Jesus specifically states that man’s spirit will be reunited with his body at the resurrection. “The Lord Himself shall descend from heaven…and the dead in Christ shall rise first,” (Thess 4:16, 17)
When Christ…shall appear, then shall ye also appear with Him in glory, (Col. 3:4). He was not referring to a soul, reincarnation, but a bodily resurrection. (John 5:28, 29)
Mankind is going through a process of metamorphosis. What is metamorphosis? Metamorphosis is a change of the physical form, structure, or substance by supernatural means. The resurrection is a supernatural process that will transform man’s body from the earthly material to the spiritual. “Behold, I show you a mystery; we shall not all sleep, but we shall be changed, In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump; for the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible and we shall be changed.” (1 Cor. 15:51)
The resurrection is like changing water into ice. It’s still water, but only in another form. It’s the same body, but a different form. You will exchange this earthly body for a spiritual one. Just as the caterpillar is wrapped in the cocoon and appears to be dead, but after a while there is a rumbling, shaking and cracking open the shell and suddenly there emerges a beautiful butterfly.
Mankind, while on earth, is in the cocoon of flesh and when his physical body dies and goes to the grave, there seems to be no hope of life, but on the day of the resurrection, when Christ returns to earth, there will be a rumbling and the opening of the grave and there will emerge the spiritual body of the saints transformed by the power of God. “But God gives it a body as it hath pleased him, and to every seed its own body.” (1 Corinthians 15:38)