Expounding 1 Corinthians 15:35-50
Oct 23, 2016 8:34:03 GMT
Post by Colossians on Oct 23, 2016 8:34:03 GMT
This material is for the teaching of the Body of Christ, however the author reserves copyright over it.
Forward
This work should be read in conjunction with our other works on the resurrection.
___________________________________
EXPOUNDING 1 CORINTHIANS 15:35-50
[35] “But some man will say, How are the dead raised up? and with what body do they come? [36] Thou fool, that which thou sowest is not quickened, except it die:”
Here we are put on notice that the resurrection which Paul is about to discuss will be that which is by virtue of death rather than that which merely replaces death.
For the analogy he uses is that that which springs up in place of seed sown in the ground, is no mere addition to such seed, but in fact stems from such seed, and in particular from the death of it.
We are therefore about to be informed of a life which consists of the death of death.
[37] “And that which thou sowest, thou sowest not that body that shall be, but bare grain, it may chance of wheat, or of some other grain: [38] But God giveth it a body as it hath pleased him, and to every seed his own body. [39] All flesh is not the same flesh: but there is one kind of flesh of men, another flesh of beasts, another of fishes, and another of birds. [40] There are also celestial bodies, and bodies terrestrial: but the glory of the celestial is one, and the glory of the terrestrial is another. [41] There is one glory of the sun, and another glory of the moon, and another glory of the stars: for one star differeth from another star in glory. [42] So also is the resurrection of the dead. It is sown in corruption; it is raised in incorruption:”
Just as grain is different to the seed which produces it, and just as the glory of one type of entity is different to the glory of another type of entity, so also will our form in the resurrection be different to our form now.
[43] “It is sown in dishonour; 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. There is a natural body, and there is a spiritual body. [45] And so it is written, The first man Adam was made a living soul; the last Adam was made a quickening spirit.”
Here is the first explicatory statement: we are told that the last Adam, which is Christ, was “made” (in His incarnation) a quickening (life-giving) spirit. That is, the “spiritual body” which Paul says was Christ on earth, cannot possibly speak to physical form, for setting aside His particular individual appearance, Christ was in form no different to Adam.
Such spiritual body then will of necessity speak to behaviour and therefore (spiritual) quality rather than anything quantitative, and in particular power unto righteousness, for it is also said here that such spiritual body has the power to make alive, and only the righteous are alive before God.
And thus we understand that our being told in John’s gospel that God has given us the power to become the sons of God, is by virtue of our being connected to a Head who is the (very) (primary) Son of God, and that the spiritual body which we shall be is therefore and of necessity none other than His very own.
So:
“[He is the] Head, from which all the body by joints and bands having nourishment ministered, and knit together, increaseth with the increase of God” Col 2:19.
And so when we read:
“[He] shall change our vile body, that it may be fashioned like unto His glorious body” Phil 3:21
we understand why it refers not to our (several) “bodies” but our (corporate) “body”: the view is of the group of spirits referred to as the “body of Christ” and therefore that which of necessity speaks to a ‘form’ that is qualitative rather than quantitative in substance.
And although the body of Christ is in God’s eyes completely without sin and therefore anything but vile, Paul here refers to it as “vile” by virtue of the fact that his focus is on the end goal that is (the comparative superiority of) our state with regard to righteousness in the afterlife: in this present life we are often still operating by the principles of the old man. (See then our work: “Sin and righteousness structurally explained”.)
So then:
“But we all, with open face beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord” 2 Cor 3:18
: our ‘form’ in the afterlife will be the consummation of what we are already being made to become in this life.
[46] “Howbeit that was not first which is spiritual, but that which is natural; and afterward that which is spiritual.”
Here then Paul begins to refer to this First Adam/Second Adam scheme of things as type for the (progressive) transformation of the each of us from old man to new man.
For Paul is about building up the Body unto the Head which is Christ: he is about edifying the church, which edifying he has told us comes about not by the vanity that is form, but love:
“But God hath chosen the foolish things of the world to confound the wise; and God hath chosen the weak things of the world to confound the things which are mighty; And base things of the world, and things which are despised, hath God chosen, yea, and things which are not, to bring to nought things that are: That no flesh should glory in His presence” 1 Cor 1:27-29.
