It is similar to a craftsman who decides to melt down an exceptionally beautiful and perfectly symmetric gold statue that he constructed, after suddenly witnessing that it has been vandalized by a certain malicious and envious man who could not stand to see the statue's splendor, and who
consequently damaged it in order to satisfy his jealousy and derive empty pleasure.
If the craftsman wants to restore his work to its
initial beauty and perfection, it is necessary for it to be dismantled and melted down again, so that all the deformities and mutilations that resulted
from the assaults of jealousy can be obliterated, while the statue is recreated again to the exact same shape and form, free of imperfections and damage.
The craftsman does not intend to destroy the statue, even though it is melted to its elemental
form; rather, the intention is to restore it and eliminate the scars. It seems to me that our God decided to do the same thing with us.
For when He saw that His most-noble and splendid sculpture, man, had been severely injured by the malicious assaults and envy [of the devil], He, as a compassionate Being, could not bear to abandon man in this state, eternally blemished with an everlasting flaw; rather, He proceeded to break down the human body into it’s elemental constituents. Thus, in the first case a statue is melted down; in the second case, the body dies and decomposes. The purpose of the former is to
reshape and renew a precious metal; the purpose of the latter is to resurrect [the body].
This is what the prophet Jeremiah affirms as well with the following words:
"Then I went down to the potter’s house, and, behold, he was forming something of wet clay upon the stones. And the vessel that he made of clay was marred in the hand of the potter. So he made it again another vessel, as seemed good to the potter to make it. Then the word of the Lord came to me, saying, ‘O house of Israel, cannot I do with youas this potter?’says the Lord. ‘Behold, as the clay is in the potter’s hand, so are you in
My hands’" (Jer. 18:3-6).
Pay close attention to how the mighty hand of the Lord did not wish to abandon man, His own work,
in deception after suffering unjustly from the evil
-doer. On the contrary, He softened and wet the
clay just as a potter remolds clay in order to remove through this reworking all the blemishes
and cracks and make it entirely new, flawless, and pleasing. "Does not the potter have power over
the clay, from the same lump to make one vessel unto honor, and another unto dishonor?" (Rom. 9:21).
It seems to me that the Apostle is saying: Doesn't God have the power to use the same matter to reconstruct and to rejuvenate every person, so that they are resurrected either unto honor and glory, or dishonor and condemnation? Unto dishonor for them who lived in sin; unto honor for them who lived with righteousness, just as it was revealed to the Prophet Daniel:
"And many of them that sleep in the dust of
the earth shall awake, some to everlasting life, and some to shame and everlasting contempt. And they that be wise shall shine as the brightness of the firmament" (Dan. 12:2-3).
