Last Friday, we studied the importance of longing in our lives. It is not wishful thinking, but a longing that results in continuous action. The New Testament views one of the signs of true Christians as their longing for the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ. Titus 2:12 calls it our blessed hope. This hope-filled longing is a powerful force for living the Christian life. 2 Corinthians 3:12 says this hope will make us fearless and bold always. Hebrews 6:19 says that whatever the stormy circumstances, that hope will act as an anchor for the soul. Romans 15:13 says hope will fill us with all joy and peace. Hope is a very powerful force. What is it that we should hope for? In one word, we hope for our glorification. Glorification is the final step in the application of redemption. When will that happen? At the Second Coming.
The reason we do not have this hope-filled longing for the Second Coming is that we don’t have a firm, clear understanding of what will happen to us at the Second Coming. How can we long for something if we don’t know what we are to long for? Paul, talking about the Second Coming in Thessalonians, says, “I don’t want you to be ignorant of this.” So God expects us to get a clear, firm grasp of the Second Coming of Christ so it kindles a longing in our hearts. That is my prayer and attempt in our continuous study of “Looking unto Jesus.” Starting from “Looking unto Jesus” before creation, we have now come to look at Jesus at His Second Coming.
The challenge is that the devil has done everything to confuse the central truths of the Second Coming because he knows that when it is grasped with biblical balance, it not only changes our entire perspective, but even our Christian lifestyle and the degree of our commitment to God and His church will be different. Last time, I tried to show in the Bible that there is only one Second Coming, and at that time, Christ will glorify His saints and judge unbelievers.
In the month or two when the Iran-Israel war started, it was amazing how all the dispensationalists took out their theological missile guns. “Lo and behold, this is what we told you! Stop reading the Bible always; see the news, watch the Iran-Israel war 24/7. The prophecy clock has started ticking now, this is the beginning of the Gog and Magog war.” There were so many videos, sermons, and articles. The dispensationalists sent more theological missiles than Iran or Israel together. But you know what? When the ceasefire was announced, even these theological missiles ceased, and some even took down their videos.
It is sad to see most preachers becoming astrologers, using the Bible as a crystal ball. They are seeing future events, saying, “He is coming here, now.” The amazing thing is that the Lord prophesied this would happen. Matthew 24:6 says, “And you will hear of wars and rumors of wars. See that you are not troubled; for all these things must come to pass, but the end is not yet.” The Lord is definitely coming, but we are not called to be astrologers who sit with a crystal ball and are focused on this world, watching the news 24/7. Watching this war and that earthquake, saying, “Coming, coming…” wastes all your talents and achieves nothing for the kingdom. Instead, use your time to grow in God’s word, live a lifestyle committed to the church, use your talents to grow the church, spread the gospel, practice a lifestyle of being always prepared, live a holy life, and faithfully serve Him. Don’t be tossed to and fro with all these theories. Ephesians 4 says a sign of maturity is that we are no longer tossed to and fro by every wind of men’s doctrine, but are established in the solid truths of God’s word.
What are the solid truths of the Bible about the Second Coming? Christ will certainly come. It is the climatic event of redemption. The coming of Christ is imminent and definite, but the time is unknowable. The word of God tells us to live and cultivate a longing hope for His coming at any time, not to become astrologers who keep watching Israeli news, which is not the biblical Israel. The biblical Israel was a theocracy, a nation under God composed only of Jews. Today’s Israel is a democracy with a mix of Jews, Muslims, and atheists. So let us leave them alone.
So our aim today as we prepare our hearts for communion is to develop a hopeful longing for Christ’s Second Coming, and to pray the Holy Spirit may open our eyes to see the beauty, glory, and excellence so that our hearts burn with these truths and make us long for His coming.
