Philippians 3:7-11: But what things were gain to me, these I have counted loss for Christ. Yet indeed I also count all things loss for the excellence of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them as rubbish, that I may gain Christ and be found in Him, not having my own righteousness, which is from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness which is from God by faith; that I may know Him and the power of His resurrection, and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death, if, by any means, I may attain to the resurrection from the dead.
We need to pray, we have a desperate need for the ministry of the Holy Spirit, and we need to plead on the promise: “Our Father, give the Holy Spirit to those who ask you.” It is not a luxury which we can afford to do without in this hour, but we desperately need His presence; send Him upon us with mighty power to take the things of Christ and reveal them to us. May we know the power of the resurrection, not just empty words.
One of the main reasons men achieve extraordinary things is hope. Future hope. 2 Corinthians 3:12 says if we have hope, we will be fearless and bold always. Hebrews 6:19 says if we have that hope, whatever stormy circumstances come, that hope will act as an anchor for the soul. Romans 15:13 says hope will fill us with all joy and peace. Romans 12:12 commands us to “Rejoice in your hope.” The joy that arises from this hope is a very powerful force. It can make us rise from any gutter or ashes and do the impossible for God, like Moses did or like Job, who in the midst of all horrible circumstances, rose and said, “I know my Redeemer lives.” Hope drives us to be “zealous for the glory of God.” The language of hope is, “If this is what God has for me… whatever my circumstances may be here in this small life… I will use it to serve him and glorify God whatever may come.”
If we are people of hope, do you see how different we will be? Clearly many things are at risk if we don’t live with hope. If we neglect our hope, we will not only miss out on much happiness, but our strength and motivation to serve God will be less zealous. One main reason we lack hope is we don’t deeply and often think about what God has for us in the future. We have been looking at this great man, Paul. The Holy Spirit has set him as a museum study piece for us to learn from him. We have learned many things from him. In today’s passage, verse 11, we will look at the hope of Paul, the secret power that made him do all these things.
In the context of Philippians 3, Paul lists his gains from the surpassing knowledge of knowing Christ. I divided them into experiential justification blessings, expressed in three ways—gaining Christ, being found in Him, and being clothed in righteousness from faith in Christ—and experiential sanctification—knowing Christ by three central redemptive acts: the power of resurrection, the fellowship of suffering, and being conformed to His death. After that, in verse 11, we see the ultimate fruit, the end goal of this knowledge of Christ. This is Paul’s hope. In theological terms, we have seen Paul’s experiential justification and sanctification, and now verse 11 is Paul’s experiential glorification.
Verse 11: “if, by any means, I may attain to the resurrection from the dead.”
We will discuss three points:
- The meaning of the verse.
- What the resurrection from the dead is.
- Why this is Paul’s great hope.
The Meaning of the Verse
First, what is the meaning of the words of our text? At face value, the meaning seems to be clear from the text, but there are some translational and exegetical difficulties. A Greek scholar said this is a verse that is exceedingly difficult to translate into English. There are two phrases that confuse. The first problem is, it sounds like Paul is saying by growing in this knowledge, “so by any means,” a language that seems to express apparent uncertainty. “By any means.” Is Paul not sure he will rise from the dead? The second problem, “I may attain” or “become worthy of” the resurrection from the dead, sounds like the resurrection is a personal achievement by one’s own efforts and merit.
How do they harmonize with the rest of Holy Scripture? Again, I was scratching my head, “Paul, what are you saying?” When I was struggling, what a comfort to hear Peter say in 2 Peter 3:16, “our beloved brother Paul has written some things which are hard to be understood.” Wow, another apostle himself was having difficulty understanding Paul. He was not ashamed about it, so I am also not ashamed, but Peter said God has given him higher wisdom and all he wrote is Scripture. The only way we can grasp such difficult passages is by the analogy of Scripture.
