We have been considering lately how the resurrection gives us hope right now and in the face of death. The resurrection, however, also affords the Christian a glorious hope for the future, and so today we want to give some attention to the return of Jesus Christ and our own future bodily resurrection.
Resurrection Hope to Come
In thinking about what Christ’s resurrection means for us when he returns, let us look again to the Westminster Shorter Catechism (WSC), this time at Question 38:
Q. What benefits do believers receive from Christ at the resurrection?
A. At the resurrection, believers, being raised up in glory, shall be openly acknowledged and acquitted in the Day of Judgment, and made perfectly blessed in the full enjoying of God to all eternity.
There are four things that the Shorter Catechism outlines—wonderfully summarizing the teaching of Scripture—about what the resurrection of Jesus means for us on the Last Day. Question 38 tells us that 1) we will be gloriously changed; 2) we will be acknowledged by the Lord Jesus; 3) we will be acquitted by the Lord Jesus; and 4) we will be made perfectly blessed in fellowship with God.
Let us briefly consider some dimensions of this soul-heartening doctrine under each of these four headings.
Gloriously Changed
At the return of Christ, every believer in Christ will undergo the final, or what is often called the general, resurrection. And for Christians, that means they will be raised, or changed, in glory. The catechism puts it this way: “At the resurrection, believers, being raised up in glory” (WSC 38). There are a number of places in Scripture from which the catechism derives this truth, but perhaps the most pointed one is 1 Corinthians 15:42–43:
So also is the resurrection of the dead. It is sown a perishable body, it is raised an imperishable body; it is sown in dishonor, it is raised in glory; it is sown in weakness, it is raised in power.
The apostle Paul is saying that as your body is buried at death, so likewise you will be raised in that same body. As Job puts it, “Yet in my flesh, I will see God” (Job 19:26). The Westminster Confession of Faith 32.2 states, “All the dead shall be raised up, with the selfsame bodies, and none other (although with different qualities), which shall be united again to their souls forever.” It is not that we will be given new or different bodies on the day of Christ’s return—bodies that were kept in reserve in some heavenly storehouse to be debuted at the right time—but that the same bodies with which we were born will be reunited to our souls, resurrected and perfected, for us to live in and dwell with the Lord forever.
And, as weak and frail as our bodies are in this world—a state of existence which is all we have ever known—when it is raised, it will not be raised in weakness. It will be raised in beauty, immortality, and perfection—incorruptible, immortal, beautiful, and glorious.
What a comfort this is. How many of us have been close to those saints whose bodies have been absolutely ravaged by some horrid disease? To have known them in their prime (grandparents in their younger vigor, perhaps), and to see them at the end of their earthly days so frail and emaciated is a painful thing. What a wonderful truth it is, then, to know that when we see them again, none of that devastating infirmity will be there; rather we shall see them in the fullness of what God intended humans to be.
Likewise, for our friends or our children with various kinds of disabilities: what a joy to know the Jesus-trusting, infirm, wheelchair-bound child and to know that we shall one day see her fully and perfectly healed, gloriously functioning as she never could in this life, and that she will be that way forever—in the fullness of what a human being can be!
I love this reflection that I read from Joni Eareckson Tada a number of years ago.1 She once said,
[That day in worship], my eyes were wet because it was so beautiful to see everyone kneeling in prayer. And it made me think of the day when I, too, will be able to get up out of this wheelchair on new resurrected legs.
I can’t wait for that day because when I get my glorified body, the first thing I’m going to do with my resurrected legs is to fall down on grateful, glorified knees. I will once again have the chance to say with Psalm 95:6, “Come let us bow down in worship, let us kneel before the Lord our Maker.”2
When Christ comes again and we are raised, our bodies will be raised in perfection—entirely perfect, just as Jesus’ body was raised in glorified perfection. Never again will we have any deformity, any nagging debilitation, any bodily imperfection or struggle. Never again. Our bodies will be like Jesus’ glorious, resurrected body: “Made like him, like him we rise.”3
Acknowledged by Christ
Let us look at a second thing that WSC 38 teaches:
At the resurrection, believers . . . shall be openly acknowledged in the Day of Judgment.
