Bible Study 21
Saving Souls
Throughout these Bible studies we have seen the
importance of the physical realm in the outworking of God’s purposes. This is
especially true of human beings, whose capacity to image God is directly
dependent on their physicality. Also, you cannot understand the Biblical
teaching on ‘salvation’ if you have not first appreciated the importance of the
physical realm.
It is interesting that when many Christians
think of salvation, they have in mind something to do with their soul or spirit
living forever in the presence of God. Though they may also believe that they will
be given a new body, this tends not to feature so much in the foreground of
what it means to actually be “saved”. Hence, evangelists speak of “saving
souls” but not “saving bodies.”
I would like to counter this trend by suggesting
not merely that this account is radically incomplete, but that it is
meaningless to speak merely of the salvation of a soul (whatever you may mean
by the term) with no reference to the “the redemption of the body” (Rom. 8:23)
which occurs at resurrection. This will become clear if we consider what is
involved in salvation. Now it is plain from the Scriptures that salvation is
essentially being rescued from sin and death. Therefore, before we are in a
position to properly understand salvation, we must first consider what is involved
in sin and death.
Death: A Disintegrating Influence
The way that sin and death affect things is by
causing disintegration. Disintegration is the opposite of integration. Any
system, whether it be a human being or a car, is healthy to the extent that
there is integration among the constituent parts. When Adam and Eve sinned,
separation occurred where there had previously been wholeness, health and
integration. An almost endless list might be constructed of areas where this
occurred: mankind became disintegrated from his Maker, from each other, from
nature, from the animals, etc.
The disintegrating influence of sin in our world
is not total, only partial. If it were total then there could be no possibility
of life at all. Consider our own lives in this regard. We are continually
subject to a tension between the force of physical disintegration and the force
towards physical integration. At first the force of integration seems
strongest. A baby enters the world and begins quickly to integrate: the various
components of his body begin integrating with themselves as he learns to walk,
respond, touch, talk and control his movements. As his mind grows he begins
integrating with the outside world, with others and with nature. Yet, as life
continues, as the person grows old, the process of disintegration sets in.
Complete disintegration of body occurs only when the mind, soul and spirit
become detached from it. Thus, we say that a person has died at precisely that
moment when disintegration between body and spirit becomes total. Even before
we die, however, the body and spirit are constantly in tension with each other.
Death is merely the consummation of this tension.
It follows that if Christ has defeated death,
this must necessarily involve the bringing back together of things that have
been disconnected. Our salvation must involve the reintegrating of body, spirit
and soul or we have not really been saved from death. As Paul put it, if there
is not the hope of resurrection “Then also those who have fallen asleep in
Christ have perished.” (1 Cor. 15:18) For this reason, it is meaningless to
speak of the salvation of the soul independently of the salvation of the body,
for any independence between these things is itself a result of sin and death.
(The reason we have no trouble imagining the salvation of one and not the other
is because all our experience has been coloured by the hand of death, making it
difficult to imagine wholeness as a deaf man finds it hard to imagine music.)
Heaven: A Waiting Room
If what I have said is correct, we should not
think of going to heaven as the be all and end all of our salvation. Rather,
heaven is a place where people wait for their resurrection.[1]
That is why Revelation speaks of the dead in heaven waiting for the time when they
will be vindicated on the earth (Rev. 6:9-11). To be sure, heaven is a lot more
than merely a waiting room, but the point is that it is not until the new body
is given to a person that their salvation is complete. That is why Paul can
write that “now our salvation is nearer than when we first believed” (Rom.
13:11).
This truth was more generally understood by
Christians of the past. It is instructive that on the tomb of William of Orange
there is an inscription with the words “he awaits the resurrection”, not “he
has gone to heaven.” This idea is consistent with the meaning of the Greek word
for salvation which literally means “preserved.” Implicit in the idea of
salvation is being preserved for resurrection. Thus, as soon as a person
puts faith in Christ, they are ‘saved’ in the sense that if they were to die
they would go straight to heaven to await their resurrection.
If this account is correct, then it follows that
salvation is not the goal of the Christian life as many have made out; rather,
it is the thing salvation preserves us for that should be the focus and hope of
every Christian. Those who are saved are preserved for the time when the Lord
will “gather together His elect from the four winds, from one end of heaven to
the other” (Mt. 24:31) to live and rule in the renewed earth. Salvation is,
therefore, a matter of hope – hope for something we do not yet see.
Not only that, but we also who have the
firstfruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, eagerly waiting
for the adoption, the redemption of our body. For we were saved in this hope,
but hope that is seen is not hope; for why does one still hope for what he
sees? (Rom. 8:23-24)
As the above passage shows, it is not all a
matter of sitting back and waiting for resurrection. Paul taught that the
Spirit has been given to us as the firstfruits or guarantee of our salvation, a
salvation to be consummated at the redemption of our body (Rom. 8:23 & 2
Cor. 1:22; 5:5) but which still affects our present existence.
