“Planting” Our Bodies

It is fairly common in Christian circles to think of our bodies dying and then our souls going to heaven. Our souls then spend eternity with God. However, without even realizing it, this understanding is often more like what the ancient Greek Plato believed than the Bible. Plato had a dualistic view of us as humans, with the soul as our true self imprisoned within our bodies. Death becomes the final escape, where the soul is liberated from its fleshy prison and can finally be with Jesus. 

There are some passages in the New Testament that can be interpreted this way in terms of the time between our death and our resurrection (e.g., Luke 23:43; 2 Cor. 5:6-10; Phil. 1:21-25; Rev. 6:9-10). You could argue from these passages that we will be in some kind of spiritual form in between our deaths and the future event of the resurrection, where our bodies will be upgraded and reunited with our spirits.

However, this is not the main story. Fundamental to Christian belief is a belief in bodily resurrection. Our faith in Jesus’ resurrection includes an empty tomb. His bones are not in a box somewhere. His body did not decay in a tomb or the ground somewhere. When Jesus rose from the dead, his body was transformed, and he lived again!

The resurrection of the dead is not the same as the Greek concept of the immortality of the soul, although it is possible to integrate the two together in some way. The word for “dead” in this phase often has the sense of a corpse. You might then say that “the resurrection of corpses” is the historic, fundamental Christian belief of Christians throughout the centuries, starting with the Bible.

us to be embodied, and he called it good.

Dr. Jonathan Morgan talks about how overwhelming it can be at a burial. The sense of finality can be overwhelming. He mentions how, at one burial, he heard comments about the individual being “finally home” and “restored” with Jesus. On the one hand, it is true that to be absent from the body is to be with the Lord (2 Cor. 5:6-10). However, as long as the soul and body are separated by death, full restoration remains unrealized. These sentiments are an incomplete theological understanding. 

Death’s seeming finality, especially during graveside ceremonies, seems almost haunting. The act of burial marks not just the end of life but also the beginning of decomposition and decay. The body returns to dust, reflecting the effects of sin. However, this is not the end of the story. Even in the Old Testament, Dr. Morgan mentions the hopefulness of Psalm 49:15. Others might point to the hopefulness of Ezekiel 37:1-14 or Daniel 12:2-3. There is hope beyond the stark finality of death.

The New Testament gives a fullness of understanding. Jesus’ resurrection redefines death. It no longer stands as a permanent end but a temporary phase, made so by Christ’s victory over death. This shift in perspective transforms the very essence of funerary ceremonies, from burials to plantings. When we bury, we hide, we conceal. But when we plant, we anticipate new life. This is the imagery Paul invokes in 1 Corinthians 15. Like seeds sown, our bodies will rise, transformed into a more glorious form.

However, it is vital to distinguish between resurrection and resuscitation. Resurrection is not merely a reviving of our old selves but a transformation. When a caterpillar is transformed into a butterfly, it maintains some of its previous form, but it clearly takes on a changed and more magnificent form. Similarly, our resurrection bodies will be both continuous and discontinuous with our current ones. This continuity ensures our identities remain intact, while the discontinuity promises restoration and perfection, free from the ravages of sin.

In God’s design, salvation isn’t limited to our souls. Our bodies, too, are integral to our identities. In the new heavens and the new earth, any separation between soul and body will cease. In one interpretation, our fully restored and glorified bodies will reunite with our spirits, making us whole again. This completeness reflects God’s desire for our entire being, not just our souls.

In this life, we face the inevitable reality of sickness, aging, and death. However, in Christ, we have the hope of resurrection. Our current bodies will indeed die, but they will not stay dead. Where they are planted, new life will emerge, a testament to God’s victory over death. This hope assures us that, in the end, funerals are not final. Instead, they mark the beginning of an eternal life, embodied and perfected, with God in the new heavens and the new earth.