Matthew 25 is one of the most illustrative passages on this matter. In Matthew 25:34, Jesus tells his disciples what it will be like on that day: “The King will say to those on His right, ‘Come, you who are blessed of My Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world.’”
In other words, we are told that on the last day, Christ is going to stand up and acknowledge you publicly and personally as his friend (John 15:15), his joint heir (Rom 8:17), and his brother (Heb 2:11). Before the whole world—for when he comes, “every eye will see him” (Rev 1:7)—you, Christian, will be publicly acknowledged, recognized, and owned by Jesus Christ.
Matthew 24–25 also tells us some remarkable things that will take place on that day: Christians will be gathered from all four corners of the globe by his holy angels (Matt 24:31), we will be placed at the right hand of Christ (Matt 25:33), we will be openly acknowledged by Christ as belonging to him (Matt 10:32), then we will be invited by Christ to take hold of his Father’s inheritance (Matt 25:34).
Moreover, 1 Corinthians 6:2–3 says that we will sit with Christ in judgment over wicked angels and humans, and we will join with him in administering justice. What a mind-boggling thing: We will be invited to consult with Christ in the administration of his holy justice. Not only will we be publicly acknowledged and embraced by Christ, but we will join with him in some sobering, serious, and eternally significant work.
Question 90 of the Westminster Larger Catechism gets at this same truth:
At the day of judgment, the righteous, being caught up to Christ in the clouds, shall be set on his right hand, and there openly acknowledged and acquitted, shall join with him in the judging of reprobate angels and men, and shall be received into heaven, where they shall be fully and forever freed from all sin and misery.
Acquitted by Christ
Not only will they be changed and acknowledged, but at the final resurrection, every believer will be publicly, cosmically, and finally pardoned and exonerated by Christ. Again, WSC 38 says:
At the resurrection, believers . . . shall be openly . . . acquitted in the Day of Judgment.
In Matthew 10:32 Jesus promises, “Everyone who confesses Me before men, I will also confess him before My Father who is in heaven.”
We often think of this truth in reverse. That is, in justification, we think of how the heavenly judicial declaration of “Righteous!” that will be pronounced over all God’s believing people on the Great Day of Judgment has been brought into the present. That future pronouncement of our righteousness and cosmic vindication has been brought into the now by virtue of our justification before God and our union with Christ! But here we have in view the day when that declaration is finally uttered: At the great day of the Lord, there will be a public, absolute, universal, eternal acquittal, vindication, and exoneration of all those who rest and trust in Jesus Christ.
Never again will we have any disquiet in our conscience. Never again any nagging doubts, lingering pangs of guilt, or accusing memories haunting the back corners of our conscience. All the false accusations leveled against us, all the actual sin we have ever done, all of these things will be fully and finally dealt with—forever!—on that great day. Pure and full peace of conscience and rest in our souls will finally be ours as Christ looks upon us and declares us free, clear, and entirely vindicated forever. And before a universal audience, not only will we be declared righteous, but we will be declared his righteous people. What a glorious peace; freedom of conscience will triumphantly course through our minds and hearts on that day!
Perfectly Blessed
But there is another aspect of hope that awaits us at Christ’s resurrection. Once again, WSC 38 says:
At the resurrection, believers . . . shall be . . . perfectly blessed in the full enjoying of God to all eternity.
There are numerous splendid Bible passages that speak of this. To cite just a few:
- 1 John 3:2: “Beloved, now we are the children of God, and it has not appeared as yet what we will be. We know that when He appears, we will be like Him, because we shall see Him just as He is.”
- Revelation 21:4: “He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and there will no longer be any death, there will no longer be any mourning, or crying, or pain. The first things have passed away.”
- Or 1 Thessalonians 4:17: “So we shall always be with the Lord.”
In the final resurrection, every believer will be made perfectly blessed, fully and completely happy in fellowship with God. And this perfect blessedness involves a freedom from and a freedom unto something.
