Have you noticed that there’s something wrong with this world? No doubt, it’s beautiful especially at this time of year but something is just not right. Putting disasters, shootings, hatred, anxiety aside it just seems like everything is falling apart. Nothing really lasts.
We are reminded almost daily. When we buy milk, eggs, cheese they all come with an expiration date. These are going to go bad. When we buy electronics, you are asked to buy the extended warranty. These are going to break down. When we buy a car, it comes with a maintenance manual. Things are going to go wrong. It’s not going to last forever.
Everything seems to be breaking down. Even us – we are falling apart.
Now for a while in life we are deceived because for the first 4-5 decades of life it looks like we are getting better. We grow, we get stronger and smarter, we get faster. But at some point we realize that we start getting slower, weaker, not quite as mentally sharp. We get to a point where we wonder, “Is this as good as it gets?”
I’m reminded of that all the time. I can’t jump as high. I can’t see as well. Just about nay activity makes me sore. And it’s not just me. We are all falling apart. And we are reminded of that every day as we drive by hospitals, assisted living facilities, and cemeteries. All stark reminders that our bodies are failing.
Aren’t you glad you came today? What an encouraging sermon Todd gave today. He told us we are all falling apart.
That’s the bad news, but I do have some good news, really good news, and it’s in 1 Corinthians 15:35-57.
Paul is going to talk about this body of ours, but not just about this body but a new body we will one day have. It’s similar to this one (it is a body) but it’s also different.
His discussion is a response to two hypothetical questions the Corinthians might have in 15:35:
1 Corinthians 15:35 (NIV) — 35 But someone will ask, “How are the dead raised? With what kind of body will they come?”
Paul has been talking about the resurrection – Christ’s resurrection and our resurrection. So, Paul is going to address what this resurrected body will be like.
As I read this I want you to notice how many times Paul uses the word “body” and then notice the contrasts that he makes between this body and the resurrected body.
Mortal – Immortal
Earthly – Heavenly
Natural – Spiritual
Perishable – imperishable
Here’s a little outline of these verses:
15:36-44: Paul gives illustrations of different bodies.
15:44-49: The natural body we inherited from Adam. The heavenly body we will inherit from Christ.
15:50-57: The victorious crescendo.
Let’s read:
1 Corinthians 15:35–57 (NIV) — 35 But someone will ask, “How are the dead raised? With what kind of body will they come?” 36How foolish! What you sow does not come to life unless it dies. 37 When you sow, you do not plant the body that will be, but just a seed, perhaps of wheat or of something else. 38 But God gives it a body as he has determined, and to each kind of seed he gives its own body. 39 Not all flesh is the same: People have one kind of flesh, animals have another, birds another and fish another. 40 There are also heavenly bodies and there are earthly bodies; but the splendor of the heavenly bodies is one kind, and the splendor of the earthly bodies is another. 41 The sun has one kind of splendor, the moon another and the stars another; and star differs from star in splendor. 42 So will it be with the resurrection of the dead. The body that is sown is perishable, it is raised imperishable; 43 it is sown in dishonor, it is raised in glory; it is sown in weakness, it is raised in power; 44it is sown a natural body, it is raised a spiritual body. If there is a natural body, there is also a spiritual body. 45So it is written: “The first man Adam became a living being”; the last Adam, a life-giving spirit. 46 The spiritual did not come first, but the natural, and after that the spiritual. 47 The first man was of the dust of the earth; the second man is of heaven. 48As was the earthly man, so are those who are of the earth; and as is the heavenly man, so also are those who are of heaven. 49 And just as we have borne the image of the earthly man, so shall we bear the image of the heavenly man. 50I declare to you, brothers and sisters, that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God, nor does the perishable inherit the imperishable. 51 Listen, I tell you a mystery: We will not all sleep, but we will all be changed—52 in a flash, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, the dead will be raised imperishable, and we will be changed. 53 For the perishable must clothe itself with the imperishable, and the mortal with immortality. 54 When the perishable has been clothed with the imperishable, and the mortal with immortality, then the saying that is written will come true: “Death has been swallowed up in victory.” 55 “Where, O death, is your victory? Where, O death, is your sting?” 56 The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law. 57 But thanks be to God! He gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.
