Kootenai Church: Hebrews

Well, this sermon is a bit of a housekeeping sermon, kind of a cleanup on aisle eleven, Hebrews 11 specifically, because last week we skipped over two phrases that are in this list of things, trials and tribulations, that are endured by faith that we find in Hebrews 11. We looked at verses 33–38 and covered the triumphs of faith in verses 33–34 and the tribulations of faith in verses 35–38. And there were two phrases in there that we made reference to but kind of skipped over in terms of treating them with any depth because if we were to sort of get off in the weeds to talk about those two explanatory phrases, it would have detracted from the study of the list itself and the point that the author has in listing both the triumphs and tribulations of faith.
So I promised you last week that we would use this week to focus in on those two phrases. You find one of them in verse 35 and one of them in verse 38. Let's read together beginning at verse 35. This verse begins the tribulations of faith. Verse 35:
35 Women received back their dead by resurrection; and others were tortured, not accepting their release, so that they might obtain a better resurrection;
36 and others experienced mockings and scourgings, yes, also chains and imprisonment.
37 They were stoned, they were sawn in two, they were tempted, they were put to death with the sword; they went about in sheepskins, in goatskins, being destitute, afflicted, ill-treated
38 (men of whom the world was not worthy), wandering in deserts and mountains and caves and holes in the ground. (Heb. 11:35–38 NASB)
The two phrases, one in verse 35—“so that they may obtain a better resurrection”—and one in verse 38—“men of whom the world was not worthy”—those two phrases are not things suffered or enjoyed by faith that kind of fit in with all of the list of triumphs and tribulations of faith that we have in these verses. They're something of parenthetical statements, kind of explanatory notes that the author gives. And these two statements are connected together. There is a connection. It's not going to appear to you at first glance, but I promise you, once you see the connection, you will never be able to unsee the connection between these two phrases. And it's glorious what is contained in them. So it's worth our time to spend it focused on what is the better resurrection and why is it that the world was not worthy of these men?
I want you to remember the context. The context is the author explaining the blessings and benefits of faith—real, saving faith, faith that justifies, faith in God's Word, taking God's Word at face value and enjoying His promises and trusting in them. And by faith we look, as with everyone else in this list, we look for a better world, a better resurrection, because we are made for a better world and because we are rejected by the world in which we live now. This is something that is true of everyone else who is in this list. All the heroes of faith in Hebrews 11, they were all looking forward to and anticipating a better world because they were made for a better world, faith fits them for a better world, and because they, because of their faith, were unfit for the world in which we currently live. We hope for a world and we look for a world to come. That's the better resurrection in verse 35. And we are rejected by the world that is, and that is the point of the statement in verse 38—we are men and women of whom the world is not worthy.
So let's look at the first phrase, verse 35. The righteous are made for the world that is to come. The righteous are made for a world that is to come. Hebrews 11:35: “Women received back their dead by resurrection; and others were tortured, not accepting their release, so that they might obtain a better resurrection.” The term better sort of speaks of some sort of a comparison that is in the mind of the author, and we don't have to go even outside of the verse to understand what he is comparing the better resurrection to. It is the resurrections mentioned at the beginning of the verse. Women received back their dead by resurrection. That is a reference to at least two instances in the Old Testament where women received back their dead children by resurrection, one at the hands of Elijah in 1 Kings 17—that was the widow of Zarephath—and one at the hands of Elisha in 2 Kings 4, the Shunammite woman. Those women received back their sons to physical life in this world, but those women also would have known that even in receiving back their sons to life that those sons were to die again. So those women received back their dead by faith, by the faith of Elijah, by the faith of themselves. They received back their dead by resurrection, but that was a resurrection that only meant they were restored to life in this world and that eventually those children who were restored to life in this world would themselves eventually die again.
