universe is also saying—and grounds it as something more than a mere spiritual
or miraculous belief. It must also be a fully practical and material belief! If
matter is inhabited by God, then matter is somehow eternal, and when the
creed says, we believe in the “resurrection of the body,” it means our bodies too
and not just Jesus’s body! As in him, so also in all of us. As in all of us, so also in
him. So I am quite conservative and orthodox by most standards on this
important issue, although I also realize it seems to be a very different kind of
embodiment from all of the resurrection accounts in the Gospels. I believe in “a
new heaven and a new earth” (Isaiah 65:17, Romans 8:18–25, 2 Peter 3:13,
Revelation 21:1); and I believe the resurrection of Jesus is like the icon you click
on your computer to get to the right place.
Christianity’s true and unique story line has always been incarnation. If
creation is “very good” (Genesis 1:34) at its very inception, how could such a
divine agenda ever be undone by any human failure to fully cooperate? “Very
good” sets us on a trajectory toward resurrection, it seems to me. God does not
lose or fail. That is what it means to be God.
Jesus and Christ are both the CliffsNotes read on Reality for those of us who
do not have time or mind to analyze the whole situation by ourselves. And who
does in one small lifetime?