Righteousness and Immortality
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The elves of Middle Earth are immortal yet can not die
Long before I ever knew Christ personally, I loved JRR Tolkien’s, “Lord of the Rings.” His depiction of elves fascinated me. All I knew before that time was the tiny pointed ears of Santa Clause and Keebler cookies. For the elves to be this strange and majestic people who lived forever, yet could die in battle, amazed me. I had always thought this characteristic to be odd. Why should Tolkien create characters who could live forever, yet could die in battle? Equally mystifying to me was his oft repeated claim that death was a gift for the children of men.
I put these thoughts aside after I came to know the reality of Jesus Christ. The hope that all believers share is immortality. As a new Christian I used to think that our glorified bodies would be like Superman. Our example is Christ in his post resurrection appearances. It seems that He was able to appear and vanish in a blink of an eye. It seems that He could walk through walls, enter rooms when doors were locked. Philip was translated and instantly moved from one location in Israel to another. Besides, we will all have died before we get our glorified bodies, so when we return with Jesus on white horses in the sky to stop the Anti-Christ, we can’t die again. That battle will be a cake walk for us. No fear of death since we have already died, and the brightness of His coming will end the conflict instantly.
Recently, however, I have had some new thoughts on the subject. Several months ago, while praying in my backyard, the Lord dropped into my spirit an illumination on the significance of Romans 8:28.
“And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose.”
In this verse the grace and power of God are revealed. Anyone with a smattering of honesty will admit that they do not make correct decisions and act upon them 100% of the time. So it is easy to accept the teaching that we are righteous positionally in Christ, but are sinners saved only by grace. That appeals to the natural mind, but does not include spiritual reality. To say that we are only righteous positionally separates the work of the cross from our daily lives. The argument is given that Christ paid our debt of sin for us which justifies us “just as though” we paid it ourselves. It is hard to argue with this because there is much truth in it. Nor do I intend to undermine that truth. What is missing, however, is the active work of God in our daily lives as stated in Romans 8:28.
In other words, if our decisions and actions were solely dependent upon us, then almost everything we say and do is actually wrong. But they are not. God is actively involved with our daily lives. Every choice and action we make, He works for all those things together for our good. Because He completes and fills in our errors, our errors are not errors but are right in reality. We are not only righteous in a positional sense, but we are righteous in a practical reality. But only because of the work of God in our lives. Remember, Proverbs tells us that the thoughts of the righteous are right (12:5). Being righteous means doing the right thing at all times. Through the grace of God working in us, we always do the right thing.
Such a realization could cause us then to think that what we choose to do does not matter. That misses the spirit of salvation. We are not saved for God to do all the work. Paul argues against this thinking in the book of Romans.
What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin, that grace may abound? God forbid. How shall we, that are dead to sin, live any longer therein? (Rom 6:1-2KJV)
The Romans 8:28 work of grace has qualifications. It is for those who “love God” and are “called according to His purposes.” If you love someone you endeavor to do that which pleases the one you love. Being called according to His purposes means that you are pursuing His will for your life , not your own. That is the meaning of being dead to sin. The grace of God has never been given for us to quit trying to do that which is right. Just the opposite. Grace is given so that “According as his divine power hath given unto us all things that pertain unto life and godliness,” (2 Pet 1:3 KJV). And as John said, “And every man that hath this hope in him purifieth himself, even as he is pure.” (I Jn 3:3 KJV). Therefore, grace is given to us until we constantly choose the right thing every time.
Which brings me back to my comparison of the Middle Earth elves and the supermen Christianity that I am discussing. It is true that we will have either already died or died in transformation with the rapture before we walk in our glorified bodies. And I still believe that our bodies will be something incredible beyond what our imaginations can conceive. The biblical examples mentioned before gives a glint, but does not tell the whole story. For eye has not seen, nor ear heard the things that God has prepared for those who love Him. Paul makes that quote from Isaiah in the discussing the wisdom of God pertaining to our life now and the future.
