Romans 8:11  If the Spirit of Him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, He who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through His Spirit who dwells in you.

How's our resurrection coming along? In the sermon quoted here, Luther later states that our resurrection is already halfway there. Even more than half. Jesus is busy at work with us right now. He is risen from the dead and He is working. He is raising us sinners from death to life through His Word and Holy Baptism. We're over halfway.

If you're driving across the country or running a marathon, it's great to be more than halfway there. But we will also groan because we desperately want to be all the way there. It's no different when it comes to our resurrection. We give God all glory and praise that we are already spiritually raised to new life in Jesus. We are baptized and forgiven! At the same time, we also groan deeply for our full and complete resurrection (Romans 8:23). We want to leave this world of sin, death, and decay behind us. And we can barely wait for the glory that will be ours on the Last Day when Jesus will raise our bodies from the dust to perfection and immortality.

Consider a seed planted in the ground. If we had never seen anyone plant a seed in the ground, the entire idea would certainly sound foolish and ignorant. How could a dead seed bring anything good? Yet God uses that seed to produce new life. In the same way, our bodies will truly rise from the dirt, new and glorious. "Behold," He says, "I am making all things new" (Revelation 21:5).
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