One short week after celebrating Jesus resurrection from the dead- what a miracle! Pastor Dan wants us to better understand all the implications of Jesus new “resurrection body” for us, as we contemplate our current state as well as what the future holds. Death is not the end. In fact death is that event which initiates, or which mediates the transition from our physical, fallen body to our transformed body. Much like the body of Jesus after he was raised from the dead.
1 Co.15:35-57 “But someone will ask, “How are the dead raised? With what kind of body do they come?” 36 You foolish person! What you sow does not come to life unless it dies. 37 And what you sow is not the body that is to be, but a bare kernel, perhaps of wheat or of some other grain. 38 But God gives it a body as he has chosen, and to each kind of seed its own body. 39 For not all flesh is the same, but there is one kind for humans, another for animals, another for birds, and another for fish. 40 There are heavenly bodies and earthly bodies, but the glory of the heavenly is of one kind, and the glory of the earthly is of another. 41 There is one glory of the sun, and another glory of the moon, and another glory of the stars; for star differs from star in glory. 42 So is it with the resurrection of the dead. What is sown is perishable; what is raised is imperishable. 43 It is sown in dishonor; it is raised in glory. It is sown in weakness; it is raised in power. 44 It is sown a natural body; it is raised a spiritual body. If there is a natural body, there is also a spiritual body. 45 Thus it is written, “The first man Adam became a living being”; the last Adam became a life-giving spirit. 46 But it is not the spiritual that is first but the natural, and then the spiritual. 47 The first man was from the earth, a man of dust; the second man is from heaven. 48 As was the man of dust, so also are those who are of the dust, and as is the man of heaven, so also are those who are of heaven. 49 Just as we have borne the image of the man of dust, we shall also bear the image of the man of heaven. 50 I tell you this, brothers: flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God, nor does the perishable inherit the imperishable. 51 Behold! I tell you a mystery. We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed, 52 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. 53 For this perishable body must put on the imperishable, and this mortal body must put on immortality. 54 When the perishable puts on the imperishable, and the mortal puts on immortality, then shall come to pass the saying that is written: “Death is swallowed up in victory.” 55 “O death, where is your victory? O death, where is your sting?” 56 The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law. 57 But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.”
Have you ever met someone in the church or in some other Christian venue who believed they had arrived spiritually? They thought they had the answer to all questions about the bible, about the church, and especially the end times. Not only that, they believed their particular experience was the equivalent of heaven on earth, that they had effectively conquered sin in their life, had overcome illness and perhaps even death itself. For them, the second coming of Christ was not something to look forward to, but something that was essentially unnecessary. That is the condition of the Corinthian church to which Paul addressed this passage.
Most of us would not consider ourselves to have already “arrived” in this way, yet we may have some misunderstandings either because of false teachings that abound in various quarters or lack of teaching on this topic. So I believe there is something for us to learn from this passage. I pray that through it we will find new hope for the future and new purpose for the present.
Paul is seeking to correct the Corinthians’ mistaken view of spiritual perfection while on earth and the arrogant attitude that can accompany it by showing them that they were in fact were still participants in this world and still had much to look forward to in the next world. He seeks both to ground them in their earthly mode of existence and to help them to look forward to their heavenly mode of the existence.
What do you say to those who think they have arrived? It’s hard to know what to say in a few words after they’ve put you in your place with their superior spirituality or intellect. I wouldn’t recommend this, but Paul begins with sarcasm. He mimics two questions they were presumably asking as a result of their denial of the resurrection – So “How are the dead raised?”and “With what kind of body do they come?” Their questions reveal the fact that they are neither observing the creation around them nor not taking the power of God into account. So Paul points out that in creation it is not unusual to find something that exists in two different modes in its various stages of life and that God is the agent of change between those two modes of existence. Paul uses a seed to demonstrate their ignorance and to illustrate his point in vv36-38, “You foolish person, What you sow does not come to life unless it dies. And what you sow is not the body that is to be, but a bare kernel of wheat or other, but God gives it a body as he has chosen, and to each kind of seed its own body.”
