A Reformed Evangelical Presbyterian Church

Easter Thoughts

Wesley Grubb • April 1, 2025

What Will Your Resurrected Body Be Like?

We have many questions about the end times. Rightly so, for it is a fascinating topic with lots of mysterious aspects, mysterious because some of these things have not happened yet, and it is hard to imagine what it will be like when they do. One of these end-times questions is especially relevant this time of year as Easter approaches: what will the resurrected body be like? We believe Jesus was raised from the dead, and Jesus promises that he will raise his people from the dead too. Jesus had his Easter moment, but he promises that each of us will have our own Easter moment. Just like Lazarus, we will come out of our tombs, but unlike Lazarus, we will never return to them. Someday we will leave the grave behind for good and be with our risen Savior forever. It is hard to imagine what that will be like, but it is the hope guaranteed for us by Easter. He is risen; he is risen indeed! Because he lives, we also will live. Because he rose, we likewise shall rise. That fills us with comfort and anticipation, but it also makes us wonder, what will my resurrected body be like?

This question is not new. It is a question Christians were asking the apostle Paul in the first century. Within Judaism, the native soil and natural habitat of original Christianity, the concept of the resurrection was familiar. The doctrine of the bodily resurrection is revealed in the Old Testament in places like Job 19:25-27, where Job exclaims his faith that even after his skin has decayed away, yet in his flesh he shall see his living Redeemer, and Isaiah 26:19, where Isaiah declares the word of the Lord that the bodies of the dead will rise and live again. This doctrine was the dominant belief of Jews in Paul’s day, but his Gentile converts were Hellenized pagans, like the Greeks and Romans in the Church of Corinth. The idea of bodily resurrection was a foreign concept to them, one they found offensive to their native worldview. To the Greek mind at the time, if an afterlife was believed in at all, it was certainly going to be non-physical and immaterial. The soul finally escapes the body at death and goes to a purely spiritual realm where the body is no longer needed. They thought of the physical body like a tomb, and the resurrection is when the soul finally rises from the body and goes to heaven forever. Sound familiar? The biblical view is that our bodies will not be left behind in the end. They will rise.

Many Greek-minded Christians in Corinth carried their familiar pagan beliefs about the afterlife into Christianity and challenged Paul’s teaching about the resurrected body. Paul responds to their questions and objections in 1 Corinthians 15. While Paul fully anticipates going to heaven after death, he forcefully denies that this condition is permanent. As I once heard one pastor put it, “Heaven is important, but it’s not the end of the world!” At the second coming, the departed souls in heaven return to earth with Jesus by reuniting with their resurrected bodies, and those who are alive at that time will be changed in the twinkling of an eye. The Corinthians just couldn’t imagine what the resurrected body would be like. Paul says it will be like when a farmer plants seeds in his field. When the seed goes into the ground, it is transformed into a completely new form. The seed passes away, and a plant rises from the ground. There is radical change, but there is also real continuity—the seed morphs into the plant. The underlying substance remains the same, but the form it takes is radically different. So also with the resurrected body, Paul says. The physical body of flesh and blood is planted in the earth at death, and at the resurrection the body rises in a completely new form, but it is still you, still your own body, only it now has been glorified, conformed completely into the likeness of Jesus’s resurrected body. No longer a perishable body of mere flesh and blood, it will be an immortal body like that of an indestructible spirit. That is the hope of Easter. That is the promise of Jesus to everyone who trusts in him.

