Jerry C. Brewer
A friend posed the following question:
“When the day of judgment comes and the Bible says those in the grave shall rise and meet the Lord in the air….how can our body come forth from the grave when it is nothing but flesh and bones. Or those cremated and scattered at sea, or those babies aborted and thrown in the trash? Doesn’t the “grave” here just mean those who have passed on? How can we literally come forth from the grave at the cemetery or wherever buried when it’s just our earthly body that has returned to dust?”
Paul answered that question in his first epistle to the Corinthians:
But some man will say, How are the dead raised up? and with what body do they come? Thou fool, that which thou sowest is not quickened, except it die: And that which thou sowest, thou sowest not that body that shall be, but bare grain, it may chance of wheat, or of some other grain: But God giveth it a body as it hath pleased him, and to every seed his own body. All flesh is not the same flesh: but there is one kind of flesh of men, another flesh of beasts, another of fishes, and another of birds. There are also celestial bodies, and bodies terrestrial: but the glory of the celestial is one, and the glory of the terrestrial is another. There is one glory of the sun, and another glory of the moon, and another glory of the stars: for one star differeth from another star in glory. So also is the resurrection of the dead. It is sown in corruption; it is raised in incorruption: It is sown in dishonour; it is raised in glory: it is sown in weakness; it is raised in power: It is sown a natural body; it is raised a spiritual body. There is a natural body, and there is a spiritual body. And so it is written, The first man Adam was made a living soul; the last Adam was made a quickening spirit. Howbeit that was not first which is spiritual, but that which is natural; and afterward that which is spiritual. The first man is of the earth, earthy: the second man is the Lord from heaven. As is the earthy, such are they also that are earthy: and as is the heavenly, such are they also that are heavenly. And as we have borne the image of the earthy, we shall also bear the image of the heavenly. Now this I say, brethren, that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God; neither doth corruption inherit incorruption (1 Cor. 15:35-50).
Paul explains how we are raised in the passage above. The body that is in the grave is not the body that will be raised. In verses 50 and 53 is the answer to your question. Paul wrote,
Behold, I show 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.
All of the dead will be changed because flesh and blood cannot enter the eternal kingdom of God. Those who were cremated, aborted babies’ bodies, people who were eaten by wild beasts or any other kind of a death of a human body, will be resurrected, and will be changed.
Think about this: The Almighty God who spoke the universe into existence, Who formed man from the dust, Who breathed into his nostrils the breath if life and made him a living soul, can surely reconstitute the elements that He created from man and can make man a new spiritual body. As Paul wrote, “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.”
