No Ordinary Bodies

1 Corinthians 6:14 - “And God raised the Lord and will also raise us up by his power.”

In June of 1941, with Britain still at war and the Blitz only weeks behind it, C. S. Lewis stood to preach at the University Church of St Mary the Virgin in Oxford. The sermon was called “The Weight of Glory,” and near the end he spoke a line that has haunted readers ever since: There are no ordinary people.

The dullest, most forgettable person you will ever encounter, he said, may be on a path toward becoming a creature so glorious that if you saw them now as they will one day be, you might be tempted to kneel and worship. We spend our whole lives among immortals, disguised for the moment as ordinary people. Which means we aren’t temporary scenery in one another’s lives.

Lewis was drawing on the Bible’s vision of resurrection glory.

Jesus once promised that in the kingdom of their Father, “the righteous will shine like the sun.” And Paul plants that same hope in one short line in our passage: “And God raised the Lord and will also raise us up by his power.” So, one reason your body is worth so much is because God is going to raise it. There is a physical, glorified, risen Jesus on heaven’s throne at this very moment, and what the Father did with His body He has promised to do with yours. The resurrection of Jesus was the first sunrise of a morning the rest of us will share.

To adapt Lewis’ line, there are no ordinary bodies either. That body you catch in the mirror and cringe at — the one with the bad knee, the old scars, the weight that won’t leave, the face aging faster than you’d like — that exact body is a resurrection waiting to happen. God’s plan for it is resurrection, not replacement. He intends to raise it, transform it, and set it shining. The thing you’ve been tempted to treat as a disappointment is a prince or princess’ body in its work clothes.

Lewis’ conclusion: if there are no ordinary people, then there are no throwaway moments; we’re always dealing with immortals. Paul draws a conclusion just as startling and points it straight at the body in the mirror: if this body is bound for glory, then what we do with it now genuinely matters. You can’t treat as worthless what God has crowned with a future. How we eat and rest and work, what we give this body to and what we guard it from, all of it takes on weight once we remember where the body is headed. We’re stewarding a body with a destiny.

Your body’s future is as certain as the empty tomb outside Jerusalem. God has already done this once, in the flesh, in history, and the risen body of Jesus is the receipt. He rose as the firstfruits, the very first of a harvest He fully intends to bring in, and by sheer grace He has folded you into it. Your resurrection isn’t a reward you’re working toward, but a gift already secured, waiting up ahead with your name on it.

So the next time you’re tempted to despise the body you live in, remember what Paul promised. You’ve never met an ordinary body. You’ve certainly never lived in one. This aching, temporary, unglamorous frame is a glory in seed form, and the God who raised His Son will one day raise you, and you will shine! Can I get an amen?!

Today: Read today’s verse three or four times, out loud if you can: “And God raised the Lord and will also raise us up by his power.” The first time, hear it as history, something God actually did in a garden outside Jerusalem. The second time, lean on the word us, and put yourself inside it. The third time, hold your own hand up in front of your face, look at it, and say the verse again over that hand, that wrist, that aging and ordinary body: this will be raised. Then say it again for good measure. Let the promise sink into the body you’re reading it with.

Prayer: “Thank You, Father, that the body I so often complain about is one You intend to raise and glorify. Thank You that You proved it in the flesh, in an empty tomb, so that I can lean on something You’ve already done and not on wishful thinking. Steady me with that future on the days I’m tempted to despise or misuse the very body You’re going to raise. In Jesus’ name, Amen.”

-PK