Meeting the Lord in the Air
According to Paul, those who have already died
will rise first, followed by those on the earth being resurrected. The two
companies meet, so to speak, “in the air.”
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 by no means
precede those who are asleep. For the Lord Himself will descend from heaven
with a shout, with the voice of an archangel, and with the trumpet 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
thus we shall always be with the Lord. (1 Thess. 4:15-17)
The language about meeting the Lord and the
risen dead “in the air” has given rise to many bizarre interpretations, most
notably the idea of the so called “rapture.” Many Christians visualize people
literally flying up in the air, of little piles of clothes being left behind
and of driver-less cars and planes suddenly crashing.
Such far-fetched thinking is to totally miss the
point of Paul’s imagery. If it is maintained that Paul is talking literally
here, then this verse cannot fit the rapture interpretation either. For how can
the Lord and the risen dead descend from heaven through the air unless heaven
is located in the sky? Even those who claim to take this verse literally do not
think that everyone actually meets in the middle of the clouds (if everyone did
meet in the clouds, no one would be able to see anyone else because of the high
density of vapor). Furthermore, since the earth is a spherical shape, God would
have to assume a curious shape in order for this verse to come true to all the
saints round the world. As for the dead “being asleep”, the only way to
understand that phrase literally would be to entertain the theory of soul
sleep, yet even those who espouse soul sleep will say that the dead are only
metaphorically ‘asleep’.
Suffice to say, Paul’s language is highly
symbolic. How then shall we understand it? If Paul’s statement about being
caught up together in the air is read in light of the preceding sentence, then
it becomes obvious that his imagery can only be referring to resurrection. “And
the dead in Christ will rise first. Then [referring now to the resurrection
of those who are not already dead] we who are alive and remain shall be
caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air.”
“The air” is used elsewhere in scripture as a
symbol of the other dimension, as when it says that the devil is the prince of
the power of the air. When Paul says we are “caught up” in the air, the verb
translated “caught up” is harpazo,
the same verb used in Revelation 12:5 when the manchild is “caught up” to God
or in 2 Corinthians 12:2 when Paul was “caught up” to the third heaven. Harpazo conveys the idea of force being
suddenly exercised but can also refer to being joined – in this case being
joined in resurrection with those who have already gone before. Resurrection
will join those who are alive and remain with the cloud of witnesses who have
already been resurrected.
Throughout this passage Paul is almost
certainly drawing on Exodus 19 here, a Bible study rich in resurrection
symbolism. In Exodus 19:15-20, we read how on the third day (remember
that Christ’s resurrection occurred on the third day) Moses ascended up to
mount Sinai and the Lord descended down to mount Sinai, where they meet in a
thick cloud of smoke amidst the blast of a trumpet. Compare that to Paul’s
imagery in 1st Thessalonians 4, where there is the trumpet of God,
where the Lord descends from heaven, the saints ascend into the air and they
meet in a cloud. The connection to the resurrection symbolism of Exodus 19
could not be more explicit. It is also worth noting that in Paul exposition on
resurrection to the Corinthians, the sound of a trumpet again plays an
important part (Cor. 15:52).
It is interesting that in Matthew 24, the
resurrection of God’s people is again connected with some of these same
symbols. While Jesus had cryptically referred to His resurrection as “the sign
of the prophet Jonah” (Mt. 12:39-40), he refers to the resurrection of His
people as “the sign of the Son of Man [appearing] in heaven” and “coming on the
clouds of heaven with power and great glory” (Mt. 24:30). Here again we see
resurrection connected with cloud and, in the following verse, with trumpets:
“And He will send His angels with a great sound of a trumpet, and they will
gather together His elect from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the
other” (Mt. 24:31). The significance of the trumpet, in particular, would seem
to rest in the function it played in heralding the coming of a king, even as
the resurrected church will announce to the world the coming of King Jesus.
Against this backdrop, it makes perfect sense
to interpret Paul’s imagery of 1 Thess. 4:15-17 as a reference to those on the
earth being given glorified bodies. It has nothing at all to do with the
rapture ideas that have come to dominate popular thinking.
The Thessalonians passage that we
have just seen might easily give the impression that those who are resurrected
are whisked off to heaven forever. However, it seems more reasonable to suppose
that those who are resurrected will be able to travel back and forth between
heaven and earth. This is because the accounts of Jesus, after He was in his
resurrection body, show him apparently travelling at the speed of thought. That
being the case, we should also expect to be given such abilities when our lowly
body is transformed to conform with His glorious body (Phil. 3:21; 1 John 3:2;
Rom. 8:11). We should expect not merely to be able to travel around the earth
or the universe, but across the very dimensional boundary into heaven itself.
