These last two ministries of the Holy Spirit are very linked and shape a uniquely Christian perspective on the world and our life in it. We believe that our bodies will be raised up, just as Jesus’ body was raised back from death. Our bodies will not be abandoned, even though they are broken due to sin. Jesus’ tomb was empty because He was not given a new body, rather His old body – that was indeed destroyed by our sin – was raised up, transformed into a glorified body. So, the biblical idea is that God will transform our bodies in final victory over sin and death. And because of this, we don’t view “eternal life” as something in the future – like a new state to enter after we die and leave our bodies behind, but rather it is the life we begin even now when God’s Spirit comes into us. It’s a life of union with God, becoming more and more like Him, that climaxes in the transformation of our bodies into the likeness of Christ’s glorified body. Likewise, we see eternity not as our departing from the world, but as the climactic transformation of the world when Christ returns to live and reign with us here in a new earth. So, eternal life is knowing God through Christ by being united with Him through the Holy Spirit and this results in the fruit of that future renewal of all things beginning to powerfully show up in us now because our “citizenship is in heaven, and from it we await a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, who will transform our lowly bodies to be like His glorious body by the power that enables Him even to subject all things to Himself.” (Phil. 3:20-21). We are citizens of heaven, living in the power of the Holy Spirit – the same Spirit that raised Christ from the dead – living that powerful new life on earth while we wait for Christ to come back and make all things new.
Passages: John 17:1-5, Romans 8 (whole chapter, but esp. vs. 10-11, 1 Corinthians 15:35-58, Philippians 3:17-21
