This is an article that I wrote a couple of weeks ago...I am hoping everyone else will find it beneficial:
Alistair Begg, is someone that I consider to be an excellent speaker, with the ability to capture ones mind and imagination in his message. At one of his recent engagements that I was able to attend, he enabled me to fully realize the immense improvement in quality of life that one gets in Christ, first spiritually, and then physically. This has great implications on the biblical idea of resurrection.
I am sure that we all know the story of the paralytic that appears in Mark 2:1-13. While Jesus was in Capernaum, inside a home, there were so many people around that it was impossible for this particular subject, who appeared to be paralyzed, to gain access to Christ. His faithful friends however, were able to remove the roof on the house, and lowered the sick man inside: [/color]
<I>Being unable to get to Him because of the crowd, they removed the roof above Him; and when they had dug an opening, they let down the pallet on which the paralytic was lying. And Jesus seeing their faith said to the paralytic, Son, your sins are forgiven.</I> (Mark 2)
How often do we read this passage without even realizing how unusual this encounter is? This man and his friends put great effort into being able to reach Christ, so that he can be healed of his physical paralysis, yet how shocked this man probably was to hear Christ discussing something that had absolutely nothing to do with his immediate physical need? What further evidence for a spiritual resurrection can we ask for when Christ Himself in this instance addressed THE ONLY PROBLEM relevant to this mans life? <I>Son, your sins are forgiven.</I>
To claim that the resurrection involves a 50]regeneration of our physical bodies into some perfect, disease-free, glorious celestial bodies is nothing more than denying the clear priorities set forth by Christ in Mark 2. Not only did Christ concern himself with the paralytics sin FIRST, but it appears that he never even intended to heal the mans physical sickness. Only after His short sparring with the scribes that questioned His ability to forgive sins, did Christ heal the mans paralysis, apparently only in order to validate and confirm his Heaven-given authority to forgive sins, authority questioned by the said scribes: <I>Which is easier, to say to the paralytic, Your sins are forgiven; or to say, Get up, and pick up your pallet and walk? But so that you may know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins He *said to the paralytic, I say to you, get up, pick up your pallet and go home.</I>
The New Testament plainly validates the fact that resurrection is simply nothing more than a renewing of our spirits by Christ, and it has little, if no impact on our physical bodies. In Romans Paul confirms this by saying: <I>If Christ is in you, though the body is dead because of sin, yet the spirit is alive because of righteousness.</I> (Romans 8:10).
If Christ Himself considered the SPIRIT of the paralytic to be of paramount importance, who are we to say that our physical bodies are to be resurrected prior to the judgment scene that would take place in Revelation, like some futurists claim? If the spiritual needs take precedence, why would our physical bodies be resurrected first, BEFORE judgment awards us spiritual life? Not only would such a position reverse the priorities set forth by Christ, but also Pauls clear delineation between a dead body (which in Pauls opinion doesnt really mean much), and a spirit alive (which means everything because of Christ).
Christians need to change their priorities in order to fully understand Gods plan for them. If we are looking forward to a future physical resurrection of our bodies, we are denying ourselves the immensely greater gift of life that God already gave us. How sad to see the many Christians who seem to have 20/20 vision for an uncertain future, but are blind and unable to see the everything that God already gave us, which is the Life in the cross of Christ.
Alistair Begg, is someone that I consider to be an excellent speaker, with the ability to capture ones mind and imagination in his message. At one of his recent engagements that I was able to attend, he enabled me to fully realize the immense improvement in quality of life that one gets in Christ, first spiritually, and then physically. This has great implications on the biblical idea of resurrection.
I am sure that we all know the story of the paralytic that appears in Mark 2:1-13. While Jesus was in Capernaum, inside a home, there were so many people around that it was impossible for this particular subject, who appeared to be paralyzed, to gain access to Christ. His faithful friends however, were able to remove the roof on the house, and lowered the sick man inside: [/color]
<I>Being unable to get to Him because of the crowd, they removed the roof above Him; and when they had dug an opening, they let down the pallet on which the paralytic was lying. And Jesus seeing their faith said to the paralytic, Son, your sins are forgiven.</I> (Mark 2)
How often do we read this passage without even realizing how unusual this encounter is? This man and his friends put great effort into being able to reach Christ, so that he can be healed of his physical paralysis, yet how shocked this man probably was to hear Christ discussing something that had absolutely nothing to do with his immediate physical need? What further evidence for a spiritual resurrection can we ask for when Christ Himself in this instance addressed THE ONLY PROBLEM relevant to this mans life? <I>Son, your sins are forgiven.</I>
To claim that the resurrection involves a 50]regeneration of our physical bodies into some perfect, disease-free, glorious celestial bodies is nothing more than denying the clear priorities set forth by Christ in Mark 2. Not only did Christ concern himself with the paralytics sin FIRST, but it appears that he never even intended to heal the mans physical sickness. Only after His short sparring with the scribes that questioned His ability to forgive sins, did Christ heal the mans paralysis, apparently only in order to validate and confirm his Heaven-given authority to forgive sins, authority questioned by the said scribes: <I>Which is easier, to say to the paralytic, Your sins are forgiven; or to say, Get up, and pick up your pallet and walk? But so that you may know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins He *said to the paralytic, I say to you, get up, pick up your pallet and go home.</I>
The New Testament plainly validates the fact that resurrection is simply nothing more than a renewing of our spirits by Christ, and it has little, if no impact on our physical bodies. In Romans Paul confirms this by saying: <I>If Christ is in you, though the body is dead because of sin, yet the spirit is alive because of righteousness.</I> (Romans 8:10).
If Christ Himself considered the SPIRIT of the paralytic to be of paramount importance, who are we to say that our physical bodies are to be resurrected prior to the judgment scene that would take place in Revelation, like some futurists claim? If the spiritual needs take precedence, why would our physical bodies be resurrected first, BEFORE judgment awards us spiritual life? Not only would such a position reverse the priorities set forth by Christ, but also Pauls clear delineation between a dead body (which in Pauls opinion doesnt really mean much), and a spirit alive (which means everything because of Christ).
Christians need to change their priorities in order to fully understand Gods plan for them. If we are looking forward to a future physical resurrection of our bodies, we are denying ourselves the immensely greater gift of life that God already gave us. How sad to see the many Christians who seem to have 20/20 vision for an uncertain future, but are blind and unable to see the everything that God already gave us, which is the Life in the cross of Christ.