The physical body truly will cease to function and will not function as it does now ever again. This is true for everyone eventually. Just as true is the fact that when a person confesses with their mouth, “Jesus is Lord,” and believes in their heart that God raised him from the dead, they are saved and born again with a new spirit as a down deposit. (5; Romans 10:9) The transformation is not noticeable, even with careful observation. (Luke 17:30)
Paul, in verse 1, indicates that another transition occurs immediately when the physical body ceases to function. This transition is the full deposit of the Holy Spirit, a complete clothing (5). Paul is also very clear in the first letter to the Corinthian congregation, chapter 15, that when Jesus comes as King and Judge of his congregation (church), those who died as believers before he comes again to Earth will receive their new, resurrected physical bodies “in a flash”. Jesus states a spiritual change is needed in John 3:4-6 and 14:1-3 to be in paradise.
The born again have an interim body which Paul speaks of in verses 4 and 5, “it is God who has made us for this very purpose and has given us the Spirit as a deposit, guaranteeing what is to come”, before they go to heaven. A deposit is only a small part of what is to come. The small part guarantees the full amount that comes in the future. The deposit comes with the confession. The full amount comes when the physical body dies, and the soul goes to heaven.
During Jesus’ ministry, no one ever asked Jesus what their resurrected body would be like. Only the Gentile believers at Corinth asked this question. Perhaps all the Jews, except the Levites, had the same belief concerning a bodily resurrection, that is, those who believed in the resurrection. The Levites did not believe in the resurrection. Those who did believe did not have a reason to ask Jesus about what the body was going to be like. Still, Jesus did speak of the changes that would happen with those who became his disciples. The Apostles, including Paul, also wrote of these changes.
Three changes will come. The first is a down deposit, a born-again spirit, when we confess Jesus as Lord. The second is a full deposit, a completed spirit when the physical body dies. The last is the new physical body when Jesus comes again.
