I stopped and pondered something Paul said in his first letter to the Corinthians, and it took me back to the Garden and something Adam said.
1 Cor 15:49-50 And as we have borne the image of the earthy, we shall also bear the image of the heavenly. 50 Now this I say, brethren, that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God; neither doth corruption inherit incorruption.
The Word tells us that Jesus was man as God originally intended him to be; He was perfect, the perfect image of God. And that is what we will become in our resurrected bodies. We will be free from sin and reflect the image and glory of God. But in verse 50 Paul clearly tells us that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God. That’s what got me to thinking. If we reflect for a minute on Jesus’ resurrection it all comes together. Let Paul tells us…
Heb 9:12 Not with the blood of goats and calves, but with His own blood He entered the Most Holy Place once for all, having obtained eternal redemption.
Just as the high priest entered into the Holy of Holies to sprinkle the blood of the sacrifice on the altar, our high priest sprinkled His blood on the mercy seat at the altar in heaven.
Now, when He appeared in the upper room, how did He describe His body?
Luke 24:39 Behold My hands and My feet, that it is I Myself. Handle Me and see, for a spirit does not have flesh and bones as you see I have.”
Jesus described His body as (not a spirit) but one with “flesh and bones”… not “flesh and blood.” Which tells us that our resurrection body will not be functioning as our earthly body. There is no blood because in our earthly body “life was in the blood” (Lev 17:11). In our spiritual body there is no need for blood. And that’s what got me to thinking… what did Adam say when God made (did not create) Eve?
Gen 2:21-23 And the Lord God caused a deep sleep to fall on Adam, and he slept; and He took one of his ribs, and closed up the flesh in its place. 22 Then the rib which the Lord God had taken from man He made into a woman, and He brought her to the man. 23 “This is now bone of my bones And flesh of my flesh; She shall be called Woman, Because she was taken out of Man.”
When God presented Eve to Adam, Adam did not call her his own “flesh and blood.” He called her bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh. Eve was taken out of the first Adam, a picture of not the beginning but the end. It is a wonderful picture of the bride of Christ, who was taken out of Jesus on the cross. It is a perfect picture of our new bodies in heaven where there is no need for “life in the blood” because we will be in the “presence of life”… in the “spirit of life.”
Paul tells us that when we see Him we will be like Him… “flesh and bones.” The bride will be just like the bridegroom in her resurrection body. He shed His blood on the altar for us as our high priest… all for His glory.
Rom 8:29 For whom He foreknew, He also predestined to be conformed to the image of His Son, that He might be the firstborn among many brethren.
God loves Jesus so much that He wants to populate all of eternity with people just like Him. Flesh and bone filled with the glory of God which, by the way, we have within us during our probation here on earth. The very glory that He wants to reveal to the world through us by beginning the conformation process here and now. Like the ugly caterpiller who died to the earthbound flesh so that it could emerge as the beautiful butterfly, soaring into the sky. It is a process that takes time but one that has a “certain” result. So, we are wrapped in our cocoon here on earth, and like the caterpillar we have inside us what is needed to emerge in our new body that can do a lot more than just fly.
It’s just a matter of time and it’s all about what we do with that time!