Let us look at the two phrases that confuse. “if, by any means” Does it really suggest Paul is not sure of his resurrection? Is this Paul’s state in other passages? Not at all. The same Paul in other places stated this absolute certainty. “I know whom I have believed and I am persuaded that he is able to keep that which I have committed unto him against that day.” This is the man who said that nothing would separate him from the love of God, which was in Christ Jesus, his Lord. How strongly he has written in other passages about the resurrection! So what does it mean? The only way to figure it out is to see how Paul used this phrase in other places. Turn to Romans 1:10, “making request if, by some/any means, now at last I may find a way in the will of God to come to you.” It’s the same phrase. He says, “I am praying regularly and doing everything… so that by any means I may find a way in God’s will to come to you.” It is not language of uncertainty; we can actually translate it as, “I am praying and doing everything in order that I may come to you.” So these words indicate Paul’s mild or humble way of expressing a purpose or aim. It’s also a way of expressing something with eagerness, a heartfelt yearning, purpose, and goal.
Let us see another passage, Romans 11:13-14: “For I speak to you Gentiles; inasmuch as I am an apostle to the Gentiles, I magnify my ministry, if by any means I may provoke to jealousy those who are my flesh and save some of them.” Again, “I speak to you Gentiles as an apostle of Gentiles… by any means… in order that I may make my people the Jews jealous and save them.” How eager was Paul to save the Jews? He was willing to be cursed in Romans 9, so it is an expression of a goal in an eager, yearning but humble way. So when the apostle says, “if by any means,” he is not expressing uncertainty or doubt about the final goal of rising from the dead. That is his great, deep, yearning goal.
Then the second phrase, “I may attain,” shows achievement. Do they actually mean Paul by his own efforts and merit makes himself worthy of the resurrection? If we give that meaning, it is completely against the whole teaching of the Bible. There is obviously a translation problem. A literal translation of the word would be “to arrive at,” and it’s the very word used in Acts 16:1, “He arrived also at Derby and at Lystra.” In Paul’s humble way, “by any means I may arrive at the resurrection from the dead.” It is his humble way of saying the certainty. That’s not insecurity; that’s humility. It never left him that he was unworthy. It never left him that he didn’t deserve it. We can also see he is saying it as a consequence or fruit of his knowing Christ: justification and sanctification experience leads to glorification. So we see the meaning.
What is the Resurrection from the Dead?
Those of you who come from a background where you believe there are two or three comings, two different resurrections, and two different judgments, must be wondering what resurrection Paul is talking about. We also believed that for a long time ago when we didn’t know the Bible much and were picking verses here and there, but through verse-by-verse reading for years, understanding context, and proper language usage, we have come to the conviction that the Bible teaches one coming and one general resurrection when all will rise, believers and unbelievers together. I always say any truth to be established has three criteria: Did Jesus explicitly teach that? Did the apostles teach that clearly? And what are the beliefs of general church history expressed in confessions of faith?
By these three ways, let me show that the Bible clearly teaches one general resurrection of all men, the righteous and the wicked, rising at one time. First, from the lips of our Lord in John 5:28-29: “Do not be amazed at this, because a time is coming when all who are in the graves will hear His voice and come out; those who have done good—unto the resurrection of life; and those who have done evil—unto the resurrection of damnation!”
Another passage where the Lord spoke clearly about the resurrection and judgment is Matthew 25:31: “But when the son of man shall come in his glory, and all the angels with him, then shall he sit on the throne of his glory, and before him shall be gathered all the nations,” and that a great separation of sheep and goats, the righteous and the wicked, will occur in this graphic description of the general resurrection and general judgment. And you can also see parables talking about the resurrection and judgment, all at one time—the tares, the big dragnet, the ten virgins—all indicate one resurrection and judgment for both believers and unbelievers.
Then, what do the apostles teach about the resurrection? Acts 24:15: “I have hope in God, which they themselves also accept, that there will be a resurrection of the dead, both of the just and the unjust.”
