Full redemption awaits the resurrection
The intermediate state is not the end: salvation is consummated when Christ returns and we receive a glorified body.
When is full redemption completed? According to an article by Coalición por el Evangelio, many believers assume everything ends at death. The Bible shows another goal.
An intermediate state, not the end
The article's author, Samuel García, points out that death does not close the story of salvation. Those who die in Christ go to God's presence and rest from a fallen world, but that time is still a waiting period. Theology calls the period between a person's death and Christ's second coming the "intermediate state."
In Revelation 6:9-11, John sees the souls of those who died for the Word of God. They cry out: "O Sovereign Lord, holy and true, how long before you will judge and avenge our blood on those who dwell on the earth?" (Revelation 6:10, ESV).
«The full redemption of the person comes with the resurrection of the body.»
The answer they receive is to rest a little longer, until the number of their fellow servants is complete. García states that this cry reveals that dead believers await God's continued work on behalf of His people.
It's helpful to distinguish two things. When Jesus said "It is finished" (John 19:30, ESV), He fully paid the price for our redemption, and whoever believes in Him is already forgiven and justified. What they have not yet received is the full redemption of their person: the restoration of their whole being.
Why the body matters
García goes back to the beginning of the Bible to explain. God formed man from the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, "and the man became a living creature" (Genesis 2:7, ESV). The human being is the union of a material and an immaterial part.
Sin brought death, which separates those two parts. The body returns to dust and the spirit returns to God who gave it (see Ecclesiastes 12:7). That's why salvation includes reuniting the soul and body, and that happens at Christ's second coming.
Paul writes it this way: "For this perishable body must put on the imperishable, and this mortal body must put on immortality" (1 Corinthians 15:53, ESV). Believers groan, waiting for adoption, that is, the redemption of our bodies (see Romans 8:23).
The incarnation and bodily resurrection of Jesus confirm that the physical matters to God. If the redemptive purpose did not include the body, García explains, there would be no reason for the Son of God to become man.
The goal: to be like Christ
Paul teaches that the goal of the Christian life is to reach the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ (see Ephesians 4:13). That encompasses the whole person. Until we have a new body, we cannot fully reflect the image of the risen Christ.
Therefore, glorification is the final moment of our redemption, García maintains. He encourages directing our greatest longing toward the Lord's second coming and teaching these topics in churches.
While you wait for that day, let the hope of the resurrection order your priorities. Take care of your body, because God created it and will restore it. Live today with your eyes on Christ, knowing that the best part of your salvation is yet to come.