Some are faithful even unto death, suffering torture, verse 35 says, “not accepting their release, so that they might obtain a better resurrection.” You see, there is a resurrection that is different than the resurrection at the beginning of verse 35. It's what we would call a better resurrection. This better resurrection was in fact the Old Testament hope of the Old Testament saints, and we can see it in Old Testament passages which I'm going to read here in just a moment, but the instance that the author is referring to in verse 35 when he says, “Others were tortured, not accepting their release, so that they might obtain a better resurrection,” that incident doesn't come from the Old Testament. What is in mind there in the mind of the author is an instance from between the writing of the Old Testament and the writing of the New Testament, during that four hundred years. And I mentioned this last week, and I want to read to you again a couple of passages from the book of 2 Maccabees which describes a persecution under Antiochus Epiphanes.
Second Maccabees 6–7 describes the instance when Antiochus Epiphanies tried to get the Jews in Jerusalem, in Israel, to apostatize from Yahweh and to deny Him and blaspheme Him by consuming pork. And so they tried to force-feed faithful Jews swine's flesh in order to get them to violate the law of God. And they resisted even up to the point of death and instead embraced torture and eventually execution rather than apostatize and rather than violate the law. And 2 Maccabees describes this incident of a mother with seven sons, all who died rather than disobeying God. And the confessions of some of these sons is recorded in 2 Maccabees. And listen to them—I read two of them to you last week. I'm going to read a third one this week. Listen to the confession that they have in the hope of a resurrection. And keep in mind these things were spoken and written before the New Testament era, before Christ came into the world, after the Old Testament, the record of the Old Testament, was over.
Second Maccabees 7:9–11:
9 And when he was at the last gasp [that is, one who was being forced to eat swine's flesh or die], he said, “Thou, miscreant, dost release us out of this present life, but the King of the world shall raise up us, who have died for his laws, unto an eternal renewal of life.”
10 And after him was the third made a mockingstock. And when he was required, he quickly put out his tongue, and stretched forth his hands courageously.
11 And nobly said [listen to this confession], “From heaven I possess these [that is, hands and tongue]; and for his law's sake I condemn these; and from him I hope to receive these back again.
That's beautiful. It is because of the grace of Heaven that I possess this tongue and these hands. And for the sake of the laws of Him who gave these to me, I will condemn these hands and this tongue to death. And from that very One whose laws I am obeying, I hope to receive them back again in eternal life. That is a confession, a belief in a bodily resurrection.
Second Maccabees 7:14: “And being come near unto death he said thus: ‘It is good to die at the hands of men and look for the hopes which are given by God, that we shall be raised up again by him; for as for thee, thou shalt have no resurrection unto life.’” That is a confession of men and women who were willing to die, to be tortured, and did not accept their release because they had belief in a better resurrection. That belief in a better resurrection was a belief in a literal, physical, bodily resurrection from the dead in a body that is the bodies in which we live, but the bodies that are changed and made fit for an eternal dwelling for the people of God. A literal, bodily, physical resurrection. The same body but in a different form.
And the faithful believe that death in this life leads them to resurrection and eternal life in the life that is to come. This was the Old Testament hope. You remember back on Resurrection Sunday, in Job 19, I read to you and we looked at the confession that Job gave concerning his body, which was rotting away right in front of him. Job said, “As for me, I know that my Redeemer lives, and at the last He will take His stand on the earth. Even after my skin is destroyed, yet from my flesh I shall see God; whom I myself shall behold, and whom my eyes will see and not another. My heart faints within me!” (vv. 25–27) That was Job's confession. I know that even after this body perishes and is consumed by worms, yet he believed. He knows. He said, “I know that in my own flesh, this flesh, I myself and not another, from this body and not another, I will look and behold my Redeemer and see Him take His stand upon the earth.” That's a belief in and a confession of bodily resurrection.
Remember Hebrews 11 says of Abraham that he was willing to offer up Isaac because he considered that God is able to raise people from the dead. Verse 19 of chapter 11: “Even from the dead, from which he also received him back as a type.” Isaiah 26:19: “Your dead will live; their corpses will rise. You who lie in the dust, awake and shout for joy, for your dew is as the dew of the dawn, and the earth will give birth to the departed spirits.” The Old Testament prophet says the earth will give birth to the departed spirits. Daniel 12:2: “Many of those who sleep in the dust of the ground will awake, these to everlasting life, but the others to disgrace and everlasting contempt.”
