roused in glory

In 1Corinthians 15, starting with verse 35, Paul describes with what body the dead will be roused. He does this by using contrasts. It is sown in corruption (= buried), but it is roused in incorruption. So characteristic as is corruption in this old creation, so characteristic will incorruption be in the new creation. The new creation is, therefore, definitive and permanent. The second contrast with our present body is that it is sown in dishonor (humiliation), while it will be roused in glory. The humiliation of our body presents itself sooner or later. This is a given that many can only accept with difficulty. Body-functions diminish or even disappear. The older we get the more we have to make-do with aids and prostheses. Ecclesiastes 12 describes that process aptly, in picturesque language. The body of the resurrection is exactly the opposite. As our current, bodily existence is characterized by humiliation, so will our roused body be characterized by glory.That is more than that there will be no more humiliation. In the previous verses, Paul wrote about heavenly bodies and earthly bodies. Heavenly bodies, i.e., celestial bodies like the sun, moon and stars, all have a different glory (15:40,41). Glory here means: light(brilliance or radiance). Glory and light are often synonymous concepts in Scripture. So is mention made of “the glory of the face of Moses” (2Cor.3:7), thereby indicating that his countenance shone. The heavenly Jerusalem in Rev.21 has no need of the sun, because the glory of God will illuminate her (21:23). The difference in glory between the celestial bodies serves as a comparison with the resurrection body. Paul writes: “so it is with the resurrection of the dead” (1 Cor.15:42). As the sun, moon and stars have a different glory, even so have the bodies in the resurrection a varying glory. When we take this comparison literally, then it means that the resurrection body is clothed with light. There will, obviously, be gradations in the brilliance or radiance of light, but the body will literally shine. On the Mount of Transfiguration, the disciples saw in a vision  (Mat.17:9) the body of Jesus change in appearance (Mat.17:2). The Greek uses for this the word “metamorphosis”. Jesus’ face began to shine like the Sun and His clothes were white as the light. That was not true metaphorically, but literally. When Christ, later on from heaven, appears to Saul on the road to Damascus, He appeared in “light, brighter than the brightness of the sun” (Acts 26:13). That light was so bright, that Saul was blinded for three days. And John saw something similar, on Patmos (Rev.1:16). In the resurrection, our body of humiliation will be conformed to “the glory of Christ’s body” (Phil3:21). Therefore, literally, radiant and luminous, so that we may appear “together with Him in glory” (Col.3:4). The body of the resurrection will be clothed as with light (cp Mat.17:2.). Perhaps, Adam and Eve have been clothed with light, in the garden. When they had eaten of the forbidden fruit, they suddenly noticed that they were naked. They sinned and thereby fell short of the glory of God (Rom.3:23). Disappeared, from that moment, the radiance where with they were clothed, so they were compelled to wrap themselves in fig leaves? However that may be, the body of the resurrection will be clothed in a manner of which we, at present, can hardly imagine a true picture. Roused in glory! Radiant and luminous!

Delen: