Note that we must never discount the physical with regard to God's purposes and plans.
For example, Christians need to be careful not to be deceived by the Gnostic/antichrist lie that Christ is not in the flesh (
2 John 1:7), and that Christians will not forever be in the flesh. For the Bible shows that on the third day after His death (
Luke 24:46;
1 Corinthians 15:3-4), Jesus Christ was not resurrected as a disembodied spirit, but in his human, flesh and bones body (
Luke 24:39,
Hebrews 2:17). That is why His tomb is empty (
Matthew 28:6), and why He still has the wounds of the crucifixion on His resurrection body (
John 20:25-29). And
Luke 24:39 did not stop being true once Jesus ascended into heaven. For He will remain forever the human mediator/high priest of Christians (
1 Timothy 2:5,
Hebrews 7:24-26), in human flesh, just like they are in human flesh (
Hebrews 2:17). And when He returns, He will still have the wounds of the crucifixion on His resurrection body (
Zechariah 13:6,
Zechariah 12:10-14).
Gnosticism mistakenly thinks that flesh is evil in itself, and that only pure spirit can be good. But Jesus Christ proves that flesh is not evil in itself, for He has been made flesh (
John 1:1,14,
Romans 1:3,
Luke 24:39), and remains without sin (
Hebrews 4:15). Genesis also proves that flesh is not evil in itself, but was created by God as something very good (
Genesis 1:31). Adam and Eve were flesh, for they were the progenitors of the human race alive today. And they were immortal before they fell into sin, for it was only their falling into sin which made them become mortal (
Genesis 2:17). So Adam and Eve started out as immortal flesh. And so the future resurrection (if dead) or changing (if alive) of Christians into immortal flesh bodies like Jesus has (
1 Corinthians 15:21-23,51-53,
Philippians 3:21,
Luke 24:39,
Romans 8:23-25) will be God allowing them to partake of the original, immortal-flesh condition of Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden before their fall into sin.
Also, beware the more-general Gnostic lie that even the entire physical universe is evil in itself, and that only a purely-spiritual heaven can be good. For this lie is employed by Gnosticism in order to wrongly revile the Creator God YHWH as an evil, tyrant, lesser god, whom Gnosticism says created the physical universe to be the foul prison house of human spirits, whom Gnosticism says by mistake fell from bliss in a purely-spiritual heaven down into the physical universe, and became trapped in suffering, fleshly bodies. No doubt the future Antichrist will employ this lie as part of his utter reviling of YHWH (
Revelation 13:6,
Daniel 11:36). But Genesis shows that our physical world was created by YHWH as something very good (
Genesis 1:31).
And the Bible shows that the whole plan of Creation was not that humans, who are both flesh and spirit (
1 Thessalonians 5:23,
Luke 24:39), would become purely-spiritual ghosts, and float forever on clouds in a purely-spiritual heaven with God, but that God would become both flesh and spirit like man (
John 1:1,14), and that God would ultimately come down from heaven to live with man on a future, New Earth (
Revelation 21:1-4), just as God had walked on the earth in the Garden of Eden with Adam and Eve (
Genesis 3:8). Also, on the New Earth, as in a new surface for the earth, Christians will be allowed to eat from the literal tree of life (
Revelation 2:7,
Revelation 22:2,14), just as Adam and Eve had not been forbidden to eat from it in their unfallen state (
Genesis 2:9,16-17). So, with regard to Christians, God will completely undo the effect of the fall of Adam and Eve. Christians will be able to live in an earthly, physical paradise forever with God (
Revelation 2:7), just as Adam and Eve and their descendants might have done, had not Adam and Eve fallen into sin.
So beware the Gnostic lie. Beware the Antichrist.
