1 Corintrhians 15:35-50

I Corinthians 15:35-50

By Dr. Hal Harless

Foundation Fellowship of Greenville

October 28, 2007

I. Introduction

A. Please turn in your Bibles to 1 Cor 15:35.

While you are turning ... Charles Swinburne wrote:

From too much love of living,

From hope and fear set free,

We thank with brief thanksgiving

Whatever gods may be

That no life lives forever;

That dead men rise up never;

That even the weariest river

Winds somewhere safe to sea.[1]

The apostle Paul would have most strongly disagreed; dead men do rise up, and life does go on forever!

B. Read 1 Cor 15:35-50.

II. Exposition

A. Background

1. We are in the part of 1 Corinthians (chapters 7-16) where Paul has been answering several questions from the Corinthians.

2. Here in chapter 15, Paul addresses questions concerning the resurrection.

3. This week Paul answers objections to the resurrection and in so doing tells us about the resurrection body.

B. The resurrection body (1 Cor 15:35-50)

1. The questions (read 1 Cor 15:35)

a. But someone will say--Paul is again employing the rhetorical device of diatribe (cp. 1 Cor 6:12-18; 7:1-2; 10:19, 29) and meeting the objections of an imaginary opponent.

b. "How are the dead raised?"--The first question indicates that the objector cannot imagine how such a thing as the resurrection could possibly happen.

c. "And with what kind of body do they come?"--The second question indicates that the objector considers the reanimation of dead bodies to be an absurdity.

2. How are the dead raised (1 Cor 15:36-41)?

a. Discontinuity within continuity (read 1 Cor 15:36-38)

1) You fool! That which you sow does not come to life unless it dies

a) Apparently, judging by Paul's reaction, these were not sincere questions, but objections to the resurrection.

b) Paul responds that we have in the seed an illustration of the resurrection in nature. In planting, the seed so to speak dies. Nevertheless, the seed springs to new life.

2) And that which you sow, you do not sow the body which is to be, but a bare grain, perhaps of wheat or of something else

a) Paul aptly uses the analogy of a seed because it illustrates both continuity and discontinuity.

b) The seed does not look like the plant that it is to become.

c) However, after the plant has come, the seed is gone.

d) There is a one-to-one correspondence between the seed and the plant.

e) We begin with two cells and now number in the trillions of cells. Those cells die and are replaced over time so that your present body is not the same one that you were born with. Nevertheless, you are the same person.

f) There is continuity and discontinuity.

3) But God gives it a body just as He wished--God designs the body that the seed is to have.

4) And to each of the seeds a body of its own--He sovereignly appoints each one.

b. Earthly bodies (read 1 Cor 15:39)

1) All flesh is not the same flesh--The backdrop for this is Genesis 1-2.

2) But there is one flesh of men, and another flesh of beasts, and another flesh of birds, and another of fish

a) "Another" (allos) means "another person or thing of the same kind."

b) Paul is saying that, even though there are similarities between the fleshes of living creatures, they are not the same.

c) This echoes the creation in Genesis 1.

c. Heavenly bodies (read 1 Cor 15:40-41)

1) There are also heavenly bodies and earthly bodies

a) The Gk. word translated "heavenly" is literally "in-the-heavens-ly," and "earthly" is literally "upon-the-earth-ly." These are terms of location not composition.

b) The Hebrew concept of the heavens is that there are three levels to heaven.

i) The first level refers to the sky or atmosphere. Moses writes that "birds fly above the earth in the open expanse of the heavens" (Gen 1:20).

ii) "Heavenly" as used here refers to the celestial or second heaven where the sun, moon, and stars are (1 Cor 15:41).

iii) Paul referred to a "third heaven" that is apparently God's throne is (2 Cor 12:2).

2) But the glory of the heavenly is one, and the glory of the earthly is another

a) "One" (heteros) means "another of a different kind."

b) Heavenly and earthly glory is of a very different sort. God creates both.

3) There is one glory of the sun, and another glory of the moon

a) "Another" (allos) means "another person or thing of the same kind."

b) The sun shines because of nuclear fusion, as do the stars.

c) The moon shines by reflecting the sun's light.

d) And another glory of the stars; for star differs from star in glory--

i) David Levy, co-discoverer of comet Shoemaker-Levy 9, writes:

We differentiate among star brightness by assigning them an arbitrary magnitude. The Sun shines at magnitude -26.5, while the full Moon is about -12. At greatest brilliance, Venus is -4. The bright star Vega is very close to 0 magnitude, and Deneb is 1.6. The faint stars barely visible to the average naked eye under a dark sky might be sixth magnitude.

Each magnitude number is 2.5 times fainter than the next lower one. Thus, a little multiplication will show that a sixth magnitude star is about 100 times fainter than a first magnitude star.[2]

ii) Therefore, the sun (magnitude -26.5) is about 600,000 times brighter than the moon (magnitude -12) and the brightest thing in our sky, the sun (magnitude -26.5), is about 8.5 trillion times brighter than the dimmest (magnitude 6).[3] Star does indeed differ from star in glory.

e) Paul may be alluding to the book of Daniel. The angel told Daniel that

many of those who sleep in the dust of the ground will awake, these to everlasting life, but the others to disgrace and everlasting contempt. Those who have insight will shine brightly like the brightness of the expanse of heaven, and those who lead the many to righteousness, like the stars forever and ever (Dan 12:2-3).

f) Note the use of "like." The angel compares the resurrected saints to stars; he does not equate them.

g) Paul's point: God created earthly bodies. God created heavenly bodies, and God can certainly resurrect our bodies.