You can see in 2 Thessalonians 1:7 he says when the Lord is revealed from heaven with His mighty angels, he will give you who are troubled rest, and at the same time, when he reveals what will he do to unbelievers, in the next verse, “in flaming fire taking vengeance on those who do not know God, and on those who do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ. These shall be punished with everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of His power.” Paul sees it as one resurrection of all men.
People make Paul teach two resurrections by just taking one verse of Paul without grasping the whole context of that epistle. There are some who have died in the church, and they need comfort, so before talking about the resurrection of unbelievers and judgment, he wants to use the resurrection of believers first to comfort them. In 1 Thessalonians 4:16-17, “For the Lord himself will come down from heaven, with a loud command, with the voice of the archangel and with the trumpet call of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first. After that, we who are still alive and are left will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And so we will be with the Lord forever.” “Therefore encourage one another with these words.” Then they stop with that, at the end of the chapter. They say, “Paul is talking about the rapture.” I say, “Please, brother, the story is not over, please turn to the next chapter, chapter 5.” Paul didn’t put a chapter break; he continues to talk about the same event. “The day of the Lord will come like a thief in the night. While people are saying, ‘Peace and safety,’ destruction will come on them suddenly, as labor pains on a pregnant woman, and they will not escape.” It is the same day which will be judgment and destruction for the wicked and full salvation and glorification for the saints. You can read all of Peter’s descriptions about the Second Coming and judgment—all are one. Then John’s description in the final chapter, Revelation 20, John says he saw all of the dead rise and stand in the presence of God, those whose names were there and not there in the book of life. Thirdly, you can go to any good confession of faith: the oldest Apostles’ Creed, Nicene Creed, Athanasian Creed, Canons of Dort, Westminster, London Baptist. In all other great church confessions of faith, not something one church father said in the 5th century taken out of context, but what the people of God together believed and recorded: one second coming, one general resurrection, followed by one judgment, and then eternity. Okay, now, I leave it to your conscience and to the Holy Spirit to make this clear. Whatever you believe, set aside for a moment and think of this great event.
Think of what a grand event the resurrection of the dead will be. Who has not been defeated by death, and who of us has not stood helpless before the power of death? Ever since sin entered into the world and death by sin, this earth has been one vast graveyard or burying place. In every age and in every country, the Adamic curse was in effect, “Dust you are and unto dust you shall return!” Though mankind started with two, how inconceivably numerous are the sons of Adam. In those days when man lived close to 1000 years, how many children they would have had… they filled the world and they all died. Many billions of infants just die in the womb, or as soon as they are born, how many in middle age, and if they escape, old age definitely, they all died. How many in wars, how many in plagues, earthquakes, diseases, old age… even yesterday one relative suddenly died… Where were they all buried? Places where our houses are built, where we live… how many generations lived and are buried under this church building… who knows? How many were carried away by floods, killed by plagues, buried by earthquakes, how many in the depths of the ocean?
Use your imagination to bring all that vast population and army before your mind, all dead. Even the sand of the seashore or the sand on all the earth cannot compare; there will be more than that. Let them pass in review before us from all centuries, countries, and from all ages. How vast and astonishing the multitude! But what has become of them all? Alas! They are sleeping in the grave. Beyond comparison, the greatest number of mankind is now sleeping underground. There are 8 billion on earth, but how many millions of billions are underground?
There lies “beauty” mixed into dust, bodies food for worms! There lies the “skull that once wore a crown”—just like the skull of the poorest beggar’s head! There lie the mighty giants, monarchs, ministers, presidents, the Alexanders, and the Caesars of the world! There they lie—dead, senseless, inactive, and unable to drive off the worms. There lie our grandfathers, grandmas, fathers and mothers, our brothers and sisters, all sleeping.
And shall they lie there always? No, the verse in John 5:28 that I read says, “All who are in the graves will hear His voice!” The voice that formed their bodies from nothing is able to form them anew and repair the wastes and dust of time and the destruction of death!