“I therefore, the prisoner of the Lord, beseech you that ye walk worthy of the vocation wherewith ye are called, With all lowliness and meekness, with longsuffering, forbearing one another in love” Eph 4:1,2.
And so might not it have been profitable for Paul to have been appointed a form which spoke to that of which he would preach?
Indeed:
“For his letters, say they, are weighty and powerful; but his bodily presence is weak, and his speech contemptible” 2 Cor 10:10.
[47] “The first man is of the earth, earthy: the second man is the Lord from heaven.”
And so note now that he says not that the first man “was” of the earth – which would do no more than (merely) relate the story of Adam to us again – but that he “is” of the earth.
And also that he says not that the second man “was” the Lord from heaven – which would do no more than (merely) relate the story of Christ’s historical ministry to us again – but that he “is” the Lord from heaven.
That is, Paul is now beginning to zero in on the (very present) nitty-gritty of life, where the faith we have each received from God is tested by fire and where the New Man which we constitute in union with our resurrected Head is the irresistible reciprocal of the old man which is (progressively) mortified.
“That I may know Him, and the power of His resurrection, and the fellowship of His sufferings, being made conformable unto His death” Phil 3:10.
[48] “As is the earthy, such are they also that are earthy: and as is the heavenly, such are they also that are heavenly. [49] And as we have borne the image of the earthy, we shall also bear the image of the heavenly.”
And so he continues: as is that which gives pre-eminence to the things of this world, such are they who belong to the world.
And as is that which gives pre-eminence to the things of heaven – moreover to Him who is the Lord from heaven – such are they who belong to the Lord.
And so he says that the ‘form’ of us who are in Christ – our “image” – shall reflect such (latter) focus, and which is of course according to what we have said earlier: Christ who was no different in corporeal form to Adam, was He who, being “the Lord from heaven”, nevertheless bore nothing but the image of the heavenly: such heavenly consisted not of outward form, but obedience to the Father.
[50] “Now this I say, brethren, that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God; neither doth corruption inherit incorruption.”
The final nail in the coffin for the current tabernacle in which we reside.
For when we read:
“In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread, till thou return unto the ground; for out of it wast thou taken: for dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return” Gen 3:19,
we understand that just as the difficulties of the corporeal existence which we in Christ face are no less severe than the difficulties of the corporeal existence which non-believers face, so also shall our final state as regards the flesh be no better than theirs: dust we are, and unto dust we shall return.
Summary
“though our outward man [(irreversibly)] perish, yet the inward man is renewed day by day” 2 Cor 4:16.
Epilogue
At Rev 20:6 we are given the following beautiful words:
“Blessed and holy is he that hath part in the first resurrection: on such the second death hath no power” .
They are beautiful because we are also told in that same chapter that death itself was cast into the lake of fire, and that such was the second death.
That is, the reason the second death has no power over us who have part in the first resurrection, is that He who is that very lake of fire is also that very first resurrection.
That is, the life we have in Him is indeed, the death of death.
Long live such death.
Amen.
(See also postscript below.)
______________________________
Postscript on spirits and spirituality
Declaring that we will be (solely) spirits in the afterlife does not in and of itself suffice for spiritual-mindedness, for Satan who is a spirit will agree with such declaration, and Satan is carnal. (For Satan was present in Eden before Adam and Eve were created: he who was transfixed with form – indeed his own – had been relegated to the realm where form is primary and the Cross foolishness.)
And so and rather, spiritual-mindedness speaks to Him who is too dead-to-self to pay any attention to whether or not He is alive in any ‘form’ other than the qualitative which declares Him in complete submission to the Father: any (otherwise) quantitative aspect is consumed by the qualitative, for “our God is a consuming fire” (Heb 12:29), and “the flesh profiteth nothing” (John 6:63), which latter speaks not merely to the substance that is flesh, but to anything which contrasts with the Spirit. (See Gal 4:29.) (See also our work: “Introduction to Statal Calvinism”.)
