Like the Stars That God Showed to Abraham

Yesterday we read in 1 Corinthians 15:39-44 how Paul first explains that not all flesh is the same and, secondly, that besides the natural body we now have, there also exists a spiritual body, which will be the body with which we will be resurrected. Paul makes a third point, saying that, among the various heavenly bodies which we can see – that is, the sun, the moon and the stars – there are differences of nature and of brightness. The sun produces its own light; the moon merely reflects the light of the sun. Among the stars there are many different orders of brightness. Paul states that the same will be true of the bodies of believers when they are resurrected from the dead. There will be many different orders of glory among them.

This is foretold in the prophecy of the resurrection given in Daniel 12:2-3.

“And many of those who sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake, some to everlasting life, some to shame and everlasting contempt. Those who are wise shall shine like the brightness of the firmament, and those who turn many to righteousness like the stars forever and ever.”

Here Daniel foretells the differences in rewards and in glory among the resurrected saints. Those who have been most faithful and diligent in making known God’s truth to others will shine the most brightly.

This picture of the saints resurrected with glorious bodies like those of the stars is also the fulfilment of God’s promise to Abraham.

“There He brought him outside and said, ‘Look now toward heaven, and count the stars if you are able to number them.’ And He said to him, ‘So shall your descendants be.’” (Gen. 15:5)

Included by God among Abraham’s seed are all those who believe and obey the word of God’s promise just as Abraham did – those who accept by faith in their hearts the divine seed of God’s Word. In fact, it is this incorruptible seed of God’s Word, received by faith in the heart of each believer, that makes possible his resurrection among the righteous.

In the day of the final fulfilment of God’s promise, at the resurrection, all the believers then raised up on the basis of their faith in God’s Word will be like the stars that God showed to Abraham – as numerous, as glorious and as diverse from each other in their glory.