InPerspective

Harry Reeder: It is appointed unto men once to die and then the judgment. The earth, the land, the sea will give up its dead and we must all appear before the judgment. The believer does not appear for the issue of salvation, but for the issue of stewardship. The unbeliever appears and will hear the verdict of condemnation.

So I know you're going to get a resurrected body. The question is: Where are you headed?

Guest (Male): Putting life in biblical perspective with Dr. Harry L. Reeder. This is InPerspective, a radio and internet ministry of the Alliance of Confessing Evangelicals.

The hymn "In Resurrection Bodies" proclaims, "Oh joy of resurrection, all sin and sorrow past. To see the face of Jesus, to be like him at last. Made perfect in his image, complete in Christ the son. In resurrection glory, we'll share the life he's won." We confess, "I believe in the resurrection of the body," declaring that we are saved from our sins unto our resurrected bodies for life evermore.

Stay with us now as Dr. Reeder takes us to 1 Corinthians 15 as he brings us today's teaching, part two of the message, "The Resurrection of the Body."

Harry Reeder: The Apostles' Creed gives you three gospel blessings secured in Christ: forgiveness of sins, resurrection of the body, and the life everlasting. Now listen to me please carefully. Those three are inseparable. To have life everlasting with a resurrected body, you have to have the forgiveness of sins.

If you have the forgiveness of sins now, you will have a resurrected body then for the purpose of everlasting life with him and eternal joys. The three are inseparable. You can't pick and choose on this. You must believe and repent of your sins and come to Christ for forgiveness in order to gain Christ.

As you've gained Christ, then what you have is not only forgiveness, he has assured you of an everlasting body like his for an everlasting life to be with him and eternal joys. Now listen carefully. Everyone's going to get a resurrected body. Everybody. But not for the same destinations.

Some will have a resurrected body to eternal condemnation if they have not come to Christ as Lord and Savior. It is appointed unto men once to die and then the judgment. The earth, the land, the sea will give up its dead and we must all appear before the judgment.

The believer does not appear for the issue of salvation, but for the issue of stewardship. The unbeliever appears and will hear the verdict of condemnation. So I know you're going to get a resurrected body. The question is: Where are you headed? And that comes back to the first blessing. Have you come to Christ for the remission of sins, forgiveness of sins?

I love the three Rs: redemption, ransom, and remission. In fact, could I ask you to maybe do something that most people when I ask to do this they won't do it, but just write the word "remission" out. The Bible says that in Christ we have remission of our sins. Just write the word "remission" out. What word do you see as a root of the word "remission"?

What's the root of the word "remission"? This is not hard. Even East Carolina, even I can get this one. Mission. What is a mission? It is a task you are sent to do. Mission is a task you are sent to do. So what is remission of sins? It is the sending away of your sins from you. Your sins have been sent away. How?

By Christ the sent one who was sent to save you from your sins. And when he saves you, he sends your sins with their guilt, with their shame, away from you. How? By the cross, his atoning death. Let me keep trying to flesh this out for you. Have any of you owe money to anybody? Electric bill, anything like that?

And if you're still like me, you haven't left the 19th century yet, you've got a letter that comes once a month with the bill. They're so wonderful. They tell you what you owe that you need to get remission, forgiveness for. But to get that forgiveness they tell you how to do it and they're so gracious. They'll put a little envelope in there.

And what will it say? Write your check, put it in the envelope, and remit it to this address. For remission of the debt you need to remit the payment for the debt. Well, that's what Jesus did at the cross. Jesus took our sins on himself. And he—dare I say it—mailed it to the bar of God's holy justice, paid our debt, our penalty.

And then he said, "Tetelestai," paid in full. Your sins were taken away from you. The picture of this is gloriously given in the theater of the temple at Yom Kippur every year. The Day of Atonement, Yom Kippur. And on that day a priest would take his hands and confess the sins of the people and place it on the scapegoat.

The scapegoat would be led out to take away the sins of the people to perish out in the wilderness. The scapegoat did what we call expiation. He took away the sins on the basis of what? The priest also laid his hands on a lamb who was sacrificed for propitiation to satisfy the debt.

Now the blood of bulls and goats can't do it. This was God giving you the picture of what had to happen and then God fulfills it. How? With his son Jesus, who is the Lamb of God and his son Jesus who went to Calvary outside the wall of the city and took our sins and buried them when he endured our condemnation, the wrath of God on the cross and paid for them in full.

Thus we have remission of sins. Can I move from economics to this same word in another field? And that other field is medical. The word remission—I've been a pastor long enough. In my own case with prostate cancer, I've heard it used in relationship to cancer. And the doctor will come and say, "Good news. Your cancer is in remission."