By the analogy of the death and new life in a seed, he shows that in the resurrection of our bodies there is both continuation and transformation. There is continuation because the seed does not produce a different species or kind than itself, but through death, by the creative work of God, there is also transformation, it takes on a very different kind of body than it previously had. It continues as wheat or corn or oats for example, but it is transformed through death from a small kernel of wheat into a fruitful plant of wheat. Likewise, we continue as the same person before and after the resurrection, but our bodies are adapted to their new environment. Remember how Jesus, after his resurrection, was still himself? He could recognize and enjoy relationships with his old friends, but because his body was adapted to its heavenly existence, he was sometimes not recognized by them at first. Yet he was still Jesus, their Rabboni, their friend, and Lord. Likewise, we will enjoy the continuation of relationships with others. However, they will be somewhat different since there will be no marriage in heaven, yet I will still be Dan and you will still be Beth and Martin and Jennifer and Winifred and Carol and Jim.
There is continuation, but there is also transformation. We will have different kinds of bodies after the resurrection. God has created different kinds of bodies throughout the universe for different environments or modes of existence. For example, there are earthly kinds of bodies, but they are even different from one another – there are human bodies, animal bodies, bird bodies and fish bodies. Each has a different mode of existence by God’s creative design. People walk upright, animals walk on all fours, birds fly in the sky and fish swim. God has adapted each kind of body to its particular environment. Also, in the universe there are heavenly bodies such as the sun and moon and stars, each with its own glory or purpose appointed by God. “So it is with the resurrection of the dead” he says in verse 42. In other words, the resurrection of the dead produces in believers a different kind of body which is adapted to its new environment, and God causes the change from the first mode into the second.
This transformation causes there to be a qualitative difference between the bodies of bodies of believers before and after the resurrection. In our current mode of existence we have a “perishable, dishonorable, weak, natural” body, but through the resurrection it becomes an “imperishable, powerful, glorified, supernatural” body. In other words, our natural body which goes into the grave is subject to death, sin, weakness, and illness, but our supernatural body after the resurrection will be eternal, strong, and free from sin. Death is not the end. It simply means change. As C.S, Lewis writes, “The old field of space, time, matter, and the senses is to be weeded, dug and sown for a new crop. We may be tired of that old field; God is not.
This transformation causes our bodies before the resurrection to be patterned after Adam and our bodies after the resurrection to be patterned after Christ. Adam’s destination was a grave in the earth, Christ’s destination was heaven. Because we are in Adam by natural generation, our first destination is the grave so our present bodies are adapted to the earth. And because we are in Christ by spiritual regeneration, our ultimate destination is heaven so our resurrected bodies are adapted to heaven. “as was the man of dust, so also are those who are of the dust, and as is the man of heaven, so also are those who are of heaven.” And “just as we have borne the image of the man of dust, we shall also bear the image of a man of heaven.” We are told also that the earthly body must precede the heavenly body. “it is not the spiritual that is first that the natural and then the spiritual.” Perhaps most importantly here, we are told that Christ’s resurrection is necessary to bring about our own resurrection. Adam is said to have become a “living being,” but Christ is said to have become a “life-giving spirit.” Therefore Adam can generate only earthly life, but Christ can generate resurrected or heavenly life. In other words, if Christ hadn’t been resurrected from the dead neither could we be resurrected from the dead. We are totally dependent on Christ for our resurrection.
This transformation also necessitates a bodily change. Verses 50-57 insist that we must be changed in order to experience resurrected life and that Christ’s death and resurrection is the source of that change. A bodily change is necessary to the resurrection. “flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God, nor does the perishable inherit the imperishable.” “for this perishable body must put on the imperishable and this mortal body must put on immortality.” In other words, this earthly life is not all there is. Those of you think you have arrived, have not. There is more to come. You too must be changed, and true transformation will take place on that day, and it will be instantaneous for the living and the dead. “we shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed,” “in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, the dead will be raised in perishable, and we shall all be changed.” And the final quote from Hosea 13:14, reminds us again that Christ is the source of our transformation. “Death is swallowed up in victory. Death where is your victory. Death where is your sting?” Christ has removed the sting of death and, as it were, has drawn the poison into himself. As Hebrews 2:9, 14 says, “he tasted death for everyone… that through death he might destroy the one who has the power of death, that is, the devil.”
