Chapter 15

There are two resurrections taught in the Word of God. The principle of two resurrections is mentioned in John 5:24-29; Daniel 12:2; Revelation 20:6,13. In the first resurrection there are four different sections or segments. In 1 Corinthians 15:23, “every man in his own order” is the principle, and the Greek word for order is ‘battalion.’ We will use the battalion review as the system here. There are two battalions in the review. The reviewing stand is God Himself. The first battalion is made up of four companies. A Company is the Lord Jesus Christ who is the firstfruits, 1 Corinthians 15:23; Romans 1:4; 1 Thessalonians 1:10. B Company is the Church, 1 Thessalonians 4:13-18, the Rapture of the Church; 1 Corinthians 15:51-57. C Company is next and there will be an elapse or interval of seven years after the time of the Rapture. C Company is made up of Old Testament saints plus Tribulational martyrs, Daniel 12:13; Isaiah 26:19,20; Revelation 20:4; Matthew 24:31. D Company is made up of two segments: All Millennial saints plus those who are alive at the second advent (Tribulational saints), all of whom receive their resurrection bodies at the end of the Millennium. That is the first resurrection.

Then there is a second resurrection, the second battalion, and this is all unbelievers since the beginning of time. They are brought up, judged, and cast into the lake of fire. John 5:28,29; Revelation 20:12-15; 2 Peter 3:9; Matthew 25:41.

There are seven reason why the resurrection of the Old Testament saints does not occur until the second advent.

1. Acts 2:25-29, Peter makes it very clear that the body of David was still in his sepulcher on the day of Pentecost. If David’s human body was still in the grave then David could not be resurrected, and he would have had to be resurrected on the day of Pentecost if the Old Testament saints had been resurrected at the time when certain ones were seen walking through Jerusalem, Matthew 28.

2. The concept of Daniel 12:13 and Isaiah 26:19,20 makes it impossible for the Old Testament saints to be resurrected at any time except at the second advent.

3. There is no resurrection of Israel until the dispensation of Israel is concluded, and it is not concluded until the second advent.

4. The identification of the two witnesses as Moses and Elijah, Revelation 11:3-13. They could not possibly be the two witnesses and come back if they had resurrection bodies because having a resurrection body means you can’t die, and these two witnesses die and are then resuscitated. Furthermore, they do not even receive a resurrection body in Revelation chapter 11.

5. The unconditional covenants to Israel — Abrahamic, Palestinian, Davidic and New — are not fulfilled until the second advent. It is therefore not necessary for the resurrection of the Old Testament saints until their covenants are fulfilled to them.

6. The context of Matthew 27:51,52 is dealing with resuscitation, not resurrection. It was for the purpose of witnessing, witnessing by appearance.

7. Ephesians 4:8, the transfer of the Old Testament saints from Paradise in the heart of the earth to the third heaven is not a resurrection.

Summary of 1 Corinthians 15, there are four parts to the chapter.

1. Verse 5-20, the fact of resurrection.

2. Verses 21-25, the angelic conflict and resurrection.

3. Verses 26-34, the results of resurrection.

4. Verse 35-58, some questions regarding resurrection.

The first four chapters of this chapter are a prologue in which we have the principle that the resurrection is an essential part of the gospel. You are saved by believing in Jesus Christ. How much is understood of the gospel varies with the individual. Most understand very little of the gospel to be saved. It is possible to be saved without understanding the resurrection, as most people are. The Corinthians were saved and they knew nothing about the resurrection. Furthermore, Greek culture rejected any concept of a resurrection body. This is the influence of Plato’s philosophy. These Corinthians, called ‘brethren,’ in the first verse of chapter 15, did not believe in the resurrection but they were saved. They did not and did not have to understand very much to be saved. When do you learn about salvation? After you are saved. The reason we have this long chapter is because Hellenistic background believers in the ancient world in the first century were totally confused with regard to the resurrection.

In verses 1-4 the resurrection is an essential part of the gospel, and the point that is going to be made is that they didn’t believe in the resurrection but they believed in Christ. And when they believed in Christ, whether they liked it or not, they are going to get a resurrection body some day, it is a part of the package. Resurrection is good news, not bad news. The Hellenists considered the human body to be evil.

The first thing that Paul does in verse one is to give us three aspects of the gospel from the standpoint of the believer.

“Moreover, brethren,” the word ‘brethren’ tells us that Paul is giving information about the gospel to people who have already been saved.

