FOREVER CHANGED

As I grow older, I understand why many senior believers welcome the thought of death. Their bodies can no longer perform the acts of their youth, and the world around them no longer resembles the one they knew. Thus, they have lived their life on earth and have turned their vision to their future home with the Lord. Also, I believe many seniors are comforted by the words spoken by Paul to the church in Thessalonica and Corinth, and in this blog, I am going to share a few of these scriptures. To do this, I am going to share the scriptures, and then I will do a short commentary after each of them.

1 Thessalonians 4:16-18 “For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first: Then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord. Wherefore comfort one another with these words.”

Presently, Jesus Christ is in our hearts and minds. We are unable to see Jesus, nor can we physically touch Him. However, when the rapture happens, everyone who is part of Jesus’ body will meet Him in the air and travel with Him to the third heaven. We will see Him, be able to touch Him, and enjoy all the pleasures God has in store for those who loved and served Him not for a day, a week, a month, or a year but forever and ever.

1 Corinthians 15:51-54 “Behold, I shew you a mystery; We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed, In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump: for the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed. For this corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality. So when this corruptible shall have put on incorruption, and this mortal shall have put on immortality, then shall be brought to pass the saying that is written, Death is swallowed up in victory.”

The sin of disobedience by Adam in the Garden of Eden caused humanity to become corruptible and mortal. The Greek meaning for the word “corruptible” is to be perishable and to decay. The English dictionary defines it as the action of making someone morally depraved, sinful, ungodly, unrighteousness, dishonest, and unscrupulous. The Greek meaning and the English dictionary for the word “mortal” is capable of dying. From these meanings, I conclude that immediately at the rapture, our bodies, which were capable of dying due to old age or sickness, will take on the same attributes as Jesus’ body and become an eternal body. Plus, thank God, we will be devoid of our sinful nature; we will no longer be tainted by sin, and death and all that it represents will no longer be part of our lives.

So, in this lawless world that is filled with destruction, sickness, death and every other product of sin as Paul stated in 1 Thessalonians 4:18 we believers can comfort one another in knowing we have a future with Jesus and our troubles will not last always.