Resurrection of the Body: Continuity in Christ through Death in Christ

Abstract

This article examines the question of when the resurrection of the body begins. Matthew 27:51–53 testifies to the resurrection of bodies on Good Friday; and 2 Corinthians 5:1 speaks of those who die in Christ receiving a building/body from God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens. Eternal life begins for Christians with baptism into Christ’s death; they become members of his Body, the Church. Through the presence of Christ’s Spirit, our bodies undergo a spiritual transformation up to the moment of death. Those who die in Christ pass from resurrected life in the physical body to the fullness of resurrected life at death in Christ’s spiritual body. Whether one is in the (physical) body and away from the Lord or with the Lord and away from the (physical) body, one remains in Christ.