# What does it mean that our bodies are united in Christ in the grave?



## jwithnell (Jun 15, 2016)

At a graveside service this week, a phrase from the WCF Shorter Catechism blew me away: "... their bodies, being still united in Christ, do rest in their graves, till the resurrection." Question #37.

There is real hope; God does not abandon us to the grave. But what does this mean? 

The supporting texts draw on such verses as "... I know that my redeemer lives, and at the last He will take His stand on the [h]earth. Even after my skin _is destroyed, yet from my flesh I shall see God ..." But the context is clearly at Christ's return; this speaks of an eschatological hope. We know that Jesus is the first fruit of the dead and that he has ascended to sit at the right hand of his father. So how can our union with Christ be understood in relationship to our dead bodies before the resurrection? I kind of expected to see "For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor any other created thing, will be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord." But the catechism doesn't go there. 

So what does this mean?_


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## timfost (Jun 15, 2016)

It may be helpful to see how this first related to Christ.

Belgic 19:



> But these two natures are so closely united in one Person that they were not separated even by His death. Therefore that which He, when dying, commended into the hands of His Father, was a real human spirit, departing from His body. But in the meantime the divine nature always remained united with the human, even when He lay in the grave; and the Godhead did not cease to be in Him, any more than it did when He was an infant, though it did not so clearly manifest itself for a while. Wherefore we confess that He is very God and very man: very God by His power to conquer death; and very man that He might die for us according to the infirmity of His flesh.



If Christ represented our whole person, the power which enabled Him to remain united to His own body in death is the same power which unites even the dead in Christ who now remain separated in body and soul.


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## Contra_Mundum (Jun 15, 2016)

If I may but add to Tim's helpful reply, the following questions from Heidelberg Catechism teach something similar:


> Q1. What is your only comfort in life and death?
> A. That I am not my own, but *belong with body and soul*, both in life *and in death*, to my faithful Saviour Jesus Christ....
> 
> Q34. Why do you call Him our Lord?
> A. Because He has ransomed *us, body and soul*...



The text of the catechism repeatedly emphasizes this dual aspect of our nature, as well as confessing bodily resurrection; and uses the language of "body" much with reference to the Lord's Supper, Qs 75-80.


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## jwithnell (Jun 15, 2016)

Our sister confessions can sometimes be very helpful. Thanks, Tim. 

My mind traces this our further to consider that the creation (man) is separate from the creator. In our union with Christ, just how far are we united to His capabilities (for lack of a better word). We die when God decrees we have lived our last day. Jesus did not have his life taken from Him. He chose to remain under the power of death for three days. He rose again with the same power by which He brought forth Lazarus from the grave. Just thinking out loud here ...


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## Rev. Todd Ruddell (Jun 16, 2016)

The Apostle, in 1 Thessalonians 4, declaraes that we "sleep in Jesus". This is an obvious reference to our bodies, for our souls are present with the Lord. Even in this unnatural separation of soul and body we remain united to Christ as whole human beings, soul and body.


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## jwithnell (Jun 16, 2016)

Rev. Buchanan, I had somehow missed your reply. Thank you! And Rev. Ruddell, the Thessalonians passage is extremely helpful. Thanks! I've delighted in knowing our bodies will be resurrected, but somehow these references to the time between our deaths and the second advent had never previously registered with me. Truly nothing will separate us from the love of Christ. Praise God!


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