Forward
This work should be read in conjunction with our other works on the resurrection.
___________________________________
EXPOUNDING 1 CORINTHIANS 15:35-50
[35] “But some man will say, How are the dead raised up? and with what body do they come? [36] Thou fool, that which thou sowest is not quickened, except it die:”
Here we are put on notice that the resurrection which Paul is about to discuss will be that which is by virtue of death rather than that which merely replaces death.
For the analogy he uses is that that which springs up in place of seed sown in the ground, is no mere addition to such seed, but in fact stems from such seed, and in particular from the death of it.
We are therefore about to be informed of a life which consists of the death of death.
[37] “And that which thou sowest, thou sowest not that body that shall be, but bare grain, it may chance of wheat, or of some other grain: [38] But God giveth it a body as it hath pleased him, and to every seed his own body. [39] All flesh is not the same flesh: but there is one kind of flesh of men, another flesh of beasts, another of fishes, and another of birds. [40] There are also celestial bodies, and bodies terrestrial: but the glory of the celestial is one, and the glory of the terrestrial is another. [41] There is one glory of the sun, and another glory of the moon, and another glory of the stars: for one star differeth from another star in glory. [42] So also is the resurrection of the dead. It is sown in corruption; it is raised in incorruption:”
Just as grain is different to the seed which produces it, and just as the glory of one type of entity is different to the glory of another type of entity, so also will our form in the resurrection be different to our form now.
[43] “It is sown in dishonour; 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. There is a natural body, and there is a spiritual body. [45] And so it is written, The first man Adam was made a living soul; the last Adam was made a quickening spirit.”
Here is the first explicatory statement: we are told that the last Adam, which is Christ, was “made” (in His incarnation) a quickening (life-giving) spirit. That is, the “spiritual body” which Paul says was Christ on earth, cannot possibly speak to physical form, for setting aside His particular individual appearance, Christ was in form no different to Adam.
Such spiritual body then will of necessity speak to behaviour and therefore (spiritual) quality rather than anything quantitative, and in particular power unto righteousness, for it is also said here that such spiritual body has the power to make alive, and only the righteous are alive before God.
And thus we understand that our being told in John’s gospel that God has given us the power to become the sons of God, is by virtue of our being connected to a Head who is the (very) (primary) Son of God, and that the spiritual body which we shall be is therefore and of necessity none other than His very own.
So:
“[He is the] Head, from which all the body by joints and bands having nourishment ministered, and knit together, increaseth with the increase of God” Col 2:19.
And so when we read:
“[He] shall change our vile body, that it may be fashioned like unto His glorious body” Phil 3:21
we understand why it refers not to our (several) “bodies” but our (corporate) “body”: the view is of the group of spirits referred to as the “body of Christ” and therefore that which of necessity speaks to a ‘form’ that is qualitative rather than quantitative in substance.
And although the body of Christ is in God’s eyes completely without sin and therefore anything but vile, Paul here refers to it as “vile” by virtue of the fact that his focus is on the end goal that is (the comparative superiority of) our state with regard to righteousness in the afterlife: in this present life we are often still operating by the principles of the old man. (See then our work: “Sin and righteousness structurally explained”.)
So then:
“But we all, with open face beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord” 2 Cor 3:18
: our ‘form’ in the afterlife will be the consummation of what we are already being made to become in this life.
[46] “Howbeit that was not first which is spiritual, but that which is natural; and afterward that which is spiritual.”
Here then Paul begins to refer to this First Adam/Second Adam scheme of things as type for the (progressive) transformation of the each of us from old man to new man.
For Paul is about building up the Body unto the Head which is Christ: he is about edifying the church, which edifying he has told us comes about not by the vanity that is form, but love:
“But God hath chosen the foolish things of the world to confound the wise; and God hath chosen the weak things of the world to confound the things which are mighty; And base things of the world, and things which are despised, hath God chosen, yea, and things which are not, to bring to nought things that are: That no flesh should glory in His presence” 1 Cor 1:27-29.
