New You

Saint Paul pointed toward the continuity and discontinuity between seed and plant. Obviously, the potentiality of the oak is in the acorn, but the oak tree that rises from the acorn looks different from the acorn. Remember, that might hint, too, at why after Christ's resurrection, his disciples kept on not recognizing him even as the wounds revealed his body to be the exact same one that was nailed to the tree. And that led St. Paul to talk about differences in bodies and so in glory because, at the general resurrection, we won't all be the same; we will all be raised, true, but each will be given his or her own glory commensurate with the faithful use God's good gifts to us in this age.

He who is seated on the throne that is, the one who has all authority in heaven and on earth, our Lord Jesus Christ. He is the one who makes all things new. That's not the same thing as making new things and included in that all things is you. This is the fundamental truth about the resurrection. Jesus does not craft a new you; he makes the real you, the old you new. You are truly raised in your body, but in such a way that sin no longer inheres.

It's all beyond our puny minds' ability to figure it out. But we rest assured, He who created and sustained all things by His powerful word will have no difficulty at all in accomplishing this. And with the same old you suddenly made new, there also will be the whole family of the redeemed made new, and the place in which we are to live with Jesus forever made new.

-Pr. Will Weedon