When the Lord comes, He will do several things. He will glorify His people, judge the world, condemn the world, bring new heavens and earth, overcome all His enemies, and punish Satan and demons in hell. So several events will happen, each of them filled with comfort for His people. It is like several grapes hanging in a bunch. When New Testament writers wrote their short epistles, they did not comprehensively cover all events in their short letters. Every epistle was written in the context of a particular pastoral concern, so when they spoke about the Second Coming, based on each situation of the audience, they plucked one grape of the Second Coming event and comforted them. You see that in 1 and 2 Thessalonians, the same church and the same Paul talked about the same Second Coming. In the first epistle, he only talks about what he is going to do for believers, because they were grieving since some of them had died. But in the 2 Thessalonians passage, they were persecuted for their faith by their enemies. There, he mentions briefly that He will gather us, but the main focus is on what He will do with the enemies of the church. The same truth is applied to address specific pastoral concerns. But professors who have never been pastors cannot take these truths and say, “Oh, this is a secret rapture in 1 Thessalonians, and 2 Thessalonians is the final coming.” We have seen there is only one coming. Now, what will He do? Just like Paul, I will not cover everything for the pastoral concern of preparing you for communion; we will focus on our glorification. Our glorification will come in three stages: resurrection, judgment, and the eternal state. In the wonderful wisdom of God, these very events that are dreadful for damning the unbeliever are the means of glorification for believers. We will look at each of these blessings in detail, which are all part of our glorification. Today, let us understand how we are glorified at the resurrection.
The Grand Event of General Resurrection
There are three headings for this section: the General Resurrection Event, Meet the Resurrected Me!, and Applications to Live in Light of This Event.
“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!” (John 5:28-29)
Remember, you have to look upon these words, which means you must imagine this event before your eyes until it becomes a bright, burning vision, and we have to live in the light of this vision. Ever since sin entered 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!” (Genesis 3:19). Though mankind started with two, the sons of Adam are so inconceivably numerous. In those days, when man lived close to 1,000 years, how many children would they have had? They filled the world. Now, when the average life is 60-70 years, we are 8 billion. And how many generations have followed one another since the creation of the world? If the descendants of one man, Abraham, by one son were as the innumerable stars of heaven or as the sand by the seashore, what numbers can compute the multitudes that have sprung from all the patriarchs, the sons of Adam, and Noah? How many different nations on our globe contain many millions of men—even in one generation! Moreover, how many billions of infants just die in the womb or as soon as they are born? How many die in middle age? How many die in wars, from missiles, in plagues, accidents, or earthquakes? How many die in the ocean? And if they escape everything else, old age will definitely cause them to die.
Use your imagination to bring that vast army of people before your mind, all dead. What math can count them? Even the sand of the seashore or the sand on all the earth cannot be compared to their number; they will be more than that. Let them pass in review before us from thousands of centuries, from all countries and from all ages. How vast and astonishing the multitude!
But what has become of them all? They are sleeping underground in the grave. Beyond comparison, the greatest number of mankind is now sleeping underground. We have 8 billion people on Earth; imagine how many 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 all our forefathers, grandfathers, grandmas, fathers, and mothers, our brothers and sisters, all sleeping.
And shall they lie there always? No! The word of God 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 all the destruction caused by time and death!
All the gospels and even this verse say, notice, there is one resurrection for both believers and unbelievers. Both will rise, but for different purposes. Some will rise to the resurrection of life, and some to the resurrection of damnation! This voice of the Son of Man probably means the sound of the archangel’s trumpet. That sound! How majestic and terrifying will this universal alarm be! Not only the dead, but all the living will hear. Imagine different scenes in the world: some will wake up from sleep; some of them, immersed in worldly worries and sensual pleasures—eating and drinking and giving in marriage like in Noah’s day, fully focused on this world—will tremble at the sound. Some will be in the very act of sin, as in Sodom and Gomorrah. Some will be wasting time watching Israeli wars. The majority, unprepared, fully focused on the world and with no care for eternity, will tremble at the sound. But a few here and there, like the wise virgins in Matthew 25, prepared, like a good servant multiplying talents, serving the church and spreading the gospel, for them it will be a sound of great joy! Because they are longing and waiting to hear that. But for all others, oh what a shock! Suddenly the heavens open over the astonished world; an all-alarming trumpet breaks over their heads like a clap of thunder! Immediately the living turn their gazing eyes upon the amazing phenomenon! Every eye will see Him! It will be the greatest terror for humanity.
