What is the secret Paul reveals about believers at the end of time?
Paul reveals that not all believers will die physically; at the end of time, a group of believers will be changed without physical death. Their bodies will be transformed like Christ’s resurrected body—flesh and bone, no blood, spiritual and Spirit-activated—at Christ’s imminent coming for the Church.
Les explains that this secret was revealed to Paul first and had never been alluded to, hinted at, or spoken before. Verse 51 says, “I show you a secret, we shall not all sleep or die physically, but we as believers shall all be changed.” Toward the end of time, a group of believers will not die physically; they will be changed. Their resurrected body will be fashioned after Christ’s resurrection body, like our physical body yet different: a spiritual body without blood, flesh and bone but no blood, activated by the Spirit. Paul writes as though it could happen in his lifetime, so this line of teaching calls it the imminent coming of Christ for the Church—it may be tonight, tomorrow, or ten years from now, and we are to expectantly look for it at any time. No set prophetic program must be fulfilled for this event.
Behold, I shew you a mystery; We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed,