The Apostle’s Creed: The Resurrection of the Body
The Apostle’s Creed - The Resurrection of the Body
Not just the resurrection of the dead, BUT the resurrection of the body!
Resurrection is the only thing mentioned twice in the Creed: once regarding Christ and now regarding our bodies. With regard to Christ, his body was not resurrected like many of ours will be; his body did not rot and decompose. The resurrection of the body is not just the re-animation of the body, for many, maybe for most of us, it is the re-making of the body, because for many of us, our bodies will have rotted away.
The resurrection of the physical body is another Truth that was 100% opposite to the prevailing Greek thinking of the 1st Century. They had no trouble believing in an after-life for the spirit, but not for material things like our bodies. They thought that in the after-life, we would be spirit beings only. They could not imagine that God would want evil flesh in heaven, so when the person being baptized, said “I believe in the resurrection of the body”, they were making a clear statement against the prevailing thinking of the day. He/she was professing belief in what was not only politically incorrect, but considered insanity!
“When they heard of the resurrection of the dead, some scoffed, but others said, we will hear you again concerning this matter.” Act 17:32
The resurrection of the body is so important that Paul devoted 58 verses to it in 1Co 15; the longest section of scripture directed specifically to any one topic!
And then in 1Th 4:13-18 Paul writes these wonderful words, “But I would not have you ignorant, brothers, concerning those who are asleep, that you may not grieve as others who have no hope. For if we believe that Jesus died and arose again, and so God will bring with Him those who sleep in Jesus. For this we say to you by the word of the Lord,
that we who are alive and remain until the coming of the Lord will not precede those who are asleep. For the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trumpet call of God. And the dead in Christ will rise first. Then we who are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And so we shall be forever with the Lord. Therefore comfort one another with these words.”
Notice in v13, those who do not believe this are called those “who have no hope”, but in v18 he tells us (we Christians) to “comfort one another with these words”!
Think of all the people today who believe that “this is all there is”; they have no hope! However, for Christians, these words are a great comfort; not only will we live again, we will live again bodily!
In this statement “I believe in the resurrection of the dead”, we are saying that all people will be bodily resurrected. The human body is so important, that God wants us to have bodies in heaven, which will add to our enjoyment. Again, however, those in hell will also have resurrected bodies, which will only add to their suffering.
Think of the miracle we are talking about. We tend to think of our personal body lying in the grave, and at the last day, being enlivened and resurrected. That may be true for a body that is nicely embalmed, preserved, and made basically rot proof. But for most of the world and for most of time, that is not the case. Most bodies are put into the ground un-embalmed, and they rotted away, eaten by bugs, worms, bacteria, etc. Within a year, there is no flesh, and in humid environments, no bones after a decade. Deaths by fires, and by drowning where the body in not recovered but is eaten by fish, deaths in the wilderness where carnivores eat the body, war victims were the body is destroyed; you get the point. And think of this: the molecules in my body have been in the bodies of other people and animals and even plants; do you realize the magnitude of what we are talking about.
That raises several questions:
1) What will that body be made of
2) What will we look like
3) What age will we be
4) Will we know each other
Based on 1Co 15 they will be new and spiritual bodies; ones that will never die again. Hear these words written to Christians, “It is sown a natural body, it is raised a spiritual body. There is a natural body, and there is a spiritual body.” 1Co 15:44 “Now this I say, brothers, that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God, nor does corruption inherit incorruption. Listen, I tell you a mystery: We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed. In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet, for the trumpet will sound, the dead will be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed. For this corruptible will put on incorruption, and this mortal will put on immortality. When this corruptible will have put on incorruption, and this mortal will have put on immortality, then the saying that is written shall come to pass: Death is swallowed up in victory.”
