# 4. Physical Regeneration
Our mortal bodies have yet to experience the regenerating power of the Son of God. This is emphatically called "the glory of his power." "The redemption of the body" from the bondage of corruption is the fulfillment of the new creative energy of the one who has immortality. Life and incorruptibility were demonstrated in and through his resurrection from the dead. It was great to create man in the image of God—greater to redeem his soul from general corruption; but greatest of all, to give his mortal frame incorruptible and immortal strength. The power displayed in giving the dead body of the Son of God incorruptible glory and endless life is presented by the Apostle Paul as incomparably surpassing every other divine work within human understanding. He prays that the minds of Christians may be enlarged to grasp this mighty power—that the Father of glory would open their minds "so that they may know the surpassing greatness of his power toward us who believe—according to the working of his mighty power, which he exerted in Christ when he raised him from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly realms." Faith in this wonderful work of God—hope for the riches of the glory of the inheritance of the saints in light—are among the most powerful motivating principles God has ever placed in the human heart. This is the transcendent hope of the Christian calling, which gave such heroic courage to all the saints of eternal renown. This better resurrection in prospect has produced heroes who put to shame all the celebrated leaders of worldly fame. Just as the magnetic needle always points to the pole, so the mind, influenced by this hope, always rises to the heavens and ends in fullness of joy and everlasting pleasures in the presence and at the right hand of God.
Raising a dead body to life again is not portrayed as more glorious than restoring new strength to a paralyzed arm, giving sight to the blind, or hearing to the deaf; but to give that raised body the deathless strength of incorruptibility, to renew and transform it in every part, and to make every spirit feel that it reanimates its own body—that it is as immune to decay and as immortal as the Father of eternity—is a thought overwhelming to every mind, a revelation that will glorify the power of God just as the sacrifice of his Son now displays his righteousness, faithfulness, and love to heaven and earth.
This new birth from the dark prison of the grave is fittingly called "the redemption of the body" from bondage, "the glorious freedom of the children of God." Just as in our watery grave the old self is figuratively buried to rise no more, so in the literal grave, the prison of the body, we leave behind all that is corrupt; for the one who makes all things new will raise us up in his own likeness and present us before his Father's presence in all the glory of immortality. Then regeneration will be complete. Then will be the full revelation of the children of God.
Immortality, in the sacred writings, is never applied to the spirit of man. It is not the doctrine of Plato that the resurrection of Jesus proposes. It is the immortality of the body of which his resurrection is proof and guarantee. This was never revealed until he became the firstborn from the dead and entered the heavens in a human body. Jesus was not a spirit when he returned to God. He is not made the Head of the New Creation as a Spirit, but as the Son of Man. Our nature in his person is glorified; and when he appears for our salvation, we will be made like him: we will see him as he is. This is the Christian hope.
A hope so great and so divine
May trials well endure,
And purge the soul from sense and sin, As Christ himself is pure."
Thus matters stand in the plan of redemption. Thus the divine scheme of regeneration is completed: the moral part by the operation of moral means; the physical part by the mighty power of God working through physical means. By the word of his power he created the heavens and the earth; by the word of his grace he reanimates the soul of man; and by the word of his power he will again form our bodies anew and reunite the spirit and the body in the bonds of an incorruptible and everlasting union. Then death will be "swallowed up forever." "Where, O death, is your victory? Where, O death, is your sting?" But for this we must wait. "We do not know what we will be." We only know that when he appears, we will be like him; that we will see him as he is.