Diane asks a great question that is of interest to all of us:
I should probably know the answer to this question, but as I thought about it, I realize that I’m not sure.
Does the person who enters into God’s presence get a “temporary body?” I know they haven’t been raised from the grave yet, and that their body is temporarily in the ground.
For some reason I can’t remember the answer to that question.
In his famous Rapture passage, 1 Thess 4:13-18, Paul wrote, “For the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a shout… And the dead in Christ will rise first. Then we who are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And thus we shall always be with the Lord” (vv 16-17). Deceased believers will not gain glorified bodies till the Rapture.
We also know from 1 Cor 15:51-55 that we will not be glorified until the Rapture. Only then will deceased believers be changed and given new, immortal, bodies. “This mortal must put on immortality.”
Another passage that speaks of this is 2 Cor 5:1-8. Verse 1 says, “For we know that if our earthly house, this tent, is destroyed [i.e., if we die before the Rapture], we have a building from God, a house, not made with hands, eternal in the heavens.” He is speaking of our glorified bodies. While verse 1 might sound as if it’s saying that we get the glorified bodies when we die, 1 Cor 15:51-55 and 1 Thess 4:16-17 clearly show that we do not get those bodies until the Rapture.
Dwight Hunt comments on 2 Cor 5:1:
The resurrected body is eternal in the heavens in the sense that it will come from God and will endure forever. Believers do not receive this glorified body immediately after death. They “have” it in the sense that it is something to look forward to. The resurrection of the body awaits the Rapture (1 Thess 4:16–17) (“2 Corinthians” in The Grace New Testament Commentary, p. 785).
But there are many indications in Scripture that believers who have died have some sort of intermediate body. Moses, who died around 1400 BC, was present in bodily form when Jesus was transfigured (Matt 17:2-3).
Samuel appeared from out of Sheol in bodily form when King Saul consulted with the witch at Endor (1 Sam 28:12-15). “Now Samuel said to Saul, ‘Why have you disturbed me by bringing me up?’” (1 Sam 28:15). He looked like “An old man…covered with a mantle” (1 Sam 28:14).
The Lord told of Abraham and Lazarus being in Sheol in bodily form in Luke 16:19-31.
See also Rev 6:9-11, where the souls under the altar are people in intermediate bodies.
Here are articles by Forrest Hindley (with GodReports.Com), Randy Alcorn, and Brian Leicht (with Insight for Living). For the view that “believers in heaven are in spiritual/non-corporeal form until the resurrection,” see this article by GotQuestions.Org. While I normally like GotQuestions.Org answers, this one is weak, in my opinion. For the view that we do not know what form believers who’ve died are in, see this article by Don Stewart.
The evidence is overwhelming that believers who’ve died have some sort of intermediate body. At least, it is for me. I urge you to pray about this and meditate on the relevant Scriptures.
Keep grace in focus.
