Theological Term of the Week

spiritual body
“The type of body [believers] will receive at our future resurrection, which will not be ‘immaterial’ but rather suited to and responsive to the guidance of the Holy Spirit”1; also called resurrection body.

• From scripture: 

  35 But someone will ask, “How are the dead raised? With what kind of body do they come?” 36 You foolish person! What you sow does not come to life unless it dies. 37 And what you sow is not the body that is to be, but a bare kernel, perhaps of wheat or of some other grain. 38 But God gives it a body as he has chosen, and to each kind of seed its own body. 39 For not all flesh is the same, but there is one kind for humans, another for animals, another for birds, and another for fish. 40 There are heavenly bodies and earthly bodies, but the glory of the heavenly is of one kind, and the glory of the earthly is of another. 41 There is one glory of the sun, and another glory of the moon, and another glory of the stars; for star differs from star in glory.

  42 So is it with the resurrection of the dead. What is sown is perishable; what is raised is imperishable. 43 It is sown in dishonor; it is raised in glory. It is sown in weakness; it is raised in power. 44 It is sown a natural body; it is raised a spiritual body. If there is a natural body, there is also a spiritual body. 45 Thus it is written, “The first man Adam became a living being”; the last Adam became a life-giving spirit. 46 But it is not the spiritual that is first but the natural, and then the spiritual. 47 The first man was from the earth, a man of dust; the second man is from heaven. 48 As was the man of dust, so also are those who are of the dust, and as is the man of heaven, so also are those who are of heaven. 49 Just as we have borne the image of the man of dust, we shall also bear the image of the man of heaven. (1 Corinthians 15:35-49 ESV)

• From the Heidelberg Catechism:

  Question 57. What comfort does the “resurrection of the body” afford thee?

  Answer: That not only my soul after this life shall be immediately taken up to Christ its head; (a) but also, that this my body, being raised by the power of Christ, shall be reunited with my soul, and made like unto the glorious body of Christ. (b)

• From Systematic Theology by Louis Berkhof: 

  There were some in the days of Paul who regarded the resurrection as spiritual, II Tim. 2:18. And there are many in the present day who believe only in a spiritual resurrection. But the Bible is very explicit in teaching the resurrection of the body. Christ is call the “firstfruits” of the resurrection, I Cor. 15:20,23, and “the firstborn of the dead,” Col. 1:18; Rev. 1:5. This implies that the resurrection of the people of God will be like that of their heavenly Lord. His resurrection was a bodily resurrection, and theirs will be of the same kind. Moreover, the redemption wrought by Christ is also said to include the body Rom. 8:23; 1 Cor. 6:13-20. In Romans 8:11 we are told explicitly that God through His Spirit will raise up our mortal bodies. And it is clearly the body that is prominently before the mind of the apostle in 1 Cor. 15, cf. especially the verses 35-49. According to Scripture there will be a resurrection of the body, that is, not an entirely new creation, but a body that will be in a fundamental sense identical with the present body. God will not create a new body for every man, but will raise up the very body that was deposited in the earth. This cannot only be inferred from the term “resurrection,” but is clearly stated in Rom. 8:11, I Cor. 15:53, and is further implied in the figure of the seed sown in the earth, which the apostle employs in I Cor. 15:36-38. Moreover, Christ, the firstfruits of the resurrection, conclusively proved the identity of His body to His disciples. 

Learn more:

1. Blue Letter Bible: What Will the Resurrected Bodies of the Righteous Be Like?
2. Blue Letter Bible: What Are Some Inadequate Views of He Resurrection of the Body?
3. Matt Perman: The Great Christian Hope of Glorification
4. Dustin Shramek: Glorification: The Resurrection of Our Bodies
5. Jerry Bridges: A Resurrected Body - 1 Corinthians 15:35-58 (mp3)

Related terms:

• glorification
• resurrection of Jesus

1From Systematic Theology by Wayne Grudem.

Do you have a theological term you’d like to see featured here as a Theological Term of the Week? If you email it to me, I’ll seriously consider using it, giving you credit for the suggestion and linking back to your blog when I do.

Clicking on the Theological Term graphic at the top of this post will take you to a list of all the previous theological terms in alphabetical order.