First, it involves a perfect and final freedom from evil. In this world and age, there is no freedom from evil. We are surrounded by it, and even the most godly and tender of God’s children suffer from the ramifications of sin and evil—but not then. That is why passages like Revelation 21:4 are so incalculably comforting. Our existence on this terrestrial ball has only ever been fraught with the presence of sin and the reality of sin’s attendant misery: broken hearts and shattered marriages; graves utilized “too soon,” cancer’s thievish taking, young life miscarried in utero, Parkinson’s and dementia robbing life out of years, and more.
But, on that day, no more. What one of the elders spoke to John in Revelation 5:5 could well be spoken to all of Christ’s people on that Great Day: “Weep no more!” At last, there will no longer be any death, no longer any mourning, or crying, or pain. These things will have passed away.
Second, it involves a perfect enjoyment of God. See how John says it in 1 John 3:2: “When he appears, we will be like Him, because we will see Him just as He is.”
In this life, we have only seen through a glass darkly, but there, we shall at last behold him face to face (1 Cor 13:12), and we shall see the Lord as he really is.
Westminster Larger Catechism (WLC) 90 puts it like this:
[The righteous] . . . shall be received into heaven, where they shall be fully and forever freed from all sin and misery; filled with inconceivable joys, made perfectly holy and happy both in body and soul, in the company of innumerable saints and holy angels, but especially in the immediate vision and fruition of God the Father, of our Lord Jesus Christ, and of the Holy Spirit, to all eternity.
Holy and happy. Just as mankind began (see Children’s First Catechism 22), so they shall once again be.
In 1 Peter 1:8, the apostle tells the early Christians, “Though you have not seen Him, you love Him.” If we love him now, without seeing him, think how ardent that love will surely be when we do see him, forever. After all, we are made to glorify and enjoy God (WSC 1), and on that great resurrection day, we will be ushered in to do exactly that: to enjoy God perfectly, in that state of perfect blessedness, at last and without interruption to “to glorify God, and fully to enjoy him forever” (WLC 1). All these things are part of the future hope that believers have on account of Christ’s glorious resurrection.
There is more for us to explore regarding the hope of Christ’s return and the promise of the new heavens and earth. We will consider those matters in more detail when we return next time to our ongoing series on the Christian’s comfort, even in death.
Notes
- For those who may not know, Tada is a quadriplegic who became paralyzed from the shoulders down following a diving accident in 1967 at age seventeen, resulting in a spinal cord injury that has left her without use of her arms and legs for nearly sixty years. Despite this, she is an accomplished author, artist (painting with a mouth-held brush), speaker, and founder of Joni and Friends, a global ministry supporting people with disabilities.
- “Kneeling,” Joni and Friends, January 2, 2019.
- Charles Wesley, “Christ the Lord Is Risen Today,” Trinity Psalter Hymnal (The Committee on Christian Education of the Orthodox Presbyterian Church, 2018).
©Sean Morris. All Rights Reserved.
You can find this whole series here.
RESOURCES
- Subscribe To The Heidelblog!
- Download the HeidelApp on Apple App Store or Google Play
- Browse the Heidelshop!
- The Heidelblog Resource Page
- Heidelmedia Resources
- The Ecumenical Creeds
- The Reformed Confessions
- The Heidelberg Catechism
- The Heidelberg Catechism
- The Heidelberg Catechism: A Historical, Theological, & Pastoral Commentary (Bellingham, WA: Lexham Press, 2025)
- Recovering the Reformed Confession (Phillipsburg: P&R Publishing, 2008)
- Why I Am A Christian
- What Must A Christian Believe?
- Heidelblog Contributors
- Support Heidelmedia: use the donate button or send a check to:
Heidelberg Reformation Association
1637 E. Valley Parkway #391
Escondido CA 92027
USA
The HRA is a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization
Sean Morris
Sean was educated at Grove City College, Reformed Theological Seminary (Jackson, MS), Edinburgh Theological Seminary, and the University of Glasgow (Scotland). He earned his PhD from Puritan Reformed Theological Seminary. He is an ordained teaching elder in the Presbyterian Church in America, and serves as a minister at the Covenant Presbyterian Church in Oak Ridge, TN. He also serves as the Academic Dean of the Blue Ridge Institute for Theological Education and has published numerous theological and devotional articles. Sean lives in Oak Ridge with his wife, Sarah, and their children.
More by Sean Morris ›