And of course you're so glad to hear that. But many times the doctor will follow it up: "But it could come back." But in Jesus, your sins are in remission. They have been sent away because Jesus was sent to pay for them. And when Jesus says "Tetelestai," when Paul affirms it, there is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.

You're forgiven and your sins cannot come back with their guilt and shame. They've already been paid for. They've been done. God has dealt with them in his son. You are forgiven. You are forgiven in Christ. Now you've got ahead of you a new body. Then you've got ahead of you the best is yet to come.

No pain, no sorrow, no sickness, no tears, no death, no crying. The former things are done away with and the new has come, not simply by promise and down payment, but in fulfillment. And he will give you a resurrected body transformed for that purpose and that's what he does for you.

The resurrected body. Now watch, the assurance of your forgiveness of sins is in Christ's atoning death. Your assurance of your new body is in Christ's resurrection. Notice how they say it in the text. Go with me back to 1 Corinthians 15. He said, for you to say there's no resurrection of the body is to say there's no resurrection of Christ.

Why? Because your resurrected body is the result of his resurrection. And for you to say there is no resurrection is the same thing as saying that there is no resurrection for Christ. And then if that's the case our faith is futile, we're false witnesses of God, we're of most people most to be pitied.

Then he goes on to say this. He goes from the rhetorical to the factual. He says in 1 Corinthians 15 and verse 20, "But here's the factual, in fact Christ has been raised from the dead, the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep. For as by a man came death, by a man has come the resurrection of the dead. For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ shall all be made alive, but each in his own order: Christ the firstfruits, then at his coming those who are Christ's, then comes the end when he delivers the kingdom to God the Father after destroying every rule and every authority and power for he must reign until he has put all his enemies under his feet, the last enemy to be destroyed is death."

Now stop right there. See what is he telling you? In Jesus' first death, he what? Defeated his enemies. In his second coming, he will destroy them. In his first he defeated sin, death, hell, grave, Satan. When he returns, he destroys them in the place called hell. Second thing I want you to see from that is he accomplishes this for you in someone who has come for you.

Go sing to him "Joy to the World" and see what it's dealing with in both the first and second advent of Christ. Or I've got one. Do you all like "Hark! The Herald Angels Sing"? How about this verse? "Mild he lays his glory by, born that man no longer die, born to raise the sons of earth, born to give us a second birth."

He came to defeat the enemies, he'll come again and destroy them, and the forgiven will be with him for all eternity with a new body and a new heavens because they're in him. You see he says in Adam you die. In Adam we sinned and die. In the second Adam, Christ, we live. Because in Christ he takes our sins and gives us his righteousness.

And so we are cleansed, our sins are in remission, and we're clothed with his righteousness and accepted in the beloved. Brothers and sisters, it's just absolutely glorious and wonderful to see what he has promised and what he does in and through his people in Adam. Let me try to illustrate.

When Adam sinned, you sinned. When Adam died, you died. Then comes Christ, second Adam. When he paid for your sins, you're forgiven. You're in Christ. And he gives you his righteousness. This is what we call federal headship, how we get saved. 1969—some of you need to go read about it.

His name was Neil Armstrong. He landed on what? Does anyone remember? The moon. Does anybody remember what he said? He said something and did something. Here's what he said: "One small step for a man, one giant leap for mankind." Then he went and planted a flag. So when he put the flag there, we were there as a nation.

But he took a bigger scope than that. He had thought about it. The first thing he said was not a national thing but a humanity thing. One small step for a man, but when I take this step, it is a giant leap for mankind. I remember it. I never heard a single person say, "Boy Neil Armstrong landed on the moon." You know what I heard people saying? "We landed on the moon."

And when Jesus came out of that grave, you came out. When Jesus paid for your sins, you were free. When that happened to Christ, in Christ, it happened for you who are in Christ. Well, I'm out of time so let me just give you the takeaway. I'll pick up on some more of this later. But let me just give you a couple of thoughts here.

Here's just this basic thought: Christians do not believe we are saved for our bodies nor from our bodies, but that we are saved from our sins to our resurrected bodies for life everlasting. I do want you to know this. Every song you sang—the confession, the songs, the hymns, the readings—all of them had these three blessings: forgiveness of sins, the new body, and life eternal.

I have forgiveness, I will have a new body, for life everlasting with the Savior to be with him forever and ever. You know I meet so many people they have a hard time believing they're going to get a new body for an eternal life because they don't feel forgiven. I cannot tell you how many times I have talked with folks. My heart breaks for them.

