From Brad Wilcox’s book ‘Changed Through His Grace,’ Continued from If We Knew:
Often the gift of resurrection is called unconditional because everyone will be resurrected regardless of his or her choice. This is accurate at this point in time, but resurrection was conditional upon our choosing to come to earth in the first place. It seems logical that Heavenly Father could have provided mortal bodies for us. Then there would have been no need for the Resurrection. But we had much to learn, so God wisely made mortality and resurrection dependent on our choices. Those who followed Satan chose not to be resurrected when they chose not to come to earth. Our current choices here on earth and later in the spirit world will not affect whether or not we are resurrected, but they will play a part in the order in which we will be resurrected and the type of body we receive—celestial, terrestrial, or telestial (see Alma 42:27; 1 Corinthians 15:40-42; Doctrine and Covenants 76). Author Truman G. Madsen wrote, “That we will be resurrected is an exceptionless truth. But the when of the resurrection, the how of it, and the kind of body we receive in the resurrection are conditional. They depend almost entirely on us and the relationship we forge with Him who is the resurrection and the life.”8
Without resurrection not only would our progress be stopped, but we would regress. Joseph Smith taught that “all beings who have bodies have power over those who have not.”9 The prophet taught that without bodies we would be subject to Satan and ultimately become like him: “O the wisdom of God, his mercy and grace! For behold, if the flesh should rise no more our spirits must become subject to that angel who fell from before the presence or the Eternal God, and became the devil, to rise no more. And our spirits must have become like unto him, and we become devils, angel to a devil, to be shut out from the presence of our God, and to remain with the father of lies, in misery, like unto himself” (2 Nephi 9:8-9).
Scriptures teach that our resurrected bodies will be incorruptible (see 1 Corinthians 15:43; 2 Nephi 9:13). That means we will not age or fall apart, but it also means that Satan will not be able to corrupt us. No wonder that Joseph Smith taught that happiness and joy are dependent on having a body (see Doctrine and Covenants 93:33, 34) and that “no person can have salvation except through a tabernacle.”10 The Resurrection is one of many ways we are saved by grace. ~Brad Wilcox, Changed Through His Grace (Salt Lake City: Deseret Book, 2017), 246-249 (Dwarsligger edition)