So, what is the first event? 1 Thessalonians 4:16 says the dead will rise first. This sound reaches all the dead. All who are in the graves, all without exception, shall hear His voice! The vast army underground will hear. This voice is a summons. This voice will bring even the souls of these bodies, whether in hell or heaven, and reunite them with their dead bodies.
They shall come forth! How will it be? I imagine standing there. I am standing in a cemetery in Bengaluru. The earth is heaving. There is a noise and a shaking among the dry bones. Tombs are bursting, whatever granite or marble, all will crack. Graves are opening! A vast army of the dead awakens with a deathless body, bursting into life! At the coming of the Lord, the dead will rise first. 1 Thessalonians 4:16-17 says, “For the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trumpet of God; and the dead in Christ shall 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.”
Those who are alive, though they will not have a proper resurrection, will pass through a change equivalent to it. 1 Corinthians 15:51 says, “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.” No sooner is the awful trumpet heard than all the living shall be transformed. This is the difference: the dead shall be raised, and the living shall be changed.
Now, we have seen the resurrection event. Let me make it personal to you for the sake of impact. I titled this Meet the resurrected me! I felt so taken up and thrilled when I stood in front of the mirror and looked at myself in this state and met the resurrected me! Let me describe it.
Meet the Resurrected Me!
First, my body will be the selfsame body. Our confession says all the dead shall be raised up with the selfsame bodies, and none other, although with different qualities. I will not suddenly look like a Black person or an American. The phrase “resurrection of the dead” itself indicates it has to be the same body. If it were some other body, then it is not a resurrection, but a new creation. The very body that dies and is buried must and will be raised from the dead. Just as Christ was raised in the same body He had before He died. Our bodies are a very important part of our identity; they are a part of who we are. I will rise with the same body.
Secondly, though it is the same physical body, all of a sudden, I feel this same body is transformed with new attributes. There is one aspect of continuity with our old bodies, and yet a transformation. It will be transformed; all my weaknesses, my tiredness, and my dullness, and the effects of sins will be removed, and all my abilities will be improved, with new abilities I can call superpowers. In 1 Corinthians 15, Paul uses the example of a seed and says this body is sown in the grave as a small seed, but what grows is a big tree from the seed. Like an ugly caterpillar, this body of humiliation, through the metamorphosis of burial and resurrection, becomes a flying butterfly with beautiful features. Just like superheroes, one day we will find that we have extraordinary superpowers. On the resurrection day, all of us will become superheroes. We will be fully upgraded.
Paul says in 15:42, “The body is sown in corruption, it is raised in incorruption. It is sown in dishonor, it is raised in glory. It is sown in weakness, it is raised in power.” Paul lists a few qualities about our resurrection body.
- It will be a deathless, immortal body, imperishable. 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? Can anyone tell? Will it be like a dying man who can’t even get up suddenly becoming a young, healthy, 20-year-old man? It is much more. An imperishable and immortal body is a deathless body. Isn’t this the desire and dream of every sage, wise man, and every common man in every culture and every religion in the world from the beginning? Hindus have their myths about Sanjeevini and Amrita, and their stories of the Chiranjivi and Ashwatthama. The Greeks have their fountain of youth, the Egyptians have their mummies, and the Chinese have their dragons granting deathless life. What is the great aim of all the medical world and research?
Since the fall, the world has been fighting with sickness, aging, and death. We fight against decay with every cream, every supplement, every diet, and even operations. But it’s a losing battle. We all get cold, weak, decay, and will die.
But meet the resurrected me. Imagine on resurrection morning, maybe close your eyes for a few seconds. I imagined it like that. My grave shakes, and I rise from the grave with an imperishable and immortal body. How will it be? Just watch me from head to toe. My head will have no baldness, full of lively, dark, black hair, not one white hair for all eternity. My forehead and face will be so bright, pure, and without one wrinkle of burden or worry. My face, once confused with life and doubts, will shine with perfect clarity, understanding, and divine wisdom. Every thought will be pure, every memory vivid and untainted by regret. You should see the joyful twinkle in my eyes, no longer dimmed by age or blurred by tears. They will possess a crystalline clarity, seeing truth unveiled, seeing the very face of God in unblemished glory, reflecting the light of heaven. Behold your skin, transformed! Gone are the wrinkles, the blemishes, and the scars of earth. It will be radiant, glowing with an inner light.