Yet, God has set His Word above Himself (Ps. 138:2) and does not change (Ps. 119:89). The reason why is because His Word is eternal and is spoken from His eternal nature. That means the laws of His creation are unchanging. Yes the heavens will roll up like a scroll and there will be a new heaven and earth according to the book of Revelations. But that does not mean He is discarding what He has already created. God makes new things from that which He already has. For example, when He created Adam, He did not “pull Eve out of Adam” as though Eve was already inside Adam. Rather, He took the material from Adam’s side and made a new being of the same substance but transformed into the “womb-man”. Likewise, the new creation of salvation required God to become the man Jesus Christ as the last Adam and the first fruits from the dead. He transformed the material of Adam into the new creature called Christ the resurrected and glorified King.
The laws of God are immutable. Because they are from His eternal nature. Therefore the laws remain while they are transformed into higher laws. I am convinced that the miracles of Jesus were actions of Jesus based on His knowledge of the laws of His own creation. That is, for example, when He walked on water, He was obeying a higher law of water that we do not understand. Therefore, in the new heaven and earth the laws of His creation will remain, although transformed.
Another analogy can be made in considering computers. Computers operate according to the laws of electro-magnetism. Alexander Graham Bell figured out how to transform electrical signals into audible sounds. Samuel Morse developed a simple code of dots and dashes used in the early telegraphs. These dots and dashes became the foundation for voice transmission of telephones, then later Morse Code became the foundation of machine language in computers. Operating systems were developed upon that machine language so Microsoft came up with DOS, then built upon that for Windows 3.1 and up to our current system of Windows 7. You can still run DOS programs on Windows 7 as is true with any Windows program from the past with their Windows compatibility program.
Jesus operated on a “higher law” when He performed His miracles, but those miracles were still rooted in the original laws of creation. The new heaven and earth will be rooted in this creation as well. Likewise will our glorified bodies. So now, I do not believe that our glorified bodies will be like Superman. Instead, the immortal lives of the elves seems to be a closer comparison.
If we always choose to do right then no injury will ever come to us. For example, in this life we know that if we step on broken glass with our bare feet, we will cut the bottom of our feet and bleed. The right thing, therefore is not to step on the broken glass in the first place.
Likewise, in general, Christianity has ignored a major area of right living in regards to diet. As a gymnastics coach I am appalled at the obesity of Americans, and especially American Christians. A multitude of health problems have a direct cause in diet. In my walk with Christ, I have seen that He does not cure chronic behavior problems when the person does not want to truly repent. The kosher diet of Leviticus has been proven from a scientific point of view to be a healthier diet. Yet, for scant reasons in the New Testament, Christianity has thrown dietary control out the window as though it no longer matters in the new birth. The irony of this is that the fall of man began with dietary un-restraint. Fasting is a discipline barely used in the Church, and is misunderstood when exercised. Many think that fasting creates pity in God so He will act on their behalf. Fasting brings our flesh in submission to our spirit, and nothing more. When we fast we are able to focus on the spirit and touch God without the flesh hindering Him. CS Lewis in his book, “Perelandra” had a passage where Ransom eats the most delicious food on the planet. He has the desire to eat more, but in his spirit he stops himself knowing that one was enough. This is a great illustration of how I believe we will organically be self controlled in our glorified bodies. There will be no obesity in glory because we will not eat too much nor the wrong kinds of food. Not because the we have super bodies that can digest any kind of garbage!
If someone misunderstands me they might think that I am talking about a life of works. That has the wrong implication. Just as in this life we are not saved by any works we do, nonetheless the indwelling of His spirit leads us in making right decisions and actions if we follow His promptings. It is an organic work that has its source in God. Just as Jesus lived by faith and organically followed the leading of the Spirit within himself as a man, we shall live the same way in glory as we should be living this way today. Jesus saved us by His works, but His works were from the Father, not himself. Life in glory as now will be a continuous conscience cooperation of our minds with the organics leading of the Spirit within our hearts.
So, the more I think about it, the more I see our everlasting lives to be similar to how Tolkien made his elves. And even in the new heaven and new earth we may get hurt. Revelations (in reference to the 1,000 year reign of Christ) says the tree that bares 12 different fruits each month will have leaves for the healing of the nations. Unlike Tolkien’s elves, we will never die in our glorified bodies, but I think we may get injured. However, all injury will heal in the continuance of the Romans 8:28 manner of God’s grace continuing with us forever.
But death brings up another point. Tolkien said that death was a gift for men. I believe that death is part of God’s creation, but the fall has made death our enemy. I will explore this point in the next post.
