Recently I was asked to speak about how the hope of the resurrection impacts my daily life and I thought it might be helpful to recap and expand on that talk here. First, what do I mean by “the resurrection”? Along with forgiveness of sins and restored relationship with God, another result of the gospel is that believers will receive resurrection bodies at Jesus’ second coming. Although we don’t know precisely what these bodies will be like, we can look to Jesus’ body after his resurrection for clues. Just as the disciples were able to recognize Jesus by looking at him, our resurrection bodies will have features that distinguish us as unique individuals. And, they will also likely have abilities that our earthly bodies do not possess. Jesus was able to miraculously appear among the disciples in a locked room and maybe we’ll be able to instantly appear anywhere too. One thing we know for sure is that our resurrection bodies will be perfect, untarnished by sin or any of its repercussions, and capable of much more than we can imagine.
Which is comforting considering how broken and incapable my body is at the moment. For those of you who don’t know, I have Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy, a genetic condition that causes my muscles to slowly waste away. When I was first diagnosed, my life expectancy was just 16. Due to medical advances and the grace of God, I’m still living life now and nearing 30. On a practical level, living with Duchenne means I’m unable to do a lot of things without assistance, whether that’s getting up and dressed, eating and drinking, showering, etc. It also means that my heart and lungs are getting weaker so I have to take steps to combat that. There’s much more I could say, but those are the basics. Now, I could easily be angry at God or bitter about my circumstances. I’m not because I know God didn’t design me this way. When he was creating me, he didn’t decide to make me a little more messed up than the rest of us. Rather, due to the sinful, fallen nature of the world I was born with a tiny genetic mutation that changed the trajectory of my life. But, what Satan meant for harm, God is using for good.
That doesn’t mean I don’t wish things were different. I long for the days when I could reach out and hug someone, play the piano, walk, run, swim, and so on. Even if God did heal me tomorrow, either through advances in medicine or divine intervention, I would still experience the plight of human existence that we all face: pain, injury, sickness, aging, and eventually death. Which leads me back to the resurrection. Ever since sin entered the world through Adam and Eve, God has been on a cosmic mission to redeem his creation and his people—us. No matter what happens here on earth, one day God will redeem our frail human bodies, transforming them into perfect, sinless resurrection bodies that will never experience pain, sickness and death again. So, how does the resurrection impact my daily life? It gives me courage to face the unique challenges of my physical condition. It gives me peace and contentment when I could be anxious and bitter. And, it gives me hope that one day my broken earthly body will be forever redeemed.