When will we get our resurrected/glorified bodies?

from the old testament

• The Old Testament does not describe our resurrected or glorified bodies, but it establishes the hope of resurrection and future restoration that the New Testament develops more fully. Job 19:25–27 expresses hope that Job will ultimately see God in his own body, pointing toward a future beyond death. Isaiah 26:19 directly speaks of the dead living again: “Your dead shall live; their bodies shall rise.” Daniel 12:2–3 gives the clearest Old Testament picture of a future resurrection when those who have died will awake and experience different eternal destinies. Ezekiel 37:1–14, while primarily describing Israel’s restoration through the vision of dry bones, uses resurrection imagery that contributes to the Bible’s developing picture of God bringing life from death. Isaiah 65:17–25 describes God’s future renewal of creation, providing a broader context for the New Testament hope of resurrection and glorification.

from the new testament

• Paul connects the resurrection and glorification to Jesus' return. Speaking of that time, Paul said, “Behold! I tell you a mystery. We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed, in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised imperishable, and we shall be changed. For this perishable body must put on the imperishable, and this mortal body must put on immortality” (1 Corinthians 15:51–53). The “change” spoken of here is glorification.
• Likewise, in 1 Thessalonians 4:16–17, Paul said, “For the Lord himself will descend from heaven with a cry of command, with the voice of an archangel, and with the sound of the trumpet of God. And the dead in Christ will rise first. Then we who are alive, who are left, 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.” This refers to the same time as in the 1 Corinthians passage. Jesus will come, and then the dead will be resurrected and, with the living, go to be with Jesus. Though Paul said the dead will be first, the larger context is a polemical argument against some saying that there is no resurrection, causing believers to worry about the deceased believers. By saying deceased believers will resurrect first, he was effectively saying they won’t miss anything of that event. Likely, though, everything will happen almost at once, as Paul said in 1 Corinthians 15:52: it’ll happen “in the twinkling of an eye.”
• John may also have been alluding to this time in 1 John 3:2, where he said, “When he appears, we shall be like him, because we shall see him as he is.” Being like Him implies sinlessness, a component of glorification. In early church history, believers described this as the “beatific vision,” where seeing Jesus catalyzes becoming like Jesus.
• While it’s clear that the resurrection and glorification happen when Jesus returns, Christians debate whether Jesus will return only once or twice. Those who believe He returns only once see that return in Revelation 19:11–16, where Jesus judges the nations, and view that as the same time period Paul describes when believers change. However, many believers understand Paul as describing Jesus coming just to rescue believers before or during the Tribulation, referring to it as the rapture. That is when believers are changed. Then, at the end of the Tribulation, Jesus returns to judge the nations.

implications for today

As believers, we’ve been saved and are being slowly changed (2 Corinthians 3:18), yet we still sin (1 John 1:8, 10) and will still die (Hebrews 9:27). This can be incredibly discouraging at times! But God has chosen to grow us spiritually in this life in a progressive way that involves learning to obey in both easy and hard situations. The Bible doesn’t explicitly explain why God has chosen to do things this way, but we can rest assured that everything he’s doing is for our eventual good (Romans 8:28–30).

However, He has not called us to struggle for eternity. When Jesus returns, even if you’ve been dead for hundreds of years, and though you died without ever becoming perfect, as a believer, you will live again. Then we will all behold Jesus, seeing Him as He is (1 John 3:2). God has determined that moment to be when He changes all of us in the twinkling of an eye.

Because of that hope, don’t be discouraged today if you try to obey and fail. Get back up and keep pressing on with the Spirit’s help to become more like Christ. John said that the path to purification is hoping in Jesus’ return (1 John 3:3), so keep thinking about it! And know that the effort is worth it. One glorious day you will see Jesus, and then you will stop sinning. You will no longer be striving to be perfect because you will be perfect. Your body will be perfect, and your heart will be perfect. What a great day that will be!