[AI translation] My Christian Brothers and Sisters!Two weeks ago today, in the Easter Sunday sermon, we heard how crucial the resurrection of Christ is for our hope after death. Christ, the germ of eternal life planted in this earthly world, grew up and himself crashed into the wall of the prison of death that surrounds us on all sides. But He did not crush through it as we do, but broke through it, burst through it, burst forth through it, like the first shoot of a plant sprouting from under a rock, and so His risen, living Person became a living link from the state of being confined under death to the state of eternal life beyond death. In Him and through Him the process of transition from death to eternal life, that is, the process of resurrection, has already begun. This process continues in all those who by faith are already being incorporated into Christ. Clinging to the risen Christ, we can hope that at the moment of our death the way to eternal life will be opened for our souls.
The soul that believes in Christ is thus separated from the body immediately after death and is taken from this earthly world of death into the heavenly world of eternal life. The perishable body, losing its animating principle, the soul, returns to the world of inanimate matter, the earth from which it was taken. However, divine revelation, and especially the bodily resurrection of Jesus, teach us that our bodies do not remain forever in the realm of mortality and death. The short of the Bible's teaching on this subject is that Christ will return to this earth again, as He promised, in all His divine glory and power. The reappearance on earth of His divine person, who is resurrection and life, that is, of this divine power triumphant over death, will radiate such inexpressible power throughout this world that dead bodies will be revived and resurrected by Him.
If we are incredulous at the possibility of this miracle, consider the following: If the mysterious radiation of the atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima caused the seeds on the ground to sprout overnight and to develop at such a lush, rapid rate that flowers covered the ruins everywhere within days of the disaster, then it is truly conceivable that the otherwise unimaginable miracle of the appearance on earth of the second person of the Triune God, the divine Person of Resurrection and Life, would radiate the power of resurrection and life into the world of death. That is why we have in our creed the item that most of us would not have minded if it had been left out, that I believe in "the resurrection of our bodies!"
Let us be careful of the word: it does not say "I know", nor does it say "I feel", but more than that, it says "I believe"! So, the resurrection of our bodies is also a matter of faith, which cannot be logically proven, explained by other phenomena. It is something that cannot be known and ascertained by the eyes, by the sense of touch, by the brain, but by faith. And now, when we speak of the resurrection of the body, let us hold closely to what the Scriptures, the revelation of God, teach us about it. When the Bible speaks of the body, it uses two different words: 'sarex' and 'soma'. The Hungarian Bible translates both words as "body". But there is a crucial difference between the two words. The word 'sarix' means the temporary material structure, made up of various chemicals into tissues, fluids and organs, in which cells are incessantly broken down and reassembled throughout our life on earth. The "sarix" is therefore the material tissue to which the divine injunction applies: you are dust, and you must become dust again!
Now the "soma" is that inexplicable and inexpressible body, form, essence, which, despite the disintegration and recomposition of all kinds of tissues, organs and fluids, remains always the same, which, despite the incessant replacement of our cells, remains my body, the body expressing my individuality. The soma, then, is the form of representation that breathes me, my individuality, in which my personality is expressed in visible, audible and tactile forms. Have you not experienced that spiritual beauty or ugliness is expressed in the flesh, and obedience to Jesus or service to Satan is expressed in looks, facial features, movements and voice? This is the visible manifestation of the soul, this is the bodily form of the soul, the form by which you can know that it is you and not another, this is the word.
Imagine a temple building from which the stones are taken away one by one, and immediately each one is replaced by an identical one. Yet the building itself remains the same, its shape, its style, its function, even though every brick, every material in it has been replaced by another. The material of that church body: the brick, the malter, this "sarix". And that which remains as the same temple body despite the replacement of all the materials, this is the "soma". The cells of our human body are constantly changing: this changing mass of material is the "sarix", and yet our body always remains the same. This something that, as a characteristic, as a style, always remains the same: this "soma". In other words, a change in the substance of our body does not mean a change in the essence of our body.
