Our Resurrection And Eternal Destiny Are Assured
Categories: Church of Christ Bulletin Articles Tags: Bible Lessons on the Resurrection
The following tombstone epitaph was composed by a young Benjamin Franklin in the year, 1728:
The body of B. Franklin, Printer’
Like the cover of an old Book,
Its Contents Torn out,
And stript of its Lettering and Gilding,
Lies here, Food for Worms.
But the Work shall not be wholly lost:
For it will, as he believ’d, appear once more,
In a new & more beautiful Edition,
Corrected and Amended by the Author (source).
In the above epitaph, we can plainly see the wry wit of Franklin. This colonial man of Renaissance days, obviously understood the biblical view of the resurrection.
The physical bodies we now possess, are prone to aging, deterioration, and ultimately death (Ecclesiastes 12:1-7; Hebrews 9:27). But the resurrection of Jesus Christ holds within it the promise of a new spiritual body raised in glory (Romans 8:10-11; 1 Corinthians 6:14; 2 Corinthians 4:14).
The apostle Paul tells us,
“The body is sown in corruption, it is raised in incorruption. It is sown in dishonor, it is raised in glory. It is sown in weakness, it is raised in power” (1 Corinthians 15:42-43).
As life takes its course in the aging process, we have the blessed hope of a new non-deteriorating body that will far exceed the original.
Despite our present aches and pains, if we are “in Christ,“ we can rest assured that our resurrection and eternal destiny (1 Thessalonians 4:16-17; 1 Peter 1:3-4) belongs safely in the hands of “Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith” (Hebrews 12:2).