GOD’S WORD FOR SEPTEMBER 2 ~ ~Luke 24:39 ~ ~ “It is I Myself” 

From the book, We Shall See God, Spurgeon and Alcorn.

Chapter entitled “Raised Imperishable”  Part 2

RANDY ALCORN:

Did you enjoy that 161-word sentence of Spurgeon’s (in yesterday’s writing) the one with all the semicolons?  In it he beautifully articulates scores of wonderful things awaiting us in heaven.

When Spurgeon says “We do not put the body into the grave to lose it,” he is referring to the continuity of our personhood from this life to the next – the same soul and eventually the same body, for all eternity.

What makes you YOU?  It’s not only your body but also your memory, personality traits, gifts, passions, preferences, and interests.  In the final resurrection, I believe all these facets will be restored and amplified, untarnished by sin and the curse.  You will be YOU in heaven.  Who else would you be?  If Bob, a man on earth, is no longer Bob – with his unique identity, history, and memory – when he gets to heaven, then, in fact, Bob did not go to heaven.

  The resurrected Jesus did not become someone else;  He remained who He was before His resurrection:  “It is I Myself”  (Luke 24:39).

Jesus said to His disciples, “I will not drink from this fruit of the vine from now on until that day when I drink it new with YOU in my Father’s kingdom”  (Matthew 26:29).  Think of it – in the world to come, the same Jesus will drink the same kind of wine with the same disciples.

If we weren’t ourselves in the afterlife, then we couldn’t be held accountable for what we did in this life.  The judgment would be meaningless.  If Barbara is no longer Barbara, she can’t be rewarded or held accountable for anything Barbara did.  She’d have to say, “But that wasn’t who I am now.”  the doctrines of judgment and eternal rewards depend on our retaining our distinct identities from this life to the next.

Bruce Milne writes, “We can banish all fear of being absorbed into the “All” which Buddhism holds before us, or reincarnated in some other life form as in the post-mortem prospect of Hinduism…The self with which we were endowed by the Creator in His gift of life to us, the self whose worth was secured forever in the self-substitution of God for us on the cross, that SELF will endure into eternity.  Death cannot destroy us.”

Some of us read, “You may participate in the divine nature” (2 Peter 1:4) and imagine that we will lose our personal identities, but that’s a belief out of Eastern religions, not the Bible.

This verse is actually saying not that we’ll be indistinguishable from God but that we’re covered with Christ’s righteousness.  We’ll participate in God’s holiness yet fully retain our God-crafted individuality.

Our personal histories and identities will endure from one earth to the next.  “As the new heavens and the new earth that I make will endure before me.”  declares the Lord, “so will your name and descendants endure.”  (Isaiah 66:22)

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Hosea 13:14

“I will ransom them from the power of the grave;

I will redeem them from death.

O Death, I will be your plagues!

O Grave, I will be your destruction!

Pity is hidden from My eyes.”

1Thessalonians 4:13-14

 But I do not want you to be ignorant, brethren, concerning those who have fallen asleep, lest you sorrow as others who have no hope.  For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so God will bring with Him those who sleep in Jesus.

Isaiah 25:8

He will swallow up death forever,

And the Lord GOD will wipe away tears from all faces;

The rebuke of His people

He will take away from all the earth;

For the LORD has spoken.

John 5:24

“Most assuredly, I say to you, he who hears My word and believes in Him who sent Me has everlasting life, and shall not come into judgment, but has passed from death into life.

Joshua 1:9

Have I not commanded you? Be strong and of good courage; do not be afraid, nor be dismayed, for the LORD your God is with you wherever you go.” 

along with……….

1Thessalonians 4:17

…..And thus we shall always be with the Lord.

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