Heaven (15 page)

Because we each have a physical body, we already have the single best refer­ence point for envisioning a
new
body. It's like the new upgrade of my word pro­cessing software. When I heard there was an upgrade available, I didn't say,
"I have no idea what it will be like." I knew that for the most part it would be like the old program, only better. Sure,
it has some new features that I didn't expect, and I'm glad for them. But I certainly recognize it as the same program I've
used for a decade.

Likewise, when we receive our resurrected bodies, we'll no doubt have some welcome surprises—maybe even some new features
(though no glitches or pro­gramming errors)—but we'll certainly recognize our new bodies as being
ours.
God has given us working models to guide our imagination about what our new bodies will be like on the New Earth.

CHRIST'S RESURRECTED LIFE IS THE MODEL FOR OURS

Not only do we know what our present bodies are like, we also have an example in Scripture of what a resurrection body is
like. We're told a great deal about Christ's resurrected body, and we're told that our bodies will be like his.

Strangely, though Jesus in his resurrected body proclaimed, "I am not a ghost" (Luke 24:39, NLT), countless Christians think
they will be ghosts in the eternal Heaven. I know this because I've talked with many of them. They think they'll be disembodied
spirits, or wraiths. The magnificent, cosmos-shaking victory of Christ's resurrection—by definition a physical triumph over
physical death in a physical world—escapes them. If Jesus had been a ghost, if
we
would be ghosts, then
redemption wouldn't have been accomplished.

Jesus walked the earth in his resurrection body for forty days, showing us how we would live as resurrected human beings.
In effect, he also demonstrated
where
we would live as resurrected human beings—on Earth. Christ's resurrection body was suited for life on Earth, not primarily
life in the intermediate Heaven. As Jesus was raised to come back to live on Earth, so we will be raised to come back to live
on Earth (1 Thessalonians 4:14; Revelation 21:1-3).

The Jesus who says, " Touch me and see; a ghost does not have flesh and bones, as you see I have,". . . this is the Jesus
who draws back the curtain on the heaven life and shows us what it will be like: embodied!

BRUCE MILNE

The risen Jesus walked and talked with two disciples on the Emmaus road (Luke 24:13-35). They asked him questions; he taught
them and guided them in their understanding of Scripture. They saw nothing different enough about him to tip them on to his
identity until "their eyes were opened" (v. 31). This suggests that God had prevented them from recognizing Jesus earlier,
which they other­wise would have. The point is that they didn't see anything amiss. They saw the resurrected Jesus as a normal,
everyday human being. The soles of his feet didn't hover above the road—they walked on it. No one saw bread going down a trans­parent
esophagus when he swallowed.

We know the resurrected Christ looked like a man because Mary called him "sir" when she assumed he was the gardener (John
20:15). Though at first she didn't recognize his voice, when he called her by name, she recognized him (v. 16). It was then
that she "turned toward him." Because modest women didn't look male strangers in the eye, this phrase suggests that she hadn't
gotten a good look at him before.

The times Jesus spent with his disciples after his resurrection were remarkably normal. Early one morning, he "stood on the
shore" at a distance (John 21:4). He didn't hover or float—or even walk on water, though he could have. He stood, then called
to the disciples (v. 5). Obviously his voice sounded human, because it traveled across the water and the disciples didn't
suspect it was anyone but a human. It apparently didn't sound like the deep, other­worldly voices that movies assign to God
or angels.

Jesus had started a fire, and he was already cooking fish that he'd presumably caught himself. He cooked them, which means
he didn't just snap his fingers and materialize a finished meal. He invited them to add their fish to his and said, "Come
and have breakfast" (John 21:12).

In another appearance to the disciples, Christ's resurrection body seamlessly interacted with the disciples' mortal bodies
(John 20:19-23). Nothing indicates that his clothes were strange or that there was a halo over his head. He drew close enough
to breathe on them (v.
22).