They'll say, "You know pastor, I just don't feel forgiven. I know what the Bible says, there is therefore now no condemnation. I know the Bible says truly, truly he who believes in me has eternal life. I know the Bible says that there is no charge against God's elect, there is therefore now no condemnation. I know all that, pastor. I know all that and I've turned from my sins and put my trust in Jesus but I don't think I'm forgiven. I just don't feel forgiven."

I struggled with that so many times and then I listened to R.C. one time and he kind of helped me on this. Hopefully if I ever have to do it and whenever I have to do it, I'll be very careful. I'll never forget what R.C. said. He talked and shared there was a particular man and his wife that were both with the same situation and they just kept saying it.

He kept bringing them to the scripture that brought assurance—you can know that you have eternal life in Christ. But they just, "I just don't feel it." And then he looked at him and he said, "My friend, I now tell you to repent." They said, "No, R.C., you didn't hear us. We have repented of our sins and put our trust in Jesus for forgiveness of sins. We just don't feel it. We don't feel it."

And he said, "That's right. I'm not asking you to repent and come to Jesus. I believe you. You've repented and come to Jesus. I'm asking you to repent of elevating your feelings over God's word." We just came out of a reformation, didn't we? You remember the solas? Do you remember the foundational one?

The scripture alone is our final authority for faith and practice. Not our feelings. Not the world. But when Jesus says there is no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus, you're forgiven. If Christ is your Lord and Savior by faith, you're forgiven. You have eternal life. You will have a new body to enjoy the praise of God for all eternity.

Can I give you a little task? Here's my task: Go find a hymn on the resurrected body for believers. I finally found one. Now I found like we sang hymns that in a verse will refer to it because this affirmation is not about Christ's resurrection. It's our resurrection that's ultimately tied and effectively tied to Christ's resurrection. But it's our resurrection.

I finally found one from the great hymn writer Margaret Clarkson. May I just close by reading it to you? And if you want this, I'll get it to you and somehow John is going to get us to sing this somewhere, somehow. I just didn't find it in time for this Sunday, but I finally found it. Here it is.

"In resurrection bodies like Jesus' very own, then we'll rise to meet our Savior with joy around his throne. We'll marvel at the mercy that bids poor sinners come, be welcomed at his table and share his heavenly home. Oh, joy of resurrection all sin and sorrow past. To see the face of Jesus and to be like him at last, made perfect in his image, complete in Christ his son. In resurrection glory we'll share the life he's won."

"Oh resurrection body set free from pain and death, sin's curse forever vanquished by Christ's victorious breath. Lord, teach us in our trials your hidden way to trace, to walk by faith discerning your mysteries of grace. Oh resurrection body young, radiant, vibrant, free—I was trying to sing this when I got there, I just had to stop and laugh.

I can just imagine me. I can imagine you after we're there with our resurrected body. I don't know, a couple of hours into it, we're going to turn and say, "You know I haven't felt this good in a long time." You're right. You never have. Oh resurrection body that untouched by sin or the ability to sin, young, radiant, vibrant, free with powers unthought, undreamed of, how rich your joys will be.

Through endless years you'll marvel, design, create, explore, in resurrection bodies with wonder to worship him and adore. With holy joy, Lord Jesus, we sing the life you give, the hope you hold before us, the strength by which we live. Lead on in sovereign mercy through all earth's troubled way till resurrection bodies in that day will bring resurrection praise.

Oh man, it's so glorious to think of that. But listen, that body for life eternal is only gained for those who are in Christ, forgiven of our sins. Paul goes on to say, look, the grain's got to fall and die to get the plant. The stars, fish—he goes to astronomy, he goes to biology, he goes to botany, he goes to agronomy, he goes to pure agriculture, he goes to all of these things to show us the consistency of God's general revelation with his revelation that we will not all die.

But have you ever thought about this? Is that we are being added to paradise one by one, but on that day when Jesus comes we'll all come as one with new bodies into a new heavens and a new earth. Will you be numbered with them? It really comes down to this: What say you of Jesus? Is he your Lord and Savior?

If he is, I invite you to know the joys of forgiveness, guilt and shame removed, the new body promised, and life evermore with resurrected bodies for resurrection praise.

Guest (Male): You are listening to InPerspective featuring the teaching of Dr. Harry L. Reeder. Our current sermon series, "I Believe: The Apostles' Creed in Biblical Perspective." Visit inperspective.org for additional bible teaching by Dr. Reeder. The Bible: Fact or myth? Historic or fiction? How does the Bible stack up against true science?

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John 3:16 reminds us, "For God so loved the world that he gave his only son that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life." Join us again next time as Dr. Reeder examines this glorious promise of everlasting life for the believer. That's next time as we turn back to the scriptures to put life in biblical perspective.