I want to make sure that our grasp of resurrection life is correct. So we must know the Scriptures and understand what we are reaching for, lest a wrong concept about resurrection life leads us into a wrong concept about our physical bodies.

Speaking of our physical bodies, Paul describes it as a tent or a house:

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. For 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. (2 Corinthians 5:1–3)[1]

The naked aspect here is talking about your spirit. Every spirit seeks to be housed because the effectiveness of a spirit comes from the housing that surrounds it. Therefore, your spirit must be released from your earthy body to be clothed with a heavenly body.

For indeed while we are in this tent, we groan, being burdened, because we do not want to be unclothed but to be clothed, so that what is mortal will be swallowed up by life. Now He who prepared us for this very purpose is God, who gave to us the Spirit as a pledge. (2 Corinthians 5:4–5)

The process of resurrection is like oxidation. It can be slow and oxidize over time like rust, or it can be rapid as when a material burns and explodes. Obviously, there is a vast difference. Yet from the aspect of physics, they are both the same process of oxidation. And in a sense, resurrection life is like that.

Often the process of death is like rust. The rust may appear as gray hair, creaky joints, or other physical ailments where things start to break down. So we realize that the process of physical death can take place slowly over time. And if you are a believer, the process of dying and going to heaven is one method of getting into resurrection life.

However, I believe that through the resurrection of Christ, our spiritual bodies are complete, and resurrection life is available for us now (John 11:26). But that is not to say that you can bypass the process. You simply speed up the process until it happens so fast that in the twinkling of an eye you are changed, and death loses its victory (1 Corinthians 15:39–57). You can call it folding your tent; you can even still call it death. But the process is so rapid that you no longer bond with your earthly body.

You must get rid of bonds and relate to God with the wholeness and completeness of a free, unfettered spirit because you do not get resurrection life until the bonds are gone. If your doctrine is, “Oh, I can’t die! I’ve got to go directly into resurrection life,” then you are holding onto an earthly body that will disappear in the process. We are to be transformed into that which is eternal because flesh and blood cannot inherit the Kingdom of God.

At some point you are going to let go of this housing and step into your eternal body that is imperishable and already exists. So get your spirit to embrace the promise of that reality. “We will not all sleep, but we will all be changed” (1 Corinthians 15:51). We are transformed into His image from glory to glory (2 Corinthians 3:18). If you think your earthly body can be beautiful, wait until you see your heavenly body!

[1] All Scripture references are from the New American Standard Bible 1995 (NASB1995).

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