It was necessary to explain this in detail in order to understand that when Scripture speaks of the resurrection of the body, it does not mean the "sarfx", not the material substance of the body - since flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God - but the "soma", that is, the body as a form of the soul in which, despite all the changes, the individuality of man is expressed. The Scripture does not say that the same body is raised which is buried, but that the same "soma" is raised, that is, the body which does not have a certain substance as its essence. And so it becomes clear that the resurrection of our body is not affected by the fact that its material components are already circulating elsewhere in the great cycle of nature. The point, then, is that at Christ's return the body of the same person will be raised from the dead, but not the same matter that was buried.
God also gives us a hint in the Bible of what that resurrected body will be like. (1 Cor 15:42-43) In short, we could say that it is essentially the same, but qualitatively different. It will be essentially the same, because we will feel this new spiritual body as our own, as a form of our being, just as we feel our present body. But qualitatively it will be something different: not a material body, but a kind of spiritual tissue, indestructible, eternal, young and beautiful!
It must have a different quality because with this resurrected body we will no longer live in time, not in this world, but in eternity. That is why our body, now set up for life in time and on earth, must undergo such a change that it can live in eternity. It will be a body free from all infirmities and imperfections, no longer knowing the natural needs and pains of life on earth, in short, similar to the glorious body of the risen Christ! Yet it will not be another body, but the same body. So it is not the same substance, but the same body, buried in corruption and weakness, that will rise again in incorruption and glory.
Do you know what this means? It means that God preserves the individuality of man through death, his personality in a distinct and recognizable form. The resurrection therefore means that in eternity we do not melt into some unrecognisable spiritual mass like a drop of water into the sea, but that the resurrected man retains his identity with the former earthly man. Our hope, therefore, that we shall know one another in the next world is not without foundation, and we shall be delighted to see those from whom we are temporarily separated by death.
How the resurrection of the dead body is to take place is not told in Scripture, that is a matter for the Lord God. It only tells us that "God will give him a body as he wills, and to every kind of seed his own body." (1 Cor 15:38) We do not want to know about God's works, for the veil cannot be lifted. But let us not forget that the Lord God is omnipotent, and that if he could create a world out of nothing and a man from the dust of the earth, then it is no more than divine power that he should raise up a new and glorious body from our decayed bodies, burnt in the crematorium and scattered all over the world.
And this Almighty God has already given us a pledge of the certainty of our bodily resurrection, and that is the resurrection of Jesus Christ. His resurrection is a mirror in which we can contemplate our own future. He is the Genesis of those who have fallen asleep, and so He is the beginning of our resurrection. Christ, our heavenly Head, is not only the beginning of our resurrection, but also a guarantee that He will draw us, the members of His body, after Himself, lift us up to Himself in His glory, make us partakers of His exaltation.
Jesus did not make the journey from heaven to earth for Himself, for His own sake, and from earth again through death and resurrection back to heaven, but He did it all for others, for us, believers in Him! What He did, He did for others. For others, He was born for you, for others, He died for you, He rose from the dead for others, for you, so that all that He accomplished in doing so He could give to others, to you, to the members of His body. It is with the resurrection of our bodies that Jesus' redemptive work, undertaken and accomplished for His own, is completed and fulfilled! The goal and final chord of the messianic mission: the abolition of death as the last enemy. This will be fulfilled when those who have died are resurrected. In the resurrection, the temporarily severed connection between body and soul is then restored, so that we resume our existence in bodily-spiritual reality in our class-participatory state as God has judged.
I didn't make it up, Jesus said. Do you believe Him, do you believe in Him? Do you believe that He was born for you, died for you, and rose again for you? If you humble yourself before Him with all your heart and soul, you will be able to answer Him in this way: Thank you, Lord, for what you have done for me! I am totally committed to You! I am Yours in body and soul! I believe in You and I follow You! - then our beautiful, triumphant song can rejoice in You with the full assurance of Your salvation of body and soul:
My heart no more to fear, To look on the bottom of my grave,
For I see by the example of Jesus, What may be of the dust of the dead.
Be gone, my doubts, change my fears
Into hope and joy, For I will not sleep forever.
(Canto 347, verse 3)
Amen
Date: 20 April 1947.
Lesson
1Kor 15,19-26