Do you want to live forever?

Your perspective on what “forever” might look like will determine your answer. If you view things through the lens of human knowledge and power, then forever doesn’t sound all that great.

From the moment of our birth, our bodies are destined to die. Most of us are blessed with at least a span of time where we enjoy good health, though many are born with disabilities, diseases, or other challenges that make life difficult from the first breath. While our life’s journey may differ, our destiny is the same. No matter what level of “health” or “fitness” we work so hard to achieve, we will not escape death.

No one can argue this fact: our bodies are not made to last forever. To think that we would have to spend eternity in these failing “tents” would be terrible!

This was largely Paul’s point in 1 Corinthians 15. Some in the church were confused as to how our physical bodies could be resurrected and live eternally, so they were teaching a false idea. They had surmised that resurrection was only spiritual, and that for eternity we will only exist in a spiritual state.

This idea denies the bodily resurrection of Jesus – something to which many people attested after His death and burial. If the resurrection of Jesus is not true, Paul says we are a pitiful bunch of liars.

1 Corinthians 15:13-19 – But if there is no resurrection of the dead, not even Christ has been raised; and if Christ has not been raised, then our preaching is vain, your faith also is vain. Moreover we are even found to be false witnesses of God, because we testified against God that He raised Christ, whom He did not raise, if in fact the dead are not raised. For if the dead are not raised, not even Christ has been raised; and if Christ has not been raised, your faith is worthless; you are still in your sins. Then those also who have fallen asleep in Christ have perished. If we have hoped in Christ in this life only, we are of all men most to be pitied.

Hallelujah, the resurrection IS true. Jesus appeared to many of the apostles, and even to a group of more than five hundred at once! He spoke with, walked with, sat with, and even ate with the disciples AFTER His crucifixion and burial. These men died for believing and preaching the gospel – that Jesus indeed had raised from the dead.

What does this mean for us? If Christ has been raised, then in Christ, we too will be raised. Paul answers the Corinthian believers’ questions by reminding them that just as God created physical, fleshly bodies, He will create heavenly bodies for His children.

Our perishable bodies will die, but we will be raised in an imperishable body.

Our dishonorable bodies will die, but we will be raised in bodies of glory.

Our weak bodies will die, but we will be raised in bodies of power.

Our natural bodies will die, but we will be raised in spiritual bodies.

Our earthly bodies will die, but we will be raised in heavenly bodies.

Our mortal bodies will die, but we will be raised in immortal bodies.

Just as we have borne the image of the earthy, we will also bear the image of the heavenly (15:49).

This is the glorious truth of the gospel. Paul says, “The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law…but God gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ” (15:56-57). Think about what a sting does. The sting is painful, but it doesn’t kill you. It is the delivery mechanism for what does bring death.

Sin for a season is pleasurable, but what it “delivers” is death. For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God (Romans 3:23). Jesus took the sting for us…our sin was laid on Him at the cross, and He experienced our death. Praise God, however, because He is sinless, and because He is God, He overcame death. Death could not hold Him. He removed the stinger of sin, and therefore, we no longer fear death (Hebrews 2:14-15).

Death for the believer is a door – a passageway by which we pass from this mortal life into the glorious, powerful, immortal, eternal life that God intended for us to have when He created Adam and Eve and placed them in the Garden of Eden. Jesus offers us this gift, by grace through faith. All we must do is repent of our sin and believe in the finished work of Christ.

Romans 10:9-10 – That if you confess with your mouth Jesus as Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved; for with the heart a person believes, resulting in righteousness, and with the mouth he confesses, resulting in salvation.

Are you tired of the body you’re living in? All the exercise you can do and all the vitamins you can take won’t keep you alive forever. Only the blood of Jesus can do that.