Weekend, October 21, 2023
Instant Transformation
But let me reveal to you a wonderful secret. We will not all die, but we will all be transformed! (1 Corinthians 15:51 NLT)
It’s a strange thing when you watch your body start to age, because your mind doesn’t seem to wear out as quickly as your body does. You still believe you can do the same things you did when you were younger. But then you realize that your body isn’t quite in sync with it.
When you realize that you can’t do all the things you used to do, it’s a big disappointment. But our bodies aren’t meant to last forever. We can do all sorts of things to try and prolong our lives. But it isn’t going to work.
Yet the Bible promises, “For we know that when this earthly tent we live in is taken down (that is, when we die and leave this earthly body), we will have a house in heaven, an eternal body made for us by God himself and not by human hands” (2 Corinthians 5:1 NLT).
And the good news is that in the Rapture, God will give us new bodies, resurrection bodies. The Bible says, “It will happen in a moment, in the blink of an eye, when the last trumpet is blown. For when the trumpet sounds, those who have died will be raised to live forever. And we who are living will also be transformed” (1 Corinthians 15:52 NLT).
The Rapture will be a transformation. God will transform us in a moment.
The apostle Paul wrote, “But we are citizens of heaven, where the Lord Jesus Christ lives. And we are eagerly waiting for him to return as our Savior. He will take our weak mortal bodies and change them into glorious bodies like his own, using the same power with which he will bring everything under his control” (Philippians 3:20-21 NLT).
Believers who were in wheelchairs on earth won’t need them in Heaven. Believers who didn’t have the use of their eyes or arms or some other part of their bodies will have the use of them in Heaven. They will have new, glorified bodies.
The Rapture will be instantaneous. The Bible says the Rapture will happen in a moment, “in the blink of an eye.” In the flash of a second, every living Christian on earth will suddenly, instantaneously, find themselves in God’s presence.
The Rapture will be a reunion. Not only will we meet the Lord in the Rapture, but we also will reunite with our friends and loved ones who already have gone on to meet the Lord. This means that one day we could be walking down the street thinking about a loved one who has gone to Heaven, and suddenly we’ll be looking at that person face-to-face.
And above all, we’ll have a face-to-face meeting with the One who died on the cross for us.
That is why Paul concluded his series of statements on the Rapture by saying, “So encourage each other with these words” (1 Thessalonians 4:18 NLT).
Death is the great separator. But Jesus Christ is the great reconciler.
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