Intellectual Defenestration

On The Resurrection

In the last couple of weeks I've been spending a fair amount of time in school studying the resurrection (one of the reasons I haven't been posting as much). Most of my work has been spent on I Cor. 15:42-48, but passages such as Rom 6 have also come into play.

Strangely, while "the reurrection of the dead" occurs in almost every historical creed, modern Christians don't seem to think about it much, if at all. Most, I think, have an idea of death and the afterlife closer to a picture of disembodied spirits floating around rather than the redemption of corporeality that Paul seemed to be talking about.

I think this is regrettable, first, because it is un-Biblical, but also because there are many practical benefits from the perspective of the resurrection. If, as Paul seems to be saying in I Cor 15, there is both continuity and discontinuity in our bodies from the present to the future, then we have a helpful way to view life. On the one hand, since there is continuity, this present physicality really does matter. This material "stuff" isn't merely something to be escaped in favor of some better immateriality. All those things that we sometimes view strictly as material, such as sex, money, food, or even politics, really do have meaning.

On the other hand, if what we have to look forward to is "imperishable," "glorious", and "Spiritual" (*), then our focus is ultimately set on what is yet to come. What we have now is not ultimate or final. Any potential over-attachment to the present is then guarded against.

I think this also provides a healthy amount of realism. Paul's depiction of this present reality is not very flattering: while the future, as revealed in "the last Adam," will be glorious, the present, since it is still of "the first Adam," is "perishable," "dishonorable," and "weak." (*) Strife, sorrow, pain, suffering, etc., are to be expected this side of the resurrection. What makes it worthwhile is the hope of future redemption and transformation.

October 26, 2004 08:08 AM