The body that is sown perishable, it is raised imperishable; it is sown in dishonor, it is raised in glory; it is sown in weakness, it is raised in power; it is sown a natural body, it is raised a spiritual body. (1 Corinthians 15:42-44, NIV 1984)
During last Saturday afternoon’s telecast of the RBC Heritage, Jim Nantz and Nick Faldo got to joking about Faldo’s age. “Did you use hickory sticks back then?” Nantz kidded.
What made the discussion particularly ironic is that all afternoon Faldo could not shake the idea that what Boo Weekley needs to strengthen his putting is some help from the guys in the fitting trailer. If Weekley would just let those technological experts take a look at him, Faldo was contending, a better fitted putter would help him see his line more accurately and send his putts in a hole-bound direction.
Technology—and not hickory sticks—are a big part of what it takes to play the game these days. Just a year ago, TaylorMade surprised everyone by dressing its R11 driver in white. Now you see white everywhere. And even TaylorMade is taking more advanced steps with its Rocketballz line.
I’m no shill for TaylorMade. The company is hardly alone in the advances it is making. Everywhere, excited golfers are asking, “What’s next?”
Apparently some among the Corinthian believers of Paul’s time were asking the apostle the same question. “How are the dead raised?” they wanted to know. “What kind of body will they have?”
These are big questions, inquiries about the afterlife. They are not so popular in our own space and time, where the material world is given highest regard. And yet many still ask these questions in the quiet of their own mind: “What comes after this life? And what will be my own fate?”
The answers rest in Paul’s letter to the Corinthians, and they require a high regard for the authority of Paul’s written manuscript as the inspired word of God. There is no “scientific basis” or “empirical evidence” for what he set forth. He simply said in essence, “Here it is.” And he told his readers that the body we have now is not the body we will have then. If we are in Christ, we will be raised as he was—in eternal bodies, glorious and powerful, spiritual in nature.
Of course, we must be believers in Jesus to attain this specific future. But as believers in him, we also believe those his Spirit inspires. And we believe that what was attained by him is made possible for us through him. It all hinges on Jesus. But when we are willing to allow for this, those hinges swing open the door to a stunning eternity.
—
Jeff Hopper
April 18, 2012
Copyright © 2012 Links Players International
The Links Daily Devotional appears Monday through Friday at www.linksplayers.com.