Will We Wear Clothes After the Resurrection?

Every once in a while, a theological question pops into your head that you probably never expected to ask.

Here was mine:

When believers receive our resurrected bodies…will we be wearing clothes?

It sounds funny at first, but once you think about it, it is actually an interesting question.

We know from 1 Corinthians 15 that believers will one day be raised with glorified bodies. Paul calls Jesus the “firstfruits” of those who have fallen asleep (1 Corinthians 15:20). In other words, Christ’s resurrection gives us a picture of what is coming for us.

Jesus did not rise as a ghost.

After the resurrection He told His disciples:

“Touch me and see; a spirit does not have flesh and bones, as you see I have.”
—Luke 24:39

Thomas was even invited to examine Jesus’ wounds in John 20:27.

So our future hope is not floating around heaven as invisible spirits. Christianity teaches something far better: bodily resurrection. God will raise His people and give us glorified, imperishable bodies.

Which brings me back to the really important theological question:

What are we wearing?

Here is where I have to give one of my favorite theological answers:

I don’t know.

Scripture simply does not tell us exactly how clothing will work in the resurrection.

We do know that Jesus appeared clothed after His resurrection. Nobody in the Gospel accounts seems particularly shocked about His wardrobe—or lack thereof—so clearly something was going on there!

We also find clothing imagery in Revelation. Revelation 7:9 pictures a great multitude standing before God dressed in white robes. Revelation 19:8 describes fine linen given to the bride of Christ.

But we should be careful. Revelation contains a great deal of symbolic imagery, so those passages do not necessarily answer whether there is going to be a heavenly clothing department where we pick out our eternal wardrobe.

There is something deeper here, though.

Before sin entered the world, Adam and Eve were naked and felt no shame (Genesis 2:25). After they sinned, shame immediately entered the picture, and they attempted to cover themselves (Genesis 3:7).

That means our embarrassment surrounding nakedness is connected, at least in part, to living in a fallen world.

In the resurrection, however, sin and shame will be gone.

Revelation 21:4 tells us that God will wipe away every tear and that death, mourning, crying, and pain will be no more.

So whether our glorified bodies come with robes, supernatural clothing, or something we cannot presently understand, this much I know:

Nobody is going to be embarrassed.

Nobody will struggle with lust.

Nobody will struggle with shame.

Nobody will look in the mirror and wish they had a different body.

Nobody will worry about gaining ten pounds over Christmas.

Our bodies will finally be exactly what God intended them to be—glorified, imperishable, and free from the curse of sin.

And maybe that is the bigger lesson.

We spend an enormous amount of our earthly lives worrying about our bodies. Are we too heavy? Too skinny? Too old? Too wrinkled? Too short? Too tall?

But the Christian hope says that these bodies are not the end of the story.

Paul writes:

“The body that is sown is perishable, it is raised imperishable.”
—1 Corinthians 15:42

One day Christ will raise His people.

We will have real bodies.

Glorified bodies.

Bodies untouched by disease, aging, suffering, and death.

As for whether we will have clothes?

Uff dah. Ask me after the resurrection.

Until then, I’m just thankful Scripture tells me the part that actually matters:

Because Jesus rose from the dead, those who belong to Him will rise too.