Some in the Corinthian congregation had denied, or downplayed, the resurrection of the body. To counter this error, and to show just how important that doctrine was, Paul contrasted the “natural” body with the “spiritual” body. The natural body is the “ensouled” body, the physical body that encases the soul. The spiritual body is the “en-Spirited” body, the body brought to sinless perfection and raised from the dead, like Christ’s body was also raised from the dead by the Holy Spirit (Romans 8:11).
Paul now continues dealing with this topic by comparing the “ensouled body” with the “en-Spirited body,” and what the resurrection of the body means for the Christian.
The En-Spirited Body
Read 1 Corinthians 15:44b-47
- How did the first Adam become a living soul? (Genesis 2:17)
- Who is the last Adam, the “second man”? (vs. 47)
- Discuss: In what way did the last Adam become a life-giving Spirit? How does the en-Spiritedness of the “last Adam” become ours? (John 3:3-8, 1 John 3:2).
Jesus as the “life-giving Spirit”: In 2 Corinthians 3:18, we also see Paul link Jesus and the Holy Spirit together. Referring to Jesus as “Lord,” Paul used the expression kyrio pneumatos, which the ESV translates as “the Lord who is the Spirit.” Your pastor prefers the more ambiguous “the Spirit of the Lord,” for it better reflects the ambiguity of the Greek grammar. It also doesn’t force an understanding on the reader that Paul did not mean.
When we look at all of what Paul wrote, and the contexts in which he linked the Holy Spirit and Jesus, Paul doesn’t mean that Jesus and the Holy Spirit are the same person of the Trinity. Their relationship is not ontological, meaning that Jesus and the Holy Spirit are the same person of the Trinity; instead, their relationship—in relation to us—is dynamic.
Jesus sends the Spirit from the Father (John 15:26). The Spirit gives life (John 6:63). Jesus, then, through the Spirit He has sent, becomes the “life-giving Spirit.”
Read 1 Corinthians 15:48-49
- Although all humans share in the likeness and mortality of the first Adam, “the man of dust,” who will share in the likeness of the last Adam, “the man of heaven”? (vs. 48)
- How does someone become “of heaven” so that he becomes “as the man of heaven”?
“image”: Greek, eikon, meaning “image, likeness, form, or appearance.” After the resurrection of the body, those in Christ we will be like Christ, sinless and perfect, in both body and soul.
Although we have both a body and soul, we are not like Christ. We are sinful, still have death within us, and have not yet been fully “en-Spirited” with a perfect, sinless, and eternal body. The souls in heaven are not like Christ, either. Although they are sinless and eternal like Christ, they are still incomplete, for they have not been fully “en-Spirited” with a perfect, sinless, and eternal body.
So, those in heaven and on earth are both lacking, but in different ways. That will all change at the resurrection of the body.
Victory over Death through the Resurrection of the Body
Read 1 Corinthians 15:50
- How can Paul say “flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God” when this entire section is about the resurrection of the body?
- How does someone inherit something? How, then, will you inherit “the kingdom of God”?
Inherit: To inherit something requires two events: First, you have to be born. An inheritance comes to someone by a matter of birth, of being born into a particular family. Second, someone in that family has to die for you to inherit something from him.
To receive an inheritance from God, then, such as “the kingdom of God,” means that you have to born into His family (this will be covered later in an excursus in this lesson). Without such a birth, you will not receive His inheritance for you. Second, someone has to die for you to inherit it. That needed death took place in Jesus’ death.
Read 1 Corinthians 15:51-52
- How does Paul describe what he is going to reveal next? (vs. 51)
“mystery”: Something beyond our comprehension, which we may only know because God has chosen to reveal it to us (1 Corinthians 2:7, 13:2, and 14:2; see also Romans 11:25-36). Some of the Corinthians had thought that by speaking in tongues they were speaking heavenly secrets or “mysteries” (1 Corinthians 13:2, 14:2), but they were mistaken. Paul now reveals a true mystery.
- What does Paul mean by “sleep”?
- Whether alive or dead, when will we all be changed?
- How quickly will this take place?
“a moment, in the twinkling of an eye”: Paul used two time references to emphasize the quickness of the change. Atomos (where we get the word “atom”) denotes in indivisible moment of time. The ESV’s “twinkling” refers to “rapid movement.” From our perspective, when Christ’s returns, it will all seem instantaneous.
Excursus: The “last trumpet”
1 Thessalonians 4:16-17: “The Lord himself will come down from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trumpet of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first. Then we who are still alive and remain will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air.”
