The Apostle Paul wrote:

‘‘For we know that if our earthly house of [this] tabernacle were dissolved, we have a building of God, an house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens. For in this we groan, earnestly desiring to be clothed upon with our house which is from heaven: If so be that being clothed we shall not be found naked. For we that are in [this] tabernacle do groan, being burdened: not for that we would be unclothed, but clothed upon, that mortality might be swallowed up of life. Now he that hath wrought us for the selfsame thing [is] God, who also hath given unto us the earnest of the Spirit.‘‘

‘‘Therefore [we are] always confident, knowing that, whilst we are at home in the body, we are absent from the Lord: (For we walk by faith, not by sight:) We are confident, [I say], and willing rather to be absent from the body, and to be present with the Lord.‘‘ (2 Corinthians 5:1-8)

This earthly house of which Paul speaks is our body. In this body, we groan, wanting to be clothed with our habitation from heaven. For the human body is under the curse of sin. It is imperfect. It can be deformed or wracked by disease. It ages. And it dies. We groan for a new body which is free of all this distress.

The Greek view of the body differed radically from the Hebrew. Many Greek philosophers such as Plato saw the body as nothing more than a prison for the soul. Pythagoras called the body a ‘‘tomb‘‘. Plotinus believed that the soul must desert the body to pass into a higher spiritual life. Many hold that view today. For a long time, that is what I believed. But that view is wrong.

Paul says, ‘‘we shall not be found naked.‘‘ For him, the soul without a body was not free, it was nude. Man was created to be an integrated spiritual/physical being.

Hebrews 1:14 describes angels as ‘‘ministering spirits‘‘. Angels are pure spirit beings. They are of a totally different life form from men. They have never dwelled in bodies and they never will. But man is meant to live inside a body. Our souls are not complete, they are naked, without physical form.

When God created man, man‘s body was perfect. But man sinned, the curse of death fell on the body. Disease, deformity and suffering entered the human scene. Even now, when we find salvation in Jesus Christ, the body is still subject to death.

When our bodies die, our spirits enter heaven. And there we are naked. We are disembodied spirits. We are ghosts. But we will not remain naked. And here we find the importance of the Resurrection. At the Second Coming of Christ, our bodies will be reclaimed. Our souls and bodies will be reunited.

In 1 Corinthians 15:49 Paul says that we will bear the image of the Heavenly Man. There is a special connection between us and the Second Member of the Godhead. God the Father does not have a body. He is invisible, existing beyond time and space. God the Holy Spirit does not have a body. The Holy Spirit is more like the angels. But God the Son, Jesus Christ, is more like us. He came to earth and became a man. He arose from the dead in a glorified body. If we believe in Him as our Lord, He will glorify our bodies at the Resurrection.

From the Second Coming forward throughout all eternity, we will exist as integrated spiritual/physical beings as God originally meant for us to be. And we will exist side by side with the God-man. We will forever see Jesus face to face.

Edit