- 128. Changed
1 Corinthians 15:51-52 Behold, I shew you a mystery; we shall not all sleep; but we shall all be changed, in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump: for the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed.
Change! No one wants change because we get used to the way things are and we like what we are familiar with. Change! We need it and we long for it, but it must be changed for the better; we are vaguely aware that everything is not yet perfect and we still have an inner yearning for all things to be right. The Christian can never really be satisfied with things the way they are for he knows down deep that all things should be better than they are. We are dissatisfied with ourselves and others do not satisfy us either. We all want things to be better and we know they can be; in addition, the Christian also knows that all things will Some Day actually be better; in fact, we are assured that everything will once again be perfect, better even than in the beginning when all things were created very good.
The Good News of the Gospel is that we shall all be changed. We want that, we need that, and we can’t wait for the change to come. The promise is that this change will come in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye. The problem is that this change can only come when we die: death and resurrection is the Change. If we are not dead when Jesus returns we still must die and then resurrect immediately for the change to occur. I don’t want to die, but I do need the change; I have no choice: death must come and resurrection must follow. Change can come about in no other way.
I cannot, no matter how hard I try, change or improve the sinful flesh. There is absolutely nothing I can do to change myself; I must die to self. The good news is that I can die daily by remembering my baptism: “All of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death [Romans 6:3]” We did die and we did rise to newness of life. Change is occurring, and we can believe it.
The complete change will come; this is a mystery. When the dead is raised incorruptible we shall be changed. Oh, what a day that will be: everything bad and negative will be totally changed into everything good and positive.