Principles

1. While the resurrection is an essential part of the gospel it is not generally understood at the point of salvation.

2. Physical bodily resurrection was foreign to Greek culture/Hellenistic thinking. Under the Greek view of life the human body was a prison for the soul. When the Greek died he said to himself that his soul gets out of prison. They glorified the body in their culture but they recognised it as essentially evil.

3. Death was therefore very welcome to the Greek but the idea of a resurrection body was repugnant to Greek thinking, cf. Acts 17:31,32.

4. The Greeks did not want a resurrection body which to them was an improved prison.

“I declare,” the word means to make known, to communicate. The present tense is dramatic, ‘I communicate it to you.’

“unto you’ is dative of advantage; “the gospel,” good news; “which I preached unto you,” the word ‘preach’ means to announce good news. It can be conversational, not public speaking.

“which also ye have received,” Paul is going to remind them that when they accepted the gospel they accepted a whole package. They might not have understood what was in the package but they get it anyway, and the whole package includes resurrection. The word to receive is paralambanw [lambanw = receive; para = the verb of immediate source] which means to receive from the immediate source. It is in the aorist tense to indicate that Paul was there looking at them when this happened.

“and wherein ye stand,” ‘wherein’ is ‘in which,’ “in which [gospel] you stand.” The words ‘you stand’ is a perfect tense which means you stand in the past, the moment you accepted Christ, with the result that you keep on standing forever, and there isn’t anything you can do about it. The reason Paul tells them this is not because they have a problem with eternal security but because they have a problem with resurrection. As he is going to point out, resurrection is a part of the whole package.

Verse 2, faith in Christ includes the resurrection. This verse is very badly translated in the KJV. It actually should read, “Through which [gospel] you received salvation, by which word I preached unto you, if you hold fast the norm [standard], unless you have believed to no purpose.”

“Through which” refers to the gospel; receiving salvation is a present tense, passive voice. It is an indicative mood which is the reality of salvation.

“if” is a first class condition; “ye have,” katexw [e)xw = to have; kata = a norm or standard], when you have something in a norm or a standard you retain it.

“unless” is actually a debater’s first class condition. It could be translated “or let us assume,” so that he might refute it. He is assuming that they have believed in vain. You can’t believe in vain or to no purpose but he assumes it. He is assuming something to be true to prove that it is false.

1. The Corinthians believers are Greeks.

2. Because of Greek abhorrence of physical resurrection the Corinthians are tempted to deny this aspect of the gospel.

3. Under the influence of Plato Greeks have come to despise the human body as a prison for the soul.

4. Therefore the Corinthians are missing the great blessing of their own future resurrection as well as failing to orient to the plan of God, phase three.

Verses 3 & 4, the boundaries of the gospel. Example: When it says Christ died for our sins you don’t get the details of reconciliation, propitiation, redemption, imputation, justification, and so on. You just get the boundaries.

Verse 3, the gospel begins with the death of Christ. “For I delivered,” paradidomi which is the word for betray, used of Judas he betrayed Christ. It actually means to give. Para = immediate source preposition, so it means to give from an immediate source. This is how it comes to mean betrayal. To betray someone means to give immediate source information about the person so that they are apprehended. But that isn’t what it means here. The word ‘deliver’ here actually means to give from the immediate source of Paul’s own frontal lobe where this doctrine was stored. So we could translate this, “I communicated from my own frontal lobe to you.”

“that which I also received,” it didn’t sprout in his own mind. This is paralambanw. Paul received this from God, so he received it from an immediate source. In other words, before you can give the gospel you have to know the gospel.

“how that Christ died for our sins,” Christ does the work, He died for our sins. The word ‘for’ is the preposition which means both substitution and cause; He does for the benefit of our sins, He died for the removal of our sins. Sins are removed as an issue in salvation. At the same time Christ rejected human good, so that you can’t be saved by any system of human good. What does it mean that Christ died for our sins? The pertinent point here is expiation. All of our sins were poured out upon Him. The Father judged those sins then and there. The good news that as sinners our sins past, present and future have been judged. They were judged on the cross and you can never be judged for them again, law of double jeopardy. Sin is no longer a barrier between man and God, the only thing that stands between man and God is attitude toward Christ. Christ is the issue, not sin. So the subject becomes the issue, Christ died for our sins.

