The Resurrection of the Flesh (c. 1500) by Orvieto
Here is an excellent reflection on how the resurrection can affect your everyday life from Mark Dever’s book Twelve Challenges Churches Face:
“Therefore, my dear brothers, stand firm. Let nothing move you. Always give yourselves fully to the work of the Lord, because you know that your labor in the Lord is not in vain” (1st Corinthians 15:58). Paul knew that their standing firm in the doctrine concerning the resurrection would result in necessary changes in their lives. Have you learned that? Doctrine and life go together in the work of the Lord. If you want to stand firm, you need to hold firm, especially to the great truth of the resurrection.
Harriet Tubman, a type of Moses to African-American slaves, once described for a reporter a funeral she had attended. She recounted a stirring section of the sermon preached there, which told about how death will never eventually find everybody. Tubman said that the sermon led to a dance, a “spiritual shuffle,” in which every member of the congregation shook hands with every other member, using personal names in song:
My sis’r Mary’s boun’ to go.
My sis’r Nanny’s boun’ to go.
My brudder Tony’s boun’ to go.
My brudder Julie’s boun’ to go.
Death would mock all the gifts we give and get today. Yet the confidence that Christians have in Christ’s resurrection, and therefore our own resurrection, liberates us to act in incredibly self-denying ways such as those Paul recounts in this epistle. Such confidence will make us increasingly like our Lord Jesus Christ in love and self-sacrifice and increasingly like him in his outlook—he endured the cross for the joy set before him. If this joy is not before your eyes, you may not endure in that to which God calls you. You may miss the greatest gift you could ever be given. (pp.168-169)