“I therefore, the prisoner of the Lord, beseech you that ye walk worthy of the vocation wherewith ye are called, With all lowliness and meekness, with longsuffering, forbearing one another in love” Eph 4:1,2.
And so might not it have been profitable for Paul to have been appointed a form which spoke to that of which he would preach?
Indeed:
“For his letters, say they, are weighty and powerful; but his bodily presence is weak, and his speech contemptible” 2 Cor 10:10.
[47] “The first man is of the earth, earthy: the second man is the Lord from heaven.”
And so note now that he says not that the first man “was” of the earth – which would do no more than (merely) relate the story of Adam to us again – but that he “is” of the earth.
And also that he says not that the second man “was” the Lord from heaven – which would do no more than (merely) relate the story of Christ’s historical ministry to us again – but that he “is” the Lord from heaven.
That is, Paul is now beginning to zero in on the (very present) nitty-gritty of life, where the faith we have each received from God is tested by fire and where the New Man which we constitute in union with our resurrected Head is the irresistible reciprocal of the old man which is (progressively) mortified.
“That I may know Him, and the power of His resurrection, and the fellowship of His sufferings, being made conformable unto His death” Phil 3:10.
[48] “As is the earthy, such are they also that are earthy: and as is the heavenly, such are they also that are heavenly. [49] And as we have borne the image of the earthy, we shall also bear the image of the heavenly.”
And so he continues: as is that which gives pre-eminence to the things of this world, such are they who belong to the world.
And as is that which gives pre-eminence to the things of heaven – moreover to Him who is the Lord from heaven – such are they who belong to the Lord.
And so he says that the ‘form’ of us who are in Christ – our “image” – shall reflect such (latter) focus, and which is of course according to what we have said earlier: Christ who was no different in corporeal form to Adam, was He who, being “the Lord from heaven”, nevertheless bore nothing but the image of the heavenly: such heavenly consisted not of outward form, but obedience to the Father.
[50] “Now this I say, brethren, that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God; neither doth corruption inherit incorruption.”
The final nail in the coffin for the current tabernacle in which we reside.
For when we read:
“In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread, till thou return unto the ground; for out of it wast thou taken: for dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return” Gen 3:19,
we understand that just as the difficulties of the corporeal existence which we in Christ face are no less severe than the difficulties of the corporeal existence which non-believers face, so also shall our final state as regards the flesh be no better than theirs: dust we are, and unto dust we shall return.
Summary
“though our outward man [(irreversibly)] perish, yet the inward man is renewed day by day” 2 Cor 4:16.
Epilogue
At Rev 20:6 we are given the following beautiful words:
“Blessed and holy is he that hath part in the first resurrection: on such the second death hath no power” .
They are beautiful because we are also told in that same chapter that death itself was cast into the lake of fire, and that such was the second death.
That is, the reason the second death has no power over us who have part in the first resurrection, is that He who is that very lake of fire is also that very first resurrection.
That is, the life we have in Him is indeed, the death of death.
Long live such death.
Amen.
(See also postscript below.)
______________________________
Postscript on spirits and spirituality
Declaring that we will be (solely) spirits in the afterlife does not in and of itself suffice for spiritual-mindedness, for Satan who is a spirit will agree with such declaration, and Satan is carnal. (For Satan was present in Eden before Adam and Eve were created: he who was transfixed with form – indeed his own – had been relegated to the realm where form is primary and the Cross foolishness.)
And so and rather, spiritual-mindedness speaks to Him who is too dead-to-self to pay any attention to whether or not He is alive in any ‘form’ other than the qualitative which declares Him in complete submission to the Father: any (otherwise) quantitative aspect is consumed by the qualitative, for “our God is a consuming fire” (Heb 12:29), and “the flesh profiteth nothing” (John 6:63), which latter speaks not merely to the substance that is flesh, but to anything which contrasts with the Spirit. (See Gal 4:29.) (See also our work: “Introduction to Statal Calvinism”.)