When will we receive our resurrected bodies?

(Vv. 51-55). This being so, the question arises, how, and when, shall we obtain these spiritual and incorruptible bodies, as some believers are living on earth, and some have fallen asleep? The Apostle meets these questions by declaring a mystery, one of God's truths that could not be known until revealed to His people. We thus learn that not all believers will pass through death; “We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed”. The Old Testament saints, like Job, knew indeed of the resurrection of the dead, but they knew nothing of this great secret that the natural bodies of the living saints will be changed into spiritual bodies without the saints going through death. What a proof of the mighty efficacy of the death of Christ, which has so entirely met the penalty of death for the believer, that it is possible for him to be changed into the image of the heavenly without going through death!

Now it is plainly revealed. We shall not all "sleep" (i.e. die) but we shall all be changed, whether alive or dead at the moment when the Lord comes for His saints. The change will involve the swallowing up of all that is mortal or corruptible about us, in life and in victory. We shall "all be changed," you notice, "in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye" — not in many, or at least several, different moments, as would be the case if by a partial rapture, or series of partial raptures, the church is destined to enter into its glory.

Flesh and blood, not merely sin, cannot enter the kingdom of heaven. Corruption (for such we are) cannot inherit that which is incorruptible. This leads the apostle to a positive revelation of that which will take place with regard to the enjoyment of incorruptibility by all the saints. Death is conquered. It is not necessary that death should come upon all, still less that all should undergo actual corruption; but it is not possible for flesh and blood to inherit the kingdom of glory. But we shall not all sleep; there are some who will be changed without dying. The dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we (for redemption being accomplished and Christ ready to judge the quick and the dead, the apostle always looked at it as a thing immediately before his eyes, ready to take place any moment) shall be changed (a change equivalent to resurrection); for that which is corruptible, if not already in dust and corruption, shall put on incorruptibility; that which is mortal, immortality. We see that this relates to the body; it is in his body that man is mortal, even when he has eternal life, and shall live by Christ and with Christ. The power of God will form the saints whether living or dead for the inheritance of glory.

First, 1 Corinthians 15:51-53. In this chapter the great subject is resurrection. The coming of the Lord is not actually mentioned, though we know, from 1 Thessalonians 4, that the events of which these verses speak, will take place at His coming. The Apostle says, "Behold I show you a mystery," and then he tells the secret that "We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed." That we are coming with the Lord was no secret, for, as we have seen, Enoch and the prophets had spoken about this great event. But no prophet had ever hinted that a number of saints would never pass through death. This, indeed, was a secret reserved for the New Testament times. But if all will not pass through death, all will be changed. The sleeping saints will be "raised incorruptible," and the mortal bodies of the living will "put on immortality." The passage, however, does not go further. If we only had this Scripture we should not know into what likeness we are changed, nor what would happen to us when we are changed. This then is the first step in the great event that leads to our being with Christ. "We shall all be changed."

Passing on to the second Scripture, we read, in Philippians 3:20-21, that "we look for the Lord Jesus Christ as Saviour who shall change our body of humiliation that it may be fashioned like to His body of glory." This Scripture throws further light on this momentous event. The Epistle to the Corinthians has told us we shall be changed. This passage tells us we shall be changed into the likeness of Christ. Not only shall we be morally like Him, but we shall have bodies of glory like His own. In the light of this revelation we may well ask ourselves, why this amazing grace? Why are poor sinners such as ourselves going to have these bodies of humiliation fashioned like His own glorious body? Ah! we know the answer, we are going to be like Him that we may be the everlasting witness to the worth of His Person and the efficacy of His work. Think of that poor degraded thief on the Cross, think of the proud Christ-hating Pharisee Saul of Tarsus; then pass on in thought to heaven and as, in the day to come, we gaze upon these men as glorified saints shall we not see the amazing efficacy of the work of Christ, that removes every trace of sin, and enables these men to be changed into the likeness of Christ. And what is true of these men will be true of all the saints in that vast scene of glory. When we come out in His likeness it will be according to the riches of His grace, and to the praise of the glory of His grace.

We have in the epistles special revelations with regard to what will take place at the coming of the Lord Jesus we are not left in ignorance about it. God was so gracious, before the canon of Scripture was complete, that from time to time, as His saints had difficulties, He met them with special instruction, so that we reap the benefit of their exercises and mistakes. For instance; the Corinthians had great difficulty as to the doctrine of the resurrection of the body, and there was a special revelation made to Paul and communicated to them. In the fifteenth chapter of the first epistle to the Corinthians he writes, in the fifty-first verse, "Behold, I show you a mystery;" that is, he then revealed something which up to that time had been a mystery. "Behold, I show 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. So when this corruptible shall have put on incorruption, and this mortal shall have put on immortality, then shall be brought to pass the saying that is written, Death is swallowed up in victory. O death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory? The sting of death is sin; and the strength of sin is the law. But thanks be to God, who giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ." The mystery was this, that we (that is, we believers) shall all be changed our mortal bodies will be changed into immortal, fashioned like unto Christ's glorious body. The bodies, too, of those who have died in Christ will be changed: "This corruptible shall put on incorruption." And all this will occur "in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye" the shortest conceivable space of time; so suddenly will this wonderful transformation take place.

