Hardly Able to Wait

DEVOTION

1 CORINTHIANS

HARDLY ABLE TO WAIT

1 Cor 15:42-44

42 So will it be with the resurrection of the dead. The body that is sown is perishable, it is raised imperishable; 43 it is sown in dishonor, it is raised in glory; it is sown in weakness, it is raised in power; 44 it is sown a natural body, it is raised a spiritual body.

NIV

Here is the description of what it is going to be like when we die and experience the resurrection and how we will be at that time. If any of us ever think for a moment that this body is not perishable we are indeed fooling ourselves. We need only feel the aches and pains as age creeps alone and we see and feel the differences in our aging body. We remember the youthful look and feel and know it is only going to get older and weaker with more aches and pains until we get to lay it to rest. Then it will be resurrected young, strong without any of the aches and pain of age, and it will last forever. We also know that as we die, we will die with dishonor in the sense of not ever being able to be completely free of all sin, and so our present body will not serve to stand in the presence of God, but we will be raised in a glorified condition, totally free of this bodies demands for pleasure and able to stand in the very presence of our God. Yes, this body is weak, it does demand pleasure, it does not serve us, as much as we serve it, but the day is coming when we will shed this body or it will be transformed into a body of power, although there will be no sin to resist we could if it were. We also see that as we were born in the natural, that natural will die but we will be raised in a spiritual body. Jesus told Nicodemus that in order for us to see the Kingdom of God we must be born again. We know that our bodies cannot go through that rebirth process but our spirits can and must, so that as our bodies are raised as spiritual bodies, our reborn spirit is joined with it. For those who never were born again in the spirit, their bodies will not be raised spiritually either, both body and spirit will perish, perhaps not the instant of death, but surely at the final judgment. But for us who have been born again, a great experience awaits us in the death of this body. Perishable into imperishable, dishonor into glory, weakness into power, and natural into spiritual is what is ahead. It sounds so marvelous we should be anxious for it; we should hardly be able to wait.