Bodily resurrection is not a doctrine invented by New Testament authors. It is not a doctrine unheard of until the coming of Christ. Bodily resurrection was the belief of Old Testament saints who were faithful to the Scriptures, who could read passages like Abraham offering up Isaac and Job 19 and Isaiah 26 and Daniel 2 and so many other passages in the Old Testament that describe the resurrection hope of the faithful believer in Yahweh. So even between the Testaments and prior to the New Testament, you have these robust confessions of belief in a better resurrection. This is the Old Testament hope. And by hope we're not talking about something we wish were true but something we have utter confidence is actually true, upon which we have set our faith and our confidence and our belief. That's what a hope is. It's not wishful thinking. It's an expectation of confidence that we have in something. That's the Old Testament hope.
This is why Paul, in the book of Acts, describes the resurrection of the just and the unjust as the hope to which our fathers longed to see. In Acts 23, standing before the Sanhedrin, Paul said—or sorry, Luke writes: “But perceiving that one group were Sadducees and the other Pharisees, Paul began crying out in the Council, ‘Brethren, I am a Pharisee, a son of Pharisees; I am on trial for the hope and resurrection of the dead!” (v. 6) That, by the way, was a brilliant stroke of genius by the apostle Paul because the only thing that the Pharisees and the Sadducees had in common at any time in their existence was their mutual hatred for the apostle Paul and his message. But when Paul could stand in an assembly where half of them are Sadducees and half of them are Pharisees and jump on one side and say, “I believe in the hope of the resurrection, and that's why I'm on trial today,” instantly every Pharisee in that group was on Paul's side, and every Sadducee in that group wanted Paul dead. And Paul was able to escape being torn apart in the midst of that assembly simply because of that stroke of genius. But notice how he describes his hope. “I am on trial for the hope and resurrection of the dead” (Acts 23:6). Paul preached a bodily resurrection of Jesus Christ, and therefore a bodily resurrection of all those who belong to Jesus Christ, since He is the firstfruits of that resurrection. And for that reason, they hated him.
Standing before Felix in Acts 24:14, Paul says,
14 But this I admit to you, that according to the Way which they call a sect I do serve the God of our fathers, believing everything that is in accordance with the Law and that is written in the Prophets;
15 having a hope in God, which these men cherish themselves, that there shall certainly be a resurrection of both the righteous and the wicked. (Acts 24:14–15 NASB)
I have the same hope that these men have from the Old Testament, Paul says, namely, the hope that there will certainly be a resurrection of the righteous and the wicked.
Standing before Agrippa in Acts 26:6–7, Paul says, “Now I am standing trial for the hope of the promise made by God to our fathers; the promise to which our twelve tribes hope to attain, as they earnestly serve God night and day. And for this hope, O King, I am being accused by Jews.” What hope? He answers it by asking them, “Why is it considered incredible among you people if God does raise the dead?” (v. 8) That's the hope. So since that is the hope to which all Old Testament saints long, since that is the hope to which all of the twelve tribes hope to attain someday, that resurrection of the dead, if I preach that resurrection, since I am simply proclaiming the very thing that all of the Old Testament prophets promised and all of the Old Testament anticipated and all the saints of the Old Testament could expect, since I'm proclaiming that, why am I on trial? Why is it considered unbelievable to you people if God should raise the dead? But that's the hope of the Old Testament and the New Testament.
And look at verse 35 of chapter 11. This resurrection to which we hope to attain, this resurrection which is our hope, is called a better resurrection. That word better is one of the themes all the way through the book of Hebrews. Do you remember we've seen this over and over again? Jesus is better than the angels. Jesus is better than Aaron, better than Moses, better than Joshua, better than Melchizedek. He offers us a better rest than the Old Testament rest. He has given a better ministry. He is a better priest who offers better sacrifices, shedding a better blood so that we might have a better hope and receive a better covenant. He gives us better intercessions built upon better promises. Right? All of the theme of Hebrews is better.