What a majestic, universal alarm sound that will be! All those living carelessly will be shocked on that day hearing that voice. In the same instant, the sound reaches all the dwellings of the dead. All who are in the graves, all without exception, shall hear his voice! Wherever the body atoms of every person’s body were scattered and whatever they were transformed into—inside ocean water, eaten by fish, eaten by wild animals, mixed with dust, blown by winds and water, and become part of rock—whatever, the omnipotent God knows how to collect, distinguish, and unite them and form them into a body again.
All bodies will rise and their souls, either in hell or heaven, will be united to their bodies. This call everyone will hear: “Arise, you dead, and come to judgment!”
They shall come forth. How it will be… Now I see, I hear the graveyard and earth heaving, charnel houses rattling, tombs bursting… whatever granite or marble… all will crack… graves opening! What an event that will be… I can go on and on talking about that glorious event. All will rise.
This is the great day of the resurrection of the dead. Paul is talking about it. If all are going to rise from the dead, why does the apostle say this is the great goal of his life? “I have counted all things lost” for the justification blessings of gaining Christ, being found in him, having perfect righteousness. And the sanctification blessings of knowing Christ by in the power of his resurrection, fellowship in the sufferings, and being conformed to his death. “If by any means I may attain to the resurrection.” Why is this the great yearning, ultimate goal of the Apostle Paul? Why didn’t he say anything about the rapture here?
Well, you see, though the Bible talks about all rising from the dead, the resurrection of the believer in a unique way is the height, fullness, and greatest climax of the redemptive experience. The resurrection is the culmination and revelation of all of the riches and height of the work of grace. The resurrection is the first step of our glorification.
The salvation Christ won for us on the cross is applied to us in stages, not all at once, and it all leads to this climatic event of the resurrection. The first stage of application begins with effectual calling. When God regenerates and makes us repent and believe Christ, we are justified. Then God sanctifies us, in Paul’s words, by knowing Christ in the power of His resurrection, fellowship of His suffering, and conforming to His death. At death, God completes our sanctification; that is why a believer, as soon as he is dead, his soul is made perfectly holy. Our souls go to heaven after death and live with Christ, but our body rests in the grave. Paul earlier said he yearns for that in prison: “to die is gain to me,” but still, that is intermediate, and that is not the climax of our redemption.
Justification is over, sanctification is over. What is pending? Our glorification. Glorification is the final step in the application of redemption. But even though our sanctification is complete at death, our salvation is not yet complete because we are still without our glorified resurrection bodies. That comes in the final stage of the application of our salvation, which is glorification, and the first event of our glorification is the resurrection from the dead.
This is the climatic goal of redemption which our Lord himself points out in John 6:40: “For this is the will of my father, that everyone believes the son should have eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day.” The climatic event in our own experience of grace, the consummate blessings of salvation, comes to us at that time.
The first step of our glorification starts with resurrection. It is at the resurrection that we reach a stage of full conformation to the image of Christ in soul and body. Paul, whose greatest goal was to know and become like Christ, rightly points out that his ultimate goal is the resurrection of the dead.
We can say Paul’s great hope is glorification. His expectation of partaking in the consummate bliss, the unspeakable privileges of the resurrection from the dead. Why this passion, Paul? Why did you count all things loss and as dung, Paul? Why do you want to gain Christ, be found in him, and be clothed in his righteousness? Why do you embrace fellowship with Christ and conform to his death? Because this is the fruit and ultimate goal of all that. I want to attain to the blessed, blissful resurrection of the dead.
That should be our great hope. Our glorification is so marvelous, and the reason we need to eagerly hope for that is because all the salvation blessings we receive in this life… we, who were like animals filled with lusts and sins, God’s grace so marvelously sanctifies us and makes us so gentle and winsome, like angels. Think of men who have attained a great level of sanctification like the Apostle Paul or so many great saints in history. We read their biographies and wonder what the grace of God has done in their lives. All that we experience in this life is just a foretaste, a drop, a down payment, of the full redemptive blessings we will experience in our glorification. Compared to the glorious transformation that will happen when we are glorified in Christ, this is just a drop, a sample, a trailer, a starter. If this is just a starter, how eagerly we should look for the fullness of it? That full glorification comes when Jesus returns and He raises us from the dead. That is the climax of redemption. This is the great yearning goal of Paul and should be the goal and hope of every believer.
