⁵⁰Now I say this, brethren, that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God; nor does the perishable inherit the imperishable. ⁵¹Behold, I tell you a mystery; we will not all sleep, but we will all be changed, ⁵²in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet; for the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised imperishable, and we will be changed.

Hope of all hopes, this earthly body we inhabit will not be our eternal residence. The resurrection is not simply about our bodies being restored to their previous condition, which is what happened to Lazarus (John 11). Instead, we look forward to a change of a completely different order of magnitude, for which we need a quantum shift in our thinking.

Our present bodies consist of “flesh and blood,” a phrase used five times in the NT, every one of which emphasizes the physicality of our present state in contrast to the spiritual state (Matt. 16:17, Gal. 1:16, Eph. 6:12, Heb. 2:14). These material, corporeal bodies of ours die; they cease to live. Paul calls them “the perishable” (or “corruption” in the NKJV).

While much still remains a mystery, some things we can know. The clear implication is that our bodies were not meant for corruption. There was something lost in the Edenic fall: when God said concerning the forbidden tree, “[I[n the day that you eat from it you will surely die,” that would include, but not be limited to, their bodies becoming corrupted, perishable. From the point they ate, they died! The resurrection gives us the hope of not just reversing that death but giving us something far better. While in Adam we became beings whose bodies are subject to destruction, in Christ we look forward to receiving resurrected bodies that will no longer be subject to destruction. This gives assurance of eternal security—we will never die again! Non-believers in Christ will be resurrected to face a “second death, the lake of fire” (Rev. 20:14–15, 21:8), but for believers “there will no longer be any death…” (Rev. 21:4).

Paul then pulls back the curtain of the unfathomable for a small peek at what we can understand about how this will happen. The change will come instantaneously, the underlying words indicating the shortest period or indivisible amount of time possible. “Trumpet” here is a frequent eschatological image announcing the commencement of a specific event, in this case the rapture or removal of believers from this dying earth (see 1 Thess. 4:16), those who will be raised “imperishable.” Some Christians will be alive (“we will not all sleep”); Paul is speaking of the body of all believers throughout time. However, all will be changed! Yes, there will be a resurrection of believers!

Lord, thank You that I don’t have to put up with this physical body forever!