It is sown a natural body; it is raised a spiritual body. There is a natural body, and there is a spiritual body, 1st Corinthians 15:44.
How do we reconcile the above verse with Jesus Christ's plain statement; Behold my hands and my feet, that it is I myself: handle me, and see; for a spirit hath not flesh and bones, as ye see me have, Luke 24:39? It's not really difficult even though the Jehovah Witnesses stumble at it. Jesus Christ arose from the dead and walked out of his tomb on the third day after his crucifixion. His body was flesh and bones as he testified and as hundreds of witnesses testified. To this day and throughout eternity, the Holy Ghost will always testify that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh.
Nevertheless, it is a spiritual body. It is not a flesh and blood body subject to the laws of nature as ours are today. He ate food. He built a fire. He allowed men to hold and touch him but he could change his appearance, get into closed rooms and get back and forth to heaven in minutes. When the bible says that it is a spiritual body, it is not calling it a spirit. It is a body such as God intended man to have before the sin of Adam. It is a spiritual body in the sense that it is in perfect harmony with the Spirit of God and utterly in subjection to the holiness of God.
In fact, the test to see whether or not a person speaks by the spirit of antichrist is to ask him, "If we could go to the third heaven and see Jesus Christ seated next to the Father, would he be in a body of flesh that we could touch with our hands?" John gives us that test. And every spirit that confesseth not that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is not of God: and this is that spirit of antichrist, whereof ye have heard that it should come; and even now already is it in the world, 1st John 4:3.
Recently, the Black Creek Baptist Church had a disruptive guest who interrupted a young men's fellowship with contradictory statements. Since the man was an ordained independent Fundamental Baptist preacher, our young men refrained from rebuking him. The leader of the group politely asked him whether or not Jesus Christ was currently in a body of flesh that could be touched. The guest answered, "No, it is a spiritual body, not a physical body."
Naturally, the new versions which owe their inspiration to the spirit of antichrist change that test. The NIV states; but every spirit that does not acknowledge Jesus is not from God. This is the spirit of the antichrist, which you have heard is coming and even now is already in the world. Do you see what is missing? The fact that Jesus is currently come in the flesh is missing. Is there a cult in the world today which does not acknowledge Jesus? Most of them use limited references to Jesus Christ to lure people to them.
It is the corporal flesh and bone resurrection of Jesus Christ that the spirit of antichrist hates. The usual cult view of eternity is a view of spiritual beings flitting about. The idea that the God of the spirts of all flesh, Numbers 27:16 could resurrect all flesh and make that flesh eternal is a doctrine hated by devils. How bad do they hate it? They hate it bad enough to change the very test by which the antichrist is discerned. In 1st John 4:3 the ESV is equally blind saying; and every spirit that does not confess Jesus is not from God. This is the spirit of the antichrist, which you heard was coming and now is in the world already.
Sometimes bible discussions can get out of hand. There is all too much mudslinging and name calling. Yet, what can we say of any preacher who could read 1st John 4:3 and say that it makes no difference whether we read it in a King James Bible or a new version? Such a man is either spiritually ignorant, purposefully antichrist, or just plain stupid. Which version you use makes all the difference between antichrist and the Spirit of God.
Can you imagine what the courts would do to a nurse who slipped into a hospital and changed the tests for cancer, heart disease, COVID 19 or any other potentially lethal condition? Maybe she could use the same excuses that preachers use. "I changed the tests so that less educated people could read the results." "You are destroying our unity by calling my tests less effective than yours."
The next thing to understand about the body of Christ is that it is an eternal body. We are promised a body like unto his body; Who shall change our vile body, that it may be fashioned like unto his glorious body, according to the working whereby he is able even to subdue all things unto himself. We are told; For we know that if our earthly house of this tabernacle were dissolved, we have a building of God, an house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens, 2nd Corinthians 5:1.
The difference between a dead body and a live body is whether or not the spirit of the person still resides in that body. For as the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without works is dead also, James 2:26. The spirit that Jesus Christ yielded back to the Father is now in his body seated next to the Father in heaven. His flesh and bone body is alive and in heaven. It is flesh and bone, but it is a spiritual body. If you have salvation you are in that body. But he that is joined unto the Lord is one spirit, 1st Corinthians 6:17.
If you are risen today with Christ Jesus you have been made one spirit with him. It is one spirit in one body. He is alive. That means that his spirit is located in his body. There is a unity in that. John Wesley is in the body of Jesus Christ in heaven. Martin Luther has been made one spirit in Christ. Your brethren in a North Korean concentration camp are one spirit with Jesus Christ. Remember them that are in bonds, as bound with them; and them which suffer adversity, as being yourselves also in the body, Hebrews 13:3.
There is indeed a spiritual body of Christ in heaven. It is the real flesh and blood body of Jesus Christ. If you are in Christ that is where you are. If you are someone who uses the "rule of first occurrences", look up the word body. And they saw the God of Israel: and there was under his feet as it were a paved work of a sapphire stone, and as it were the body of heaven in his clearness, Exodus 24:10. I believe that Jesus Christ is that God.
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