But someone may ask, “How will the dead be raised? What kind of bodies will they have?” What a foolish question! When you put a seed into the ground, it doesn’t grow into a plant unless it dies first. And what you put in the ground is not the plant that will grow, but only a bare seed of wheat or whatever you are planting. Then God gives it the new body he wants it to have… – 1 Corinthians 15:36-38

As Christians, what we experience in death is a continuity of re-creation.

This morning’s scripture reading (1 Corinthians 15) in the HMPC Men’s Bible study focused on the idea that there is something real and consequential about the difference between what we understand as “mortality” and what the Christian faith teaches about another kind of life, one not affected by the power of death.

It was – it is – an interesting conversation because the logic of it is mostly outside the parameters of reason. It’s kind of a gestalt thing, where who we are is often greater and more complete than the sum of the constituent parts.

Our physical selves, then, comprise flesh and blood and bones and water and brain cells and synapses and electrical charges and a million other measurable, quantifiable components. Yet there is an ineffable core “self” – our identity and personality – that is not observable and is both resident in this biological life-form and in a way distinct from it.

This is, for want of a better word, our “soul” and what God is offering a new home to when what we currently occupy runs its course and disintegrates.

When we listen to Paul’s words, what we hear is a beautifully crafted exposition on the juxtaposition of life and death, mortality and immortality, the temporary and the eternal, heaven and earth, known and unknown….

“So what comes through, clearly, as the bridge between these two worlds?” I ask. “What is it that is completely true in both realities? What – or who – provides clarity and understanding and consistency across the chasm, the abyss, the impossible to grasp between this life and the life to come?”

And the answer, of course, it is so clearly Jesus.

This hope we are talking about is nothing even vaguely resembling wishful thinking, this faith is solid and real and grounded in a truth that speaks with authority.

“We cannot extrapolate life after life from death and decay,” I said to the guys, “no more than we can extrapolate an angel from a paper airplane. We have Jesus, who is truth and life and assurance regardless of life or death. When we know Jesus we are in effect experiencing the truth that we have already been – as Paul writes – ‘raised as spiritual bodies.’ What we experience in death is a continuity of re-creation.”

And this is where I really wanted to land. On the idea that we are – in Jesus – a New Creation. This is what he was talking about in John 11 when he said, “I am the resurrection and the life… anyone who believes in me will never die…”

There is this “continuity of re-creation” that is going to bridge the worlds. This is more than wishful thinking this is faith, this is truth, this is knowledge.

Jesus was – is – truth with authority. Not that I even vaguely begin to understand what this “resurrection life” will look like. Other than that I already have a taste of this resurrection life and – as the Bible also says, “I know whom I have believed and am persuaded that He is able to keep what I have committed to Him until that Day” (2 Timothy 1:12).

Our earthly bodies are planted in the ground when we die, but they will be raised to live forever. Our bodies are buried in brokenness, but they will be raised in glory. They are buried in weakness, but they will be raised in strength. They are buried as natural human bodies, but they will be raised as spiritual bodies. For just as there are natural bodies, there are also spiritual bodies. – 1 Corinthians 15:42-44