My stomach will not be like this, but will have six, or maybe twelve, packs. My hands and legs will be strong, agile, and eternally capable, perfectly fashioned for joyful service. My feet will be swift and tireless, perfectly balanced, ready to walk on streets of gold, to stand firmly even in the presence of the glory of the Almighty God before whom angels cannot stand, and to run the errands of heaven with boundless energy. No weakness, no tremor, only perfected strength and grace. My blood count will be perfect and complete, with no thyroid, no cholesterol, no sugar, and no blood pressure.
This resurrected body, from head to toe, will be incorruptible, never to decay, sicken, feel pain, get old for billions of years, or die. It will be powerful, capable beyond our wildest dreams, free from all earthly limitations. It will not have negative attributes but will be filled with all life-giving energy and freshness. Every cell and nerve artery will flow with the full force of eternal life. Ever young, eternally 18, always youthful.
Meet the resurrected me. What kind of power will surge through this body? What is it capable of doing? I have so many of my own fantasies about what I will do with my resurrected body. This is not a mere dream, but the infallible promise of God. Though our imaginations will naturally fall short of the reality of the resurrection, I believe we should allow them to run through the doors Scripture opens. If you don’t imagine it or dream of a resurrected body, how will you long for it? Paul surely dreamed, that is why he says, “For in this tent we groan, longing to be clothed with our heavenly tent.” We are to live dreaming and hoping for this. May this glorious vision of a resurrected body ignite a deeper longing within our soul, a fervent desire for that day.
- It will be a spiritual body. By the way, there is more. Paul says it will not only be physical but also a spiritual body. 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? This is glorious. It is a body that has the ability to interact with the spiritual world. In the New Testament, Lazarus rose from the dead, but he came with his burial clothes on him. But when Christ rose, the clothes lay there in the tomb; He came through it. His resurrection body was different. Twice when the disciples were locked inside, Jesus just came through the door to the room with His resurrected body. But He was not a ghost; they could touch Him. His resurrected body can see and interact with both visible and invisible realities. We will be able to interact with physical and spiritual reality, with visible and invisible things. His ascent to heaven later proves that, though He remains in a human body, He can see and interact with spiritual beings in the heavenly realm.
We will receive the same kind of body. While we now live in hope and faith, at the resurrection we will see truly—our hope and faith will become sight. We will see spiritual realities with as much clarity as physical things. The glorious blessing of that will be we will be seeing God face to face (Revelation 22:4). We are given this tremendous capacity of body and soul for the fulfillment of God’s promise, that we shall see God. Oh, to have that glorious, beatific vision of God! Before this, no human could see God and live (Exodus 33:20) because the sight of God is unbearable to our current body. But in the resurrection, something unprecedented in history happens to our body. We get this glorious body and soul, and we shall see Him as He is. 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!
Not only will we see, but we will be able to dwell with God forever with this body. So a spiritual body does not mean a ghost, but a body that can both interact with physical and metaphysical realities, one qualified to walk the earth and to dwell in heaven. With this body, we can dwell with God forever. With our current weak body, we would die from a heart attack out of joy when we experience the fullness of pleasures in God’s presence, but this body is suited to live a spiritual life in heaven.
- It will be like Christ’s body. Finally, my resurrected body will be like Christ’s body. 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.”
Look at the amazing power of Christ; He will use the power by which He will subject the whole universe to Himself. To do what? To transform our humble state of body to conform with the body of His glory. What is “the body of [Christ’s] glory”? Some say this is the body He received when He was glorified and made to sit at the right hand of the Father, and this body is much more exalted than He had after His resurrection, that is why it is called the body of His glory. The verse says this is the same kind of body we will receive: the body of His glory because He will glorify us with Him. Our resurrected bodies will radiate with divine glory, the bright shining radiance that surrounds the presence of God Himself. Matthew 13:43 says, “Then the righteous will shine like the sun in the kingdom of their Father.” This is the outshining of the very perfections of God’s work.
Not only will our bodies be like Christ’s, but 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. Remember, this was the decree of election. Romans 8:29 says, “For whom He foreknew, He also predestined to become conformed to the image of His Son.” First John 3:2 declares, “We know that, when He appears, we shall be like Him, because we shall see Him just as He is.”