3. With what body do they come (1 Cor 15:42-50)?

a. Contrasts (read 1 Cor 15:42-44)

1) So also is the resurrection of the dead

a) The resurrection body has both continuity and discontinuity with our present bodies.

b) Paul presents us with a series of contrasts.

2) It is sown a perishable body, it is raised an imperishable body

a) The main contrast is that our present body is perishable.

b) The resurrection body is imperishable.

3) It is sown in dishonor, it is raised in glory

a) The Gk. word translated "dishonor" is sometimes used of the loss of the rights and privileges of citizenship.

b) Death is an indignity that strips us of our rights.

c) The resurrection body will be glorious.

4) It is sown in weakness, it is raised in power

a) Age, infirmity, or illness result in the death of this body.

b) The resurrection body is raised in power. "Power" is the Gk. word dynamis.

5) It is sown a natural body, it is raised a spiritual body

a) "Natural" (psychikos) means "that which pertains to the soul."

b) "Spiritual" (pneumatikos) means "that which pertains to the spirit."

c) Some have misunderstood Paul to be referring to a non-physical resurrection body.

i) However, when Paul referred to the "spiritual man" in 1 Cor 2:15, he meant a human being empowered by the spirit of God not an immaterial entity.

ii) Adjectives of "material" tend to form in -inos; those which end in -ikos indicate what something is "like", giving an ethical or dynamic relation as opposed to a material one."

(a) Marcus Vitruvius Pollio (ca. 90-20 BC) writes of a machine "moved by wind (pneumatikos)."[4]

(b) The adjective describes, not what something is composed of, but what it is animated by.

6) If there is a natural body, there is also a spiritual body

a) "If" is a first class condition, i.e., "if, and it is the case" or "since."

b) There is no doubt about the existence of the natural body.

c) Paul is saying that the existence of the spiritual body is just as certain.

b. The first Adam and the last Adam (read 1 Cor 15:45-49)

1) So also it is written, "The first MAN, Adam, BECAME A LIVING SOUL."--This is a quote from the LXX of Gen 2:7.

2) The last Adam became a life-giving spirit

a) Now Paul continues the contrast between Adam and Christ that he alluded to earlier.

b) Paul has already said that "For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ all will be made alive" (1 Cor 15:22).

c) Paul uses similar terminology in Rom 5:12-19 calling Christ the second Adam.

3) However, the spiritual is not first, but the natural; then the spiritual

a) Adam came before Christ.

b) Our physical bodies come before our spiritual bodies.

4) The first man is from the earth, earthy

a) The Gk. word translated "earthy" means "made of earth."

b) Moses writes that "the LORD God formed the man from the dust of the ground" (Gen 2:7).

5) The second man is from heaven

a) The first century Jewish philosopher, Philo, created an allegory based loosely on Genesis 1. Philo views the spiritual man as the incorruptible spirit within human beings and the earthly man as the physical body.

b) However, Paul views the earthy man as the primal state of humanity in Adam.

c) "From heaven"--Jesus Christ claimed to have come from heaven (John 3:13; 6:41, 51, 58).

d) The heavenly man is Jesus Christ in whom we will be given a resurrected body animated by God's own Spirit.

6) As is the earthy, so also are those who are earthy--In our descent from Adam, we all are made of earth.

7) And as is the heavenly, so also are those who are heavenly--However, since we are in Christ, we share in His heavenly nature and resurrection.

8) Just as we have borne the image of the earthy, we will also bear the image of the heavenly

a) "Image" (eikōn) means "that which represents something else in terms of basic form and features, form, appearance."

b) Adam had children "according to his image (LXX eikōn)" (Gen 5:3).

c) Paul writes that our destiny is "to become conformed to the image (eikōn) of His Son" (Rom 8:29).

d) John writes "that when He appears, we will be like Him, because we will see Him just as He is" (1 John 3:2).

c. To inherit the kingdom of God (read 1 Cor 15:50)

1) Now I say this, brethren, that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God

a) Those who rule with Jesus Christ in the millennial kingdom will be glorified resurrected human beings.

b) When the rapture occurs, those who are alive will be glorified and those who have died will be resurrected (1 Cor 15:51-53; 1 Thess 4:13-18). These will return with Christ to rule at the end of the tribulation (Rev 19:11-16).

c) In addition, believers who died during the tribulation are resurrected to rule with Christ (Rev 20:4).

2) Nor does the perishable inherit the imperishable

a) Glorified redeemed human beings will populate the new heavens and earth.

b) All others will have been consigned to the lake of fire (Rev 20:11-21:7).

III. Applications

A. How can such a thing as the resurrection happen?

1. The resurrection body is still us, but it is not the same.

2. God's power is the basis for the resurrection.

a. He created the earthly bodies.

b. He created the heavenly bodies.

c. God can resurrect our bodies.

B. What is the resurrection body like?

1. The resurrection body is incorruptible.

2. The resurrection body is glorious.

3. The resurrection body is powerful.

4. The Holy Spirit animates the resurrection body.

5. We will be like Jesus Christ!

6. We will inherit the kingdom of God!