Correcting an erroneous foundation
Oct 20, 2019 23:39:10 GMT
Post by Colossians on Oct 20, 2019 23:39:10 GMT
This material is for the teaching of the Body of Christ, however the author reserves copyright over it.
Forward
The primary basis for the belief that those in Christ will be raised physically, is the fact that Christ was Himself raised physically: it is reasoned that Christ's resurrection was the “pattern” for ours.
Those who hold to such idea point to 1 Cor 15:20-23 for support.
_______________________________________
CORRECTING AN ERRONEOUS FOUNDATION
[20] “But now is Christ risen from the dead, and become the firstfruits of them that slept.”
Christ's resurrection was indeed the “firstfruits” of them that slept, but the fruit that is in focus here is not His physical resurrection per se, but the overcoming of the law's verdict which (errantly) crucified Him for walking by faith.1 For they “that slept” had walked by faith, and we know that “the law is not of faith” (Gal 3:12).
1 See our work: “Exposition of Romans 8:1-14”.
Accordingly, “firstfruits” did not, as some contend, indicate a (mere) deposit on the part of Israel toward God, but the first (available) production of the crop. And so Paul appends to such “firstfruits” notion the qualification “of them that slept”: one is only declared a partaker of Christ once one has held to the faith unto the end of one's natural life (see 1 Cor 16:13, Heb 3:14, Mt 10:22).
Commensurately, we are informed later in the same chapter that our spiritual bodies will be the fruit that results from the “sowing” of our natural bodies; which is to say, “the fruit of them who loved not their lives unto death” (see 2 Cor 4:10, Col 3:3, Rev 12:11).
[21] “For since by man came death, by man came also the resurrection of the dead.”
If man got himself into the problem, then man must get himself out of it.
It is a good thing then that God could become man.
[22] “For as in Adam all die,
This dying in Adam is not in reference to the eventual demise of our outer man, but to that to which Paul refers when he speaks, as it were, through the mouth of Adam:
“For I was alive without the law once: but when the commandment came, sin revived, and I died. And the commandment, which was ordained to life, I found to be unto death. For sin, taking occasion by the commandment, deceived me, and by it slew me” Rom 7:9-11
: when the bible speaks of death, it speaks primarily of spiritual death (condemnation): physical death is merely the conduit to a state where the spiritual death to which Paul refers at Rom 7:9-11 is (fully) realised (i.e. a state where there is no longer any ‘protection’ provided by one’s being in the flesh). Such full realisation is referred to in Revelation as “the second death”.
even so in Christ shall all be made alive.”
Just as the death to which the bible primarily refers is of the spiritual kind, so too the life:
“He that heareth my word, and believeth on Him that sent me ... is passed from death unto life” John 5:24.
[23] “But every man in his own order: Christ the firstfruits; afterward they that are Christ's at His coming.”
The law was in effect before Sinai, and the Cross in effect before Calvary. Might we not then also expect the resurrection to be in effect before the second coming?
That is, what this verse is doing is using a temporal paradigm – “in his own order”, “afterward” – to delineate a causal reality: the flesh is first with regard to protocol, but not necessarily first with regard to the spiritual events it authorises.
Indeed Paul alludes to such a little later in the same chapter:
“The first man Adam was made a living soul; the last Adam was made a quickening spirit. Howbeit that was not first which is spiritual, but that which is natural; and afterward that which is spiritual. The first man is of the earth, earthy: the second man is the Lord from heaven” 1 Cor 15:45-47
: Christ was (already) the son of man before the first man Adam was made.
So our Lord:
“What and if ye shall see the Son of man ascend up where He was before?” John 6:62.
And also:
“Before Abraham was, I am” John 8:58.
In short, although God's activities are outworked in time, the effects thereof are in fact time-independent.
And so what Paul is doing here at v23 is pointing to the fact that our very present resurrection life in Christ, which will continue on after our physical bodies expire (only in unlimited fashion by reason of the eradication of the hindrance of the flesh), will be (retrospectively) authorised by the second coming of Christ. For it is the second coming of Christ which will render the corporeal realm redundant and therefore our corporeal bodies redundant too.
And thus we understand why we are told at 1 Thes 4:14-16 that those in Christ who are not physically alive when He returns, shall rise from (an implied) grave to meet Him, and yet that those same people shall come “with” Him at that same return: figuratively, they shall rise from that which speaks to spiritual death: literally, they have already so risen and are seated in heavenly places in Christ, where indeed we are seated also.2
2 See our work: “The Micro and the Macro of God”.
The correction
Because the law's condemnation of one unto physical death implied a concomitant condemnation unto spiritual death – for ”the law is spiritual” (Rom 7:14) – the undoing of such physical death implied a concomitant undoing of such spiritual death.
Christ's (irresistible) physical resurrection in the face of the law’s verdict to the contrary, proved in no uncertain terms that those in the faith cannot be judged by the law – that upon the expiry of their natural lives they shall continue on in fellowship with God, only in unlimited fashion. It has nothing to do with any physical resurrection of our bodies.
“though our outward man perish, yet the inward man is renewed day by day” 2 Cor 4:16.
“For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life” John 3:16.