The Pastor's Pen

By Wesley Grubb November 1, 2024
As I write this article, we are only a few days away from the 2024 presidential election. There are many people in our country who believe this is the most important election for the future of the United States. There is a sense across the political spectrum that the stakes have never been higher. This is a common feeling that many people begin to feel every four years. Every election feels more important than the last. I was reading the other day and came across this comment that really struck me. “The salvation of America and of the human race depends on the next election, if we believe the newspapers. But so it was last year, and so it was the year before, and our fathers believed the same thing forty years ago.” This comment captures the current anxiety of the upcoming election that many people in the news are feeling and fostering. We need salvation, and only one candidate can deliver. How many of you feel this way right now? This comment, cynical as it is, feels fresh and current. In reality, these words were written in October of 1848 by Ralph Waldo Emerson! That year the election was between Zachary Taylor and Lewis Cass. Remember how utterly crucial that election was? Me neither. But people at the time thought so. Has anything really changed? The 1848 election was 176 years ago. In 176 years from now, it will be 2200. What will those Americans think when they look back on the 2024 election? Chances are, Trump vs. Harris will seem to them what Taylor vs. Cass seems to us. I hear you scoffing, but they felt the same way in 1848 that you do today. This moment feels so big to us because we are in the middle of it. Time and distance give perspective though, and perspective gives a sense of proportion. Is this election important? It is. Are big things happening in our country? Definitely. But does “the salvation of America and of the human race depend on the next election”? No, certainly not. As Christians, we know where salvation comes from. We are the people of God, citizens of heaven, believers in the gospel of Jesus Christ, heirs of the coming kingdom. We do not look to politicians and the ways of this world to establish our own kingdoms. We should love our country, work and pray for its success, be informed, and vote. But never conflate your country with God’s kingdom, your party with God’s will, or your candidate with messianic hopes. When Jesus returns, he will establish his kingdom over all nations, including this one. When that happens, democracy is over. There is no democracy in a kingdom. No more voting, no more rights and freedoms as we enjoy them now. The conservative or liberal America that you are fighting for today will not exist in the kingdom. Jesus will rule this country with a rod of iron. His word will be law. His enemies will be subdued. Everyone will bend the knee. True salvation will finally come. Christians say they want this, but do we? Do we act like it? Do we live like it? For many Christians, the answer seems to be no. But what about you? Are you ready for a King?  Peace and grace, Pastor Wesley
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Thirty-five years ago, in April of 1989, my parents became Christians. They were in their late 20s, and I was only two years old (I turned three that December). They were led to the Lord by a team of door-to-door evangelists from a tiny local church in our hometown. After my parents were saved, that door-to-door team invited them to church and made sure they had a place to belong. Mom and dad made great friends and built relationships that have lasted to this day, all these years later. Once mom and dad found their place in the church, they had the opportunity to help others find a place. That small, country church in the tiny town of Denton, NC, felt like a genuine family. People loved each other, spent time with each other during the week, raised their families together, worshiped the Lord passionately, prayed fervently, were hungry for God’s word, shared their faith, and continued doing what they did best—being the warmest, kindest, most welcoming congregation in town. By the time I was in high school, the church had built a new facility, launched two Sunday services, and at its height reached 500 members. Not bad for a town of twelve hundred! There is no magic formula for growing a big church, and there is no guarantee that every church that does what my old home church did will see the same results. God is in charge of the growth of our church. The numbers are up to him, but obedience is up to us. Being a “one another” church like my old home church is not a magic formula; it is the normal expectation of every local church, regardless of its size. If we are the body of Christ, if we are brothers and sisters in the Lord, if we are truly members together in the family of God—then our Christian lives ought to reflect that reality outside of Sunday and outside the walls of our building. We are called to be a genuine family that cares for one another and shows up to support the church. If we all strive more and more to be a congregation that worships passionately, prays fervently, studies the Scriptures deeply, and loves each other selflessly, we will truly be the kind of church that is situated perfectly to receive the outpouring of God’s blessings. We will absolutely grow spiritually, and, God willing, we will be ripe to grow numerically as well. I will never forget one time as a teenager something the pastor of my old home church said. He and I, along with some others from the church, went to lunch at a local restaurant. As we were eating, a man came up to the table who knew someone in our group named Rick. Rick said, “Hey, I would like to introduce you to my minister. This is Charles.” Pastor Charles then said to the guy, “Hey, I would like you to meet Rick; he’s my minister.” Charles wanted the whole church to have that mindset: he was the pastor, but every member is a minister. In Ephesians 4:12, Paul teaches that every church member should be equipped to do the work of ministry and build up the body of Christ. I might be the pastor, but all of us are ministers. We are called to be a “one another” church. I challenge you to give serious thought to how you can join us in this biblical vision for the Forks. Let us walk in obedience to the Lord and watch how he blesses.  Grace and peace, Pastor Wesley
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With the coming of Spring, the church enters into the joyous season of Easter. During Lent, we traditionally practice the discipline of self-denial. We give up something for Lent. This is an act of fasting for forty days. Easter is the mirror opposite of Lent. Just as we give up something for Lent, we are encouraged to take up something for Easter. Lent is about fasting, but Easter is about feasting. Easter is a forty-day period of celebration and rejoicing. The church greets the new life of Spring bursting forth in the earth by commemorating the glorious morning when our Lord burst forth from his tomb, bringing us eternal life. Here is how the apostle Paul says it: [God] saved us and called us to a holy calling, not because of our works but because of his own purpose and grace, which he gave us in Christ Jesus before the ages began, and which now has been manifested through the appearing of our Savior Christ Jesus, who abolished death and brought life and immortality to light through the gospel” (2 Timothy 1:9-10). Here we have the meaning of Easter encapsulated. These are the things we celebrate, and all of them were accomplished and secured for us by Jesus on that first Easter through his resurrection. Our whole salvation is a sovereign work of God . It is not based on our holiness, our works, our purposes, or our merits. We are saved only by God’s purpose and grace, which he ordained to give us in eternity past. God saves us first, and then he calls us to live a holy life. And the way we obtain these gifts is only in union with Christ Jesus in his death and resurrection. As Paul says, “We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life. For if we have been united with him in a death like his, we shall certainly be united with him in a resurrection like his. . . . So you also must consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus” (Rom. 6:4, 5, 11). Our ultimate salvation is rescue from death . Being saved means achieving immortality. God’s sovereign purpose and saving grace, which he prepared in eternity and revealed in history, are intended to do for us one day what he did for Jesus on Easter. The symbol of our salvation is not only the cross, but the empty tomb. In his resurrection, Jesus abolished our death and brought us life. Paul says, “If the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, he who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through his Spirit who dwells in you” (Rom. 8:11). Easter is the celebration of Christ’s resurrection in the past and the anticipation of our own resurrection in the future. This is why we take up something for Lent. We do something joyful for others that promotes flourishing and well-being. We add something to our lives that brings more life to ourselves and others. More life, unending life, abundant life—that is what we celebrate, and we give Jesus all the glory. What will you take up this Easter that is life-giving? Make it your aim this Easter to be the kind of person who brings life and joy to the people around you. He is risen! Grace and peace, Pastor Wesley
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