On the other hand, though the doors were locked, Christ suddenly appeared in the room where the disciples were gathered (v.
19). Christ's body could be touched and clung to and could consume food, yet it could apparently "materi­alize" as well. How
is this possible? Could it be that a resurrection body is struc­tured in such a way as to allow its molecules to pass through
solid materials or to suddenly become visible or invisible? Though we know that Christ could do these things, we're not explicitly
told we'll be able to. It may be that some as­pects of his resurrection body are unique because of his divine nature.
†

By observing the resurrected Christ, we learn not only about resurrected bodies but also about resurrected relationships.
Christ communicates with his disciples and shows his love to them as a group and as individuals. He instructs them and entrusts
a task to them (Acts 1:4-8). If you study his interactions with Mary Magdalene (John 20:10-18), Thomas (20:24-29), and Peter
(21:15-22), you will see how similar they are to his interactions with these same people be­fore he died. The fact that Jesus
picked up his relationships where they'd left off is a foretaste of our own lives after we are resurrected. We will experience
conti­nuity between our current lives and our resurrected lives, with the same memo­ries and relational histories.

Once we understand that Christ's resurrection is the prototype for the res­urrection of mankind and the earth, we realize
that Scripture has given us an in­terpretive precedent for approaching passages concerning human resurrection and life on
the New Earth. Shouldn't we interpret passages alluding to resur­rected people living on the New Earth as literally as those
concerning Christ's resurrected life during the forty days he walked on the old Earth?

THE GLORIFIED CHRIST

The Lord Jesus Christ. . . will transform our lowly bodies so that they will be like his glorious body. (Philippians 3:20-21)

We've established that Christ's resurrected body, before his ascension, was quite normal in appearance. But what is Christ's
"glorious body" like? We are given a picture on the Mount of Transfiguration: "There he was transfigured before them. His
face shone like the sun, and his clothes became as white as the light" (Matthew 17:2). The Transfiguration appears to have
given us a preview of Christ's glorified body.

John describes the glorified Christ he saw in the present Heaven:

I turned around to see the voice that was speaking to me. And when I turned I saw seven golden lampstands, and among the lampstands
was someone "like a son of man," dressed in a robe reaching down to his feet and with a golden sash around his chest. His
head and hair were white like wool, as white as snow, and his eyes were like blazing fire. His feet were like bronze glowing
in a furnace, and his voice was like the sound of rushing waters. In his right hand he held seven stars, and out of his mouth
came a sharp double-edged sword. His face was like the sun shining in all its brilliance. When I saw him, I fell at his feet
as though dead. Then he placed his right hand on me and said: "Do not be afraid. I am the First and the Last. I am the Living
One; I was dead, and behold I am alive for ever and ever! And I hold the keys of death and Hades." (Revelation 1:12-18)

Now, in comparison to both Matthew 17 and Revelation 1, it appears that the risen Christ, before his ascension, was not yet
fully glorified. If he would have been glorified, surely his identity would have been immediately apparent to Mary Magdalene
(John 20:14), the disciples on the Emmaus road (Luke 24:1516), and Peter and the apostles when they saw him on the shore (John
21:4).

Consider one of the apostle Paul's reports of encountering the glorified Christ on the road to Damascus: "A great light from
heaven suddenly shone around me. And I fell to the ground and heard a voice saying to me, 'Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting
me?' And I answered, 'Who are you, Lord?' And he said to me, 'I am Jesus of Nazareth, whom you are persecuting.' Now those
who were with me saw the light but did not understand the voice of the one who was speaking to m e . . . . I could not see
because of the brightness of that light" (Acts 22:6-11, ESV).

It appears that Paul's unredeemed eyes were not yet ready to behold the glo­rified Christ. This is in contrast to Stephen,
who saw the glorified Christ at God's right hand, but apparently was
not
blinded: "But Stephen, full of the Holy Spirit, looked up to heaven and saw the glory of God, and Jesus standing at the right
hand of God. 'Look,' he said, 'I see heaven open and the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God'" (Acts 7:55-56).