That is good news.
Let’s just mention a few important points.
A. The resurrection validates our trust
We’ve been talking about trust this year with our theme from Proverbs 3:5-6. I’ve been urging you to trust in the Lord. That is the wise way to live. But we live in this world where everything seems to be falling apart, so why trust in God? We are subject to this perishable world. Where has it gotten me? Because of the resurrection that trust is not ill-advised. Paul refers to the OT in verse 54:
1 Corinthians 15:54 (NIV) — 54 When the perishable has been clothed with the imperishable, and the mortal with immortality, then the saying that is written will come true: “Death has been swallowed up in victory.”
It’s reference back to Isaiah.
Isaiah 25:8–9 (NIV) — 8 he will swallow up death forever. The Sovereign Lord will wipe away the tears from all faces; he will remove his people’s disgrace from all the earth. The Lord has spoken. 9 In that day they will say, “Surely this is our God; we trusted in him, and he saved us. This is the Lord, we trusted in him; let us rejoice and be glad in his salvation.”
Your trust in God is valid. Why?
B. Jesus has reversed the decaying process
Adam in his sin set the world on a course of corruption. Christ in his resurrection set the world on a course of eternal life.
The long chain of decay and death inaugurated by the first Adam will finally be irrevocably broken by the last Adam. (Gordon Fee)
Paul talks about this Jesus/Adam contrast in other letters, most notably in Romans:
Romans 5:15–17 (NIV) — 15 But the gift is not like the trespass. For if the many died by the trespass of the one man, how much more did God’s grace and the gift that came by the grace of the one man, Jesus Christ, overflow to the many! 16 Nor can the gift of God be compared with the result of one man’s sin: The judgment followed one sin and brought condemnation, but the gift followed many trespasses and brought justification. 17 For if, by the trespass of the one man, death reigned through that one man, how much more will those who receive God’s abundant provision of grace and of the gift of righteousness reign in life through the one man, Jesus Christ!
He also talks about the struggle we have in this decaying world in Romans 8.
Romans 8:22–25 (NIV) —22 We know that the whole creation has been groaning as in the pains of childbirth right up to the present time. 23 Not only so, but we ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for our adoption to sonship, the redemption of our bodies. 24 For in this hope we were saved. But hope that is seen is no hope at all. Who hopes for what they already have? 25 But if we hope for what we do not yet have, we wait for it patiently.
We live in a perishable world that is groaning for liberation from decay but we eagerly and patiently wait for the imperishable. But as we wait we can be sure that when it happens it will happen instantaneously.
C. We shall be changed instantaneously
Have you ever done remodeling? That’s what we do in this decaying world. When things fall apart we remodel even knowing that the remodel will also fall apart. Anyway, remodeling always seems to take such a long time. We wish we could just blink our eyes and we have a new bathroom. But that just doesn’t happen.
But this change will be instantaneous!
1 Corinthians 15:51–52 (NIV) — 51 We will all be changed—52 in a flash, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, the dead will be raised imperishable, and we will be changed.
The long chain of decay and death inaugurated by the first Adam will finally be irrevocably broken by the last Adam. (Gordon Fee)
Dwight Moody was an American evangelist in the 19th century. Listen to his confidence.
“Someday you will read in the papers that D. L. Moody of Northfield is dead. Don’t you believe a word of it. At that moment I shall be more alive than I am now. I shall have gone higher, that is all—out of this old clay tenement into a house that is immortal, a body that sin cannot touch, that sin cannot taint, a body fashioned into His glorious body. I was born in the flesh in 1837; I was born of the Spirit in 1856. That which is born of the flesh may die; that which is born of the Spirit will live forever.”
The resurrection of Jesus Christ gives us that hope!
So Paul answers that question we started out with. “What kind of body will we have?”
It will no longer be mortal. It will be immortal. It will no longer be earthly. It will be heavenly. It will no longer be natural. It will be spiritual. It will no longer be perishable. It will be imperishable.
That’s all because of the resurrection of Jesus.
