The Resurrected Body

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This is Today With Derek Prince. The internationally recognized Bible teacher and author presents to you Keys To Successful Living.

In yesterday’s talk Derek Prince continued with his topic ‘Resurrection of the Dead,’ by sharing with us what happened at the resurrection of Jesus and the effect it has on all true believers. Today as he continues this week’s theme he will give us five specific changes that will take place in our resurrection bodies. Be sure to stay tuned at the end of the program for our address and this week’s special offer.

Derek Prince:

Everyone who has this hope in Him purifies himself just as He is pure. Do you have that mark? Is that evidence in your life that you’re really expecting the return of Jesus?

Now, our body will be like His and we observed in the record of the gospels that He was not limited by time or space. He could ascend to heaven, come down again, He could enter a room with all the doors closed, He could appear in one form to one person and another form to another person. He had, shall we say, a flexible body. I believe we’ll have a similar kind of body.

People say, ‘Well, what will that body be like?’ Paul deals with that question in 1 Corinthians chapter 15:35–38.

“But someone will say, ‘How are the dead raised up and with what body do they come?’ I’m sure most of us have felt like asking that. Foolish one . . . [Paul says. Paul is saying it, not me.] . . . what you sow is not made alive unless it dies.”

And then he goes on with this example of the seed.

“And what you sow, you do not sow the body that shall be but mere grain [or mere seed, perhaps wheat or some other grain], but God gives it a body as He pleases and to each seed its own body.”

Now, there are two things combined there: there’s continuity and there’s change. If you sow an apple pit into the ground you don’t get an orange. The nature of the seed determines the nature of the life that will come out of the seed. So there’s continuity but there’s also change. The apple tree that comes out of the apple pip is not really very like the pip. So there will be continuity. You’ll be the same but there’ll be a tremendous supernatural change. What you sow determines what comes up but nevertheless what comes up is totally different from what was sown. So our body is sown in burial into the ground as a seed—the same body will come forth but a totally different kind of body. I think that’s so vivid.

I always marvel when I think about a seed. I think about that little thing, whatever color it is, I always think of a watermelon. That black seed and you put it in the ground and who could ever believe that that gorgeous, round melon would come out of it. It’s a continuing miracle. Every time we sow a seed we plant a miracle. And the miracle is designed to remind us of our resurrection.

Jesus was very careful to emphasize that when He rose it was the same body that had been crucified. We’ll look in Luke 24. The disciples were all scared, very much so, when He first appeared. They couldn’t really believe what had happened. But Jesus said to them in Luke 24:38–39 after His resurrection appearance:

“Why are you troubled? And why do doubts arise in your heart? Behold my hands and my side that it is I myself.”

In His hands and His side He showed them the evidence of crucifixion. He wanted to make very plain that it was the same body but transformed.

“And then in John chapter 20 there’s a further record of the resurrection of Jesus. It says:”

“He stood in the midst and said to them, ‘Peace be with you.’
That’s the traditional Middle East greeting.
Now when He had said this He showed them His hands and His side.”

Why did He do that? To show them it was the same body that they’d seen crucified. Well, you remember Thomas wasn’t there and Thomas said, ‘Well, I will not believe unless I can see His hands and side and put my hand into His side.’ So a week later Jesus appeared again and in verse 27 He said to Thomas:

“Reach your finger here and look at my hands, and reach your hand here and put it into my side.”

In other words, the wound was still such that Thomas could put his hand in. So this is very important because when you get resurrected you’re not going to have a new body, you’re going to have a different body but it will be the same body changed.

Now, Paul tells us of five specific changes that will take place in our resurrection body. And he speaks of this in 1 Corinthians 15:42–44 and verses 52 and 53. So we’ll read those verses. 42–44 and 52 and 53. Paul says:

“So also is the resurrection of the dead. The body is sown in corruption, it is raised in incorruption. You know what corruption is? It’s decay. Anything that decays is corrupt.
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.”