Well, now we have a better resurrection. This resurrection is better because it fulfills something that is prior. All the other things that I mentioned here in Hebrews 11 that are contrasted with something we have that is better, all of those things are fulfilled or heightened in Hebrews. So all these things that we had prior that we now have a “better than this,” this thing that is “better than” fulfills and completes that which came prior, which was a symbol or a shadow pointing forward to the thing that is now better. So the better resurrection that we have is actually the ultimate fulfillment. This better resurrection is the ultimate fulfillment of all the other resurrections that came prior to it. What were the other resurrections that came prior to it? The one by Elijah, the one by Elisha, those by Jesus, the one by Paul, and the one by Peter. All of those literal, physical, life-giving resurrections simply looked forward to and anticipated the great resurrection which is to come, which is why Jesus, at the tomb of Lazarus, says, “I am the resurrection and the life; he who believes in Me will live even if he dies, and everyone who lives and believes in Me will never die. Do you believe this?” (John 11:25–26). See, He claimed to be the resurrection and the life, the one who ultimately, according to John 5, will speak and all of the dead will come out of their tombs. He will simply say the word and He will raise all men, some to life everlasting and some to eternal condemnation and damnation, as Daniel 12 promised. But by the word of Christ He will do this, and He proves the fact that He is able to do this by simply saying, “Lazarus, come forth.” He calls forth one.
See, every resurrection that is done in Scripture points forward to something else. What is the something else? It's the better resurrection that is to come. So every time we read of a resurrection in the Old Testament, we should be thinking in our minds this is just a preview, this is a trailer of what is to come, something better that we can expect, something that is heightened, something that fulfills all those other shadows that anticipate the great and final resurrection that is the better one.
The better resurrection will be different in duration because those who are raised in the better resurrection will never die. Those who are raised prior to this, they die again. Lazarus died again. The Shunammite woman's son died again. All of those who have been raised up to this point, except for Christ, have died again. But Christ is the firstfruits of the first resurrection, and so He is not subject to death any longer. The next resurrection will be different in glory. It will be a heavenly resurrection into a heavenly body instead of an earthly body. That better resurrection will be different in quality. We'll be raised into a new creation and not back into this sinful world. Previous resurrections were resurrections to life, reinstatements to life, that simply put them back into this world as it is. The resurrection that is to come will put us into an eternal world.
This is our hope. If there is no resurrection, you and I are of all men and women most to be pitied. That's what Paul says in 1 Corinthians 15:19. Because it is in these bodies and in this life that we sacrifice. In this world we suffer death and torture and trials and tribulations and persecutions. We are faced with imprisonment and the seizure of our property. We are mocked and hated and slandered and ridiculed and reproached. In our bodies we suffer in this life disease and injury and infirmity and ultimately death. And the hope of the believer is that in the life that is to come, these bodies that have suffered will be glorified, these bodies that have endured trials by faith will enjoy the glories of the world that is to come, and these bodies which live now with infirmity will enjoy everlasting and eternal power and the body that dies in this life will rise again in the next. And so this is not—what we're talking about in a better resurrection is not a mere resuscitation to life in this world. It is something far beyond that. It is the literal, bodily, physical, eternal resurrection, and this is the hope of the saint.
I am at a point now in my life, having turned fifty—got caught right there—having turned fifty, that I am well aware that I am below the half-tank marker in the vehicle. I've got less than half a tank left to run on. I know that. There's more road in the rearview mirror than there is through the front window of the vehicle. Now, some of you would say, “But it's possible that you could live to be a hundred.” Trust me when I say, as the one driving this vehicle, I have less than a half a tank left in this. I know some of you are looking at me and you're thinking, “Yeah, I would wish to be your age and have at least almost a half a tank left because long ago the little light came on and I heard the ding inside the cabin and we're down on zero. I'm running on reserve. I'm not sure how many—” Maybe I've driven this analogy far too far already. But as one who now knows that I have less than half of a tank left—some of you are on the reserve tank. Listen, our hope, our confidence, what we are assured of, being confident of what we have never seen, is that we will be raised in physical bodies with a full tank that will never be exhausted. It will never leave full. And we will enjoy that for all of eternity. That is God's promise to His people. That is the better resurrection.
