Secrets from Beyond The Grave

Events after Christ's resurrection give us the clues.

Four Things a Resurrected Body Can Do

The same supernatural abilities Christ had after His resurrection will be abilities every resurrected believer will enjoy. The Bible indicates that after Christ arose, He was seen alive for forty days (Acts 1:3). On one occasion, at His ascension, more than five hundred men saw Christ at one time as He was taken up into heaven (1 Cor. 15:6). During the forty days in His resurrected body Christ could do the following things. 1. Christ could walk through a door that was locked (John 20:19). Following Jesus's crucifixion, the disciples were fearful for their own lives and, for fear of the Jews, went into hiding in a house with the doors and windows completely shut (John 20:19). Huddled like a group of orphaned boys who had just lost their dad, they were stunned when Christ walked through the locked door and appeared in the same room. Christ did not knock but actually moved from outside to inside the house, passing through a solid door. I can understand angels, which are spirits created from a different dimension than flesh, being able to transport themselves through a solid object. But if Christ has a body with visible scars, then how did His body (He called it "flesh and bone" in Luke 24:39), move through a solid object? I would break my bones trying to run through any closed door! This is one of the most unique mysteries in the New Testament. Remember that Paul called the reality of the resurrection and the new body the dead will receive "a mystery" (1 Cor. 15:51-52). However, if Christ was enabled in His new, raised body to pass through solids, then all future resurrected saints will be able to do the same. John wrote: Beloved, now we are children of God; and it has not yet been revealed what we shall be, but we know that when He is revealed, we shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is. --1 John 3:2 At the tomb in the early morning, Christ told Mary: Touch me not; for I am not yet ascended to my Father: but go to my brethren, and say unto them, I ascend unto my Father, and your Father; and to my God, and your God. --John 20:17, KJV The phrase "touch me not" may allude to the fact that on the Day of Atonement when the high priest was ministering in the holy of holies (only once a year), no one was permitted to touch him physically due to defilement. The Greek in John 20:17 can read, "Do not cling to me."7 Some suggest Christ was speaking about His ascension to the Father forty days later. However, the way the statement is worded, Christ was saying, "I am preparing now to ascend--so do not delay Me right now." Again, His purpose for ascending was to cleanse the articles in the heavenly temple and fulfill the pattern in the Torah for presenting a lamb (Himself) and the firstfruits (Himself) at the temple. This encounter with Christ and Mary happened early in the morning. Christ would have 2. Christ could reappear and disappear at will (Luke 24:31, 36).