Once God has taken the sting out of death by applying the benefits of Christ’s work to a lost sinner, the beautiful vision of God’s intentions toward him begins to explode. Every new discovery is a discovery of an additional feature he has not yet understood was a part of what Christ purchased for him at Calvary. This is a journey into the wonderful intentions of God toward rebels who demerit His favour. I owe a word of acknowledgement here to Wayne Grudem for the thoughts he has laid out in his systematic theology, that have inspired much of my thoughts in the area of glorification.

I would like to consider what it is going to be like for you and I, as redeemed saints, to live in our physical bodies, in the presence of God forever. See the beauty of God in His intentions toward you as you consider what He is presently and will in the future lavish on you. Here we will consider some thoughts Paul puts before us in 1 Corinthians 15:42-44, 49.

We hear so much hype today about “faith healers” and claimed miracles of physical healing. Yet, every body and every facet of God’s material creation is in the process of breaking down. Just as a fallen tree decomposes on a damp forest floor, so you and I are breaking down with the physical creation. This introduces things that afflict us in the normal aging process. Your eyes become weaker, heart muscle loses tone, bones become brittle, become weaker, lose your balance, become disorientated, among many other things. While you may still feel young internally as a Christian should, outwardly you are wasting away (2 Corinthians 4:16).

Moreover, we face all kinds of unpleasant sicknesses and diseases that make our experience of life less pleasant. Some suffer most horribly under lingering, painful diseases that sap every drop of joy from their lives. Their experience of life is agony. Some have also been left permanently injured in accidents, explosions, war and other violent assaults. Their lives are marked by difficulty every day.

What a thrill to know that when Jesus bought you, as His child, into His eternal glory, He also bought you a brand new body that will never age, never get sick, never get a disease, never get injured ever again! While your body will be completely new, it will still be recognisable as your body (remember kainos?). Paul says that our bodies, like seeds, will be sown in their present perishable state, and will be raised in an imperishable state. In contrast to the misery of living in a fallen, perishable world in fallen, perishable bodies, God has wonderful intentions for His people. If, even now, we can experience the joy of personhood and a life of appreciation for the kind intentions of God toward us, in this fallen world, how much more will we appreciate eternal glory? We will live in absolutely perfect bodies forever! The youth and beauty the world craves really is the actual inheritance of every child of God. God will give every believer eternal youth and beauty. In that intention, I see beauty in the intentions of God.