Those who endure the tribulations of faith do so and must do so with their eyes, their hearts, and their affections fixed on the world that is to come, on the kingdom that is to come. If you wake up in the morning and you are sore and you're achy and your joints are not quite working and you have to hobble for the first three hours of your day just to loosen everything up again, if that's your condition, listen. Suffer those first three hours, endure those first three hours by reminding yourself perpetually that there is coming a day in which that will never happen ever again and you will live and dwell in that body forever. And you will be ten thousand years old in that body and there will never be a creak or an ache or a pain or a sickness, an illness, or an infirmity that will afflict that body like all of those things afflict the body that you now have. But you and I have to fix our minds and our hopes and our affections upon the kingdom that is to come, the resurrection body that we are promised, and the glory of that next and new creation, looking to our Savior, who Himself was raised to newness of life, Himself was raised so that death has no more dominion over Him. That is His promise to every last one who has placed their faith in Him. So the righteous look forward to the glories of the world that is to come.
In verse 38, we are rejected by the world that is. Read verse 38: “(men of whom the world was not worthy), wandering in deserts and mountains and caves and holes in the ground.” I want you to notice from the immediate context that the author is describing those who are stoned and sawn in two and put to death with the sword, who wander about in poverty, being destitute and afflicted and ill-treated. They're wanderers. They have none of this world's glories, none of this world's treasures, and instead they suffer all of the trials and tribulations that are listed in verses 35–38. He's not describing, when he says that these are men—and we can say as well, women—of whom the world is not worthy, he's not describing celebrities or kings or princes or entertainers or captains of industry or TikTok influencers. He's not describing any of those people. The world looks at those people and says the world is not worthy of these people. We just don't deserve Beyoncé. We don't deserve Cher. We don't deserve Oprah. We don't deserve Bono. We don't deserve anybody else with one name. Instead, these people are so far above us, they're so glorious, they're so great that we're just not even deserving of these people. And so all the adoration and worship is given to these people. That's how the world views those. You know how they view those who belong to Yahweh? As worthy of being stoned, sawn in two, put to death by the sword. Worthy of being excluded from all that this world offers.
There are two assessments in verse 38 that I want you to notice. I want you to notice God's assessment of these people, which is stated very plainly. These are men of whom the world is not worthy. That's God's assessment of them, these people, heroes of faith. This is God's assessment of His people. The world is not worthy of them. But before we look at that, I want you to look at the flip side of this. There is another assessment here, and it is the world's assessment of God's people. That is that those who belong to Yahweh are not worthy of being included in this world. That is why they are sawn in two and stoned and put to death by the sword and driven out into foxholes and caves and holes in the grounds, wandering about ill-treated and afflicted and being destitute in this world. Because the world views the people of God as not fit to be with them in this world. So the world and the world system looks at the people that belong to Yahweh, the people of faith, and says they don't deserve to be among us.
Culturally, you don't deserve to be here. This is how the world thinks. Culturally, you don't deserve to be here. You don't fit in with our culture. Our culture is going this direction, our culture has these affections and values, and you don't belong to that. You're different. So you don't deserve to be part of our culture.
And not only that but morally you don't fit with us. Morally, we're progressing. We're getting past all of the archaic and old and bygone moral values, and our world is moving forward with a different set of morality, a different idea of what is right and wrong, where we're the captain of our own souls and the captains of our own fate. That's our morality. Our morality is that truth is whatever we want it to be and we can live our own truth and do our own thing and be accountable to no one. And you Christians, you don't fit in with us morally.