There is a natural body, there is a spiritual body. Now, that’s hard to understand. Unfortunately, the translation doesn’t help very much. This is one of the problems of the English translation and every translation seems to have the same problem. The Greek word is psuchikos which is directly derived from the Greek word for a soul which is psuche. There’s only one reasonable translation which is soulish. It is sown a soulish body, it is raised a spiritual body. You see there the distinction between spirit and soul. Now some languages, for instance, Swedish, has a word for soulish. So does Danish. And really, English has got to have that word rightly to represent what the Bible teaches.

“For instance, in 1 Corinthians chapter 2 Paul says:
The soulish man does not receive the things of the Spirit of God.”

But the translations all say ‘the natural man,’ ‘the carnal man,’ et cetera. It all obscures this tremendously important distinction between the soulish and the spiritual. So it’s sown, it’s buried a soulish body, it’s raised a spiritual body.

Now, ask me to explain that and I’m not sure I can. But I know what it says. But I suggest to you that in our present body the soul makes the decisions. If I want to go through the door my soul says we’ll go through the door and my feet obey. And so, in a sense, our spirit is dependent upon our soul. You remember what David said to his soul, ‘Soul, praise the Lord.’ Come on, get moving. The spirit, you see, wanted to praise the Lord but the soul was sluggish in response. That’s apparently the way it was. We have to stir up our souls from our spirits to do the right thing. We know we should be praising the Lord but our souls are sluggish and so we have to stir them up. This may not satisfy you but it’s the best I can do.

When it’s raised it will be a spiritual body. In other words, the spirit will control the body direct. You won’t have to work through the soul to get the body to do what you want it to do, your spirit will make the decisions.

“Now, you can accept that or not, it’s the best I can offer you.
Now let’s look on also in 1 Corinthians chapter 15, verses 52 and 53. It says:
In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye at the last trumpet, the trumpet will sound. The dead will be raised incorruptible and we shall be changed. For this corruptible must put on incorruption and this mortal must put on immortality.”

Corruptible is that which is subject to decay, mortal is that which is subject to death. So if you take those two passages together there are five specific changes that take place in our bodies. From corruptible to incorruptible, subject to decay no longer subject to decay; from mortal to immortal, subject to death no longer subject to death; from dishonor to glory where anybody that’s been buried, in a sense, is a rather pitiable thing, that’s how we go down. When we come up we come up with glory. It’s in weakness that it’s sown but it’s in power that it’s raised. And it’s sown, as we’ve already said, a soulish body but comes forth a spiritual body. Let me just give you those five changes again. From corruptible to incorruptible

“From mortal to immortal
From dishonor to glory
From weakness to power
And from soulish to spiritual.”

Now, the resurrection of Jesus is an absolutely key element of Christian doctrine. We cannot set it aside and call ourselves Christians. In 1 Corinthians 15:14 Paul says:

“If Christ is not risen from the dead then our preaching is vain and your faith is also vain. And in verse 17:
If Christ is not risen your faith is futile, you are still in your sins.”

In other words, the forgiveness of our sins is absolutely linked to the resurrection of Jesus. If Jesus has not been raised, the gospel is false, our faith is futile and we are still in our sins. And you see, there are many eminent theologians and other people like that who have denied the reality of the resurrection of the body of Jesus. They are still in their sins, they are not saved. You cannot be saved unless you believe in the physical resurrection of Jesus.

Announcer:

On tomorrow’s program Derek Prince will continue his topic ‘Resurrection of the Dead,’ by giving evidence of the resurrection of Jesus through Old Testament Scriptures and human witnesses. This week’s message is available on audiocassette No. RC4168, and also on video. Our special offer this week is Derek’s book Chords From David’s Harp: one hundred one expressive mediation from the Psalms which will open your heart to intimate communication with God.

To receive your copy of ‘Resurrection of the Dead’ write today and include a contribution of $5.00 or more for audiocassette RC4168 or $14.95 for the video teaching. Include a gift of $5.00 or more for the book Chords from David’s Harp.

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