Hence, the symbolism of ascending that we saw in 1 Thessalonians. Heaven will
be open and the angels will ascend and descend, as Jacob saw in his dream about
the ladder (again, probably a picture of trans-dimensional travel). The
symbolism of the temple, with its interface between the heavenly and earthly
dimensions, would also seem to point in this same direction
But this raises an important
question: exactly what function will heaven play in the new earth? I have suggested
throughout these Bible studies that God’s purposes are to do with the earth and
I have said hardly anything about heaven. From the point of view of biblical
focus it is certainly true that the earth is where God’s purposes are
outworked. However, this shouldn’t lead us to reduce heaven to merely a kind of
bus stop in our minds. It is a waiting room, to be sure, but not merely a
waiting room. Remember, God promises to renew the heavens as well as the earth
(Rev. 21:1). Since God’s kingdom exists in heaven as it will one day exist on
the earth (Mat. 6:10), the heavenly region of God’s kingdom will require
subjects and rulers just as much as God’s kingdom on the earth.
No doubt some people will be called to populate and govern God’s kingdom in the
heavenly dimension, while others do so in the lower dimension, while there is
travel between the two dimensions.[2]
It is now time to turn to Paul’s letters to the
Corinthians to gain further insight into the resurrection body.
One of Paul’s greatest
expositions on the glories of resurrection occurs in his first letter to the
Corinthian Christians, Bible study fifteen.
There is one glory of the
sun, another glory of the moon, and another glory of the stars; for one star
differs from another star in glory. So also is the resurrection of the dead.
The body is sown in corruption, it is raised in incorruption. It is sown in
dishonour, 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, and there is a spiritual body. And so it is written, “The first
man Adam became a living being.” The last Adam became a life-giving spirit.
However, the spiritual is not first, but the natural, and afterward the spiritual.
The first man was of the earth, made of dust; the second Man is the Lord from
heaven. As was the man of dust, so also are those who are made of dust; and as
is the heavenly Man, so also are those who are heavenly. And as we have borne
the image of the man of dust, we shall also bear the image of the heavenly Man.
Now this I say, brethren, that flesh and blood cannot
inherit the kingdom of God; nor does corruption inherit incorruption. Behold, 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, and 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.
So when this corruptible has put on incorruption, and this mortal has put on
immortality, then shall be brought to pass the saying that is written: “Death
is swallowed up in victory.”
“O
Death, where is your sting?
O
Hades, where is your victory?”
(1
Cor. 15:41-55)
There is a lot to unpack in this passage if we
are to understand what Paul is saying. However, it is just as important to be
clear on what Paul is not saying. At first it might be easy to think
that Paul is saying that the resurrection body is non-physical, especially when
he contrasts the “natural” body with the “spiritual” body. Some translations
even render natural body as ‘physical body’ which seems to further reinforce
the idea that the glorified body is non-physical. However, the Greek words that
are translated “natural” and “spiritual” are psychikos and pneumatikos.
Greek words ending in kos do not describe the substance out of which the
thing is made but the force that animates the thing in question. Thus, the word
psychikos, which is derived from the word psyche (life or soul),
simply describes a physical body that is animated by the natural soul-life.
This is contrasted with pneumatikos, which is physical body animated by
the “spirit.” But both are physical bodies. A more accurate translation would
be “spirit-powered body” vs. “natural-powered body.”
Even without recourse to the original Greek, the
context makes it obvious that by ‘natural body’ (again, a bad translation) Paul
is not referring to the physicality of the body. This follows from the fact
that Paul clearly defines what he means by the ‘natural body’ by using a number
of strong words: corruption, dishonour, weakness, mortality, death. Notice that
the word ‘physical’ is not included in that list! The natural body Paul refers
to is, of course, physical, but this is beside the point since the spiritual
body is also physical.
The same point can be made in a different way.
In verses 45-49 Paul explains that the ‘spiritual body’ is in the pattern of
Christ (see also Phil. 3:21). Now we know that Jesus, after He was in His
resurrection body, could eat and be touched. Just because He could travel at
the speed of thought and therefore appear to go through walls does not mean that
He was an immaterial ghost. In fact, Jesus specifically said He was not a ghost
and told Thomas to touch him.[3]
Paul makes it clear that the spiritual body we
will be given is not subject to corruption, death, etc. I pointed out earlier
that physical death occurs when our spirit is separated from our material body.
This separation between spirit and matter is why death is so devastating.