“And this is life [everlasting], that they might know thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent” John 17:3.
“I am the resurrection, and the life” John 11:25.
Amen.
Forward
The primary basis for the belief that those in Christ will be raised physically, is the fact that Christ was Himself raised physically: it is reasoned that Christ's resurrection was the “pattern” for ours.
Those who hold to such idea point to 1 Cor 15:20-23 for support.
_______________________________________
CORRECTING AN ERRONEOUS FOUNDATION
[20] “But now is Christ risen from the dead, and become the firstfruits of them that slept.”
Christ's resurrection was indeed the “firstfruits” of them that slept, but the fruit that is in focus here is not His physical resurrection per se, but the overcoming of the law's verdict which (errantly) crucified Him for walking by faith.1 For they “that slept” had walked by faith, and we know that “the law is not of faith” (Gal 3:12).
1 See our work: “Exposition of Romans 8:1-14”.
Accordingly, “firstfruits” did not, as some contend, indicate a (mere) deposit on the part of Israel toward God, but the first (available) production of the crop. And so Paul appends to such “firstfruits” notion the qualification “of them that slept”: one is only declared a partaker of Christ once one has held to the faith unto the end of one's natural life (see 1 Cor 16:13, Heb 3:14, Mt 10:22).
Commensurately, we are informed later in the same chapter that our spiritual bodies will be the fruit that results from the “sowing” of our natural bodies; which is to say, “the fruit of them who loved not their lives unto death” (see 2 Cor 4:10, Col 3:3, Rev 12:11).
[21] “For since by man came death, by man came also the resurrection of the dead.”
If man got himself into the problem, then man must get himself out of it.
It is a good thing then that God could become man.
[22] “For as in Adam all die,
This dying in Adam is not in reference to the eventual demise of our outer man, but to that to which Paul refers when he speaks, as it were, through the mouth of Adam:
“For I was alive without the law once: but when the commandment came, sin revived, and I died. And the commandment, which was ordained to life, I found to be unto death. For sin, taking occasion by the commandment, deceived me, and by it slew me” Rom 7:9-11
: when the bible speaks of death, it speaks primarily of spiritual death (condemnation): physical death is merely the conduit to a state where the spiritual death to which Paul refers at Rom 7:9-11 is (fully) realised (i.e. a state where there is no longer any ‘protection’ provided by one’s being in the flesh). Such full realisation is referred to in Revelation as “the second death”.
even so in Christ shall all be made alive.”
Just as the death to which the bible primarily refers is of the spiritual kind, so too the life:
“He that heareth my word, and believeth on Him that sent me ... is passed from death unto life” John 5:24.
[23] “But every man in his own order: Christ the firstfruits; afterward they that are Christ's at His coming.”
The law was in effect before Sinai, and the Cross in effect before Calvary. Might we not then also expect the resurrection to be in effect before the second coming?
That is, what this verse is doing is using a temporal paradigm – “in his own order”, “afterward” – to delineate a causal reality: the flesh is first with regard to protocol, but not necessarily first with regard to the spiritual events it authorises.
Indeed Paul alludes to such a little later in the same chapter:
“The first man Adam was made a living soul; the last Adam was made a quickening spirit. Howbeit that was not first which is spiritual, but that which is natural; and afterward that which is spiritual. The first man is of the earth, earthy: the second man is the Lord from heaven” 1 Cor 15:45-47
: Christ was (already) the son of man before the first man Adam was made.
So our Lord:
“What and if ye shall see the Son of man ascend up where He was before?” John 6:62.
And also:
“Before Abraham was, I am” John 8:58.
In short, although God's activities are outworked in time, the effects thereof are in fact time-independent.
And so what Paul is doing here at v23 is pointing to the fact that our very present resurrection life in Christ, which will continue on after our physical bodies expire (only in unlimited fashion by reason of the eradication of the hindrance of the flesh), will be (retrospectively) authorised by the second coming of Christ. For it is the second coming of Christ which will render the corporeal realm redundant and therefore our corporeal bodies redundant too.
And thus we understand why we are told at 1 Thes 4:14-16 that those in Christ who are not physically alive when He returns, shall rise from (an implied) grave to meet Him, and yet that those same people shall come “with” Him at that same return: figuratively, they shall rise from that which speaks to spiritual death: literally, they have already so risen and are seated in heavenly places in Christ, where indeed we are seated also.2
2 See our work: “The Micro and the Macro of God”.
The correction
Because the law's condemnation of one unto physical death implied a concomitant condemnation unto spiritual death – for ”the law is spiritual” (Rom 7:14) – the undoing of such physical death implied a concomitant undoing of such spiritual death.
Christ's (irresistible) physical resurrection in the face of the law’s verdict to the contrary, proved in no uncertain terms that those in the faith cannot be judged by the law – that upon the expiry of their natural lives they shall continue on in fellowship with God, only in unlimited fashion. It has nothing to do with any physical resurrection of our bodies.
“though our outward man perish, yet the inward man is renewed day by day” 2 Cor 4:16.
“For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life” John 3:16.
“And this is life [everlasting], that they might know thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent” John 17:3.
“I am the resurrection, and the life” John 11:25.
Amen.