What is our greatest hope?
We look for the resurrection of the dead, and the life of the world to come.
Catechism for the Global Methodist Church, question 35
39This is the will of the one who sent me, that I should lose nothing of all that he has given me, but raise it up on the last day. 40For this is the will of my Father, that everyone who sees the Son and believes in him should have eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day.
25Jesus said to her, "I am the resurrection and the life. The one who trusts in me, even if he dies, will live." 26And everyone who lives and trusts in me will never die into the age. Do you believe this?
5For if we have become united with the likeness of his death, we shall also be united with the likeness of his resurrection. 6We know this, that our old self was crucified with him so that the body of sin might be destroyed, in order that we might no longer be enslaved to sin. 7For one who has died has been justified from sin. 8But if we have died with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with him.
22For we know that all creation groans together and labors together until now. 23And not only this, but we ourselves, having the firstfruits of the Spirit, we ourselves groan within ourselves, eagerly expecting adoption as sons, the redemption of our body.
20But now Christ has been raised from the dead, the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep. 21For since death came through a human, resurrection of the dead also came through a human. 22For just as all die in Adam, so also all will be made alive in Christ. 23But each in his own order: Christ the firstfruits, then those who belong to Christ at his coming. 50I declare to you, brothers, that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God, nor does corruption inherit incorruption. 51Behold, I tell you a mystery: we will not all sleep, but we will all be changed. 52In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised incorruptible, and we will be changed. 53For this perishable must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality. 54When this perishable puts on incorruption and this mortal puts on immortality, then the word that is written will come to pass: Death has been swallowed up in victory. 55Where, O death, is your victory? Where, O death, is your sting?
10That I may know him and the power of his resurrection, and may share his sufferings, becoming like him in his death. 11That by any means possible I may attain the resurrection from the dead. 12Not that I have already taken it or have already been perfected, but I pursue it if I may also grasp that for which I was also grasped by Christ. 20For our citizenship is already in heaven, and from it we eagerly await a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ. 21He will transform the body of our lowliness to be conformed to the body of his glory, by the active energy that enables him even to subject all things to himself.
13We do not wish you to be ignorant, brothers, about those who are asleep, so that you may not grieve as the rest who have no hope. 14For if we believe that Jesus died and rose, so also God will bring with him those who have fallen asleep through Jesus. 15For this we say to you by a word of the Lord, that we who are alive, who remain until the coming of the Lord, will by no means precede those who have fallen asleep. 16For the Lord himself will descend from heaven with a cry of command, with the voice of an archangel, and with the trumpet of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first. 17Then we who are alive, who remain, will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and so we will always be with the Lord. 18Therefore encourage one another with these words.
The catechism ends its walk through the Nicene Creed with the creed's last clause: "We look for the resurrection of the dead, and the life of the world to come." ΒΆ102 of the Book of Doctrines and Discipline states the same hope in the church's own words: "Our ultimate hope and promise in Christ is glorification, where our souls and bodies will be perfectly restored to live with God eternally through the new creation."
The resurrection of the dead means the raising of the body. Jesus says it is his Father's will that "everyone who sees the Son and believes in him should have eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day" (John 6:40). To Martha he says, "I am the resurrection and the life. The one who trusts in me, even if he dies, will live" (John 11:25). Paul grounds the believer's resurrection in Christ's own: "Christ has been raised from the dead, the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep," and "just as all die in Adam, so also all will be made alive in Christ" (1 Corinthians 15:20, 22).
The life of the world to come is bodily life in a renewed creation. Paul writes that "the dead will be raised incorruptible, and we will be changed," so that "this perishable must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality" (1 Corinthians 15:52-53). Creation itself "groans together and labors together until now" (Romans 8:22), and believers wait with it: (Romans 8:23). Paul pursued that hope himself: (Philippians 3:12). At the Lord's coming "the dead in Christ will rise first," and "so we will always be with the Lord" (1 Thessalonians 4:16-17).
Paul told the Thessalonians these things so they would "not grieve as the rest who have no hope" (1 Thessalonians 4:13) and closed with an instruction: "encourage one another with these words" (1 Thessalonians 4:18). A Methodist funeral is built on that instruction. Wesley's people were known for dying well, and the reason is this clause of the creed: the grave is a place of waiting for a body that will be raised.