Essay 83 (7-23-05)

THE APOSTLES' CREED AS COMMON GROUND (6)

We can all agree – and find unity – in the fact of the resurrection of the body, while allowing for differences of opinion as to how that is to be understood. It is one thing to agree together with Paul that, "The body is sown in corruption, it is raised in incorruption," and another thing to agree on precisely what he meant by that.

We unite on the first; we allow liberty of opinion on the second. This is the only way unity is possible: We unite upon what the Scriptures clearly say; we allow for differences over what we think it means by what it says.

Communion means fellowship. We enter into fellowship -- the sharing of life in Christ – with all other believers, both in heaven and on earth – when we become believers. Our faith is personal but it is not private. As part of the body of Christ we are "members one of another" in a social relationship. None of us is to be a church unto himself. We belong to each other, with each one resolved to "esteem others better than himself" (Philp. 2:3).

The word saints is to be understood in the New Testament sense. It does not refer only to those who have been canonized as saints, or who have "Saint" before their names as a prefix, but to all believers. This affirmation is not saying we are in communion only with those "saints" who are renowned for their piety and holiness.

Communion of the saints is sharing joys and sorrows, and being there for each other in time of need. It is being family, brothers and sisters together. We are to understand from Heb. 12:22-23 that this fellowship brings us to "the city of the living God, the New Jerusalem" where we are in communion not only with "innumerable angels" but also to "the general assembly and church of the firstborn who are registered in heaven."

While we are not yet where they are, we are nonetheless even now with them in the cosmic reach of the communion of saints. As Charles Wesley put it:

It is only when we see the seriousness of sin in all its degradation that we can appreciate the awesome grace of God in the forgiveness of sins. Forgiveness – God forgiving us and we forgiving others – is at the heart of the Christian faith. Take away forgiveness and you take away Christianity.

When we have a problem forgiving others, it may be because we ourselves do not enjoy the forgiveness of God. And this may be because we have not really repented of our sins – or do not even take our own sins seriously. We are inclined to think of sin as murder, rape, theft, adultery, drunkenness – things that decent folk like us do not do. And so we do not really commit serious sins, and consequently have little understanding of repentance. Church folk may have a problem seeing the weightier sins – pride, greed, selfishness, lust, insincerity, insensitivity. When we repent of these, we can meaningfully join the church in saying, "We believe in the remission of sins."

When we see that we are sinners saved by grace this should go far in bringing us closer together in Christ. When Christ is not only Savior of the world, but our Savior as well, what differences we have may seem less important.

Are we to understand this as one divine did who said, when dedicating a new cemetery, "What an appropriate place this is for resurrection day when the graves will open, and the bodies will rise in the midst of all this beauty!"? Is it to be interpreted literally?

To be sure, we have such language as "The hour is coming when those who are in their graves shall come forth – those who have done good, to a resurrection of life; and those who have done evil, to a resurrection of condemnation" (Jn. 5:28-29). Then there is "It is sown a natural body, it is raised a spiritual body" (1 Cor. 15:44).

If this is to be taken literally, we have a problem, for most of the dead no longer have graves and their bodies no longer exist. One astounding estimate is that if the earth was one vast cemetery – covering even the seas – the graves would have to be eight deep to accommodate all those who have lived. Most graves have long since disappeared, becoming part of earth and seas, and the billions of bodies have returned to dust. Except for a small minority, there are no graves to be opened and no bodies to rise.

But we are reminded of God’s omnipotence – that he has the power to re-form all the bodies, including those cremated and those buried at sea, and to provide graves that can be opened and the bodies raised. But does the Bible require that we believe such a scenario – that God will first restore all the bodies that have disappeared to their natural, dead, decaying state, and then raise them as spiritual bodies? It is not a question of God’s power. It is a question of whether "resurrection" is to be understood as a metaphor. If "sleep in Jesus" is a metaphor – which we all admit – why can’t "the dead in Christ shall rise" in the same passage (1 Thess. 4:14-16) be a metaphor?

It may be observed that our resurrection is to be as real and literal as was our Lord’s, as Paul seems to say in 1 Cor. 15:20: "But now Christ is risen from the dead, and has become the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep." And in Rom. 6:5 he says that our resurrection will be "in the likeness of his resurrection." Jesus’ resurrection was certainly real, but was it "literal" – if we mean by that that his resurrected body was the same as his previous earthly body?

Evidence suggests that in our Lord’s resurrection the same thing happened to his earthly body that eventually happens to the body of all those who die. It disappeared, or it was transformed into a spiritual, glorified body – such as he had at the Transfiguration, at his ascension, and which he now has in heaven. In this body, unlike his previous body, he appeared and disappeared, walked through locked doors, and moved through space like angels – all of which he did during the 40-day interval between his resurrection and ascension. And yet his resurrected body – not his resuscitated body! – had, or could have, the similitude of his earthly body. His disciples sometimes recognized him, and sometimes they did not. He was just as human as before, but he was a human being in a spiritual body. In 1 Cor. 15:49 he is referred to as "the heavenly Man."

Paul makes it clear that we are to have bodies like the body Christ now has in heaven: "Our citizenship is in heaven, from which we eagerly wait for the Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, who will transform our lowly body that it may be conformed to His glorious body" (Philip. 3:20-21). If the apostle here has in mind those believers who will still be living on earth when Christ comes, it would apply to the elect of ages past as well. They are "raised" in that they receive "a building from God, a house not made with hands, eternal in heavens," as the apostle puts in in 2 Cor. 5:1.

That passage infers that we will have our heavenly bodies when we leave our "earthly house" Paul does not see the saints as ever being without a body, "lest we be found naked" (2 Cor. 5:3). There are no graves or cemeteries in this passage. When our earthly body is "dissolved" – dead – we take on "our habitation which is from heaven" (Verse 2). This is our "resurrection of the body."

The promise of all promises – eternal life – is not a promise of endless existence as much as a new quality of life. There is no particular blessing to a life that never ends. What matters is the nature of that life. I understand "eternal life" not to refer to time but to life with God. I further understand that this life is ours as believers in this world, that we have eternal life now, and that it will be ours forever.

Is this not what Jesus says in John 3:36: "He who believes in the Son has everlasting life," and in John 5:24: "Most assuredly I say to you, he who hears My word and believes in Him who sent Me has everlasting life, and shall not come into condemnation, but has passed from death into life." "Death" is to live for self and for pleasure, and for this world, while "Life" is to live for God and for others and for a redeemed world.

This means that we are not innately immortal. The doctrine of the immortality of the soul was born of Greek philosophy, and not the Bible. The Bible teaches – as in the above verses – that immortality is the gift of God. Paul says it plainly in Rom. 6:23: "The wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord."

This is why we cannot conclude that every soul is destined to live forever – either in heaven or in hell. Those who go to heaven will do so because God gave them immortality as a gift. Those who go to hell are not necessarily destined to be punished endlessly (since they are not immortal). Paul says their "wages" is death or destruction.

Eternal life is a life of joy, peace, and love. It is the "abundant life" that Christ came to give us. It is to "walk by the Spirit" and to set our minds on heavenly things. It is the victorious life in Christ. While it begins when we are but babes in Christ, it grows in grace and wonder forever.

If there is anyone who can sincerely profess this Creed with you – the basic truths of the Christian faith – then you share common ground with that person. You may disagree on some of the details on what the Creed may be saying, but you can agree on the facts stated, on what God has said and done through Christ. It is a starting point for a Christian walk together.

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