So how should we think, feel, and act differently because of this knowledge. How does this give us hope for our future heavenly life, and purpose or our present earthly life?
For some of you, the challenge is to grow in hopefulness. Some of you may have little hope for your future body because your focus is too much on your present body or others’ bodies. You may be tempted by religious legalists who encourage us toward extremes in ascetic living and physical exercise. As 1 Tim.4:1-8 says, …in later times some will depart from the faith… through the insincerity of liars…who forbid marriage and require abstinence from foods that God created to be received with thanksgiving…everything created by God is good, it is made holy by the word of God and prayer. 7 Have nothing to do with irreverent, silly myths. Rather train yourself for godliness; 8 for while bodily training is of some value, godliness is of value in every way, as it holds promise for the present life and also for the life to come.”
Likewise the Thessalonians were overly concerned about the bodies of their friends who had died. They had some call an under-realized eschatology, thinking the end will never come, and that physical death means defeat. So Paul wrote, 1 Thess.4:13ff But we do not want you to be uninformed, brothers, about those who are asleep, that you may not grieve as others do who have no hope.” 15 For this we declare to you by a word from the Lord, that we who are alive, who are left until the coming of the Lord, will not precede those who have fallen asleep. 16 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. 17 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. 18 Therefore encourage one another with these words. Growing in hopefulness for you may mean finding a more biblical balance between your view of the present body and resurrection body.
For some of you, the challenge is to grow in faithfulness. You may, like many in the Corinthian church, have lost sight of the importance of loving, faithful service to God and to his people – in the present – until he comes, because you have placed too little emphasis on the present body. You may have what some call an over-realized eschatology which involves thinking that you have already achieved a measure of perfection in this life, either by means of spiritual gifts, or by superior intellect; or by self-sacrificial deeds. However, as Paul reminds us in chapter 13, “If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels and have not love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. If I have prophetic powers and understand all mysteries and all knowledge and have all faith, but have not love, I am nothing. And if I give away all I have or give my body to be burned but have not love, I gain nothing.” (vv1-3). Our spiritual maturity in this life is not measured by our gifts, but by the fruit of love.
Over-realized eschatology, unfortunately, can lead to presumption, self-sufficiency and self-indulgence. The Corinthians believed that since they had been spiritually perfected, it didn’t matter what they did in their bodies. This led to lawsuits against fellow believers, eating food offered to idols causing others to stumble, divisions in the church, selfishness in their worship and communion celebrations and even sexual immorality among them. The opposite of legalism is called antinomianism,[i] (which literally means “against law”). This is the belief that since faith alone is necessary for salvation, the moral law is of no use or obligation. This is why Paul warned the Corinthian church 18 Flee from sexual immorality. Every other sin a person commits is outside the body, but the sexually immoral person sins against his own body.
And he exhorted them to faithful living using their present bodies to glorify God. 19 Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, whom you have from God? You are not your own, 20 for you were bought with a price. So glorify God in your body.” (1 Co.6:18-20). …whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God. (1 Co. 10:31). Growing in faithfulness for you may mean placing more emphasis on glorifying God “in your body” serving the Lord and his people here and now.
I’d like to close with a quote from Paul Beasley-Murray’s The Message of the Resurrection. He writes, “The resurrection of the body is a wonderful hope and is something to be looked forward to. Something of the spirit of the resurrection is expressed by this epitaph on old tombstone: ‘The body of B. Franklin, printer, like the cover of an old book, its contents turned out and stripped of its lettering and gilding, lies here, food for worms. But the work shall not be lost; for it will, as he believed, appear once more in a new and more elegant condition, corrected and improved by the author.’” (p. 144).