“according to the scriptures,” the Old Testament. The NT was not in canonical form at this time. This, by the way, tells us exactly how people were saved in the Old Testament. The cross had not occurred historically but the revelation of the cross was clearly delineated. The death of Christ is clearly taught in the Old Testament, just as the resurrection of Christ is taught in the OT.

Verse 4, the gospel terminates with the resurrection of Jesus Christ. This is the other boundary. At the other end the death of Christ; in between He was buried.

“And that he was buried,” out of this burial will come resurrection and the Greeks didn’t like resurrection, and they didn’t like burials. To them the whole thing was repugnant.

“and that he rose again,” perfect tense, He rose with the result that he will always be in a resurrection body. Passive voice: He received the resurrection body from God. The indicative mood is the reality of His resurrection; “the third day” is Gentile time; “according to the scriptures” refers to the fact that we have resurrection in the Old Testament , such as Isaiah 52:13; 53:10.

Verses 5-20 deal with the fact of resurrection. In verses 5-10 we have the fact sustained by evidence.

Verse 5, since the least deserving of all the disciples was Peter. Paul is mentioning Peter because of all the people who didn’t deserve it Peter wins the award.

“he was seen of Cephas, then of the twelve.” Here we have the third and fifth appearances mentioned. Not all of the resurrection appearances are going to be mentioned. The ones who were the first see the resurrected appearance of our Lord were the ones who really learned something from Him. The first of all was to the greatest woman of Jesus’ day, a prostitute by the name of Mary Magdalene. Of all of the people who learned doctrine Mary Magdalene was tops. She was the only one who didn’t get shook by the whole crucifixion activity, and she understood above everyone else on the earth that Jesus was going to rise again. She was looking for His physical resurrection on the third day and she was the first one to see Him. She had more doctrine in her frontal lobe than all eleven of the disciples. There were four other women who caught on, too. These received the second appearance of Jesus Christ in His resurrection body, Matthew 28:9,10. Then we have the third appearance which is mentioned here in verse 5. (The other two are not mentioned because they do not illustrate the principle which Paul is going to emphasise in verse 10) “He was seen of Cephas,” aorist tense, point of time. Passive voice: Peter actually received a call from Jesus Christ, he didn’t earn it, he didn’t deserve it. The indicative mood is the reality of the third resurrection appearance. This was sheer grace because Peter denied the Lord Jesus.

The word “then” which we find in the middle of the verse is chronological and means that this appearance to the twelve was afterward; “He was seen of the twelve” is a reference to the fifth appearance of the resurrected Christ. The word “twelve” is technical, actually only ten were there, Mark 16:14; Luke 24:36-43; John 20:19-23. The word “twelve” is simply the disciples. Judas Iscariot was gone. Also missing was Thomas. The fourth appearance was to the unknown disciples on the road to Emmaus, Mark 16:12,13; Luke 24:13-35. Then there was a sixth appearance for the benefit of one person, Thomas, John 20:26-29. The seventh appearance was to seven disciples by the Sea of Galilee, John 21:1-23. The eighth appearance is given in verse 6.

Verse 6, “After that” is chronological sequence, “he was seen of above five hundred brethren at once.” They are all believers. Jesus Christ appeared to believers only.

“at once” is an adverb indicating that all of these 500 believers were assembled in one place at one time.

“of whom the greater part [majority] remain,” most of the 500 believers were still alive when Paul wrote to the Corinthians. 1 Corinthians was written in 57 AD. The resurrection occurred in 32 AD.

“but some [a minority] have fallen asleep,” “fallen asleep” is only used for Christian death. It is the Greek verb koimaw. There is another verb, nekrow, which is used for death in general, for the death of unbelievers. The reason koimaw means to sleep is that the body sleeps, not the soul. There is nothing in the scripture to indicate that the soul sleeps. The body sleeps and the whole point is that when you go to sleep you wake up again. This is a picture of resurrection. The body sleeps in anticipation of the resurrection, the soul never sleeps. This same verb is used for Christian death in two other passages, 1 Corinthians 11:30; 1 Thessalonians 4:14.

The ninth and tenth appearances are given in verse 7. The ones that are given here in this chapter always have significance. The obvious fact in verse 6 is that a large number of people saw Jesus. Now the ninth and tenth appearances have great significance.

