By Jim Mettenbrink
If anything, man is about his selfish pleasures. Why would he make a radical change(s) (1) By giving up selfishness (translated – me first after all I am my own god); (2) Submit himself to God and His rule; (3) Radically change his behavior. In one word, the radical change is to whom you submit yourself – Give up self to obey God, to be His slave. Such change rails against the desire to be one’s own sovereign. So why change?
In brief, the apostle Paul wrote that “… having been set free from sin, and having become slaves of God, you have your fruit to holiness, and the end, everlasting life” (Romans 6:22). “Everlasting life! All of us want it! To live forever, is the result of the radical change!
As we have considered in past weeks, that end result is guaranteed based on one fact – Jesus rose alive from the grave. And we looked at the testimony supporting it. Jesus alive in His body – 500 folks together saw Him (1 Cor 15:7). And His apostles witnessed His ascension from the earth. But what about the resurrection of humans?
The resurrection into eternal life is promised only to faithful Christians (If you claim to be a Christian but are not studying the Bible, you can not know if you are faithful. Remember, man likes to be his own god and define his own standard of faithfulness). Many conclude that upon death, man returns to dirt and that is the end of him. Some think man will be a spirit. So into what is a person resurrected?
In contrast to those notions, the apostle Paul briefly stated of what we consist – “may your whole spirit, soul, and body be preserved blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ” (1 Thessalonians 5:23). We know the body decomposes, and the life force (soul) is gone. What happens to one’s spirit at death? Does it still exist?
Stephen the evangelist was stoned to death for identifying Jesus as the prophesied Christ (acts 6:8-15). Near the moment of death, “he was calling on God and saying, ‘Lord Jesus, receive my spirit’” (Acts 7:59). So just what happened to his spirit? Next!