EXTRACT

DLH Would you say a word showing the connection between the resurrection on the one hand, and the clothing with the house which is from heaven on the other hand?

JT Well, chapter 15 of the first epistle deals with the resurrection. It is a question of the identity of the persons coming out, so that the victory is here on earth. It is the power of God here on earth, bringing us out of our graves. Here he brings in the thing from heaven, “Our house which is from heaven”. It is not that it comes down in any material or visible sense, but that it is from heaven in character. As they come out of the grave it will be seen that their origin is heavenly. “As we have borne the image of the one made of dust, we shall bear also the image of the heavenly one”, 1 Corinthians 15: 49. The bodies, therefore, in which we shall come out of the graves are morally out of heaven; we come out. Already we are heavenly in the same sense as in new creation.

DLH So there is no contradiction, but perfect adjustment between the resurrection of the dead and our being clothed with our house which is from heaven.

JT None whatever. There is perfect adjustment, it is a question of what God does. How can we explain? The fact is we come out with spiritual bodies—“It is sown a natural body, it is raised a spiritual body”; “It is sown in dishonour, it is raised in glory—it is sown in weakness, it is raised in power”. But then this epistle would sum all that up in a—house from heaven, so that we are fit for heaven. We are heavenly now, but as yet we have not got “our house which is from heaven”. The identity remains, only the body will be made heavenly by the power of God, as we are already so as to our “inward” man.

J. Taylor (Vol. 29, pp.431, 432)

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