“After that, he was seen of James.” Who is James? James is the Lord’s half brother. Cf Matthew 13:55, James, Joses [Joseph Jr.], Simon, and Judas, the four sons of Joseph and Mary after the virgin birth. And notice verse 56, “and his sisters.” The first mentioned was James. He was next to Jesus coming into the family, and he is a half-brother of Jesus. He was not a believer until after the resurrection. “After that, he was seen of James” is of great significance and the significance is brought out by a comparison of Acts 1:14 with Galatians 1:19 where we discover that James was not a believer until he saw his half-brother in resurrection. Then he became a believer, and then he became the leader of the Jerusalem church and is the writer of the book of James. He was not one of the eleven disciples. The tenth resurrection is also stated in verse 7, “then of all the apostles.” This was the resurrection appearance to the eleven disciples on a mountain in Galilee, Matthew 28:16-20; Mark 16:15-18.

Verse 8 gives us the thirteenth appearance. Eleven was the ascension appearance of Luke 24:44-53, also mentioned in Acts 1:3-9. Between verses 7 & 8 we have two more appearances, the ascension appearance and then the appearance to Stephen in Acts 7:55,56. Number eleven is the last one before the ascension, the rest of the appearances all took place afterwards.

Number thirteen was important because without this Paul could not have been an apostle. An apostle had to be a person who had seen Christ in the flesh. “And last of all” — by last it does not mean least, “he was seen of me also.” The reason that He appeared to Paul is because Paul is to be the twelfth apostle, to replace Judas Iscariot. 1 Corinthians 9:1 tells us that any apostle had to see the resurrected Christ. The next thing is that he has to be appointed by the Holy Spirit, and Paul was appointed by the Holy Spirit.

“as one born out of due time,” “one born” is obviously a verb form, but in the Greek it is not at all. And “one born out of due time” in one noun in the dative case, and this Greek noun only means one thing, an abortion. “He was seen me also, the abortion” is what the Greek says. Why does Paul call himself and abortion? The answer to this can only be found in 1 Timothy 1:12-15. God took a rat called Judas Iscariot and replaced him with one who as an unsaved person was worse than Judas. But when this man got saved there was never a man in the history of the human race who oriented to grace as Paul did. This appearance to Paul is described in Acts 9:3-6; 22:6-11, 13-18. There were three more appearances. Jesus Christ appeared to Paul more than anyone else outside of the disciples when on earth. He appeared to Paul in Arabia, Acts 20:24; 26:17, and Paul describes the implications of this in Galatians 1:12-17. Then He appeared to Paul in the temple, Acts 22:17-21 cf Galatians 1:18. Finally, He appeared to Paul in prison, Acts 23:11.

In verses 9 and 10 the grace principle in the appearance to Paul is developed.

Verse 9, “For I am the least of the apostles.” This is not self-effacement, false humility. Paul means this, he is the least of all the apostles, and that is why he is the greatest. He knew that he was the least of the apostles, he knew that he never earned or deserved anything from God, and more than anyone who has ever lived he explored the frontiers of grace.

“and I am not meet [fit, or qualified] to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the church.” Paul is an apostle, he is selected by God to replace Judas. Ephesians 4:11 tells us that apostleship depended upon the sovereign decision of Jesus Christ, and the sovereign decision of the Holy Spirit, 1 Corinthians 12:11. There is no illusion with regard to himself, no ego at all.

Verse 10, this verse records to us the grace of God. “But,” conjunction of contrast. Paul’s merit does not determine his apostleship, his apostleship depends on who and what God is. “Grace of God” is instrumental case. Grace is the only means of blessing from God, there is no other way. “God” here is genitive of source; “grace,” instrumental case. God is the source of all grace.

“I am” is the present active indicative of e)imi, the verb to be, absolute status quo. The present linear aktionsart of this verb means “I always will be; I am now and forever.”

“what I am,” the repetition of the verb indicates that he is thoroughly aware of his own status before God. His status quo before God is grace in which he deserves and earns nothing and in which God gives him everything. And what is Paul? He is the top man in the Christian Church, he is the top apostle, the last apostle and the one who carried the most authority, and the one with the greatest production of all time. He was the one who really got the church cranked up and the only person among the apostles who had a thorough and comprehensive understanding of doctrine. Peter was really dumb, he was foolish, stupid, but he never gave up. 1 and 2 Peter are a memorial to the fact that if you stay with it long enough you can learn doctrine. Peter is a man who was almost dead before he caught on. Paul was a man who caught on from day one on the Damascus road. When Paul is saying “I am what I am” he is not conceited, he is oriented.