My dear brothers and sisters, this resurrection of our bodies is the first part of our glorification. I hope this vision makes you long for Christ’s coming. In the midst of our decaying, dying body, a body that will die and be buried in mud, this is our blessed hope.
Application
We have to come to communion with three duties: Examine, Remember, and Proclaim.
- Do you have assurance of this hope? The hope of the resurrection of our bodies is the very nerve of Christian life, and it should be a burning reality with assurance, not a guess, a speculation, a fancy, or a possibility. All sins and problems in the Christian life can be traced back to a weak assurance of this truth. Paul saw that this was a problem with the Corinthian church and was very upset that many in that church did not believe in the resurrection, and he wrote the longest chapter, 1 Corinthians 15, on the resurrection to correct that and give them that hope.
As we come to communion, the Lord says, “Examine yourself.” Examine this: Do I truly believe I will rise like that? Is that hope working in my heart? How do I examine myself? Scripture says this hope will show in my life of faith. This hope will produce joy, produce zealous service and good works, make me patient in difficult circumstances, change my priorities in life, and make me heavenly-minded, not absorbed in this world, living to eat and drink, but like heavenly citizens longing for His coming. It will give all the motivation for growing in sanctification and striving to live with a good conscience. 1 John 3:2 identifies such a man: “Everyone who has this hope purifies himself just as He is pure.”
One preacher said, “The problem with the church today is not big outward sins, but secret worldly-mindedness, which 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 baubles, and the entertainment of the world is empty, and the family bonds and social causes of the world are too small because he has a view to eternity? Where is this person?
He is not in bondage to little, time-killing pleasures of watching TV, entertainment, or partying, or other worldly pleasures. He is a free man in a foreign land, knowing his time is short. 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?” You see him always redeeming time, serving his God with his maximum strength by doing the labors of love. Only one thing satisfies the heart whose treasure is in heaven: doing the works of heaven.
Oh, may God give this assurance to us. In fact, from the Old Testament, the Bible identifies believers only as those with this hope. Am I a believer? Examine yourself. This is the hope that burned in the hearts of the oldest fathers, who had just a nursery revelation. Abraham believed in the resurrection of the dead; the Bible says that is why he had faith to sacrifice his son. Joseph believed, and that is why he carefully told his family not to bury his bones in Egypt, but to take them and bury them in the promised land. Moses and David, and even old Job, and Hebrews says all saints in all ages endured the fire and sword, and tortures that are unutterable. They gave their bodies to the flames, chains, and prisons, and were even stoned, not caring even for death, but believing that thereby they should attain a better resurrection. If they had so much hope for the resurrection, how much more should this hope burn in our hearts when we have a clearer revelation?
Sometimes, we have to ask ourselves, “Do I really believe in resurrection?” For some of you, resurrection is a vague possibility. We live as if we will die and our bodies will become food for worms, and that’s the end. Oh, may God fill us with assurance of resurrection. Jude says that Michael the archangel was contending with the devil about the body of Moses. Why was there a fight between a great archangel and the devil? Was this war just for the food of worms? The body of Moses was watched over by a great archangel. From this, we learn that an angel watches over every tomb. It is no fiction when some people carve cherubs with their wings on marble. There are cherubs with outstretched wings over the gravestones of all the righteous. An angel stands night and day to watch each bone and guard each atom so that at the resurrection those bodies may rise with more glory and dwell forever with the Lord. The guardianship of the bodies of the saints by angels proves that they shall rise again from the dead.
Examine Your Hope in Trials and Sickness
This hope will give you comfort in sickness. And here is comfort for some of you, my brothers and sisters, who are suffering in your bodies with unbearable pain every day. Here is comfort for you. That poor body of humiliation will live again without its pains and without its agonies. The resurrection will repay all it has suffered. Every scar disease brings and every wrinkle of old age will be restored. All your sufferings shall be well repaid by the happiness you will experience there. Don’t fear because this same body that is now suffering will one day share in our delights. The body that is now often a cup of bitter wormwood will be a vessel of honey. Every nerve will thrill with delight, every muscle will move with bliss; your eyes will flash with the fire of eternity; your heart will beat and pulsate with immortal blessedness. Comfort yourselves then, you sufferers and weary languishers upon the bed. Fear not, this same selfsame body of yours shall live.