When and how will this redemption of our bodies take place? Have we any clear light as to it? The answer is supplied by 1 Corinthians 15:51-54. Our bodies will be redeemed when the Lord comes, whether it takes the form of a resurrection from amongst the dead into an incorruptible condition, or an instantaneous transformation of the living into a similar condition, when "we shall all be changed." "In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump" all will be accomplished. "They that are Christ's" will rise "at His coming" (v. 23).

But mark the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ to His young disciples: He assures their hearts, that in the order of events connected with His coming, the first that takes place is the resurrection of those who had fallen asleep in Jesus, and that, in place of losing anything by having departed, they will be the first that are ready to go up and meet the Lord. "The dead in Christ shall rise first." So far from those who have fallen asleep in Jesus missing the joyful hour of His coming, they will be raised before the living are changed. This is grace, the grace of the Lord Jesus at the same time we know that every event connected with His coming shall be accomplished in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, so that the interval cannot be estimated.

But now, my soul, observe in silent wonder the shining forth of this twofold glory of the Lord Jesus; He rises from His throne, He descends from heaven, He gives the word Himself, the voice of the archangel passes it on, and the trumpet gives a well-known sound. The imagery is military. As well-trained troops know the orders of their commander by the sound of the trumpet, so will the army of the Lord answer instantly to His call. All the dead in Christ shall rise, and all the living shall be changed; and they shall all enter into the cloud, and be caught up together, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall they ever be with the Lord. No separation then: therefore the apostle adds, "Comfort one another with these words."

This is entirely confirmed by the context (ver. 52), which besides furnishes somewhat more to the believer. We shall all be changed in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. The glorification of the saints will be effected, immense as it is in itself, and from every spot of the globe, sooner than the mind can reckon, or the eye discern, when the final summons is given to the heavenly host to quit its halting-place. The allusion is to the signal last given on the breaking up of a camp, at that time too familiar a figure to escape the nations of Europe and far beyond it, which had been welded into the empire of Rome. "For it shall sound," however little man may expect it, "and the dead shall rise incorruptible, and we shall be changed;" not, remark, we shall rise then, nor they only, but "we" too shall be changed, in exact accordance with the true and common text of verse 51, and in opposition to the changes of both rationalists and Romanists.

But we have more explanation, and a scripture rich in its connection of truth, cited from the Old Testament. "For this corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal put on immortality." (Ver. 53.) The apostle expresses the truth with perfect precision. He does not speak of those corrupting in the grave; nor even of the dead or dying, but of what is "corruptible" and "mortal," so as to take in the body even whilst we are alive, and thus be an object for the change, if not for resurrection. "But when this corruptible shall have put-on incorruption, and this mortal shall have put on immortality, then shall be brought to pass the word that is written, Death was swallowed up in victory." (Ver. 54.) The epoch of the change is the coming of the Lord from heaven. When the dead in Christ shall rise, and we who are alive be changed and caught up, then shall Isaiah 25:8 come to pass. But it is evident from the prophet that this must be at the end of the age, not of the world; that then the earth's blessing begins, instead of passing away, and that then Jehovah will destroy in this mountain [Zion] the face of the covering cast over all peoples, and the veil that is spread over all nations. He will swallow up death in victory; and the Lord Jehovah will wipe away tears from off all faces; and the rebuke of His people shall He take away from off all the earth: for the mouth of Jehovah has spoken it. … In that day shall this song be sung in the land of Judah, We have a strong city, etc. It is the kingdom come in power and glory, instead of the end of it for eternity; and the risen or changed saints will share it, as well as eternity, with Christ. "Do ye not know that the saints shall judge the world?" It is to be feared that many Christians know it less now than the carnal Corinthians of old. Yet it is less excusable for those who have the apostolic correction to profit by.

The meaning of the word immortality is non-liability to death, and refers to the body in 1 Corinthian 15:53. At the coming of the Lord the dead in Christ will be raised incorruptible, whilst the living Christians will put on immortality. It is the body that in death goes to corruption, and in resurrection puts on incorruptibility. It is the living, referring to their bodies, that are mortal, subject to death, that at Christ’s coming will put on immortality: “For this corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality.” (1 Cor. 15:53)

Being clothed with this glorious body, we shall not be found "naked," as Adam fallen and exposed to judgment. Nor does the Apostle desire death as such. He did not seek to be unclothed merely, and thus escape present trials, blessed as that will be. He longed for the full blessedness of having the new body. He was looking for the rapture when the bodies of living believers will be changed into bodies of glory without passing through death; for here he does not speak of corruption putting on incorruption, but of the mortal body putting on immortality, and thus "swallowed up of life."