Theological Term of the Week

Christus Victor
A way to look at Christ’s death that focuses on it as victory over evil by the defeat of Satan and the satanic powers.

• From scripture: 

  And you, who were dead in your trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh, God made alive together with him, having forgiven us all our trespasses, 14 by canceling the record of debt that stood against us with its legal demands. This he set aside, nailing it to the cross. 15 He disarmed the rulers and authorities and put them to open shame, by triumphing over them in him. (Colossians 2:13-15 ESV)

  Since therefore the children share in flesh and blood, he himself likewise partook of the same things, that through death he might destroy the one who has the power of death, that is, the devil, 15 and deliver all those who through fear of death were subject to lifelong slavery. 16 For surely it is not angels that he helps, but he helps the offspring of Abraham. 17 Therefore he had to be made like his brothers in every respect, so that he might become a merciful and faithful high priest in the service of God, to make propitiation for the sins of the people. (Hebrews 2:14-17 ESV)

• From the Heidelberg Catechism:

  Question 1. What is thy only comfort in life and death?

  Answer: That I with body and soul, both in life and death, (a) am not my own, (b) but belong unto my faithful Saviour Jesus Christ; (c) who, with his precious blood, has fully satisfied for all my sins, (d) and delivered me from all the power of the devil; (e) and so preserves me (f) that without the will of my heavenly Father, not a hair can fall from my head; (g) yea, that all things must be subservient to my salvation, (h) and therefore, by his Holy Spirit, He also assures me of eternal life, (i) and makes me sincerely willing and ready, henceforth, to live unto him. (j)

• From Redemption Accomplished and Applied by John Murray: 

  [W]e may properly reflect upon the bearing of redemption upon Satan. It is to the triumphal aspect of redemption that this is to be allocated. The early fathers of the Christian church gave a prominent place to this phase of redemption and construed it in terms of ransom paid to the devil. Such a construction became fanciful and ludicrous. Its falsity was effectively exposed by Anselm in his epochal work, Cur Deus Homo. In reaction from this fanciful formulation we are, however, too liable to discount the great truth which these fathers were seeking to express. That truth is the bearing which the redemptive work of Christ has upon the power and activity of Satan and upon the spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenlies (cf. Eph. 6:12).
  

  …[R]edemption from sin cannot be adequately conceived or formulated except as it comprehends the victory which Christ secured once for all over him who is the god of this world, the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that now works in the children of disobedience. We must view sin and evil in its larger proportions as a kingdom that embraces the subtlety, craft, ingenuity, power, and unremitting activity of Satan and his legions…. [I]t is impossible to speak in terms of redemption from the power of sin except as there comes within the range of this redemptive accomplishment the destruction of the power of darkness.

• From Pierced for Our Transgressions by Steve Jeffery, Michael Ovey, Andrew Sachs: 

  [T]he Bible depicts the cross as God’s victory over evil. However, in order to see that victory in its biblical fullness and richness we must take account of its relationship to God’s justice. Penal substitution is at the heart of this, for it was as Christ bore in our place the penal suffering due to us for our sin that he removed Satan’s power of accusation; thereby disarming him. Penal substitution recognized that God must punish evil in order for his defeat to Satan to be fully consistent with his righteousness. 

Learn more:

1. Leon Morris: Theories of the Atonement
2. Martin Downes: Christus Victor and Penal Substitution
3. Justin Taylor: Propitiation as the Ground for Christus Victor
4. Sinclair Ferguson: Christus Victor (mp3)

Related terms:

• active obedience of Christ
• justification
• passive obedience of Christ
• penal substitution
• propitiation
• reconciliation
• redemption
• sacrifice

Filed under Person and Work of Christ

Do you have a theological term you’d like to see featured here as a Theological Term of the Week? If you email it to me, I’ll seriously consider using it, giving you credit for the suggestion and linking back to your blog when I do.

Clicking on the Theological Term graphic at the top of this post will take you to a list of all the previous theological terms in alphabetical order.

Theological Term of the Week

redemptive history
God’s plan for history, which is unfolding with the ultimate purpose of uniting all things in Christ; the unified story of the Bible; also called history of salvation.

