Inheritance Grace Bible Church

3/29/15

About Me

Pastors Kid – Always attended the church, learning how to love the Church.

College – Never wanted to do ministry, somehow landed at Bible College.

Karen – Met first week of college. Stalked her in the best way possible, until she agreed to marry me.

DTS – Came to Dallas for the ThM because I really enjoyed school, learning and the Bible.

About Me

Grace Bible – Since January 2012

Haddon – Born June 2012, 13 months after we were married.

Ella – Born November 18th 2014

Future

Graduate DTS in just under 6 weeks

Options for the future abound, but clarity doesn’t. Pray for wisdom, peace, and a lot of joy.

Pursuing Ordination at Grace over the next month.

The Christian life and the Physical

World

Or, a Theological Anthropology of Physicality and the Eschaton

Or, What it means to be an embodied Christian in light of eternity.

The Pattern

There is a pattern in scripture of the mortal (perishable) being recreated into immortal (imperishable),

And this pattern hopefully will give us a window into how we are to view ourselves and how we are to live.

The World

Gen 1-3

A declaration of “Good” over the created world: vs 4, 10, 12, 18, 21, 25, and 31.

Reversal: “cursed is the ground because of you; in pain you shall eat of it all the days of your life; thorns and thistles it shall bring forth for you; and you shall eat the plants of the field.” Gen 3:17

A created order that had only known life experienced death for the first time so that Adam and Eve could have garments of skin to cover their shame (3:21).

Romans 8: Embedded Hope

“For the creation was subjected to futility, not willingly, but because of him who subjected it, in hope 21 that the creation itself will be set free from its bondage to corruption and obtain the freedom of the glory of the children of God. 22 For we know that the whole creation has been groaning together in the pains of childbirth until now.”

Hints of Restoration

Jesus ministry was filled with acts of physical restoration. Healings Casting out Demons Raising people from the dead

Revelation 21

Recreation of Earth and the establishment of heaven on earth.

“Indeed, Revelation 21 has rightly been hailed as the ultimate rejection of all Gnosticism, all attempts to rethink salvation in terms of escape to heaven from earth.” - N.T. Wright

Revelation 21

“Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and the sea was no more. 2 And I saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband.” (1-2)

“And he who was seated on the throne said, ‘Behold, I lam making all things new.’” (5)

Revelation 21

In the next verses:

1) Jerusalem descends to earth with gates and walls built of precious stones and metals.

2) The angel who is giving John a tour offers physical measurements, which imply actual physical size and matter.

3) This city boasts a flowing river with fruit trees clinging to its bank

The Pattern

The pattern of scripture for material existence is demonstrated with the earth:

The mortal (perishable) will be recreated into the immortal (imperishable).

Jesus Christ

Jesus Christ

Our Original Question: What does it mean to be an embodied Christian in light of eschatology?

“If Jesus Christ is the revelation of true humanity…would it not seem reasonable to consider every aspect of human existence, including human ontology, in light of his person and work?” – Marc Cortez

Chalcedon Creed

“One and the same Son, our Lord Jesus Christ, at once complete in Godhead and complete in manhood, truly God and truly man, consisting also of a reasonable soul and body; of one substance with the Father as regards his Godhead, and at the same time of one substance with us as regards his manhood”

Humanity

Jesus was born on this earth a mortal human.

His divinely initiated birth did not relieve him of the frailty of the flesh.

He hungered, thirsted, tired and most notably he died.

While he manifested the complete nature of God he also identified and partook in human mortality.

Death and Resurrection

His death begins the sequence of recreation as he arises three days later with a resurrected body.

In his resurrected body, Christ provides the clearest example of what believers will experience one day in their recreation.

In his resurrected state, Christ manifests an abundance of physical attributes

Resurrected Body

John 20-21 he greets his disciples on the shore and makes breakfast with them.

Appearing to Thomas “See my hands and my feet, that it is I myself. Touch me, and see. For a spirit does not have flesh and bones as you see that I have” (Luke 24:39)

“He said to them, ‘Have you anything here to eat?’ They gave him a piece of broiled fish, and he took it and ate before them” (41-43).

Resurrection Body

“This Jesus, who was taken up from you into heaven, will come in the same way as you saw him go into heaven” - (Acts 1:11).

Jesus is said to have “come in the flesh” (1 John 4:2). Verb tense implies a continuation in the flesh.

“For there is one God, and there is one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus.” (1 Tim 2:5)

The Pattern

“So is it with the resurrection of the dead. What is sown is perishable; what is raised is imperishable.” 1 Cor 15:42

That which is mortal (perishable) is being recreated into that which is immortal (imperishable).

Scripture does not seem to advocate a spiritual future, but instead privileges the physical matter for its essential role in our future.

Humanity

The Human Body

“The core message of the New Testament is not that our souls fly off to heaven at death, but that our bodies are transformed and resurrected.” – Brown and Strawn” The Physical Nature of Christian Life

Hope

What is the believer’s hope?

The biblical evidence presents the Christian hope as a bodily resurrection into a recreated world for all eternity.

And to dwell with Jesus, our embodied Savior, for all eternity.

Romans 8

And not only the creation, but we ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies” (8:23).

Resurrection: 1 Cor 15

“For the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised imperishable, and we shall be changed. For this perishable body must put on the imperishable, and this mortal body must put on immortality” (52-53).

The emphasis is on the transformation of the body not the elimination or rejection of bodies. Dwelling in physical bodies for eternity in a physical recreated world is the future of believers.

Hope

“Christian teaching about death of the mortal body does not promise that the soul will go to heaven. Rather, the Christian hope given in the Bible is that heaven will come to earth, and the individual will be given a new body.” – Dickerson “The Mind and the Machine”

Application

“It really makes a significant impact on the way we think about Christian life if the essence of a human person is not a ghostly, immaterial substance (such as a soul or spirit or mind) that is temporarily trapped in a fleshly body.” – Brown and Straw

#1 Hug Somebody

Having a physical body is what it means to be human.

There is something both tangible and significant about physical touch in interpersonal relationships.

Our physical bodies play a part in our sanctification.

Since believers will live with each other in physical bodies for all eternity they as well get used to it (for beginners, a handshake is a good start).

#2 Don’t live only in a digital world

A staggering amount of human communication takes place through letters and pixels.

If Christians properly understand their identity as physical beings they will be drawn to in-person, tangible relationships

Human relationships are most human when they can physical experience the presence or touch of another.

#3 Seek physical health and vitality

A common view is that physical bodies will be redeemed into perfection one day, therefore their health now is temporary and optional for Christian life.

For the same reason that Christians seek spiritual health, they should also seek physical health.

In the same way that growing spiritually is a precursors and preparation for future redemption, so also striving for physical health is a foreshadowing of a future physical redemption.

#4 Engage in the physical practices of

Christianity The Christian faith is one of physical practices:

Baptism Communion Regular Sunday Gathering Laying on of hands for prayer Feeding and clothing those in need

These practices are foundational to the believer, because humans are necessarily embodied.