Making Sense of 1st Corinthians CH15d

There was a raging debate between the theologians at the time of Jesus about whether or not there was life after death. Some of them read the Old Testament and came to the conclusion that there was no such thing as the resurrection of the dead. They were pretty sure of themselves. Others read the same Scriptures and came to a completely different conclusion. They were absolutely certain this life wasn’t the end.

So, Jesus shows up and puts an end to the argument once and for all—at least for anyone who’s paying attention. He said He was going to die and in three days come back from the dead. He said He is the resurrection and the life and anyone who believes in Him will also rise and live forever. The cross, a brutal symbol of death, is transformed into a beautiful symbol of eternal life. 

Case should have been closed, especially for Christians.

But some Christians want to look enlightened and smart to their woke friends. Some Christians spiritualize the resurrection and pretty much everything else about Jesus until it doesn’t end up meaning anything real at all. We all know people who do it. It’s what the Corinthians were doing, it’s why Paul wrote this letter to them.

They spiritualized love and obedience to the point that they were not actually treating each other with love—which is why he explained what love actually looks like in chapter 13. It looks like laying down our lives for other people. It looks like the cross. It looks like obedience. Jesus was obedient to the will of the Father by going to the cross—love and obedience looks the same for us. Everyone who follows Jesus follows Him to a cross. Crosses are painful. 

Sometimes I see a church with a giant cross on their building or on their land and I want to go knock on the pastor’s door. Say something like, “Man, it’s so refreshing to see a church that understands what following Jesus actually looks like. It looks like a cross. It’s not about comfort, or wealth, or health, or getting material blessings from God if we have enough faith, or God making all our wishes come true—it’s so rare to find Christians who understand the self-sacrificing life of a true Jesus follower.” How do you think that conversation would end up?

Here’s what the cross really means: it means no matter what happens to you in this life, that’s not the end of the story. Jesus rose from the dead and you will, too. Jesus died for your sins, so when you stand before God in the resurrection it’s going to be a really good day. The cross means you’re free to be obedient and faithful to Jesus no matter what people threaten you with—what’s the worst they can do? Kill you? That ain’t nothin’! Jesus promises you’ll be raised from the dead. 

The question is do you actually believe it. If Jesus rose from the grave, then nothing else matters. If Jesus didn’t rise from the grave, then nothing really matters at all. Paul’s trying to get them all geeked up about the resurrection. It changes everything. The way you treat your family, the way you love your spouse, the way you talk to your friends, the way you deal with people you don’t like—obedience to God looks like love, and love looks like the cross. You lay down your life for others. Jesus promises you’ll get it back. Love is a trust fall, remember?

He’s been rocking this idea the whole book. As we jump back into chapter 15, verse 29 gets a little weird. People don’t know what to do with this:

Otherwise, what do people mean by being baptized on behalf of the dead? If the dead are not raised at all, why are people baptized on their behalf?

It seems the Corinthian church did this thing where they baptized living members of the church in some desperate attempt to save their dead friends and relatives. This is the only place it is mentioned in the Bible. It’s never been an acceptable practice of the church. We don’t know any more than what Paul said about it here. 

His point is clear: how dumb it is to baptize for the dead if there isn’t going to be a resurrection. 

Most people think Paul is calling them out on their hypocrisy based on some strange baptism ritual they were doing but they don’t think he’s endorsing it. We let Scripture interpret Scripture, so we’re certainly not going to start baptizing on behalf of the dead based on one confusing sentence. His point is the resurrection is real. Now he makes a different argument.

Verse 30:

Why are we in danger every hour? I protest, brothers, by my pride in you, which I have in Christ Jesus our Lord, I die every day! What do I gain if, humanly speaking, I fought with beasts at Ephesus? If the dead are not raised, “Let us eat and drink, for tomorrow we die.”

If the resurrection isn’t real, it would be really dumb to risk his life talking about it. What would be the point? Fighting the beasts at Ephesus is probably a reference to the people who tried to kill him and drive him out of town—we don’t have any record of Paul being thrown in the gladiator pit and fighting lions, tigers and bears, and if that is what he’s talking about, I’m going to be pretty disappointed that the story wasn’t written down for us. How cool would that be? Paul fighting in the coliseum against wild animals! He probably just means the mean people, though.

Paul lived a hard life because he insisted on talking about the Gospel of Jesus. Why? He risked his life every day, and he would eventually have his head chopped off for talking about the resurrection. If it wasn’t really going to happen, that wouldn’t make any sense. It would have been better to just enjoy life. Eat, drink and be merry. If death is the end, then our time would be better spent partying like the pagans.