Certainly, the glorified Christ will be by far the most glorious being in Heaven. Yet, as we will see, Scripture indicates
that we too, in a secondary and derivative way, will reflect God's glory in physical brightness.

Scripture speaks of the likeness of Adam and the likeness of Christ, making some distinction between them: "And just as we
have borne the likeness of the earthly man, so shall we bear the likeness of the man from heaven" (1 Corinthi­ans 15:49).
Christ will remain a man, but his deity that was once veiled in his hu­manity will shine through it. Because of the Fall and
the Curse, we have never been or seen human beings who are fully functional as God's image-bearers, conveying the brightness
and majesty of his being. But that day is coming. Christ, the God-man, the new head of our human race, will be the ultimate
image-bearer, fully conveying the brightness and majesty of the Almighty.

Note, however, that the difference between Adam and Christ, which Paul speaks of in 1 Corinthians 15:45-49, is
not
that one was a physical being and the other wasn't. It was that Adam was under sin and the Curse, and Christ was untouched
by sin and the Curse. Jesus was and is a human being, "in every re­spect like us" (Hebrews 2:17, NLT), except with respect
to sin. So although we should recognize that our resurrection bodies will be glorious in ways that our current bodies are
not, we should also realize that those bodies will continue to be—in both the same and in greater ways—the functional physical
bodies that God designed for us from the beginning.

OF THE DUST OF THE EARTH

After reading the first printing of this book, one Bible teacher expressed his dis­agreement with my belief that there will
be a fundamental continuity between our present bodies and our resurrection bodies. His understanding is that our resurrection
bodies will not be earthly, as our present bodies are. He believes they will not contain DNA or any genetic or physical ties
to our current bodies.

In support of his position, he cited 1 Corinthians 15:47-48, which says, "The first man was of the dust of the earth, the
second man from heaven. As was the earthly man, so are those who are of the earth; and as is the man from heaven, so also
are those who are of heaven."

Paul's point here, I believe, is
not
that Christ's body
wasn't
"of dust" but that Adam's
was.
Indeed, if Christ's body wasn't "of dust," if he had no genetic rela­tionship with Adam, then he would not be fully human,
and he would not be Messiah, the Son of Man. He is—not merely was, but
is
—a descendant of Adam. He is the last Adam, not a non-Adam (1 Corinthians 15:45).

When viewed in context, "dust of the earth" seems to refer to more than the first man's origin, and at points appears to be
associated with mortality and cor­ruption. The man of dust, who was human only, succumbed to temptation; the man from Heaven,
who is both human and divine, could not and did not.

Can one be "of dust" yet not under sin and death? Yes. Adam was, until the Fall. But he was subject to temptation, with the
potential to succumb, whereas one day, when fully redeemed, human beings will not be.

Christ, as the last Adam, is certainly more than Adam, and far greater than Adam, for he came from Heaven. But he did in fact
become a man, and was therefore of the earth. God originally made man from the earth. That is intrin­sic to humanity, and
Christ is fully human.

Christ's resurrection and glorification did not negate his genetic tie to his ancestors. They do not mean he is no longer
a Jew, no longer of Abraham's seed, or no longer fully human. He who is tied to the earth in terms of his humanity will rule
the earth for eternity.

Christ is and will forever remain both God (from Heaven) and man (of earth).

I will grant that if 1 Corinthians 15:47 were the only verse we had, then it could be legitimately interpreted as saying our
resurrection bodies won't be physical or organically related to our current bodies. But it is
not
the only pas­sage we have, and the other passages simply do not allow us to conclude that Christ's resurrection body did not
have actual physical continuity to the old, and was in that sense "not of dust." Surely the risen and glorified Christ re­mains
a descendant of Adam, Abraham, and David. Indeed, it is difficult to understand how he could hold to his claim to Messiahship
if this were not the case.

The nail prints in Christ's hands and feet are the strongest possible affirma­tion that the same earthly body that was crucified
is now the same heavenly body that was raised. "It is I myself! Touch me and see; a ghost does not have flesh and bones as
you see I have" (Luke 24:39).