We … groan within ourselves, eagerly waiting for … the redemption of the body.
Romans 8:23.
The redemption that we considered yesterday referred to the soul of a believer. It is connected with the forgiveness of sins. Colossians 1:14 stated: “We have redemption, the forgiveness of sins.” Thus it is something the Christian already possesses.
The Word of God also speaks of redemption in a future sense. Even believers are waiting for one form of redemption, namely, the redemption of our body. Here, too, it is a matter of liberation. How many weaknesses, limitations and troubles are we still subject to! But they will all one day come to an end. The work of Christ avails for this aspect of redemption, just as it does for the forgiveness of sins.
Through the Holy Spirit believers have been “sealed for the day of redemption” (Ephesians 4:30). When Jesus Christ returns to take Christians to be with Him in glory, their bodies, too, will experience God’s redemptive power. On that glorious day the bodies of believers asleep in Jesus will be snatched from death.
God’s children await the Lord Jesus Christ from heaven as the Saviour. They long for Him, but also for Him to transform their earthly, corruptible bodies to be conformed to His glorious body of glory, which he now has in heaven. Believers will be like Him (cf. Philippians 3:20.21; 1 John 3:2). Then redemption will be complete; there will be no further worry or suffering for God’s children, but only eternal joy.
Image: By Wolf Huber – This photograph was taken with an Olympus E-P5, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=44295263