Paul quotes Isaiah 22:13 about eating and drinking and being merry. It’s also the message of Ecclesiastes. Everything is meaningless, we should at least try to enjoy ourselves. It’s the message of everyone who mocks the idea of faith, saying something like, “I’d rather party in hell with my friends—at least they’ll have good music.” “Bad company ‘til the day I die!” “I may be going to hell in a bucket but at least I’m enjoying the ride.” 

These are not new ideas. It’s funny because Paul actually quotes one of their pagan rock stars to smash their foolishness in verse 33. He quotes the secular Greek poet Menander who said…

Do not be deceived: “Bad company ruins good morals.” (that was the quote, then Paul says) Wake up from your drunken stupor, as is right, and do not go on sinning. For some have no knowledge of God. I say this to your shame.

We become like the people we hang out with. Spend your time with people who have bad theology and loose morals and you’ll end up with bad theology and make a mess of your life. It’s time to wake up! Sober up. You know right from wrong—start acting like it. Don’t be like people who don’t have any knowledge of God. Stop acting like people who don’t understand what the cross means, what love means. My grandma used to say, “have you no shame!” It seems like a lot of people don’t have any shame anymore. Paul says “I say this to your shame.” Shame on you! Wake up!

Some of the enlightened Corinthians must have been mocking the whole idea of resurrection bodies. What if the person was eaten by a shark? Gobbled up by a sharknado! How old will we be in the resurrection? Will there be a bunch of eternal babies walking around like cute little renaissance cherubs? Can I pick my age? I’d probably rather have my 20-year-old body than the 80-year-old version. They had probably heard the stories about how Resurrected Jesus seemed to be able to teleport, walk through walls and fly—go up into heaven or outer space. So they thought they’d bring some reasonable scientific arguments against the resurrection to the table. Paul was ready for them.

Verse 35: 

But someone will ask, “How are the dead raised? With what kind of body do they come?” You foolish person! What you sow does not come to life unless it dies. And what you sow is not the body that is to be, but a bare kernel, perhaps of wheat or of some other grain. 

You want to bring science into this? Okay. First, you’re a fool for mocking the resurrection. Second, graveyards are like gardens. The dead are planted like seeds and just like seeds, what goes into the ground isn’t going to resemble what grows from it. Acorns become trees. People of flesh become supernatural people of the Spirit. You don’t know what you’re talking about—you can’t even imagine what your resurrected body is going to be like. This is the work of God we’re talking about here. He likes to surprise us.

The truth is, we see resurrection everywhere we look. The answer is right there in your own garden. Just like Jesus said, “Unless a grain of wheat falls into the ground and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it bears much fruit.” It’s the way seeds work.

Paul goes on laying down some mystery for us anyway, verse 38:

But God gives it a body as he has chosen, and to each kind of seed its own body. For not all flesh is the same, but there is one kind for humans, another for animals, another for birds, and another for fish. 

People who love their pets are always wondering if they’ll see Fluffy in heaven. I don’t know. But Paul does talk about how different kinds of flesh are like different kinds of seeds. So maybe. 

His main point, though, is there will be a continuity of the resurrected body with the believer’s earthly body. But there will be a transformation. Like in the resurrection of Jesus—He was the same and yet gloriously different. We do not, right now in our earthly lives, have spiritual existence in all its fullness. 

But he keeps riffing on creation and it gets pretty metaphysical, verse 40:

There are heavenly bodies and earthly bodies, but the glory of the heavenly is of one kind, and the glory of the earthly is of another. There is one glory of the sun, and another glory of the moon, and another glory of the stars; for star differs from star in glory. 

So there. Got it? 

I think Paul is basically reminding us that the heavens declare the glory of God like it says in Psalm 19. Everything is too interconnected and fine-tuned to have happened by chance. All creation points to the reality that there is a God who created it. The same God who created everything is going to re-create our bodies in the resurrection. He’s going to do it however He wants to and the only thing we know is that it will be glorious.

Verse 42:

So is it with the resurrection of the dead. What is sown is perishable; what is raised is imperishable. It is sown in dishonor; it is raised in glory. It is sown in weakness; it is raised in power. It is sown a natural body; it is raised a spiritual body. If there is a natural body, there is also a spiritual body. 

Paul’s talking about a reversal of entropy. Instead of everything breaking down and decaying, it will be raised in glory and power. No longer subject to death and weakness. The mystery of our eternal life and glorified bodies sounds pretty awesome. I think our fascination with superheroes and superpowers is our souls longing for the resurrection and the way we will be in glory.