• From scripture: 

  And he said to them, “O foolish ones, and slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken! 26 Was it not necessary that the Christ should suffer these things and enter into his glory?” 27 And beginning with Moses and all the Prophets, he interpreted to them in all the Scriptures the things concerning himself. (Luke 24:25-27 ESV)

  Then he said to them, “These are my words that I spoke to you while I was still with you, that everything written about me in the Law of Moses and the Prophets and the Psalms must be fulfilled.” 45 Then he opened their minds to understand the Scriptures, 46 and said to them, “Thus it is written, that the Christ should suffer and on the third day rise from the dead, 47 and that repentance and forgiveness of sins should be proclaimed in his name to all nations, beginning from Jerusalem. 48 You are witnesses of these things….” (Luke 24:44-48 ESV)

• From The ESV Study Bible, Overview of Salvation: A Survey of the History of Salvation:

  The Bible also makes it clear that God has a unified plan for all of history. His ultimate purpose, “a plan for the fullness of time,” is “to unite all things in him [Christ], things in heaven and things on earth” (Eph. 1:10), “to the praise of his glory” (Eph. 1:12). God had this plan even from the beginning: “remember the former things of old; for I am God, and there is no other; I am God, and there is none like me, declaring the end from the beginning and from ancient times things not yet done, saying, ‘My counsel shall stand, and I will accomplish all my purpose’” (Isa. 46:9–10). “When the fullness of time had come,” when the moment was appropriate in God’s plan, “God sent forth his Son, born of woman, born under the law, to redeem those who were under the law” (Gal. 4:4–5).

  The work of Christ on earth, and especially his crucifixion and resurrection, is the climax of history; it is the great turning point at which God actually accomplished the salvation toward which history had been moving throughout the OT. The present era looks back on Christ’s completed work but also looks forward to the consummation of his work when Christ will come again and when there will appear “new heavens and a new earth in which righteousness dwells” (2 Pet. 3:13; see Rev. 21:1–22:5).

• From Paige Britton, Reaping The Fruits of Redemptive-Historical Reading: 

  Reading with an awareness of a canon-spanning storyline is not an alien, artificial scheme that we impose on the text. Rather, it is a theological confession: namely, that the same God who authored the Scriptures also authored the events they describe, as well as the details involved in the recording of his works by human hands in human languages. A confession of God’s sovereignty over history necessarily implies that we believe events have meaning and purpose, and that everything is tending toward a particular goal, which Paul identifies as the time when all things will be “summed up” in Christ (Eph. 1:10-11, NIV). So, too, the Scriptures have a unified meaning and purpose, which is to declare the progressive revelation of God’s gracious plan to reconcile fallen humanity to himself through Christ.

  What this means is, first, that wherever we enter the text, we are entering a drama “already in progress”; and, second, that at any given moment we may legitimately point from the text to Jesus, whether directly or indirectly. Sometimes this will involve recognizing how events or people prefigure the coming and the work of Christ; sometimes this will entail receiving a theological interpretation of past events, or learning the present-day (or future) implications of what Christ has already accomplished. Even those portions of Scripture that seem to have no direct bearing on the overarching storyline (e.g., Proverbs), when viewed with an eye to their context in the canon, enrich our understanding of God’s gracious character and redemptive works. No matter where our reading intersects the biblical storyline, we may (and should) orient ourselves by looking forward and backward along the timeline of redemptive history, and direct those we teach to do the same.

Learn more:

1. ESV Study Bible: Overview of the Bible; History of Salvation in the Old Testament
2. Ra McLaughlin: Introduction to Redemptive History (pdf)
3. Graeme Goldsworthy: The Main Chapters in the Biblical Storyline
4. Tim Keller: It’s About Him
5. Mark Bates: The Story of the Bible (mp3)
6. Al Mohler: Studying the Scripture and Finding Jesus (mp3)
7. D. A. Carson: The God Who Is There (series of mp3s or videos)

Related terms:

• Biblical hermeneutics
• covenant
• decree(s) of God
• typology

Do you have a  theological term you’d like to see featured here as a Theological Term of the Week? If you email it to me, I’ll seriously consider using it, giving you credit for the suggestion and linking back to your blog when I do.

Clicking on the Theological Term graphic at the top of this post will take you to a list of all the previous theological terms in alphabetical order.