“and his grace upon me,” “was bestowed” is not in the original. There is no verb, and the absence of a verb gives great emphasis to grace. Every believer is the recipient of God’s grace and God is waiting to pour out His grace upon every believer, Isaiah 28:18. Legalism and ignorance of doctrine are the greatest hindrances to the phrase “upon me.”

“was not in vain,” this time “was not” is a different verb to be. Now we have ginomai which means to become something you were not before. Literally, “it became not in vain [useless, empty].”

What happens when you are oriented to grace?

“I laboured more abundantly than they all,” all the rest of the apostles. This was literally true. His production was greater than all of the other apostles put together. The difference is grace.

“yet not I,” this means no energy of the flesh involved. This phrase brings up two doctrines, the doctrine of human good and the doctrine of morality.

“but the grace of God,” the grace of God is the secret of blessing, the secret of production, the secret of operation, “which was with me.”

The doctrine of human good

1. Human good is identified as dead works in Hebrews 6:1. Anyone who as a believer is controlled by the old sin nature produces dead works.

2. Human good will not save mankind, Titus 3:5; Ephesians 2:8,9.

3. Human good is never acceptable to God, Isaiah 64:6; Romans 8:8.

4. Human good was not judged at the cross, 1 Peter 2:24; 2 Corinthians 5:21. Only sins were judged.

5. Human good will be judged in the future. First of all the believer’s human good will be judged at the judgement seat of Christ, 1 Corinthians 3:11-16. There is also the judgement of the unbeliever’s human good at the last judgement, Revelation 20:12-15.

The tragedy of Christianity today is that it is imitating the human good of the world. So this brings us another doctrine:

The doctrine of morality

1. Christianity is not a morality but a relationship with God through Christ. The key word is “relationship.”

2. Morality is a byproduct of the filling of the Spirit but not Christianity.

3. However, morality has no dynamics. If morality had dynamics there would no phrase such as “Be filled with the Spirit,” “Walk in the Spirit,” “Walk in the light.” “Put on the Lord Jesus.” These are all different phrases for the filling of the Spirit.

4. The dynamics of Christianity are found in the filling of the Spirit.

5. Morality is absolutely necessary for the function of the divine institutions.

6. Therefore morality is for the entire human race.

7. Morality cannot provide either salvation or spirituality.

8. Morality is produced from two sources. The ideal source is the filling of the Spirit — Romans 8:2-4. The second source is the area of strength in the old sin nature.

Verse 11, the fact of resurrection is sustained by preaching. If resurrection were not a reality then the content of preaching would change somewhere during 1900 years. Over 1900 years there has been a consistency of preaching in that it includes resurrection.

“Therefore whether I or they.” “I” is Paul preaching; “they” refers to the apostles. This refers to those who actually saw Christ. They started something. They actually saw the resurrected Christ, and having seen Him when they preached about him they could say, “I saw Him.” They all saw the resurrected Christ, hence they all preached resurrection as an essential part of the gospel.

The resurrection repercussions are obvious from two viewpoints. First of all from the viewpoint of Christ given in Hebrews 1:13. The resurrection repercussions are obvious because of operation footstool. Jesus Christ had to be resurrected as a member of the human race to be seated at the right hand of the Father. And He had to be there before the Father could say to His humanity, “Sit thou at my right hand until I make thine enemies thy footstool.” So remember that it was the humanity of Christ that died, and that Jesus Christ is also God and His deity is not subject to death. Deity doesn’t sit, so the Father said this to the humanity of Christ. As a man He is seated there and as a man He is now higher than angels.

Once Jesus Christ is seated at the right hand of the Father operation footstool begins. Jesus Christ is at the right hand of the Father, He must have representation on the earth, so we have the Church Age. The Church is called the body of Christ and the body of Christ is composed of X number of believers. Some day the body will be completed, and it will be completed when the number of believers is equal to the number of demons who operate on the earth under the command of Satan. And when the body is completed it is then removed from the earth and it becomes the bride. The bride receives a resurrection body, loses the old sin nature, the human good of the old sin nature is judged, and then the bride is prepared. This takes place during the period of the Tribulation, the bride then comes back with Christ at the second advent and at that point we have operation footstool in which there will be one believer knocking off one demon off the earth. Christ Himself will take care of Satan and then we will have the Millennial reign of Jesus Christ. So operation footstool is involved in the resurrection.