Can I say a few things about what happens to believers’ bodies so we can share in some of Paul’s passionate .
Though it is the same body, it will be a transformed body with new attributes. In Philippians 3:20-21, we read, “For our citizenship is in heaven, from which also we eagerly wait for a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ; who will transform the body of our humble state into conformity with the body of His glory, by the exertion of the power that He has even to subject all things to Himself.” Our humble body will be transformed. The word “transformed” is metamorphosis, like a caterpillar—an ugly body of humiliation—but it goes through metamorphosis and becomes a beautiful butterfly. In the same way, our bodies will be beautiful and glorious with better capacities and qualities, but they came from the same “caterpillar.”
How amazing! The verse says our bodies will be like Christ’s. When Christ returns, He will transform the body of our humble state into the body of His glory. We will be given bodies like Christ’s glorious body. In 1 Corinthians 15, Paul lists five attributes of this new body.
1. It Will Be an Immortal Body
It will be a deathless, immortal, imperishable body. 1 Corinthians 15:42 says, “For this perishable must put on the imperishable, and this mortal must put on immortality.” We move from a “perishable body” to an imperishable body. We move from a “mortal body” to an immortal body. What is it like to live in an imperishable and immortal body? Imagine a dying man who is so weak he cannot even get up, suddenly going into a healthy body like that of a 20-year-old man, but much, much more: an imperishable and immortal body. A sinless soul in a deathless body. Isn’t this the desire and dream of every sage, wise man, and person in the world since the beginning? They searched for it—Sanjeevani in Hindu lore, the Fountain of Youth in Greek mythology. They weren’t just searching for an eternal soul, but for an immortal, imperishable body. Think of it: none of my body organs, not even a single cell, will become old. I will be always fresh and energetic. My complete blood count will always be perfect, with no thyroid, no cholesterol, no sugar, no high blood pressure. No baldness, wrinkles on my face, or shrinking skin. Always youthful. All my scans and medical examples will be perfect. My weight will be perfect, and I will have immunity to everything. What kind of power will surge through this body on the day of resurrection? How will I feel? Sometimes we drink an energy drink or wear a new dress, and we feel great. How will it be to wear an immortal, imperishable body? What will it be capable of doing? I have so many fantasies about this. We should think about it.
2. It Will Be a Body of His Glory
The word “glory” is so frequently used in Scripture for the bright, shining radiance that surrounds the presence of God Himself. This term suggests that there will also be a kind of brightness or radiance surrounding our bodies that will be an appropriate outward evidence of the position of exaltation and rule over all creation that God has given us. This is also suggested in Matthew 13:43, where Jesus says, “Then the righteous will shine like the sun in the kingdom of their Father.”
3. It Will Be a Spiritual Body
Another glorious thing about our body is that it is not just physical. 1 Corinthians 15:44 says, “It is sown a natural body, it is raised a spiritual body. There is a natural body, and there is a spiritual body.” What does a spiritual body mean? I believe this is a glorious thing: it is the ability to interact with both the physical and spiritual worlds and realities, with visible and invisible things. Christ could interact with humans and also went to Heaven. He can see and interact with spiritual beings in the heavenly realm. We will receive the same kind of body. Now we live by faith, but later, this spiritual sight will mean that just as we can see physical realities today, we will then see spiritual realities with as much clarity.
