What is your expectation of life after death? Reincarnation? A spiritual existence? A dream state? Heaven? Nothing?
What is the basis of your expectation? Observation? Real or imagined experience? Your upbringing? Revelation from God?
From observation you might conclude that we merely cease to exist or that we experience some sort of spiritual liberation from the body. The ravages of what we see happen to our body, lead several world religions to teach that escape from the body is the goal, even if it takes several cycles to achieve it.
How strange it is for God to reveal in the Bible that eternal life in a body is the goal. Both Old and New Testaments speak of the resurrection of the body. Many Christians don’t even have that as part of their model for eternity. They hold to a semi-heretical view that we live in Heaven as some sort of spirit. This is not biblical, but is an inherited worldview from other cultures.
It is hard to imagine both the how and the why of the resurrection of the body. This is especially true if you understand that Heaven and a heavenly body will come first most likely.
God hasn’t provided the all the details, but here is what we know. The resurrection of the body will include both those who have been forgiven and those who have not. People who are still alive at the date of Christ’s return will be instantly changed from a living, but flawed body, to a resurrected body. A resurrected body isn’t just a repaired version of what we have now. Some people have been “raised” only to die again at a later date. To this point, only Jesus has a resurrected body. So “resurrected” isn’t the same as “reconditioned”.
For those who have been forgiven through their connection to Jesus, the resurrection and life in a new Heaven and new Earth will be the ultimate experience. How can it be an upgrade from Heaven? We will have to wait and see, won’t we.
The Bible gives just enough information to be intriguing. Add to it, if you wish, the reports that come from Near Death Experiences. The upgrade from this life, where we have pain, illness, aging, interpersonal strife and sin, to Heaven, where there is none of this, is staggering. Can there even be a further upgrade?
God is good and God is creative, so I am confident that the answer is yes. From the vantage point of our current ignorance, I can say that the Bible sees us as both body and soul. Even with a heavenly body, that does not leave us “naked” (2 Corinthians 5:3), our current body is still a part of us. It is not completely redeemed until the resurrection.
Will God use our remains to make this resurrected body? Should we be careful about how we dispose of our remains? The bible puts no restrictions on the disposal of dead bodies, so I think we can conclude that nothing that happens with our remains is an obstacle for God in resurrecting us.
Here is just a theory. Our genetics produce our body. The Bible speaks of inheriting a sinful nature from our conception. So it follows that our genetics have been altered from what they would have been had sin never entered the equation. Our ideal genetics are like the Word of God speaking us into existence. They are His information coding our design. God will “re-speak” our ideal genetics and thus resurrect the ideal us. It may or may not include any existing material from our remains. We may or may not resurrect where we are “laid to rest”. But we will resurrect, and it will be great for those who belong to Jesus.
afterdeathsite 