Now from the viewpoint of the believer, every believer will have a resurrection body exactly like Christ, 1 John 3:1,2. Philippians 3:21 says that we will have a body exactly like His glorious body.

Because of this the content of preaching includes resurrection.

“so we preach,” present linear aktionsart, it should be translated “we keep on preaching.”

“and so ye believed,” aorist tense. The resurrection is constantly preached [present linear aktionsart] but at some point when you hear it [aorist tense] you believed that.

Principle: You cannot believe what you do not hear. The point is that Christians today need doctrine, doctrine. We need something to believe, our faith must have muscle.

Verse 12, the fact is sustained by logic. In this verse Paul denies the evidence. In other words, he is going to assume now that there is no resurrection.

“Now if,” “if” is a debater’s first class condition [if and it is true]. Here the debater assumes something that is true to be false in order to prove that it is true.

“if Christ be preached that he rose from the dead,” “he rose” is in the perfect tense, He rose in the past with results that continue forever, including our resurrection.

“how say some among you there is no resurrection?” he is quoting believers, people who are born again. These are Corinthians believers who have rejected physical resurrection.

Verse 13, “But if there be no resurrection,” “Let’s assume that there is no resurrection” is the way it should be translated.

“then” introduces a logical conclusion from a debater’s assumption. If you assume that there was no resurrection then you must assume that Christ did not arise from the dead and this would imply that all disciples plus Paul were all under an optical illusion.

“is Christ not risen,” the only logical conclusion is that Christ is not risen.

The consequences of the debater’s technique are given in verses 14 and 15.

Verse 14, “And if” is, again, the debater’s first class condition; “Christ be not risen,” and we are assuming that He has not risen, “them is our preaching vain.” So Paul is saying that his preaching is absolutely useless. The word “vain” means empty, useless. This is the first consequence of assumption in this passage. The assumption is that there is no resurrection. The consequence is that all the preaching of the apostles, including Paul, is useless. The second consequence is given immediately: “then your faith is also useless.”

Verse 15, the third consequence of assumption. “We are found false witnesses,” the word “false witness” is “liar.”

“we have testified,” aorist tense, referring to every time that Paul has mentioned resurrection, “concerning God,” concerning God the Father who raised God the Son.

“whom he raised not up,” this is an assumption again; “if” [debater’s first class condition] “so be that the dead rise not [and we are assuming that].” We are assuming this in order to prove that the resurrection is true.

Verse 16, the debater’s assumption is repeated. “If” is the debater’s first class condition, we are assuming it.

“the dead rise not” then, logical conclusion: “Christ is not raised.” If we are assuming there is no resurrection then obviously Christ is not risen.

Verse 17, Further consequences are now given. The fourth consequence of assumption: “your faith is useless” or literally, “void of truth.” In verse 14 we have a Greek word, kenh, which means void of quality. The faith is void of quality, useless. Here in verse 17 the word “vain” is the Greek word mataia which means useless, void of content of truth. In other words, simply a lie. So one is void of quality and one is void of truth. In other words, the object of faith is what counts and the object of faith in this case is the resurrection. If there is no resurrection then the object of faith is useless, there is no truth there.

“ye are yet in your sins” means that you are still unsaved. If there is no resurrection you are not saved. It doesn’t mean that you have to believe in resurrection to be saved, it just simply says that a part the salvation package is resurrection.

Verse 18, the fifth consequence of assumption. “Then they also which are fallen asleep,” i.e. you loved ones who are now with the Lord. The word to fall asleep here is used exclusively of Christian death; here and in 1 Corinthians 11:30; 1 Thessalonians 4:14. This verb is used for the death of believers only because it anticipates their resurrection. Only the body sleeps.

“are perished,” a)pollumi, a compound. The compound is broken down thus: a)po is the preposition of ultimate source; llumi means to be is a state of ruin. Hence, it means to be in a state of ruin from the ultimate source, it is the strongest word for . The ultimate source is God, and it means God ruins. That is . It is to be in the status of from the ultimate source, i.e. God.

Verse 19, the sixth consequence of assumption. “If in this life only we have hope in Christ.” Let’s assume that in this life only we have hope in Christ.