It is this kind of existence that will make us experience what theologians call the beatific vision of God. We shall see all the infinite beauty of God face to face while in the body, something unprecedented in history. Before this, no one could see God and live (Exodus 33:20). What a glorious bliss! That is Heaven. We will be seeing God (Revelation 22:4). Christ raises us and does all this to our body and soul to have that glorious, beautiful vision of God. With this resurrected, glorified, spiritual body, we shall see God and Christ face to face. Then, this incorruptible, immortal, and spiritual body will be able to bear up under the exceeding great and eternal weight of glory! Jude 24 says, “Now unto him that is able to keep you from falling, and to present you faultless before the presence of his glory with exceeding joy.”
4. It Will Be Able to Dwell with God
Not only that, but our resurrection body will be able to dwell with God. This body makes one qualified to walk the earth and to dwell in Heaven. With this body, we can dwell with God forever. We will have both physical and spiritual sight. We will live a life with a body and soul suited to express the highest glory of God for which it is redeemed, totally filled with the Spirit and animated by the Spirit. Think of a body that will be able to follow all the impulses of a sinless soul that wants to glorify God to the maximum. When those passions within us stir—gratitude, worship, rising—our bodies will leap in worship and obedience and worship and praise God to our hearts’ desire and never be weary, never be worn out or decayed.
5. Our Moral Character Will Be Like Christ’s
Not only will our bodies be like Christ’s, our moral character will also be like Christ’s. Our whole person is destined to become a flawless image, or reflection, of Christ’s glory. Thus, it is not only our bodies which will become like Christ, but also our moral character. This is the climax goal of our redemption. We read in Romans 8:29: “For whom He foreknew, He also predestined to become conformed to the image of His Son.” 1 John 3:3 declares, “We know that, when He appears, we shall be like Him, because we shall see Him just as He is.”
What a passionate hope this will be for a man like Paul, who said, “Wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of sin?” Here on this earth, remaining sin hinders me from fully glorifying Christ, but at glorification, when He comes, I will have a sinless soul with all remaining sin totally removed. All the magnets in my soul that draw me to what is forbidden by God—all of that will be removed. All the darkness in my thinking will be removed. All the twists and crookedness in my affections will be removed. That is all negative, but positively, all the Christ-like graces—gentleness, love, selflessness, joy, peace—will be fully developed. The very life of God will flood and fill my soul. I will be perfect with a sinless soul inhabiting a deathless, imperishable, spiritual body. Then the Son of God is glorified in me.
Brothers, this is the climax of redemption: our glorification. Do you get a little sense of why Paul is so excited? By all means, he wants to attain the resurrection from the dead. Do you see why this should be the ultimate goal and hope of every Christian? The hope of the resurrection of our bodies is a very important Christian truth. Paul was very distressed that some people in the Corinthian church did not have a deep conviction of it in 1 Corinthians and even didn’t believe it (1 Corinthians 15:12-19). We need to deeply meditate and cherish this hope until it keeps burning in us always.
A question keeps coming to me: Do you have this hope? Do you believe that this will happen to you? This hope makes us patient in difficult circumstances, “since we know that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory that is to be revealed to us” (Romans 8:18). This hope and joy should produce zealous obedience. This hope should make us heavenly-minded people and make us eagerly wait for our glorification at Christ’s coming. “Set your mind on the things above, not on the things that are on earth” (Colossians 3:2).
One preacher said, “The problem with the church today is not big outward sins, but secret worldly-mindedness that hinders spiritual growth, even when it is disguised by a religious routine on the weekend.” Where is the person whose heart is so passionately in love with the promised glory of Heaven that he feels like an exile and a sojourner on the earth? Where is the person who has so tasted the beauty of the age to come that the diamonds and gold of the world look like stones, baubles, and family problems, worries, needs, and social and political problems are too small because he has a view to eternity? Where is the person who has tasted the pleasures of the coming world, so that the pleasures and entertainment of this world seem empty? He is not in bondage to his mobile phone, TV watching, eating, sleeping, drinking, partying, or worldly pleasures.
