One of my favorite Q/A’s from the Westminster Shorter Catechism has been on my mind today for no particular reason:
Q. 37. What benefits do believers receive from Christ at death?
A. The souls of believers are at their death made perfect in holiness, and do immediately pass into glory; and their bodies, being still united to Christ, do rest in their graves, till the resurrection.
I don’t know where the following line of thought comes from (I know I got it from somewhere), but it is relevant: What is the difference between the act of burying a corpse and the act of planting a seed? The expectation.
But Christ is coming to reap a harvest of resurrected bodies. Our expectations should be different than what they generally are. A body united to Christ can’t stay dead because He is not dead.
Johnny Cash, and others, put it well:
There ain’t no grave can hold my body down.
There ain’t no grave can hold my body down.
When I hear that trumpet sound, I’m gonna rise right out of the ground.
There ain’t no grave can hold my body down.
- 1 Corinthians 15:42 ¶ So is it with the resurrection of the dead. What is sown is perishable; what is raised is imperishable. 43 It is sown in dishonor; it is raised in glory. It is sown in weakness; it is raised in power. 44 It is sown a natural body; it is raised a spiritual body. If there is a natural body, there is also a spiritual body.
