1 Corinthians 15:35-58
A Glorious Body
35 But someone will say, “How are the dead raised up? And with what body do they come?” 36 Foolish one, what you sow is not made alive unless it dies. 37 And what you sow, you do not sow that body that shall be, but mere grain—perhaps wheat or some other grain. 38 But God gives it a body as He pleases, and to each seed its own body.
39 All flesh is not the same flesh, but there is one kind of flesh of men, another flesh of animals, another of fish, and another of birds.
40 There are also celestial bodies and terrestrial bodies; but the glory of the celestial is one, and the glory of the terrestrial is another. 41 There is one glory of the sun, another glory of the moon, and another glory of the stars; for one star differs from another star in glory.
42 So also is the resurrection of the dead. The body is sown in corruption, it is raised in incorruption. 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. There is a natural body, and there is a spiritual body. 45 And so it is written, “The first man Adam became a living being.” The last Adam became a life-giving spirit.
46 However, the spiritual is not first, but the natural, and afterward the spiritual. 47 The first man was of the earth, made of dust; the second Man is the Lord from heaven. 48 As was the man of dust, so also are those who are made of dust; and as is the heavenly Man, so also are those who are heavenly. 49 And as we have borne the image of the man of dust, we shall also bear the image of the heavenly Man.
Our Final Victory
50 Now this I say, brethren, that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God; nor does corruption inherit incorruption. 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 incorruptible, and we shall be changed. 53 For this corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality. 54 So when this corruptible has put on incorruption, and this mortal has put on immortality, then shall be brought to pass the saying that is written: “Death is swallowed up in victory.”
55 “O Death, where is your sting?
O Hades, where is your victory?”
56 The sting of death is sin, and the strength of sin is the law. 57 But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.
58 Therefore, my beloved brethren, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that your labor is not in vain in the Lord.
In Christ we are victorious over death’s sting of sin! Sin’s penalty has been vanquished by the sacrifice of His atoning death followed by resurrection to life for all who die in Him and live again (John 5:24, 1 Corinthians 15:21-22)! He begins this passage by reminding us that these corruptible bodies will be raised in a new form without the corrupting effects of sin that wears us down to death in such short lifetimes. This corruption affects both body and soul, and the new birth deals with the regeneration of our spirits, our lives, while the resurrection to come after death makes all things new including our frail bodies ravaged by sin when sin is put to death and we experience the full life God designed in the beginning of creation. We will be raised in honor, glory, and strength in this spiritual body of incorruptible construction as originally intended if we had chosen the tree of life (Genesis 3:22-23) instead of the one sinfully distrusting God’s word and imagining ourselves knowing good and evil better that the omniscient and omnipotent God who wanted to teach us right from wrong (Hebrews 5:14) as we went along. This first man Adam was made a living being infused with the very breath of God, His Spirit of life but fell into sin passed down to everyone through him (Romans 5:12-14). The second man who is the divine Son of God and perfect sinless man is the life-giving spirit of our Creator! This Lord from out of heaven came to save us from the corruption of sin on our bodies and souls by giving us His life through His sacrificial death as He covered our sins as no temporary animal sacrifice could since He killed the first to cover our sins in the beginning (Genesis 3:21) and repeatedly instructed His priests to do yearly for our temporary atonement in the temple. We are born in the image of the man created out of dust but now are given the image of the man from heaven, Jesus Christ, as a foretaste of eternal life in bodies more like angels than Adam, incorruptible and free from the effects of sin leading to suffering and death that we now live under until the resurrection of completion. Only then in these bodies freed from sin’s reign over us can we inherit the kingdom of God and stand in His holy presence forever as in the beginning in Eden’s Garden. That is our certain hope if we are in Christ now before death (Hebrews 9:27-28); we will be raised in bodies that are sinless and incorruptible, and then we will put on immortality as Isaiah 25:8 tells us that, “Death is swallowed up in victory.” The sting of sin, death, will be wiped away forever to all found in Christ when we die! The keeping of the law always had the flaw of corruption remaining in us but the grace of God by faith in Christ’s work (John 6:29) gives us the eternal victory in and through our Lord Jesus Christ as no amount of our fallible good works could ever hope to achieve! Because of this hope, we are to be confident in all we do as we remain steadfast, immovable, and always abounding in the work of the Lord and His gospel of peace with God and this eternal hope that cannot disappoint. We are victorious over death’s sting in Him. Amen and amen! Come quickly, Lord Jesus!
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