And his one question is this: “How can I maximize my enjoyment of God for all eternity while I am an exile on this earth?” And his answer is always the same: “How can I glorify God now by serving Him to the maximum, by doing the labors of love?” Only one thing satisfies the heart whose treasure is in Heaven: doing the works of Heaven. We can see Paul was such a man; it was this hope of resurrection that made him live like that.
Do you have this hope? Do you believe that this will happen to you? The resurrection from the dead is not a gift which God gives to any man that can be bestowed apart from a man’s spiritual and moral state without means. If so, He could give it to all people. Paul says, “I am justified and found in Christ, but I am growing on the sanctification path. Knowing Christ’s resurrection power in my daily experience, fellowship of His suffering, and being conformed to His death are means to attain the resurrection from the dead, because only the person who experiences the power of the resurrection, the fellowship of His suffering, and dies to sins is one who will experience the fruit of the resurrection from the dead.” Glorification is the last step in this redemptive process; it always comes after sanctification.
In the next verse, he says, “I have not attained or been perfected in sanctification. I leave behind and strive forward in order that I may apprehend that for which Christ apprehended me.” Do we believe that if there are no sanctification graces working in us, we cannot see the fruit of the resurrection from the dead? Paul repeatedly says in other places the reason for the kind of life he is living is hope. In Acts 24:15-16, he says, “I have hope in God, which they themselves also accept, that there will be a resurrection of the dead, both of the just and the unjust. This being so, I myself always strive to have a conscience without offense toward God and men.”
Do you have this hope? Do you believe that this will happen to you? Paul says his future hope is impacting his present life. 1 John 3:2 says we can identify a man in his growth in holiness. “Beloved, now we are children of God; and it has not yet been revealed what we shall be, but we know that when He is revealed, we shall be like Him, for we shall see Him just as He is. And everyone who has this hope in Him purifies himself, just as He is pure.” Our life priorities should show our hope. What should be our top priority if we have this hope? It is not just about doing this and that. His top priority in life is purifying himself. You will see him purifying himself. The first basic growth in Christian life is in the family. If we are purifying ourselves, it will be seen at home. Do your wife, husband, and children see you as becoming purer, more and more like Christ? John 5 says, “those who did good work will rise for glory.” Are you doing good, at least in your home? Are you a good person? Does your family see that?
I am really worried about some of you. We spend so much time preparing and preaching with a burden. You say, “This is a wonderful sermon, very comforting,” but nothing changes in your life. Nothing changes in your life. You are just hearing, but nothing changes. The husband and wife relationship is not at all a biblical model. Wife, has your sanctification shown in being more submissive to your husband? Husband, is your love for your wife growing? Or are the same tensions there from 10 years ago? What did all the truth do to you? There is no sanctification in relationships. Shame on you; you are not purifying yourselves.
Your hope is a foolish dream if you don’t see any growth in sanctification in your life. The sins you commit at home, the patterns of behavior with your wives or husbands, the patterns of irritability, no care, no love for her like Christ loves the church, no sacrifices for her, no submission to a husband—if you are the same as you were 5 or 10 years ago, some have become worse. How can you say you have this hope? Your responses to children, you say things to children you would never say to anyone—rude behavior. They are sinful, but you don’t even feel them, let alone repent. Ask yourself, “Do I have this hope?” You don’t have to pretend before others outside. If you are really changing, the best people who can honestly tell you are your family. First, we should be good at home.
Let us ask ourselves, then, “What is our hope? What are we living for in the future? Is this not worth making the dominant aim of our lives the same as that of Paul’s?” How does our account stand then? Are we not wise traders presenting a good balance-sheet? Considering the loss of all things, and on the other, the gaining of Christ, are we going to attain the resurrection from the dead, the perfect transformation of body, soul, and spirit? Does the other balance-sheet show the foolish man who is gaining the world, and on the other side, a Christless life, not attaining righteousness, but the resurrection of judgment?
This hope is a powerful force that cannot but change a man. Oh, may God use this message to fill our hearts with hope that will change us today and purify us more and more.
