October 01, 2022
Daily Devotion:
“Dust to Dust“
1 Corinthians 15:49
New International Version
49 And just as we have borne the image of the earthly man, so shall we[a] bear the image of the heavenly man.
Everybody seems to have a different idea about what our resurrected bodies will be like. Some imagine them to be angel-like, complete with wings. Others wonder if they'll be more like disembodied spirits. Most think that we'll have virtually the same bodies as here on earth-just “new and improved. “None of us can be sure, but Paul goes to great lengths to explain that our resurrection bodies will be completely different from what we see in the mirror. He Speaks of seeds not being the same as that which is harvested. (Think water-melon seeds and watermelons!) Indeed, having the same recognizable bodies would present an immediate problem, considering the range in earthly bodies from aborted fetuses to stillborn infants to disfigured adults and “old wrinkles’. “And will there be racial or gender distinctions on the other side? Even the details of the Resurrection are mind-boggling. If our decaying bodies are truly “dust to dust," will it be a matter of vacuuming and reassembling? And what of the belief that we go immediately to heaven when we die...even before the Resurrection? What bodies do we have in the meantime? Or the belief that we are raptured into heaven and then brought back down to some kind of earthly reign? How Does that work, body-wise? When Jesus rebuked the Resurrection-skeptical Sadducees by saying that in heaven there is no marriage, he was signaling that in the eternal realm life is nothing remotely like what we experience today. Given that unpredictability, Paul’s discussion takes on added meaning. Just as we bear Adam's likeness in this life, in the life to come we will bear the likeness of Christ-but only, ironically, if we already bear his likeness!
The predictable question is: In all honesty, how closely do I Beard the likeness of Jesus while in my present body?
