LIFE AFTER DEATH – Lesson 2 – What Body Will We Have – Part 1
A few weeks ago I was one of those who participated in a funeral for one who was a member of the blood-bought church of Jesus Christ. This man died suddenly due to a blood-clot that reached his heart. He was sixty years old. He was buried on a piece of his
family’s property. Later in the day the man’s Rottweiler dog, Boss, twice dug a hole at the foot of the grave and lay down. Twice he was beaten and run off. The third time the family stop beating him when he began to whimper. They realized Boss was grieving, too! Our Creator has put within each creature a unique desire to live and a tenacity that causes even animals to hunger for life and grieve in its loss.
The other side of the coin as it relates to you and me is that when we die physically we will live again. In our first lesson we mentioned some things about life, death, and the place of waiting that each of us will go to prior to the Judgment. When our soul or spirit, that gives us life departs from this body of flesh and blood, it will continue to exist. Later we will spend some more time in the text of Luke chapter 16 concerning our being able to recognize each other in the life to come. For this study today we will begin the first of two lessons about “What Body Will We Have?”
From last week’s study we learned that there is a major difference in how our physical body differs from other bodies mentioned in I Corinthians chapter 15. Paul was extremely careful in exhausting the evidences for the truth behind the fact of the resurrection of Jesus Christ. He put to rest the critics and gives you and me abundant hope for the life now and the life to come. The idea of a resurrection comes from the use of the word which means, “a standing or rising up”. (Young’s Analytical Concordance To The Bible) We arise from those clay beds to a completely changed existence. Paul says the change will take place as quickly as we can blink our eyes. What will this change consist of? Unless we happen to be alive when our Lord and Savior returns we must all be planted. Just as we go down into a watery grave of baptism to put the old man of sin to death and resurrect the new creature in Christ, so we are buried when we die physically. We are sown as a natural body and raised as a spiritual body. The flesh and blood returns to the dust from which it was made and the spirit given by God returns to Him. (Ecclesiastes 12:7)
We are able to distinguish the differences between the body of a bird, a fish, other animals, and even the kinds of bodies given to the planets. This temporary tent or house that keeps our spirit was not intended to last forever. We are born, we grow older, our bodies wear our, and we die. As beautiful as is the creation of God when we look at all the different things He has made including our own bodies, nothing can compare with what He has in store for us who will be obedient to Him. (I Corinthians 2:9)
Thank you for being a student who is willing to search the Scriptures and find out for yourselves just exactly what God says in His word and how you and I are to respond to those written words. (Acts 17:11) Dig deeper!!!
Wednesday August 21st., 2007
In His Service,
Larry R. Scott, minister
LIFE AFTER DEATH – Lesson 2 – What Body Will We have? – Part 1
(All scriptures taken from the King James Version unless otherwise noted)
1. Does Paul give us the best possible description of what we will be like by explaining the differences that we are familiar with?
2. Does the Bible tell us that God has given every creature or created thing the kind of body that pleases Him? (Genesis 1:14-31)
3. Does the Apostle Paul mention a reoccurring theme about sowing and reaping?
(Galatians 6:7-10)
4. List the Scripture references that tell of differences in kinds of bodies.
(I Corinthians 15) verses_______________________
5. The word “body” has 16 different uses in the Bible. Can you name a few?
Hint: check Young’s Analytical Concordance To The Bible
6. Can you compare our new bodies to the glory of a spectacular sunset?
7. Will that change be something like the wonder of a butterfly escaping from its cocoon?
8. Will it be something like the brilliance of the sun, the glow of the harvest moon, or so many diamonds hanging motionless against a black velvet canvas on a cold winter’s night?
9. It will be even better! Why? (Romans 6:5; Philippians 3:21)
10. Is there any similarity between our death and our planting seed in the ground?
11. How do these words compare? Search the text and look in a dictionary – just a brief
explanation. (I Corinthians 15:42-440
a) corruption
b) incorruption
c) dishonor
d) glory
e) weakness
f) power
g) natural body
h) spiritual body
12. If Adam was made a living soul, then is Christ a life-giving spirit?
(I Corinthians 15:46)
13. How does the Bible use the term “quickening”? (I Corinthians 15:45)
14. Do we bear an earthly image? Will we bear a heavenly image?
(I Corinthians 15:48-49)
15. Can flesh and blood inherit the Kingdom of God? (I Corinthians 15:50)
Student’s name___________________________ Date_____________________
Instructor: Larry R. Scott Notes & Grade__________________________