I think this is one place to start if we’d like to have a little glimpse of how we will be resurrected…
(RSV)Ezequiel 37 1 The hand of the LORD was upon me, and he brought me out by the Spirit of the LORD, and set me down in the midst of the valley; it was full of bones. 2 And he led me round among them; and behold, there were very many upon the valley; and lo, they were very dry. 3 And he said to me, “Son of man, can these bones live?” And I answered, “O Lord GOD, thou knowest.” 4 Again he said to me, “Prophesy to these bones, and say to them, O dry bones, hear the word of the LORD. 5 Thus says the Lord GOD to these bones: Behold, I will cause breath to enter you, and you shall live. 6 And I will lay sinews upon you, and will cause flesh to come upon you, and cover you with skin, and put breath in you, and you shall live; and you shall know that I am the LORD.” 7 So I prophesied as I was commanded; and as I prophesied, there was a noise, and behold, a rattling; and the bones came together, bone to its bone. 8 And as I looked, there were sinews on them, and flesh had come upon them, and skin had covered them; but there was no breath in them. 9 Then he said to me, “Prophesy to the breath, prophesy, son of man, and say to the breath, Thus says the Lord GOD: Come from the four winds, O breath, and breathe upon these slain, that they may live.” 10 So I prophesied as he commanded me, and the breath came into them, and they lived, and stood upon their feet, an exceedingly great host. 11 Then he said to me, “Son of man, these bones are the whole house of Israel. Behold, they say, `Our bones are dried up, and our hope is lost; we are clean cut off.’ 12 Therefore prophesy, and say to them, Thus says the Lord GOD: Behold, I will open your graves, and raise you from your graves, O my people; and I will bring you home into the land of Israel. 13 And you shall know that I am the LORD, when I open your graves, and raise you from your graves, O my people. 14 And I will put my Spirit within you, and you shall live, and I will place you in your own land; then you shall know that I, the LORD, have spoken, and I have done it, says the LORD.”
But if a person went ‘puff’ or ‘smoked to death’ (cremated?)- don’t ask me how’s he going to be ‘re-skinned’ if he’s got no more bones.
Some things I have privately been thinking of …
- We will be resurrected. We will have physical bodies retaining our senses less ability to sexually reproduce (There will be no more tears… the gnashing and grinding of teeth). We will retain our identities (we will be able to recognize our saints and friends and angels who will lead us to our Lord sorry protestants if you guys end up strangers in heaven recognizing no saints at all). We can recollect on good deeds we shared towards others (the good ‘spirits’ we imparted). We can still probably eat fish like our Lord. We’ll probably have new glorified bodies able breath without air and able to penetrate even the thickness of Jupiter from one side to the other (that is, IF we are not again limited by gravity or get stucked in our own planet earth).
Possibilities are limitless I think.
But in Jesus case it’s different. He died only three days prior to the resurrection. His wounds were still present on his body. His body did not undergo total ‘decomposition’ (for lack of word). This is also to fortify his claim of rising again and prove that he conquered death. The same body BUT a glorified body. He still is the master of elements - known and unknown.
But my problem is this… Are we going to be given just one white linen cloth for use to cover our bodies for all eternity? I had never been a nudist.
Seriously, though… I think we will all be in our prime years after the resurrection - whole and fully immortal humans.