Your Body is Not Going to Heaven and Neither Is Your Race

“For we know that if our earthly house, this tent, is destroyed, we have a building from God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens. For in this we groan, earnestly desiring to be clothed with our habitation which is from heaven, if indeed, having been clothed, we shall not be found naked.  For we who are in this tent groan, being burdened, not because we want to be unclothed, but further clothed, that mortality may be swallowed up by life.  Now He who has prepared us for this very thing is God, who also has given us the Spirit as a guarantee. So we are always confident, knowing that while we are at home in the body we are absent from the Lord.  For we walk by faith, not by sight. We are confident, yes, well pleased rather to be absent from the body and to be present with the Lord.” – 2 Corinthians 5:1-8

I recently heard someone say that they didn’t believe white people and black people should go to the same church.  It just makes me BEYOND angry to hear such ignorance because it is rooted in hatred.  Yet every ignorant thought can be defeated by God’s word.  1 John 4:20 clearly says that you cannot love God, who you have not seen, if you don’t love your brother, whom you have seen.  Therefore, I will tell you that those that feel this way have not experienced fully their salvation.  Grow in grace is my message to you if you are of this ridiculous inclination!

This kind also believes that in Heaven we will be our current race: Black, White, Asian, Indian, Spanish, and others.  Oh brothers and sisters in Christ!  Please let this sink in.  We are ONE race, and we are ONE body of Christ.  Or do you expect the One Body of Christ to be separated into various colors, one Black body and one White body?  God asked us to live in unity, and Christ even prayed that we would be one as He and God are one.  This kind of ignorance has to stop!  It is rooted in hatred, and that has no place in the heart of a Christian.
God’s word defeats all false notions we have, regardless of the topic.  In this passage from 2 Corinthians 5, Paul clearly tells us that “this tent”, our earthly body, will be destroyed and we will be clothes with a new house not made with hands.  We will be “absent” from this body when we are “present” with the Lord in Heaven. 

The word ‘tent’ used in this passage is from the Greek word “skēnos” (Strongs G4366) which means a temporary dwelling.  Specifically it refers to our body, which is a temporary dwelling for our soul.  Our soul will not enter Heaven in this body, but will be “clothed” in one not created by hands, but created by God.  The word ‘clothed’ is “endyō” in Greek (Strongs G1746) which has a beautiful meaning of “sinking into clothing”.  Our new ‘house’ is a permanent dwelling, coming from the Greek word Oikia (Strongs G3614) which means “an inhabited edifice, a dwelling”.

Galatians 3:27-28 says “For as many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ. There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is neither male nor female; for you are all one in Christ Jesus.”  Well, guess what! The words ‘have put on’ are also translated from the Greek word ‘Oikia’.  And there is no ‘Jew’ or ‘Greek’, the rivaling races of that time, in the body.  Likewise, there will be no racial division in the bodies in Heaven. 

Brothers and Sisters in Christ, if God thinks so lowly of this body that it will be destroyed and replaced, why should we recognize the color of its skin?  Nowhere in God’s word will you read where He has asked us to be separated – not in worship, not in marriage, not in community, not in any way what so ever.  I challenge you to find otherwise.  We have created these boundaries out of the stupidity of hatred and tradition, and these walls have to fall.  When Christ said ‘love one another even as I have loved you’ He meant love everyone, not just those like you. 


 “But someone will say, “How are the dead raised up? And with what body do they come?”  Foolish one, what you sow is not made alive unless it dies.  And what you sow, you do not sow that body that shall be, but mere grain—perhaps wheat or some other grain.  But God gives it a body as He pleases, and to each seed its own body.

 All flesh is not the same flesh, but there is ONE KIND OF FLESH OF MEN, another flesh of animals, another of fish, and another of birds.

There are also celestial bodies and terrestrial bodies; but the glory of the celestial is one, and the glory of the terrestrial is another. There is one glory of the sun, another glory of the moon, and another glory of the stars; for one star differs from another star in glory.

So also is the resurrection of the dead. THE BODY IS SOWN IN CORRUPTION, IT IS RAISED IN INCORRUPTION.  It is sown in dishonor, it is raised in glory. It is sown in weakness, it is raised in power. It is sown a NATURAL BODY, it is raised a SPIRITUAL BODY. There is a natural body, and there is a spiritual body. And so it is written, “The first man Adam became a living being.” The last Adam became a life-giving spirit.

However, the spiritual is not first, but the natural, and afterward the spiritual.The first man was of the earth, made of dust; the second Man is the Lord from heaven. As was the man of dust, so also are those who are made of dust; and as is the heavenly Man, so also are those who are heavenly. And as we have borne the image of the man of dust, we shall also bear the image of the heavenly Man.

Now this I say, brethren, that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God; nor does corruption inherit incorruption. Behold, I tell 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 trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed. For this corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality. So when this corruptible has put on incorruption, and this mortal has put on immortality, then shall be brought to pass the saying that is written: “Death is swallowed up in victory.” – 1 Corinthians 15:35-54

…and that, my friends, will be the end of racism once and for all!  Praise God!