1Co 15:50-54
Based on Jhn 20:36-43, when the Lord Jesus appeared to the 11 in the upper room on Resurrection Night, our bodies will be flesh and perfectly recognizable, “As they were saying this, Jesus Himself stood among them and said to them, “Peace be unto you.” They were terrified and frightened, and supposed that they saw a spirit. He said to them, “Why are you troubled, and why do doubts arise in your hearts? See my hands and my feet, that it is I Myself. Feel me and see, for a spirit does not have flesh and bones as you see that I have.” When He said this, He showed them His hands and His feet. And while they yet disbelieved for joy and wondered, He said to them, “Do you have any food here?” They gave Him a piece of broiled fish and some honeycomb. And He took it and ate it before them.”
Regarding “age”, meaning will someone who died at age 30, be resurrected with their 30 year old body, and will someone who dies at age 100, be resurrected with their 100 year old body; we have no idea, I do not know of any bible verse that addresses this, but for Christians at least, I would think we will have healthy bodies; it just does not make sense that the Lord would give new spiritual bodies that are old and enfeebled.
Will Christians in heaven have a “better” spiritual body than those in hell – probably in some ways yes, and in some ways no. I am thinking of Moses and Elijah who appeared on the mount with Jesus in glorified bodies; I do not think we would use that term for people in hell, but again I have no specific bible verse.
But I do believe that we will know each other; I will look like me for all eternity, and my friends and family will know me, as me. Enoch and Elijah were taken alive to heaven, there is no reason to think their appearance changed.
But are these the important questions? Not really!
What is being professed here is belief in the resurrection of the physical body, the fact that matter is good, and that when God made us in his image, that image was fleshly; these things were 100% opposite to what the 1st Century Romans and Greeks believed.
To see how important this profession was, and how against it the pagans were, read this section taken from “The Church in the Catacombs” by Maitland, starting on page 46.
https://archive.org/details/churchincatacomb00mait_1
“The second circumstance of note connected with the phrase " in cemeterio Balbinse," is the use of the term ‘cemetery’ derived from the Greek ‘a sleeping-place’. In this auspicious word, now for the first time applied to the tomb, there is manifest a sense of hope and immortality, the result of a new religion. A star had risen on the borders of the grave, dispelling the horror of darkness which had hitherto reigned there: the prospect beyond was now cleared up, and so dazzling was the view of an eternal city "sculptured in the sky," that numbers were found eager to rush through the gate of martyrdom, for the hope of entering its starry portals.
But the Christian, not content with styling his burial-ground a sleeping-place, pushes the notion of a slumber to its full extent. We find the term in a Latin dress, as —
DORMITIO ELPIDIS The sleeping-place (dormitory) of Elpis."
Nor was the hope of the Christians confined to their own bosoms. They published it abroad to the world, in a manner which, while it provoked the scorn and malice of many, proved also a powerful inducement to others to join their community.
The dismal annihilation taught by the Pagans, or the uncertain Elysium, which, though received by the uneducated, was looked upon as matter of superstition by the learned, had in it something so utterly unsuited to the wants and longings of mankind, that the spectacle of a Christian, thoroughly assured of a future state, so blessed and so certain
as to have power to draw him irresistibly towards it through the extremest tortures, must have awakened in the heart of many a wishing doubting Pagan, a feeling in favour of Christianity not easily suppressed. But in the more infuriated persecutors the martyr's triumphant exit only stirred up a desperate desire to deprive him of his last expectation ; and connecting the interment of the body with the prospect of its being restored to life, they thought by preventing the one, to cut off all hope of the other. In the well-known epistle of the churches of Lyons and Vienne, descriptive of their sufferings during the persecution of Antonine in the second century, this last effort of malice on the part of their enemies is noticed.
" The bodies of the martyrs having been contumeliously treated and exposed for six days, were burnt and reduced to ashes, and scattered by the wicked into the Rhone, that no part of them might appear on the earth any more. And they did these things, as if they could prevail against God, and prevent the resurrection of the saints : and that they might, as they expressed it, destroy the hope of a future life,—[saying] 'on which relying they introduce a new and strange religion, despise the most excruciating tortures, and die with joy. Now let us see if they will rise again, and if their God can help them and deliver them out of our hands.'" *