In a recent trip to Barnes and Noble bookstore I was reminded how large the “mystery” section of bookstores normally is. Several bookcases with five shelves per case were packed with eye-catching art and edgy titles designed to elicit wonder and draw me into the content.
While our culture is intrigued with the “mystery” genre of books, the Bible contains mystery as well. Mystery is defined as “a religious truth that one can know only by revelation and cannot fully understand.”[1]
Two parts of that definition relate to the passage I’m about to share with you from 1 Corinthians. First, religious truth is only revealed by God. The Bible is God’s inspired Word to us. It reveals God’s character, truth about our world, and principles for Christian living. Second, we cannot fully understand it. There are some parts of Scripture and doctrine that are not as clear as we would hope.
The apostle Paul describes some of the “mystery” of the end times when describing the rapture and resurrection in 1 Corinthians 15:51-52:
“Behold, I tell you a mystery; we will not all sleep, but we will all be changed, in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet; for the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised imperishable and we will be changed.”[2]
The mystery that Paul is describing is the resurrection of believers when Jesus Christ returns to the earth. What Paul was telling the believers in Corinth was that when Christ returns all the dead believers will have resurrected bodies.
But what about the believers alive when Christ returns? Those alive when Christ returns will be transformed and changed. This is called the rapture. Our new body at the resurrection and rapture will be unlike the one we have now. It will be “a Spiritual Body partaking of the nature of God’s own Heavenly Glory.”[3]
When Christ returns we will be raptured (if still alive) or resurrected (if dead) and taken away to spend eternity with God. We should look forward to the rapture and resurrection with hope and positive anticipation. Our physical pain will go away. Our emotional strain will disappear. And our spiritual sufferings will be gone!
[1] Merriam-Webster’s Collegiate Dictionary (Springfield, MA: 2020). 11th edition.
[2] Scripture taken from the New American Standard Bible, Copyright The Lockman Foundation 1960, 1962, 1963, 1968, 1971, 1972, 1973, 1975, 1977, 1995. Used by permission.
[3] Henry H. Halley, Halley’s Bible Handbook (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 1965). 24th edition, p. 600.