Last time we spoke about the wonderful new state into which Christ has bought His people’s physical bodies—a state in which we will never again know aging, sickness, weakness, frailty, pain, grief, restrictive injuries, etc. That will be a truly wonderful thing. Consider the overwhelming thrill of inexhaustible energy and enthusiasm. Think of being able to worship completely with a body that is able to sing, run, work in a way you have not yet even conceived of. This wonderful blessing is only found in Christ.

Moving to a further thought, consider the next facet of the physical bodies of God’s people, purchased by Christ. When God saw His people in glory with Him forever, before He even spoke those words that called the world into being, He saw glorious people. The thought that God should make me glorious, in the face of my own depravity and sinful rebellion, is beyond my grasp. Paul says that the body that is sown in dishonour is raised in glory. The contrast between those two words is remarkable.

It is a vast mystery that God would glorify a body that has lived in dishonour. Shortly after His creation of Adam and Eve, God was grieved with the human race to the point of destroying the lot of them in Noah’s flood. Even though the fall had such shattering effects at that time, we should not think the sin of the people in that day was worse than our sin in our day. God has graciously, patiently borne His people, year after year as we have indulged in the most grotesque forms of sin, without slamming down His hand of judgement. He has graciously reached into the lives of every one of His saints and redeemed them from the power and penalty of sin. He has motivated us by His Spirit to push violently forward in personal holiness because we delight in Him. God has been so good, yet we still fall into sin. These human frames in which we live, even as God’s people, have been stained by sin. They have been used for dishonourable purposes. These fingers, eyes, feet, arms, legs, have engaged in sin, in dishonour. What this body has done is not commendable.

In total contrast to this dishonour, God is going to so renew your and my bodies that they will be raised in glory. They will be clean, pure spotless, never having touched an unclean thing, never having imagined a lustful thought, never having said a malicious word—shining in effulgent sparkling purity! What a gracious gift from God! He will raise our bodies in glory as contrasted with dishonour.