you're a Christian. It's an ideal resource to give to someone you know who may be very close to entering eternity.
To order a copy of The Glory of Heaven, get in touch today. The Glory of Heaven costs $12.50 in hardcover and shipping is free. To order, call our customer service team at 80055 Grace. or visit our website gty.org. The title again, The Glory of Heaven.
Pick up your copy when you call 800-55GRACE. or when you go to gty.org. Also at our website, you can listen again to today's lesson. There you will also find dozens of other topical studies as well as hundreds of sermons that you've never heard on the radio. In fact, all of John's sermons, over 56 years' worth, are free to download in audio and transcript format at gty.org.
The website is also the place to purchase John's New Testament commentaries, the MacArthur Study Bible, the systematic theology called Biblical Doctrine. And much more. Our web address again, gty.org.
Now for the entire Grace DU staff, I'm Phil Johnson. Thanks for making this broadcast part of your day, and join us again tomorrow when John MacArthur continues his compelling and sobering study. The end is not the end. Don't miss the next half hour of unleashing God's Truth one verse at a time. on Grace to You.
