Pain in Heaven?

Well over a year ago I wrote an email to Philip Yancey regarding his book, Where is God When it Hurts? He spoke of pain in the body and how it served a great purpose; Dr. Paul Brand, who was discussed thoroughly in the book, discovered that without pain man could not survive. Pain in the body can be viewed as a bad thing, but it serves a wonderful purpose in a multitude of ways. The book prompted me to write an email to Yancey, and to ask him what he thought about the resurrection of the body. William Rowe’s chapter on Life After Death in his book, Philosophy of Religion: An Introduction, reminded me of the email. Here is part of what I sent:

“Do you feel that pain, to a certain extent, would still be found in the world today, e.g., in the human body, if man had never sinned? Our view is that pain is 'evil' and 'bad', but with Dr. Brand's studies we see that pain can be a blessing. Do we view pain as 'evil', because we are looking at it from a sinful mindset, i.e., does sin affect our judgment on pain?

What I am getting at is this. If we take a quick glance into the future, will there be 'blessed pain' within a restored creation (including us)? Will our resurrected bodies feel, but not experience pain? Would there be any necessary alarms put in place within the new body?”

To my amazement he replied. Here is part of what he said:

“Indeed I do think there must be some sort of warning system akin to pain, though perhaps without the negative "hurt" aspect, in our resurrected bodies. We have only the slightest clues to go by, of course: Jesus walking through doors yet keeping his scars, the appearance of Moses and Elijah on the Mount of Transfiguration. The New Testament stresses resurrected bodies, however, and I assume this means there must be a protection system built in.”

It is unclear on what our transformed bodies will look like AND how our senses will function within the new creation, but it is enjoyable to ponder.Will we have pain in heaven? What, if any, will be the laws within the new creation, e.g., there is the law of gravity in this life?

JDG