For those of you who have still not believed in Christ, you all know as an undeniable fact you will die. However you try not to think of it, you will die one day. How are you running from it? You will die one day. What is your hope after death? Christ gives you a glorious hope. Not just in words, but He Himself, rising from the dead, says if you just believe Him and His work, that faith will remove the fear of death. You don’t have to die like an animal being forcefully dragged to slaughter. Why will you not immediately believe Christ?
Can I tell you what will happen if you die without this hope? Oh, I feel like beating my breast and telling you a sad story. Your bodies also will rise, not for glory, but for eternal shame and destruction. Your soul, as soon as it dies, will enter the torment of hell. Your body will be kept in prison for judgment. When you hear the trumpet, the voice of the Son of Man will wake up your body and bring that soul, already experiencing torment. Imagine what the meeting of the soul and body will be like! How dreadful and what shocking salutations! When we see someone we never want to see, it shocks us. What a shock it will be. How your soul will hate to get into that body! Imagine if the guilty soul can speak. What all it will tell about your body.
“One face I never wanted to see! Oh, you accursed, abhorrent, polluted, depraved body, should I be united with you again forever? In you I sinned in every way. By you I was once ensnared, debased, and ruined. To gratify your vile lusts and appetites, your gluttony, and worldly pleasures, without any care that you had an eternal soul, I neglected my own immortal interests, degraded my native dignity, and made myself miserable forever. I parted with you with pain and the struggles of death—but now I meet you with greater terror and agony! Have you now met me again to torment me forever? Oh, why did you get up from the grave? I wish you had still slept in the dust and never been repaired again! Let me rather be condemned to animate a vile serpent than that odious body once defiled with sin, and the instrument of my guilty pleasures!”
“Oh, now my body is made strong and immortal to torment me with strong and immortal pains! Go away! Return to your bed in the dust, to sleep and rot! Let me never see your shocking face again!”
The soul will hate to enter the body, but there will be no choice. No, none of those pleadings will help. The soul and body sinned together, so both should be bonded together to eternally experience wrath for those sins. This body will become an everlasting habitation. Now they are bonded together, body and soul, forever. The weight of mountains, the eternal pangs of hell, the flames of unquenchable fire—can never separate or dissolve this bond.
Just as believers will receive an improved body with new traits, you will also receive a deathless body, not to experience bliss, but to experience eternal anguish, damnation, and fire. Your body capacities will be thoroughly enlarged; you will have a body with an increasing capacity to experience pain. Today you experience 100% pain; tomorrow, your capacity to feel will increase. That is, you will never be numbed or used to hell’s pain.
Your body will be strengthened, but it will be so that you may bear a heavier load of torment! Their sensations will be more sensitive and strong, but it will be so they may feel the more intense pain. They will be raised imperishable, so they may not be consumed by everlasting fire or escape punishment by death or annihilation.
Their bodily appetites will be augmented. They will always want to eat meat daily, with a 100 times greater desire, but there will be no means to satisfy that. Their bodily lusts will be augmented 100 times, but there will be no means to satisfy that. Forever hungry, forever unsatisfied, they will eternally torment with their eager, unceasing cravings. In short, their augmented strength, their enlarged capacities, and their immortality will be their eternal curse! They would willingly exchange immortality for immediate death.
“Oh, why are you saying this sad story?” you ask. “If this is the story, how good!” It’s just the poor imagination of one who has not seen a drop of hell. Oh, what would it be like if someone from hell came and described it? Horror and pain will throb through every vein and glare wildly and furiously in their eyes. Every bone and joint will tremble, and every face will look downcast and gloomy! So much warning was given, but you didn’t listen; you loved sin more.
Unbeliever, all of you who don’t have this hope, this is an infallible truth if you die without Christ. Think about this seriously before it is too late. What will happen to you on Resurrection Day? The Holy Spirit has used that serious thinking to lead some to salvation. May that terror of the Lord lead you to repentance and make you run to Christ.
Grace Reformed Baptist Church, Bangalore 