Examine Your Hope Toward Death
One way to test our assurance is through death. Yes, we all may face deaths in our family, and we may face our own death. It may shock and fill us with sorrow for a while, and there is nothing wrong with grieving. But it is really sad when Christians also face death as unbelievers do, grieving hopelessly for a long time. Paul says in 1 Thessalonians 4, “We do not want you to be uninformed, concerning those who are asleep, so that you will not grieve like the rest, who have no hope.”
We can have full comfort not just because our dear one’s soul went to heaven and lives forever. The whole Christian burial service is to give us comfort and the promised resurrection for the body. See, we do not weep because our loved ones have gone to heaven; that is a joy. But we weep because their body is in the grave, because those eyes can no longer smile on you, because those hands cannot touch us in love, because those lips cannot speak. The body is cold and dead. You do not weep for the soul.
You know the comfort of the Christian faith is that the very body in the grave will rise again; you shall see that body once more. Will not that remove your tears? “He is not dead, but sleepeth.” He is not lost; he is “seed sown to ripen at harvest time.” This body is buried for a glorious metamorphosis, to be prepared to live in glory in the presence of God. How different our burial service will be. Oh, may God increase the assurance of resurrection in our hearts.
Remember and Proclaim
We have come to remember Christ’s sacrifice. Do we realize that Christ died not only to save my soul but to save my body? We come to celebrate our union with Christ. Do you know that Christ has not only united our souls, but even our very bodies are taken into union with him? These hands, these feet, these eyes are members of Christ. The golden chain which binds Christ to his people goes around the body and soul, too. Well, while the head lives, the body cannot die; and while Jesus lives, the members cannot perish. We keep talking about the eternal nature of the soul but don’t realize the eternal nature of the body. The whole event of resurrection is not about the soul at all but all about the body. Our bodies will live forever. Christ died to redeem even our bodies. He has united us by his Spirit. We saw he sealed us with the Spirit eternally. He not only sanctifies it but renders it eternal. He has made this body the temple of the Holy Ghost; the temple of the Holy Ghost is as eternal as the Holy Ghost. Shall this body, which has once had the Holy Ghost in it, always be food for worms? Shall it never rise? No, “this mortal shall put on immortality, and this corruptible put on incorruption.”
We can be assured we will rise. You know why? Because we are Christ’s body, and he is our head. He cannot attain full glory without glorifying us fully. Oh, his love, that he united us together! So he staked his great glory with our glory. He comes to be glorified in us, to bestow the fullness of all redemptive blessings. Oh, blessed be Christ, who has purchased such a complete and glorious salvation for us on the cross of Calvary. That is why he had to suffer so much—not just to cleanse us from our sins but to purchase such a full and complete salvation of body and soul for us, and an inheritance for us.
For example, lepers—where were we? Remember with love what Christ has done. Not only in this world, rotting in a leper colony, but eternally rotting in the grave and in hell. But behold, what great things the Lord has done for us. How deeply we should feel gratitude in our hearts, my dear former lepers.
If Christ redeemed this body to rise in glory, then present your bodies as living sacrifices. Do not allow any part of it to be defiled by the uncleanness of the world. Instead, offer our right ears, right hands, and right legs to be stained with his blood, consecrated to hear, do, and walk his life with all our strength, and do that with the oil of joy. If these ears will hear pure heavenly praise, I will not defile them with the filth of the world. If these hands will touch holy heaven and these feet will walk in golden streets, they will not walk in the gutter of the world. We say 1 Thessalonians says he is coming to be admired by his saints. Oh, with what admiration and worship we will look at him with all tears and gratefulness. The experience of his coming will be far, far beyond our expectation—like the boy thinking of a $1,000 bat but getting a $100,000 bike.
