Grace and Peace Episode 30

Rev. Jeffrey T. Howard
Grace and Peace Episode 30
Presbyterian Church of Easton
April 11, 2021

Watch Grace and Peace Episode 30

Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Philippians 1:2

Heidelberg Catechism

57Q.  How does “the resurrection of the body” comfort you?
A. Not only will my soul be taken immediately after this life to Christ its head but also my very flesh will be raised by the power of Christ, reunited with my soul, and made like Christ’s glorious body.

Five centuries before Jesus Christ, there lived in Athens a great philosopher. His name was Socrates. Socrates had been sentenced to death. While awaiting his execution he thought about what happens after we die. Socrates believed in an immortal soul, a soul that lives forever. He thought that this soul inhabited his body at birth and would leave it a death. This immortal soul contained all of his thoughts, memories, and personality. So his identity would continue after death when his immortal soul left his body behind to decay in the ground.

This idea of an immortal soul was very attractive to early Christians because Christians believe that Christ defeated death so that our souls will live on even after we die. But there was a problem with this. And this problem was with the word, “immortal”. Christians believe that only God is immortal, not us. We are limited and finite. We are not immortal. Therefore we do not have immortal souls.

The Christian idea is that we are created by God. And we believe that our existence is sustained by God every moment. Without God, we would instantly cease to exist. Therefore our souls, to live on after we die, can only do so by the grace of God. And in Jesus Christ, all believers are promised that our souls will live forever. So when we die God preserves our souls, our thoughts, our memories, and our personalities. Saved souls will be in heaven living in perfect joy in the presence of God. Other souls will be in hell enduring a refining fire. 

But this is not the end of the story. The Bible is very clear about this. One day our bodies will be resurrected from the dust of the earth and will be reunited with our souls.

After Jesus' death, his soul did not go to heaven as a disembodied spirit. Instead, Jesus' physical body was resurrected from the dead. People saw and touched his living body with mortal wounds. They heard him speak and ate with him. Jesus was alive in a physical body, and his soul, his thoughts, memories, and personality, were there too. So the church, In the Apostles’ Creed affirms its belief that God created both body and soul, and in the resurrection body and soul will be reunited. 

Our souls go to heaven after we die until one day when our bodies will be resurrected from the dead and reunited with our souls. We, body and soul, will live together in a restored creation in the presence of Jesus Christ and with our loved ones. forever.  Let’s pray.

Heavenly Father, we thank you for the blessing of eternal life.   We thank you for the blessings of the resurrection from the dead.  In Jesus’ name, we pray.  Amen.