And you don't fit in with us intellectually. You see a bunch of unscientific rubes that believe that God created everything in six literal twenty-four hours days, that the world was perfect and then fell into sin, that there was a worldwide flood, that there's a people of God whom He cherishes and knows and loves, that He set His affections on them. Those are all just unscientific, antiquated notions of a bygone era and a bygone world. Morally, culturally, and intellectually, you do not belong with us. They're right, by the way.
And so they say we should be driven out of this world. We should be driven into caves and holes. We should be made destitute of basic necessities. They will want to seize your property because they don't think that you are worthy to have what belongs to them. They will take your kids from you because they don't believe that you are worthy to raise your own kids in the truth. They will talk about imprisonment, and they would be willing to kill you just so that their progress can go forward. That's how the world thinks. This is the world's assessment of the people of God. You don't belong here. You don't deserve to be among us. And such is the pride of the world. The world thinks so highly of itself as possessing all that is desirable and good, everything of value, everything that is precious, and then they set up over themselves gatekeepers who, according to their own evaluation of everything and particularly of you and what you believe, will tell you whether you are worthy of being included in their circles, whether you are worthy of being included in enjoying all of the things that this world promises and provides. That is the pride of this world.
And you and I, we must reject that entire assessment and we turn our back on it, knowing that the world and all of its lust is passing away but that the one who does the will of God abides forever. That's our assessment of the world. It's all passing away.
The world's assessment is that we are not worthy to enjoy a place with them and we don't deserve to be included in this great world with all that it has to offer, all of its glories, all of its comforts, all of its conveniences, all of its reputation and pomp and circumstance. You and I don't deserve to be included in that. And so we should be excluded from that, driven out, ostracized, and even, if necessary, dispatched from it, so that the world can rid itself of us. This is the unbeliever's assessment of himself, that he is worthy of this world. And he's right because he is fit for this world. This world is passing away. This world is under a curse. This world is under the wrath of God. This world is ripe for judgment, and so is the unbeliever. Unless he will repent of his sin and believe savingly on Jesus Christ for salvation, he will join this world in its doom and in its destruction. Because this world is their home and they are fit for it, and they share its destiny. The world, those in the world, say, “This is our home. This is where we belong. This is where we are comfortable. This is ours. You don't have a part in it.” And they are absolutely right.
And God's assessment is that this world is not worthy of His people. Notice that these are polar opposite assessments. The world says, “You people are not worthy of us.” God says, “You people are not worthy of My people.” And God is the source of all honor, and His opinion is the only one that matters. This word worthy in verse 38 is a word that describes something that is suitable, deserving of comparison, of equal value, of comparable value. It's the same word that Paul uses in Romans 8 when he says that the sufferings of this present world are not worthy to be compared with the glory that is to be revealed to us as the children of God (v. 18). You take the glory that is to come and the sufferings of this present age and these do not even deserve to be compared together with one another. It's like having a brick of gold and a handful of cotton balls. These things do not deserve comparison. The sufferings of this world do not deserve to be even compared or mentioned in the same sentence with the glory that is to be revealed to us. They're of such incomparable value and incomparable nature that you cannot even put them on the scales one with another. That's the idea behind this word worthy.
And by world, he's not describing individual persons in the world, as if the unbeliever is not in the image of God and not worthy of respect or dignity or anything like that. He's not describing individual people as being less valuable than His people in terms of their inherent ontological worth. It's not what he's describing. By world, he's not describing the plants and the trees and the dirt and the water and the minerals and all of the elements. He's not describing that, though the word kosmos could be used to describe that. By world, the author means the entire world system, the doings, the spirit of the age, the world's current governance under Satan, the standards, the society, the culture, the commerce, the morals, the values, the affections, everything that makes up the world system, everything that makes up their values and their standards. All of that is not worthy of His people. That darkness in which they dwell, their sinful condition, it is not worthy of His people. The entire system as it currently is in this age, the order as it exists is not worthy of the people of God, just as the world did not deserve Christ when He came into it. The one who was perfect came into a world that was imperfect. He who was holy came into a world that was sinful. The one who was light incarnate stepped into a world that loved darkness, and this world and those who did not receive Him, they were not worthy of such a noble individual in their presence. And so they rejected Him and they hated Him and they crucified Him.
