Daily Devotional March 12, 2012
Posted by Lisa Rice on Monday, March 19, 2012
"Behold, I show you a mystery; we shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed." 1 Corinthians 15:51
Q: What will become of those who shall be alive when the Lord Jesus shall return to raise the dead?
A: They shall be changed instantly, and fitted for heaven, and made like the glorified saints that shall be raised from the dead.
Paul reveals a wonderful secret that not all people will die but everyone will be changed.
The thrust of verses 50 and 53 is that we simply cannot go to Heaven like we are. These bodies are defiled by sin and cannot enter Heaven. These bodies are mortal and are not designed to exist for eternity in that Heavenly realm. If we are going to go there, these bodies must be changed! That is what Paul has been talking about in the preceding verses. In verses 35-49 we are told that the saints can expect to inherit a new body in the resurrection. When they die in Jesus, they will be raised from the dead in a body like His, 1 Cor. 15:49; 1 John 3:2.
So, that is our dilemma. To get a new body and to be free from this decaying, dying, and defiled body, we have to die. Therefore, death becomes a door of hope for those who know the Lord. It allows the spirit to be free from the prison of this body to await the day when the body is resurrected from the grave and changed into the image of Jesus. We cannot go like we are!
Q: What will become of those who shall be alive when the Lord Jesus shall return to raise the dead?
A: They shall be changed instantly, and fitted for heaven, and made like the glorified saints that shall be raised from the dead.
Paul reveals a wonderful secret that not all people will die but everyone will be changed.
The thrust of verses 50 and 53 is that we simply cannot go to Heaven like we are. These bodies are defiled by sin and cannot enter Heaven. These bodies are mortal and are not designed to exist for eternity in that Heavenly realm. If we are going to go there, these bodies must be changed! That is what Paul has been talking about in the preceding verses. In verses 35-49 we are told that the saints can expect to inherit a new body in the resurrection. When they die in Jesus, they will be raised from the dead in a body like His, 1 Cor. 15:49; 1 John 3:2.
So, that is our dilemma. To get a new body and to be free from this decaying, dying, and defiled body, we have to die. Therefore, death becomes a door of hope for those who know the Lord. It allows the spirit to be free from the prison of this body to await the day when the body is resurrected from the grave and changed into the image of Jesus. We cannot go like we are!