Answer: Dear Dave,

In 1 Corinthians 15:44 Paul here says that the resurrection body is a "spiritual body" – so we are left wondering what a spiritual body means. 1 John 3:2 adds that we will see Jesus when he returns, and we will "be like him." We know that Jesus’ resurrection body was of "flesh and bones" (Luke 24:39) – so Jesus’ resurrection body was not like Casper the ghost, a vapor of some sort – but a real body. Jesus’ post-resurrection body of flesh and bones was no longer able to perish, age or corrupt. It was glorified, as opposed to being what we have – "non-glorified" – perishable, corruptible, able to grow old and wear out.

It would seem that a spiritual body means immortal and eternal -- but not immaterial. Spiritual bodies seem, from this evidence and other biblical passages, including all of 1 Corinthians 15, to be immortal, unable to perish, corrupt or age – rather than immaterial, invisible and "ghostly." Paul contrasts our physical bodies with the resurrection body – see verses 40, 42, 43, 44, and 53 of 1 Corinthians 15.

It does not seem that "spirit" has to do with the nature of the resurrected body, but rather its origin, power and source. Luke does say "flesh and bones" and not "flesh and blood" – and we know that the old covenant underlined the importance of blood in terms of life, and that the cross gave new life because of the blood of our Savior. We simply don’t know the answer to all of these details because God does not provide them.

At the bottom line, we humans are now limited by time and space, we are corruptible, we age and die, we are earth-bound. All of these limitations are overcome by the resurrection body – how exactly, we do not know.

In Christ,

Greg Albrecht