Verse 45:

Thus it is written, “The first man Adam became a living being”; the last Adam became a life-giving spirit. But it is not the spiritual that is first but the natural, and then the spiritual. The first man was from the earth, a man of dust; the second man is from heaven. As was the man of dust, so also are those who are of the dust, and as is the man of heaven, so also are those who are of heaven. 

This is more meditation on how death came through Adam and life through Jesus. He also points out that the natural body of flesh came before the spiritual glorified body. This is probably to correct false assumptions of the Greek gnostics who thought everything started in the beginning as perfect spirit. The material world matters. Matter matters.

Verse 49:

Just as we have borne the image of the man of dust, we shall also bear the image of the man of heaven. I tell you this, brothers: flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God, nor does the perishable inherit the imperishable. 

We can’t get to God in the natural human state that we inherited from Adam. Jesus is the only way. He is the truth and the life. We have to believe in Him. There is no other way for a man made of dust to become clean.

You were saved when you believed in Jesus. You are being saved by holding on to that faith in Jesus. And you will one day in the future, when Jesus returns in glory, you will be saved. It’s going to happen like this, verse 51:

Behold! I tell you a mystery. We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed, in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised imperishable, and we shall be changed. For this perishable body must put on the imperishable, and this mortal body must put on immortality. 

Don’t worry about the people who have already died, they’re going to be raised from the dead when Christ returns. And don’t worry about missing out on it if you’re still alive—as if you have to be dead in order to be part of the resurrection. This is a description of the resurrection of the living. You can’t enter the kingdom of God while in your natural flesh and blood body, so in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye—like really quick, before you even have time to notice—poof! You’ll be changed into a resurrection body. 

Paul compares it to putting on new clothes. Like a super-suit for our soul!

Verse 54:

When the perishable puts on the imperishable, and the mortal puts on immortality, then shall come to pass the saying that is written: “Death is swallowed up in victory.” “O death, where is your victory? O death, where is your sting?” 

Drawing from Isaiah 25:8

“He will swallow up death forever, and the Lord God will wipe away tears from all faces.”

And Hosea 13:14,

“ I shall ransom them from the power of Sheol (death, the underworld); I shall redeem them from Death. O Death, where are your plagues? O Sheol, where is your sting?”

This hasn’t happened yet, not for us. Jesus made the way for us on the cross and in the resurrection—it’s already happened for Him and He promises that it will one day be real for us, too. We live our Christian lives by faith. We follow Jesus to the cross having full confidence that His resurrection will also be our resurrection.

Verse 56:

The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law. But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. Therefore, my beloved brothers, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that in the Lord your labor is not in vain.

Later Paul will write to the Romans saying, “The wages of sin is death.” Christians know that death came into the world through Adam’s sin and has spread to everyone else. We’ve all grabbed sin with both hands and filled our lives with it. 

Even though we all still have to suffer the physical consequences of Adam’s sin, we’re not going to die in any kind of failure. You will die absolved. Forgiven. You are reckoned sinless for Christ’s sake. Death could not hold Him and it will not be able to hold you.

We still sin, though. God’s law is holy and just and good, but we can’t perfectly keep it. When we fail, it’s like a mirror that shows us how much we need God’s grace. It feels like an accusation, a reminder of how sinful we are. Even when we try to do good, we end up making a mess of things. 

This is why Paul wants to encourage us that the things we do for the Lord—when we worship God and love people—all that stuff is not in vain. It’s not wasted. Because God sanctifies the things we do—makes them holy. He accomplishes what He wants to do through us. That’s why nothing done for the Gospel is ever wasted. 

And that brings us to the end of chapter 15. The resurrection chapter. So much good stuff here. So much hope. Let me wrap it up by reminding us of the promise that comes from the cross and the resurrection.

Because we need to be constantly reminded of the Gospel. Of grace. Otherwise, we’ll slip into feeling condemned all over again. You’re not condemned. Your future is hopeful. You will die but death is not your fate. You really need to take this to heart: Jesus was resurrected from the dead. Death has been rendered harmless for you. God has given you all the victory of Jesus over death, hell, and the grave. God has shown you compassion and mercy. He sent Jesus to rescue you. You and me, we can cheerfully depart this life when it is our time. May God give us courage and faith no matter what the cross ends up looking like in our life. May we continue to follow Jesus bravely all the way to it, holding firm to the promise of resurrection that lays beyond it. AMEN