Unbelievers
If Christ comes today, I cannot say that every one of you will be glorified at the resurrection, because I don’t see the signs of hope in some of you. I shouldn’t give you a false assurance. You just hear and go, and nothing changes in your life. If you don’t have this hope in Christ, oh, how can I describe resurrection day to you? Your bodies also will rise. It will be the same body that is sitting here and listening; the same will rise. But not for glory, but for eternal shame and agony.
Oh, what a horrible sight it will be! When the trumpet sounds, your soul, already experiencing unbearable torment, will come to meet your risen body. How your soul will hate to get into the body. That meeting of soul and body—how dreadful and what shocking greetings! “Oh, you accursed, abominable, polluted, depraved body! Oh, must I be united with you again forever? In you, I sinned in every way. By you, I was once debased and ruined. To gratify your vile lusts and appetites and gluttony, I neglected my own eternal, important things, degraded my native dignity, and made myself miserable forever. I parted with you with the pain and 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 will not enter you. I will rather enter the dirtiest, most abominable lizard or vile serpent than that odious body once defiled with sin.” 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. Now they will be bonded together—body and soul—forever. The weight of mountains, the pangs of hell, and the flames of unquenchable fire can never dissolve these chains which now bind us together!
Just as believers will receive an improved body with new traits, you also will receive a deathless body—not to experience bliss, but to experience eternal anguish, damnation, and fire. Your body’s capacities will be thoroughly enlarged, capable of greater misery. Your sensations will be more sensitive and strong to feel more intense pain. They will be raised imperishable to burn with everlasting fire and not escape punishment by death or annihilation.
Their bodily appetites—hunger, drunkenness, lust—will be augmented. They will always want to eat meat daily—gluttony is there—with 100 times more 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. Drug addicts will crave for powder, and drunkards will crave for wine, but they will not get one drop. They will be forever hungry, forever unsatisfied, and shall eternally be tormented with their eager, unceasing cravings. Oh! To have your passions and yet not to satisfy them! I heard that if you don’t give a strong drug addict a drug, they will dash their heads against a wall and break their head and die. What will they do in hell, with no drugs? They cannot break all their heads; they will never die. Ah! To have a body in hell, with all its lusts, but not the power to satisfy them! How horrible that hell will be!
If I just show a 10-second reel of hell today, all of you will weep for years at that sight, but all my message is not making any impact on you. But hear me while I again affirm God’s truth. This same body, these eyes, these ears that hear me will know all this pain if you don’t repent. 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, what will it be? Horror throbs through every vein and glares wildly and furiously in their eyes. Every joint trembles, and every face looks downcast and gloomy! So much warning was given, but you didn’t listen. You loved sin more.
You can go on rejecting the Gospel. If Christ doesn’t come, surely death will come soon. You will sleep in dust for a while, and your soul will be tormented. That itself will be horrible hell. But at the resurrection, with your body and soul joined, you will experience a double hell; each brimming with pain. Your body, from head to foot, will be suffused with agony. Your soul, all its parts, conscience, reason, memory, all tortured, but more. Your head tormented with racking pains, your eyes starting from their sockets with sights of blood and woe. Your ears tormented with “sullen moans and hollow groans and shrieks of tortured ghosts.” Your heart beating high with fever; all your veins becoming a road for the hot feet of pain to travel on; every nerve a string on which the devil shall ever play his diabolical tune of “Hell’s Unutterable Lament”; your soul forever and ever aching, and your body palpitating in unison with your soul. If you have a headache, you will run to your physician. But what will you do when your head, and heart, and hands, and feet ache all at once? What diseases and pains can we compare hell to? All the diseases and pains of arthritis, cancer, neuralgia, kidney stones, gastric issues, gout, heart and chest attacks, and slipped discs put together is hell. “Fictions, sir!” I wish they were. As God lives, they are solid, stern truth. If God is true, and this Bible is true, what I have said is the truth, and you will find it to be so one day.
And will you march blindly on, sirs? You are living without Christ. Oh, if you cannot hear my mere description, how will you bear to see and experience the reality? O my hearers! The wrath to come! The wrath to come! The wrath to come. May it make you ask, “What can I do to be saved?” May God open your ears to hear Christ’s words, “Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and you shall be saved.” “He that believeth, and is baptized, shall be saved; he that believeth not shall be damned.”
Grace Reformed Baptist Church, Bangalore 