Sermon: How Will Believers Be Changed in a Twinkling of an eye?



How Will Believers Be Changed in a Twinkling of an Eye?
At that time, all who believe in Jesus, living and dead, will be changed into the celebrated, everlasting bodies that have been promised to us. Death will be forever gone. Death will never be able to hurt anybody again.




 
To gather an understanding of this question, we must look at 1 Corinthians 15:50-53. We, as a whole, face various constraints. There are those individuals who have physical, mental, or emotional debilitations who are particularly mindful of this.

I declare to you, brothers and sisters, that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God, nor does the perishable inherit the imperishable. Listen, I tell you a mystery: We will not all sleep, but we will all be changed — in a flash, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, the dead will be raised imperishable, and we will be changed. For the perishable must clothe itself with the imperishable, and the mortal with immortality (1 Corinthians 15:50-53).

Some people might be visually impaired; however, they can see a better approach to living. Some people might be hard of hearing, yet they can hear the Good News of God. Some people might be weak and lame, yet they can stroll in the love of God.

Moreover, they have the support that those impairments are just transitory, they are temporary. Paul lets us know that all believers will be given new bodies when Jesus returns, and these bodies will be without handicaps, never to become sick again, never to become injured, or die. This is the hope and trust for us to cling to during our time of suffering.

What Does ‘In a Twinkling of an Eye’ Mean?
What Paul is telling us is that our mortal, sinful, and corrupt bodies cannot enter into the Kingdom of God. This earthly body must pass away as we Christians, those who believe and accept Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior will inherit a new body that is free from all sin, sorrow, sickness, and death.

The significance of these words is accentuated by Paul's first interjection: "Now this I say, brethren" (v. 50). One is to take an uncommon note here “that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God, nor does the perishable inherit the imperishable” (v. 50).

Paul alludes to the people who will be living at whatever point Christ will come back to earth. "Flesh and blood" were usually used to signify the living. "Inherit" signifies to get, have, and conveys no uncommon religious importance here. Both the living and the dead will go through change at the return of Jesus Christ; the living will be changed; the dead will be resurrected.

Paul is announcing, “Behold, I show you a mystery” (v. 51). Here he is telling the readers to listen to him and that he has something that is especially important to say. This is another surprising decree. He is uncovering the secret mystery of how our corrupt, temporal human bodies might perhaps enter forever with God.

The simple answer is that they cannot, regardless of whether those bodies are those of believers who have ensured salvation through faith in Christ. Each and every born-again Christian will be changed from their normal human body to their celebrated heavenly body.

This will all happen when Christ returns for His children, as He said in John 14:2-3. The dead in Christ will rise first into a new heavenly body, and we that are alive and remain will be caught up to meet them in the air and be transformed as well.

“We shall not all sleep” (v. 51) proclaims that Christians who are alive on that day will not die yet they will be changed right away. The blast of a trumpet will introduce the New Heaven and New Earth.

The Jewish people would comprehend the meaning of this since trumpets were constantly blown to flag the beginning of incredible events and other exceptional occasions (Numbers 10:10). This is what is called the second coming of Christ. Paul was not implying that it was about to happen at that time.

This transformation will be instantaneous, “in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye” (v. 52). It has been referred to as “in the blink of an eye.” This will happen so fast that it defies any type of measurement that can be thought of. It will happen so fast that no one will have time to say, “Jesus is here! There He is!” That time is immeasurable.

How Should Christians Respond to This Change?
Paul says that “changing” will be joined by the sound of a trumpet blasting, something that frequently announced the presence of God in Scripture. This last trumpet symbolizes a conclusion, an ending of something that has taken place.

This final trumpet sound will also announce that God's children will never be isolated from Him again. That trumpet sounding is the Lord’s call to all of humanity as He calls the dead to life. Jesus spoke to the man who had died and had been in the grave for four days.