Firstfruits of the Resurrection

Resurrection of the Body

(1 Corinthians 15:20-26)

Resurrection is not a matter of the soul alone. God saves our bodies too. The resurrection of Christ is the approved firstfruits that proclaims the harvest, and the down payment that brings the contract into full effect — sealing the promise of what is yet to be paid in full. Now that the risen Christ has been received and approved by the Father, our resurrection will most certainly be completed.

1. Entering Heaven in a Body
Many people imagine that saved spirits float through heaven like ghosts. But we go to heaven as whole people—in bodies. This is the resurrection of the righteous, the First Resurrection. The spirits of those who have gone before us are with the Lord even now. When Scripture calls them “those who are asleep,” it is simply a gentle way of speaking about the dead—nothing more. What will be raised on the last day is our body. On that day, we will meet again, face to face, in the flesh.

2. Those Who Sleep in the Lord
Where are the saints who have left this world? They are with the Lord (2 Cor. 5:8). Paul calls them “those who are asleep”—not to suggest they exist in some unconscious state, but as a tender way of speaking of death. This is the truth the Church has held and confessed for two thousand years. Because our spirits were already made alive the moment we believed in Jesus, they have no need to be raised again. It is our bodies that await resurrection on the last day. And when that day comes, we will meet one another again—whole, and in the body.

3. A Victory Already Won: The Final Clean Up
Christ will come to this earth as King and wage a final campaign against every force of rebellion, injustice, and death. He will reign until every enemy is placed beneath His feet, and even death itself—the last enemy—will be destroyed. But the decisive victory has already been won. It was won at Calvary. The One the world cast aside and threw away came back—triumphant over death. The power that conquered darkness, sin, and death now lives within us. And when He reigns, we will reign together with Him.

.

Overseer Sung-Hyun Kim