In the Old Covenant, a trumpet summoned Israel to meet the Lord (Exodus 19:16-17), to worship Him on the Feast of Trumpets (Leviticus 23:23-25), which heralded a solemn time of preparation for the Day of Atonement. The Day of Atonement prefigured Christ’s atonement for us on the cross and His final redemption for us on the Last Day.
Trumpets also signaled the Jubilee year (Leviticus 25:9). A Jubilee year took place at the end of every 49th year, where all slaves and prisoners were freed and debts were forgiven. This was more than an economic event to keep a family from becoming permanently destitute or a permanent “underclass”; it also highlighted to the Israelites that, in God, they were not permanently enslaved, but forgiven.
Trumpets were sounded on days of rejoicing in God’s redemption, “as a reminder… I am the Lord your God” (Numbers 10:1-10). The trumpet even signaled Israel’s restoration from perishing in exile (Isaiah 27:13). And so, for the faithful, the “last trumpet” marks our full restoration and redemption that we have with God, though Christ Jesus, in the Holy Spirit.
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- How will we all be changed, whether believer or unbeliever?
Note: We covered the implications of having an imperishable body, a body that cannot die, in eternity with the benefit of Christ’s righteousness in Lesson 26, in the excursus, “God is All in All.”
Read 1 Corinthians 15:53-56
- When will death finally die?
Here, Paul adapts Isaiah 25:8, changing, “He will swallow up death” to become “death is swallowed up in victory.” Paul next quotes Hosea 13:14, not according to the Hebrew text but the Septuagint. The Hebrew text has the Lord calling up death with its plagues and the grave with its sting to destroy Israel for its sins. However, following the Septuagint, Paul cries out that death and the grave are enemies that are themselves finally put to death by the resurrection of the dead.
Read 1 Corinthians 15:56-57
- If sin made death a reality for us, who or what makes “the victory” a reality for us? (vs. 56-57)
Excursus: Receiving God’s Inheritance for You
In John 3, Jesus contrasted an earthly, natural birth (born with an “ensouled” body, but in a fallen condition) with a spiritual, heavenly birth (born from above by the Holy Spirit, receiving an “en-Spirited” body). As the “man from heaven,” pointing forward to the birth that He would give through the Spirit, Jesus said, “Unless someone is born from above, he cannot see the kingdom of God” (John 3:3).
However, Nicodemus misunderstood Jesus and thought He meant being physically born a second time (John 3:4). To clarify, Jesus then responded:
I assure you: Unless someone is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God. What is born of the flesh is flesh, and what is born of the Spirit is spirit. Do not be surprised that I told you, “You must be born from above.” [John 3:5-7]
This birth from above is through the “water and the Spirit” of baptism. Because the Spirit, from heaven, brings about this birth, it is a “birth from above.” (Being “born again” would do you no good, unless that being “born again” was “from above,” causing you to be born into God’s family.) This birth begins the life that one has in Christ, which will come to full fruition on the Last Day.
As Paul also wrote:
Do you not know that all who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? Therefore, through baptism, we were buried with him into his death, so that just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too can walk [notice the physicality of “walk”] in newness of life. For if we have become united with him in the likeness of His death, we will also be united with him in the likeness of His resurrection. [Romans 6:3-5]
A perishable, “flesh and blood” body is perishable because of the fall into sin (Genesis 2:17). Thus, because it has the corruption of sin, it cannot live with God in eternity (Exodus 33:19-20; Isaiah 6:5). It would immediately die in His presence. However, when the “perishable puts on the imperishable, and the mortal puts on immortality,” then an immortal, en-Spirited, flesh-and-blood body will live forever in God’s presence. This reality begins with baptism and is fulfilled in the resurrection of the body.
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Read 1 Corinthians 15:58
- Through Paul’s use of “therefore,” how does the doctrine of the resurrection of the body change how we live our lives right now?
“be steadfast, immovable”: In this last verse of chapter 15, Paul links back to the beginning of this chapter. In 15:1-2, Paul reminded the Corinthians of the Gospel that he preached to them, in which they stood, in which they were being saved—if they held fast to the Word! From being steadfast and immovable in that Word, they then were to abound in the works of the Lord, knowing that in the Lord their labor was not in vain.
Because Christ’s resurrection is real, that means your resurrection is real. Because of that, you continue “being saved” (1 Corinthians 15:2), holding fast to the Word that is preached to you. But also—because the resurrection of the body is real—your good works are never in vain, no matter what may happen to you in this fallen world.
Click here to go to the final Lesson on 1 Corinthians.
