1 Corinthians 15:51-53
Behold, I shew 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 trump: for the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed. For this corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality.
Our current bodies are corruptible and mortal – they can fall to death and any pain inflicted on them. But in the time of Christ’s return, all believers who have died will be raised up, and those who are alive, will be given their immortal and incorruptible bodies. We may not know what we will look like, but we know that it will be glorious – as God has promised us.
And we pray:
Dear God, I thank You that I can rejoice in all things because I know that what I go through in this body is merely temporary, Hallelujah!!! Every pain, every sickness, and every infirmity are just signs of this fleshly body’s weakness. But I am glad that a time is coming that this body will be done away with and I, and all Your children, will take on a more glorious form. In Jesus’ Name, I give You glory and praise and I 🙏🏾 pray. Amen.
One day Jesus is coming back! No man knows the day nor the hour, but He WILL be back to gather up those that belong to Him. His coming will be sudden and without warning. Those who died in Christ by faith will be raised from the dead first and WILL be caught up in the air to meet Him.
Some in Corinth claimed there was no resurrection from the dead for Christians. Paul has disputed that almost entirely, though he has agreed on at least one point. Namely, that there’s no way corrupt, dying “flesh and blood” bodies can possibly inherit the kingdom of God. Put another way, our naturally-born bodies cannot exist in God’s presence in heaven for eternity. What the confused Corinthians don’t understand is the mystery Paul reveals in this verse. It’s the mystery he has been revealing throughout chapter 15. In a word, this is “transformation.” God will, in fact, transform the “natural” bodies of Christians into glorified, or “spiritual” bodies (1 Corinthians 15:44) that will inherit God’s kingdom, after all.
Paul begins here by announcing, “Behold!” to indicate what he says has great meaning. The mystery is revealed in this and the following verse. Paul has already said that the resurrection of the dead will take place when Christ comes back for those who belong to Him (1 Corinthians 15:23), as Jesus said He would do (John 14:2–3).
However, some believers will not yet have died when Christ returns. How will they step into eternity if they are still in their sin-stained “natural” bodies? Paul’s answer is that whether a person dies and their body is “sown,” (1 Corinthians 15:37), or they are taken in the rapture (1 Thessalonians 4:15–17), all born-again believers will experience change when they step into eternity. The living will be transformed, along with those who are resurrected from the dead. All believers will be physically remade into their glorified bodies at the return of Christ (1 John 3:2).