Everyone feels the sting of death that Paul refers to - the sheer unnaturalness
of it. When someone we love dies, even if objectively we are happy that they
have gone to be with the Lord, there is something that strikes us deep. Like
Thomas Browne, even if we are not afraid of death, we are certainly ashamed of
it.[4]
Whether we are aware of it or not, the reason death stings us so acutely is
because the separation between spirit and matter is fully actuated. Spiritually
we become naked at death, to use Paul’s imagery from 2 Corinthians 5. We become
naked because we cease to be clothed in flesh.
For we know that if our earthly
house, this tent, is destroyed, we have a building from God, a house not made
with hands, eternal in the heavens. For in this we groan, earnestly desiring to
be clothed with our habitation which is from heaven, if indeed, having been
clothed, we shall not be found naked. For we who are in this tent groan, being
burdened, not because we want to be unclothed, but further clothed, that
mortality may be swallowed up by life. (2 Cor. 5:1-4)
As this passage makes clear, we do not want to
become fleshless, immaterial ghosts floating around eternity forever, as some
have imagined. This tent of mortality is a burden to our spirits, not because
we long to be unclothed in flesh, but because we long to be more fully
clothed. To be fully clothed in our heavenly habitation - that is, our
resurrection body - involves more than simply a long life without end, for when
our body is fully fused with our spirit, then the physical experience we enjoy
in our body will take on a quality that is inconceivable in our lower state. In
the new body the spirit will no longer be in tension with material flesh. In a
way that is presently inconceivable, resurrected flesh will be the very means
by which our spirit will be liberated, as water liberates a fish or as air
liberates the bird.
Our spirits, confined as they now are to our
corruptible bodies, are currently held back and restricted. Flesh is not a
prison for the spirit, but our present corruptible flesh is. That is why if we
die and go to heaven our spirits will no doubt feel a certain degree of freedom
even before we are clothed with our new body, as Paul implies in 2 Cor. 5:8.
But that cannot be the end of the story, for like Job, we know that “though
worms destroy this body, yet in my flesh shall I see God.” (Job 19:26;
see also Isa. 26:19) Anything short of this dishonours the work of Christ, for
as N. T. Wright puts it,
If bodies are not raised, death has not been
defeated, only redescribed. To say that we live on in a spiritual, non-bodily
sphere is not to say that death has been defeated, only that death is not so
bad after all.[5]
Imaging God Through Resurrection
Another reason why the doctrine of resurrection
is so central to the Christian faith is because it is only through the medium
of resurrected bodies that God’s original purpose for the world can be
fulfilled. We have seen that when God created mankind as His image, He intended
for those images to mark out all creation for His glory. As images of God, each
person was intended to reflect characteristics of the Lord Himself, as a mirror
reflects a visual image. At the moment God’s people are like broken mirrors,
still reflecting God but doing it imperfectly. The brokenness of our image
reflects the sin wrought by the first Adam. “And as we have borne the image of the
man of dust [Adam], we shall also bear the image of the heavenly Man.” (1 Cor.
15:49) Notice that Paul does not say we already bear the image of Jesus (though
Paul did believe we are currently imperfect images), but that we shall.
He is clearly referring to resurrection. Only through being resurrected can
God’s images be restored and, therefore, can God’s purposes for the earth be
fulfilled.
Without this overall vision, a grossly truncated
view of salvation ensures. As Macaulay and Barrs write in Being Human,
“the New Testament teaches explicitly that the purpose of salvation is to
restore this image.”[6]
This process begins the moment we put faith in Jesus, but must await
resurrection for culmination.
(As an aside, I strongly recommend Macaulay and
Barrs’ book Being Human. The authors show how the doctrine of the image
of God is the organizing principle for understanding the whole of the Christian
life. Being Human is an excellent practical introduction to the Bible’s
teaching on what it means to live as a human being in this world.)
The Weight of Glory
The hope
of future bodily resurrection is meant to be the keystone that inspires the
Christian walk. Paul even went so far as to suggest that without the hope of
resurrection, the appropriate philosophy for life would be “Let us eat and
drink, for tomorrow we die!” (1 Cor. 15:29-34) For the early apostles, the
harder the road became, the more they kept their eyes fixed on their unseen
hope – the hope of an eternal weight of glory that would be consummated at the
resurrection.
Therefore we do not lose heart. Even though our
outward man is perishing, yet the inward man is being renewed day by day. For
our light affliction, which is but for a moment, is working for us a far more
exceeding and eternal weight of glory, while we do not look at the things which
are seen, but at the things which are not seen. For the things which are seen
are temporary, but the things which are not seen are eternal. (2 Cor. 4:16-18)
But as it is written:
“Eye has not seen, nor ear heard,
Nor has it entered into the heart of
man
The things which God has prepared
for those who love Him.”
(1 Cor. 2:9)
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