And what an encouragement this is to the people of God that you and I can realize that difficulties and trials in this world does not mean that we have been abandoned by God. It does not mean that He has taken His hand of grace off it. It does not mean that He has turned His back on us. It does not mean that we lack faith. Instead, the trials and tribulations of this life simply remind us of the glory and grace and goodness of the life that is to come. And so that's how we have to evaluate all of the difficulties that we face in this world.
Now, what is it that makes us more valuable than all of that world? Or to put it another way, what is it about us that makes the world unworthy of us? Is it because we are smarter than everybody else? Better looking? More spiritual? Is it because of anything in us whatsoever? It's not. You know what makes the world unworthy of us? It's not anything we have done. It's not anything that we are, ontologically speaking. It is not anything that we would have done on our own. It is not any merit in ourselves whatsoever. What makes the world unworthy of us is what Christ has done on our behalf. Because we have been chosen by the Father in Christ from eternity past and we have had all of our sins laid upon the Substitute and all of His righteousness credited to us and then we have been adopted into His family and we have been redeemed and all of our sins forgiven and we have been given the gift of the Holy Spirit, who dwells in us as a seal and promise of the glory that is to come and the inheritance that we will someday enjoy, and because we name His name and because we have been saved by Him and because we belong to Him, you and I are entirely out of place in this world.
This is exactly what Jesus said in John 15 when He said the world hates you, but the world hates you because you do not belong to it. If you belonged to the world, the world would love you. But the world hates you because I chose you. I chose you out of the world. And for this reason, the world hates you. The world hates you not because you're not as good as Beyoncé or Cher or Bono or any of the one-name people. The world hates you not for that reason. The world hates you because He chose you out of the world. That makes you singularly different than everyone else who has not been chosen out of the world. It sets you apart.
Notice that though God's assessment of His people and the world's assessment of His people are radically different, they're polar opposites, that there is something upon which God and the world, composed of unbelievers, there's something upon which they agree, namely that God's people can never find rest in this world. We don't belong here. See, the world agrees with that and God agrees with that. It's two entirely different assessments. The world says, “You don't deserve to be among us,” and God says, “No, you don't deserve to have them among you.” But where both of them agree, where the assessments overlap, is in this conclusion: that this is not our home. We're not fit for this. We're fit for the world that is to come. Both God and the world say that we don't belong here. This world is not worthy of us, not because of what we are but because of what Christ has done on behalf of those who are His.
So we are looking forward then to an abode where we obtain a better resurrection. We will be raised to everlasting life in everlasting bodies fit for an everlasting creation. This world is not fit for that. This world cannot handle and it is not appropriate for the glory that is to be revealed to the sons of God. We will be made fit for a cosmos in which there is no death, no disease, no suffering, no infirmity, no sin, no unrighteousness. The better resurrection of our bodies is necessary for us to live in that world. You see, his reference to a better resurrection and this world not being worthy of us implies—and here's the connection between these two phrases that once you see it, you can't unsee it—it implies or basically connects these two into this: our better resurrection fits us not for this world but for a new world, a world that is to come. This world is not worthy of us. That is true, again, not because we are special. It is true because of what Christ has done. It is true because of what is future for us. This world cannot contain that. It cannot adapt to that. It cannot be part of that in an eternal sense. Our eternal state, our eternal glory, our eternal resurrection requires, it necessitates, it must have an entirely different world order, a new creation, a new heavens and a new earth in which righteousness dwells. So if we are fit for and anticipating a better resurrection, it can only be that we might inhabit and go into a better creation, a world that is worthy of us.
Here's the irony. We're not going to be worthy of that world. So in time, we spend time here in this life in a world not worthy of us. And one day all of this is going to be wrapped up like a scroll. All of it is going to be consumed with fire. He’s going to create a new heavens and a new earth in which righteousness dwells. And you and I, in eternity, will step into a world that we are not worthy of in the truest sense.