Contact the Author | bjack2723@aol.com
Sorry, blog followers, I’ve been absent for a while. I chose today’s title on purpose: New Creation. I’ve needed reminders of that this past week. I’ve longed to just be back to normal. Ev and I have had severe colds the last ten days or so, and we’ve had responsibilities during that time we’ve just barely accomplished. I hate to think it might have been another COVID visit. We didn’t test, but we’ve been hacking and coughing, and just plain feeling lousy.
Enough said. A question came up in our small group last Wednesday (Zoom, no germs shared) about what happens to our souls after death. We all agree our resurrected bodies will be not only restored but perfected at the Last Coming of Christ. I am reading Nancy Guthrie’s book and doing the Bible studies for another small group I attend. This is what I quoted to our small group this week from her writings. I recognize I am breaking copyright, but it has the best of all purposes–to share information she has researched in great detail. Then, I typed into Google search: “What happens to our souls after death?” and read a fantastic article: https://www.ligonier.org/learn/qas/when-person-dies-where-does-his-or-her-spirit-and https://www.biblestudytools.com/bible-study/topical-studies/where-does-our-soul-go-when-we-die.html.
This is the email I sent to our group on this topic:
I’ve been thinking about Kay’s questions of what our bodies will be like, what our souls do after death, etc.
In the study Debbie Blenis’s group is doing, we are reading Nancy Guthrie’s book Even Better Than Eden.
page 55 says: “The One who is life itself entered into death. But He didn’t stay there. When Jesus emerged from the grave,
He didn’t look like He’d looked before. Those who had been closest to Him didn’t recognize Him. He was still human; the first glorified human.
But He won’t be the last! The Father intends for the Son to have many brothers and sisters and for the whole family to look like Him, to be
glorious like the risen Jesus.
“You see, when we read in ‘Romans 8:39 that ‘those who He foreknew He also predestined to be conformed to the image of His Son,
in order that He might be the firstborn among many brothers,’ we recognize that it has always been God’s plan to have the earth filled
with His image bearers, with people who look like Him. But we have to ask ourselves, Which image? Is it God’s intention that we would look
like Adam and Eve did in Eden before the fall?
No! God intends for us to bear His image far more intensely, far more securely, far more permanently and pervasively
than Adam and Eve bore the imagen Eden. Does He intend for us to look like Jesus during His life and ministry? Certainly
Jesus provides a model for us in His righteous life. But God intends for us to bear His image far more openly and radiantly than
Jesus did in His life and ministry. God intends for us to be the image of the risen and glorified Jesus. ‘Just as we have borne
the image of the man of dust, we shall also bear the image of the man of heaven’ (1 Corinthians 15:49. And He is not waiting until
resurrection day to get started on this lifelong process of image and identity transformation.
p. 72
“I love the imagery Paul uses of mortality being swallowed up by life–overcome, chewed up, by it. Our mortality, which sometimes
causes us such angst, is going to be swallowed up by life. I just think of all the ways the world tries to sell us a counterfeit version
of immortality in the form of plastic surgery and Botox and hair coloring and wrinkle creams. Think of all the ways we obsess
about becoming and looking older. Here is just one place where saturating our the thinking with the Bible’s story changes us in the
here and now. And the certainty of our immortality begins to take root in our souls, it has the power to keep up from feeling so
desperate as our youth slips away. We can rest, knowing that we are going to be clothes in holiness and beauty and glory forever. This
is the clothing we want for ourselves and for everyone we love.
p. 73-74 “My friends our future is not a return to the nakedness of the garden of Eden. Instead, Christ has made it possible for all who
are joined to Him to be clothed with immortality. We’ll be holy through so glorious we’ll need new eyes to be able to look at each
other. We are going to be so , so beautiful–beautiful like Jesus. when the man of heaven, the glorious risen Christ, returns to this earth,
we’re going to be wearing the same thing He’s wearing. And we won’t be embarrassed by it. We’ll glory in it. And until then we’ll sing:
Nothing in my hand I bring
simply to Thy cross I cling
Naked come to Thee for dress
helpless, look to Thee for grace,
Foul, I to the fountain fly
Wash me, Savior, or i die.
While I draw this fleeting breath
When my eyes shall close in death
When I rise to worlds unknown
And behold Thee on Thy throne
Rock of Ages, cleft for me
Let me hide myself in Thee.
Rock of Ages, Cleft for Me Ausustus Toplady; 1776
Blessings, Betty until we meet again.
Here is a rendering of 2 Corinthians 5:16-17 which prompted this discussion today: “What this means is that those who become Christians become new persons. They are not the same anymore, for the old life is gone. A new life has begun. All the newness of life is from God, who brought us back to Himself through what Christ did.” That is all we need to know. God’s got us, those of us who believer that Christ is our Savior, and He paid the high sin price we deserved to pay. He restored us to peace when He removed our sin as far as the east is from the west, even to presence with God in what we call heaven. We cannot pay the price; it is a gift. We don’t deserve the redemption, we can’t earn it with our efforts, we can’t claim we are “good”, except through the restoration provided by Jesus Christ on the cross of Calvary. So, let’s let God deal with our questions, let us believe what scripture tells us, and take the leap of faith where the unknown remains. And let us not fall into predictions of when the second coming will occur. The Bible teaches that is the sin of Adam and Eve–they wanted to be like God, to know all things. The Bible says we are “a little lower than the angels,” and that even Jesus does not know the day of the last trumpet’s sound. What pride it is to think we can predict what God says is even hidden from Jesus Christ.
Does that mean we can postpone our salvation? NO! I had a neighbor who refused my invitation to attend church. He said, “I’m not ready for that stuff yet!” My answer to Him was that He could know the loving Presence of God with him every day. I pray He will listen to the promptings I offered. We are living in the last days on this side of the cross. The devil has wandered the earth many years seeking whom he may destroy. But this is what we know for sure. God wins the battle. Jesus Christ will reign eternally. We who believe that to be true will see the fulfillment of our eternity 
and the presence of Jesus and the other believers from the ends of the earth–every tribe, every nation, every language, because Christ’s message is for all His New Creation. Amen and Amen. Shutterstock image used by permission.
and the presence of Jesus and the other believers from the ends of the earth–every tribe, every nation, every language, because Christ’s message is for all His New Creation. Amen and Amen. Shutterstock image used by permission.
About the Author
