Expert: Marilyn - 4/17/2008

Question
QUESTION: Why did God have Jesus only pay for the second death (of the soul), and did nothing to pay for the first death of the body?

ANSWER: Hello Shawn;

Both forms of death were paid for at the same time.  Jesus was raised from the dead and given His resurrection body--a material body capable of inhabiting both the material and spirit realms equally and with no restrictions.  in our cases, the saving of the material body from the first death must wait until the proper time.

In Matthew 13 beginning with verse 24, Jesus tells the parable of the wheat and the tares.  A tare is a weed common in wheat during Jesus' day.  At first glance the tare looks amazingly similar to wheat.  Another name for the tare is darnel or rye grass, according to one source.  It is very difficult to discern which plant is wheat and which is tare until the plants form mature seed heads.  And as Jesus points out in His parable, farmers often leave the wheat and the tares together, sorting the seeds after harvest.  Wheat seeds are heavier than tare seeds.  During fanning, the seeds are tossed into the air and the tare seeds blow away.  Afterwards, the seeds are shaken through sieves which allows the smaller tare seeds to fall through eliminating any tares the wind might have missed.  Tare seeds often contain harmful fungus growths that make people sick and may kill an animal or person who eats enough.

The resurrection of the body is the redemption of this material, biological tent in which we now reside.  Our souls are redeemed when we receive Jesus as Lord, but we must contend with our rebellious bodies until the time when we will be transformed and receive our resurrection bodies.  This is what Jesus means about the wheat in with the tares.  Those who have not received Him as Lord are the tares.  As long as life remains in the body, a person has the opportunity to receive Jesus as Lord.  Until all those who will receive Him have done so, our human bodies (the wheat) will remain with the tares.  When all those who will receive Jesus as Lord have done so, we will be transformed, in essence separated utterly from the tares.  Just like the farmer at harvest, the Lord waits for all the harvest to come in before the separation of the seed.

Struggling with our rebellious bodies which constantly pitch us back into the Father's Hand, either because we have sinned and need His forgiveness and redemption or because we cannot even live another day without strength from Him, provides our spirits with the training we need for the day when we receive our resurrection bodies and begin to rule and reign with the Lord Jesus, our Brother and King.  Further, retaining our failing bodies forces us to identify with the suffering of the tares around us, to provide the comfort and love they need to receive Jesus as Lord.  This is a noble and high calling, it is similar to the same calling Jesus undertook when He was born a helpless infant.  

As James writes, "Consider it pure joy, my brothers, whenever you face trials of many kinds because you know that the testing of your faith develops perseverance.  Perseverance must finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything," James 1:2-4.

Paul writes in Philippians 1:6, "...being confident of this, that He who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the Day of Christ Jesus."

See:  I Corinthians 15:35-58.

Sincerely,

Marilyn

---------- FOLLOW-UP ----------

QUESTION: This is a very thoughough and unexpected answer, based on the tares reference.

So to recap, God has paid for the second death of the soul, with Jesus' innocent death and ressurection, and God has paid for our first death by providing us Christians a spiritual body to replace the physical body in the twinkling of an eye at our death, like he did for Enoch and Elijah and Jesus, as examples in Genesis 5:24, 2 Kings 2:1, 11-12, Mark 16, Luke 24, John 20.  Especially Jesus, who resembled the mortal apostles, but was truly in an incorruptible body after ressurecting.

Does God simply-replace the dying body at the first death of the physical body of a faithful Christian, with the spiritual body, which resembles the tares, so they can persist in this world as warriors to preach and help convert the tares until the last day?

For it *appears* God takes away the soul, leaves the dead physical body behind for us to handle, and gives the soul an incorruptible spirit body *somewhere else*.

Or, hopefully, do the incorruptible immortals walk among us, indistinguishable from the mortals, as much as the wheat can't be told apart from the tares?  Not a reincarnation cycle that never ends, but a one time transfiguration into incorruptible bodies, to fight the fight with the body of the church on earth, until the last day.

Answer
Hello Shawn;

The resurrection body is not a spiritual body in the sense I take "spiritual body" to mean.  It is a physical body capable of existing and moving in both the material and spirit realm.  Jesus prepared food and ate with the disciples after His resurrection.  He had flesh Thomas could touch, a spiritual body does not have flesh and cannot consume food.  Yet, at the same time, Jesus' resurrection body exhibited properties found in spiritual bodies.  A locked door was no obstacle for him.  Distance proved no impediment for Him.  And He had no problem resisting gravity, though for Him with His great faith and tight relationship with the Father, that might not have ever been an issue given He walked on water as a Man inhabiting a normal body.  But, still, the need for oxygen to sustain life was obviously no issue for Jesus as He ascended back into Heaven at the end of the Gospels.

I took your question to apply to the here and now regarding the redemption of the body.  And I ventured to answer it that way.  God does not replace the body you were born with and possess when you receive Him as Lord and Savior with your resurrection body.  That body will be yours after the harvest is completed.  When I say "the harvest is completed," I'm referring to the point in time when the Gospel will have finally been preached to all the people groups of the earth.  This point in time is the cut-off point Jesus mentions in His speeches on the end times found in Matthew 24 and Luke 21.  That is the end of the harvet to which I'm referring.  At that time, the catching away occurs and the believing dead receive their resurrection bodies first followed by the living believers.  These resurrected people are removed to Heaven for duration of the seven year Tribulation.  

During the Tribulation persons who remain here will have their final opportunity to receive Jesus as Lord.  These saints who receive Jesus as Lord during the Tribulation will be gathered to Heaven and wait there for resurrection bodies, at least that is my understanding, see Revelation 7:9-17.  The Christian resurrected dead do not return to this material world until after the Tribulation when Jesus brings His entire army to defeat the devil and his minions at the Battle of Armageddon, see Revelation 19:11-21.

After this, Jesus begins the Millennial Reign for 1000 years.  During this time the resurrected believers will serve in His government in their resurrected bodies, Revelation 20:1-6; Ezekiel 37:15-28.  People will receive Jesus as Lord through this time period.  Then, at the end of the Millennial Reign, the devil will be released from his prison in hell and will once again incite rebellion among the people of the earth, Revelation 20:7-10.  Amazingly, the Bible says that some will join him.  After this battle, described in Ezekiel 38 & 39. Daniel says all the dead will then be raised to receive resurrection bodies.  The believing dead to everlasting life, the unbelieving to everlasting shame and contempt, see Daniel 12--this would be the final separation of the wheat and the tares.  Revelation says the rebellious will be cast into the lake of fire along with the devil and his minions.

The Bible does not tell us what happens after that.

In using the example of the wheat and the tares I meant to indicate the body of the believer in the present here and now is not transformed.  He is transformed internally from the heart, which changes his behavior, and he becomes the wheat, which still resembles the tares in physical appearance and weakness until the harvest.

Jesus says in John 3 that we are born again when we receive Him as Lord.  Paul tells us that the human spirit is dead in sin until the person confesses "Jesus is Lord" and believes in his heart that Jesus was raised from the dead, Romans 10:9 & 10.  The spirit is reborn, the heart is transformed, but the body does not receive its redemption yet.  The reborn Christian must contend with his rebellious body, disciplining it and renewing his mind by the reading of the Word so that its thinking will be like God's, Romans 12:2.  It isn't until the end of the harvest that any of us receives our resurrection bodies, or another way to put it, the redemption of our physical bodies.  

Whatever fights are fought in this earth in the present are fought by Christians in normal human bodies by faith and submission to God.  The saints who have gone before are free of this realm until the Lord Jesus returns for the final battle of the age, Armageddon.

Sincerely,

Marilyn