Over the years we have hauled in many old, broken down, and wrecked vehicles to the scrapyard for recycling. These vehicles were ones that were unusable because of their condition and as such we’re good mostly for their weight in metal. After we brought a vehicle in, it would then be sent to a plant or other scrapyard where it would be melted down, and turned into brand new metal which then could, eventually, be used to make a completely brand new vehicle. Something that was “dead” and broken could be turned into something completely new.
And that is what Paul was writing about to the Corinthian church. The flesh and blood which are our bodies are “not fit” for the kingdom of heaven. Why? Because our flesh and blood are corruptible things. Our bones break and get old, our hair falls out, our skin ages and becomes wrinkly. Our bodies die and decay because they are corruptible, as is everything else on the Earth.
1 Corinthians 15:50-57 “Now this I say, brethren, that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God; neither doth corruption inherit incorruption.
Behold, I shew 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, which giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.”
Because heaven is a perfect place, free of corruptible things, we are going to need a new body someday when we go to be with the Lord. Our bodies are going to be taken to the scrapyard, so to speak, and we are going to be given a new one. A spiritual one that does not get old, get sick, or decay. An immortal one that is far superior to the ones we have now.
You cannot take an old, beat up, wrecked junker and park it in a car lot, and expect it to fetch the full price of a brand new car. It’s junk! The only thing that it is good for is to be thrown away, melted down and turned into something new. So think of our new heavenly bodies like this: the scrapyard is the Earth, and the new car lot is heaven. You are not going to be able to bring your old body with you to heaven because heaven is a pure, perfect place. It is a place free of corruption. That is why when we hear the trumpet sound the arrival of Christ in the heavens, “in the twinkling of an eye” our bodies will be changed from the corruptible into incorruption. They will be something completely brand new.
Doesn’t that sound absolutely amazing?! Just think, all of the people who have bad backs, or suffer from other bodily diseases; all of those aches and pains will be gone in heaven. It would almost be like a one hundred year old person being put back into their body when they were a child once again, but even better than that!
In heaven, death will no longer have a hold on us in our new bodies. Jesus defeated death, so that we could live eternally. In Christ, we live.
Isaiah 25:8 “He will swallow up death in victory; and the Lord GOD 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 LORD hath spoken it.”
In Christ,
Andrew
Teufer Lake King James Bible Church 