An Instant That Shall Last Forever.
“Listen, I tell you a mystery: We will not all sleep, but we will all be changed— in a flash, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, the dead will be raised imperishable, and we will be changed. “(1 Corinthians 15:51-52)
Not everyone is going to enter the portals of glory via natural death. There is a generation that shall escape the grave and be changed in a moment in the twinkling of an eye.
This is one of the greatest promises in the Bible, assuring us that “we” (i.e., all believers, whether dead or living when Christ returns) shall suddenly be changed. Our bodies shall be instantly transformed into incorruptible, immortal bodies, which can never die again.
“A mystery,” is something which you have never known before. But what is this mystery? It is an instantaneous change that shall take place in a split second of time when Christ appears to resurrect His redeemed people from the confines of this sinful earth to be with Him forever.
“In a moment,” in an atom of time, a quickly as a man can wink his eye. Such a miraculous, worldwide change can only take place be done by the almighty power of God. He calls, and it is done. Think of the millions of souls this encompasses from the time of creation up to that moment. When Christ comes for His own, like a thief in the night, will you be ready?
At the last trumpet, His audible voice will resonate like a trumpet from one end of the earth to the other. Every particle of dust on the earth that it touches will be shaken. Dead bodies, reduced to ashes, will be brought back to life in the blink of an eye, as swiftly as a weaver’s shuttle. Just as Christ shouted at the tomb of Lazarus, bringing him back to life, so too will the bodies of saints, both living and dead, be instantly transformed to become like the body of the Lord Jesus Christ.
As suddenly as the wind filled the room on the Day of Pentecost, making believers aware of His resurrection power, it will be on that first resurrection morning. Bones will be joined to bones, flesh will be attached to flesh, and skin will cover those dry bones in an instant. In a nanosecond, individual souls will be reunited with their respective bodies. Clothed like an exceedingly great army, they will stand on their feet in the power of God. Swifter than the wings of angels, millions will rise, higher and higher, heavenward, to the very throne room of God.
Of Course, it’s a mystery. Has there ever in the history of time been anything comparable to it!
“The Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God” (1 Thessalonians 4:16).
“Shall be raised incorruptible,” forever clothed with newness of life, never to sin again, and never to be touched by death again. It’s the awesomist of all awesomists!
He “shall change our vile body, that it may be fashioned like unto his glorious body, according to the working whereby he is able even to subdue all things unto himself” (Philippians 3:21).
The sleep of death touches every generation; none escape its dreaded hand. But when the Lord comes, all believers shall be instantly changed from mortality to immortality, from corruption to incorruption.
An Instant That Shall Last Forever
Free at last, free forever, free from the power and presence of sin. Never again will we have to cry out, as did the greatest among us, the apostle Paul, “O wretched man that I am, who shall deliver ne the body of this death?”
As suddenly as the wind filled the room on the Day of Pentecost, making believers aware of His resurrection power, it will be on that first resurrection morning. Bones will be joined to bones, flesh will be attached to flesh, and skin will cover those dry bones in an instant. In a nanosecond, individual souls will be reunited with their respective bodies. Clothed like an exceedingly great army, they will stand on their feet in the power of God. Swifter than the wings of angels, millions will rise, higher and higher, heavenward, to the very throne room of God.
At the last trumpet, His audible voice will resonate like a trumpet from one end of the earth to the other. Every particle of dust on the earth that it touches will be shaken. Dead bodies, reduced to ashes, will be brought back to life in the blink of an eye, as swiftly as a weaver’s shuttle. Just as Christ shouted at the tomb of Lazarus, bringing him back to life, so too will the bodies of saints, both living and dead, be instantly transformed to become like the body of the Lord Jesus Christ.
Over two thousand years have passed since these immortal words were spoken, but as surely as Christ came the first time to redeem us so he will come again to glorify us.
Like that great giant of the faith Job said so long ago “In my flesh shall I see God, and mine eyes shall behold him.”
The Best Is Yet to Be!
Dr Robert Bryant