Having clearly settled the fact of the resurrection _of the body_ of Jesus Christ and of our bodies, let us next consider the character of our resurrection bodies.
1. First of all, we know that _the body which is raised will not be exactly the same body that it was when it was laid in the grave_. This appears from I Cor. 15:35-38: +"But some will say, how are the dead raised? And with what manner of body do they come? Thou foolish one, that which thou thyself sowest is not quickened, except it die: and that which thou sowest, thou sowest not in the body that shall be, but a bare grain, it may chance of wheat, or of some other kind; but God giveth it a body even as it pleased him, and to each seed a body of its own."+ Here we are told that our bodies when they are raised will not be exactly the same as our bodies when they are buried, any more than the wheat that springs from the kernel of wheat that is planted is the same as the kernel that was planted. But just as what grows from the seed comes from the seed and bears the most intimate relation to the seed, so our resurrection bodies come from the body that is buried and bear the most intimate relation to it. The resurrection body is the outcome of the body that is buried. It is the old body quickened and transformed; or, as Paul puts it in Phil. 3:20, 21: +"Jesus Christ . . . shall fashion anew the body of our humiliation, that it may be conformed to the body of his glory, according to the working whereby he is able even to subject all things unto himself."+
2. The next thing that the Bible teaches about _our resurrection bodies_ is that _they are like the glorified body of Jesus Christ_. This appears from the verses just quoted, Phil. 3:20, 21: +"The Lord Jesus Christ . . . shall fashion anew the body of our humiliation, that it may be conformed to the body of his glory, according to the work whereby he is able even to subject all things unto himself."+ Christ's resurrection body was not the same body that was laid in the sepulchre. It was the old body _transformed_ and delivered from the limitations of the body that He had while living here among men, and new qualities imparted to it, and our bodies will also be transformed into the likeness of this glorious body of Christ and thus delivered from the limitations to which they are subjected now, and new qualities imparted to them. It will be a transformed body; the character of its transformation is indicated by the transformation that took place in the body of Jesus Christ. Some suggestion as to what that transformed body of Jesus Christ was like is found in that anticipation of His resurrection which was seen by Peter, James and John on the mount of transfiguration. Matthew in his description of the appearance of Jesus at His transfiguration, tells us that +"His face did shine as the sun, and his garments became white as the light"+ (Matt. 17:2). Luke tells us that +"the fashion of his countenance was altered and His raiment became white and dazzling"+ (Luke 9:29). Mark tells us that +"He was transfigured before them: and his garments became glistering, exceeding white; so as no fuller on earth can whiten them"+ (Mark 9:2, 3).
3. The next thing that we are told about _our resurrection bodies_ is that they _will not be flesh and blood_. In I Cor. 15:50, 51 we read, +"Now this I say, brethren, that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God."+ Paul is here talking about our resurrection bodies. It is in the resurrection chapter he says this, and he distinctly tells us that our resurrection bodies will not be "_flesh and blood_."
4. But while _our resurrection bodies_ will not be "flesh and blood," they _will have "flesh and bones."_ This appears from what our Lord Himself says about His own resurrection body in Luke 24:39. Here we read that Jesus said: +"See my hands and my feet, that it is I myself: handle me, and see; for a spirit hath not flesh and bones as ye behold me having."+ As our resurrection bodies are to be transformed into the likeness of His, we also must have "flesh and bones" in our resurrection bodies. Some have fancied that they saw a contradiction between what our Lord says here and what Paul says in the passage quoted above (I Cor. 15:50, 51), but there is no contradiction. "Flesh" we shall have, but not "flesh _and blood_," i.e., not flesh, the animating principle of which is blood. The question arises, What takes the place of the blood in our resurrection bodies? The answer seems to be that in the present life, "blood is the life" of the natural body, but in the life to come our bodies are to be, as we are told elsewhere in this same chapter, "_spiritual_ bodies," i.e., bodies, the animating principle of which is the Spirit of God, not our own blood. Our not having "_blood_" in our resurrection bodies involves many great and glorious possibilities, upon which we cannot dwell now.