The Lord told Martha that He, Himself, is the resurrection and the life. He said that those who believe and then die, shall live again, while those who are alive at the time of the resurrection will never die.

In Matthew 24, the Lord Jesus said that there will be a resurrection and rapture of believers toward the end of the tribulation period just before the Lord comes to rule the earth. This was confirmed by the Apostle Paul in I Corinthians 15 and I Thessalonians 4.

In his prison epistles, Paul also taught that there will be a catching up of believers toward the end of our present age of the Church, the Body of Christ. In Colossians 3, he said:

Colossians 3:4
4 When Christ who is our life appears, then you also will appear with Him in glory. (NKJ)

In each case, those caught up and those resurrected will be given immortal bodies like that of the Lord Jesus. But what happens to the believer between the time of death and the resurrection? Paul talked about that in II Corinthians 5.

II Corinthians 5:1-8
1 For we know that if our earthly house, this tent, is destroyed, we have a building from God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens.
2 For in this we groan, earnestly desiring to be clothed with our habitation which is from heaven,
3 if indeed, having been clothed, we shall not be found naked.
4 For we who are in this tent groan, being burdened, not because we want to be unclothed, but further clothed, that mortality may be swallowed up by life.
5 Now He who has prepared us for this very thing is God, who also has given us the Spirit as a guarantee.
6 So we are always confident, knowing that while we are at home in the body we are absent from the Lord.
7 For we walk by faith, not by sight.
8 We are confident, yes, well pleased rather to be absent from the body and to be present with the Lord. (NKJ)

Paul was saying that if we die and this body returns to dust, God has prepared for us a new, eternal body. Since the time of the resurrection of Christ, the spirits of believers who die go directly into the presence of God, but those spirits go without a body. Paul essentially said he would much rather go to be with God in the rapture because then he could go into heaven with a body. However, Paul said that he was more than willing for his spirit to go into heaven without a body if that was God’s will, for to be absent from the body is to be present with the Lord.

Later, Paul wrote to the believers at Philippi and seemed much more at home with the idea of entering glory without a body.

Philippians 1:21-24
21 For to me, to live is Christ, and to die is gain.
22 But if I live on in the flesh, this will mean fruit from my labor; yet what I shall choose I cannot tell.
23 For I am hard pressed between the two, having a desire to depart and be with Christ, which is far better.
24 Nevertheless to remain in the flesh is more needful for you. (NKJ)

Write me at: jimjoan77@juno.com

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