A glad word on the risen Christ from Pastor John! Paragraph formatting and emphasis in bold are mine.
The risen Christ who reigns in heaven today and intercedes for us with the Father is a rejected stone! He has flesh and bones! He is one of us. And this truth contains good news for now and good news for later. For now it means this:
We do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who in every respect has been tempted as we are, yet without sinning. Let us then with confidence draw near to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need. (Hebrews 4:15–16)
For he too is a rejected stone with pierced hands and flesh and bone!
But not only that. This truth is also good news for the future.
Get every ethereal, ghost-like conception of the coming kingdom out of your head. The God-man is not going to rule over invisible spirits and ghosts. “If the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, he who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will give life to your mortal bodies.”
We will eat broiled fish in the kingdom! We will hold it in our physical hands and stand on our feet.
And there will be no more wheel chairs or crutches or cancer or paralysis or leukemia or allergies or arthritis any more.
For we will bear the image of the Son of God, and we will see him and touch him and marvel at him forever and ever, because the divine stone which is now at the head of the corner is the very same human stone that was once rejected.
From The Marvelous Rising of a Rejected Stone delivered by Pastor John Piper, March 30, 1986
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