“we are of all men most miserable,” so the sixth consequence of no resurrection is misery. No hope, no future. When people do not have a future their time on this earth becomes unbearable. Because we know all of the wonderful things of the future we have stability in time. We know where we are going. So consequently this stabilises us for time. But if you see death as the end of everything then, of course, you are miserable under pressure. So all stability in phase two is based upon understanding the doctrine of phase three.

Verse 20, the fact sustained by a guarantee. “But” is a conjunction of contrast and the contrast is between the debater’s assumption and the facts. He is taking off the assumption that there is no resurrection, he is going back to the reality. So much for assumption and logical progression, now let’s go back to facts.

“now is Christ risen,” perfect tense, risen in the past with results that go on forever. Passive voice: He received His resurrection from the Father and from the Spirit. The indicative mood is the reality of the resurrection of Christ.

“from the dead,” physical, bodily resurrection; “and become the firstfruits,” referring to the feast of firstfruits in Leviticus 23:9-14. What they did was to go out into the fields before the harvest and the picked up a shaft of grain. They broke it off and waved it before the Lord, and the waving of this before the Lord was the guarantee of the harvest. Christ is the firstfruits, as He goes so do we go. “Firstfruits” is simply a word for guarantee.

“of them that slept,” in other words, He is the guarantee for all who have died that they will rise from the dead. The resurrection of Christ is the believer’s guarantee of a physical, bodily resurrection.

The doctrine of resurrection

1. We have the principle of two resurrections found in Daniel 12:2; John 5:24-29; Revelation 20:6-13. These passages simply distinguish between two resurrections.

2. Summary of the first resurrection. We have A-company, Christ the firstfruits, 1 Corinthians 15:23; Romans 1:4; 1 Thessalonians 1:10; 2 Timothy 2:8; 1 Peter 1:3. B-company, the Rapture of the Church, 1 Thessalonians 4:13-18; 1 Corinthians 15:51-57; Philippians 3:20-21; John 14:1-3; 1 John 3:1,2. C-company, the Old Testament saints plus Tribulational martyrs, Daniel 12:13; Isaiah 26:19,20; Revelation 20:4; Matthew 24:31. D-company, Millennial saints receiving their resurrection body before eternity begins.

3. Summary of the second resurrection, the resurrection of unbelievers — John 5:28,29; Revelation 20:12-15; 2 Peter 3:9; Matthew 25:41.

Verses 21-25, the angelic conflict and the resurrection.

Verse 21, the contrast of the two Adams. There is no verb in this verse. It is elliptical, it underlines, it is shouted. “By man” is dia plus the genitive, instrumentality, and it should be translated “Through man.”

“death,” the point is very simple. Adam came into the world with a body, a human spirit, and a human soul. His human spirit had fellowship with God. Jesus Christ walked with him every day in the garden. His soul had fellowship with the woman and dominated the animal creation. He also had volition, the ability to choose. He had only one test of his volition, the prohibition of one tree. When Adam went on negative signals and violated the divine commandment, Genesis 2:17, he died immediately spiritually and later he died physically. So the moment he sinned his spirit shriveled up, he did not die physically. The physical death of Jesus Christ had only one significance. He died physically on the cross because His work was completed. It is the spiritual death of Jesus Christ which provides salvation. In the spiritual death of Jesus Christ our sins were poured out upon Him and judged, and when they were He died spiritually. One second after Adam sinned he still had a soul but no spirit, therefore no capability of fellowship with God. And now he has the old sin nature but he does not have a human spirit, and for this reason the natural [yuxikoj] man is dichotomous — a body and soul but no spirit. Because he had no spirit he was dead to God. “Through man came death,” and we have two people involved in the first sin. In 1 Timothy 2:14 we notice a difference in their sin. The man was not deceived, the woman was deceived. The woman was deceived because she was ignorant of Bible doctrine. Adam knew his doctrine, Eve did not. Adam knew what he was doing, the woman did not. In procreation the old sin nature is received by progeny through the man. The woman has the old sin nature too, but because the man was not deceived and the woman was deceived the old sin nature is passed down through the man in procreation. Every member of the human race has an old sin nature, except anyone who could be born of a virgin. In the virgin birth Mary had an old sin nature and was a sinner but her Son, because of virgin birth, was minus the old sin nature and therefore the last Adam or the last man, the only person who has ever lived except Adam in innocence, was minus the old sin nature and because He went to the cross minus personal sin He could bear our sins. They were poured out upon Him on the cross and the Father judged them.

Death here refers to spiritual death. This is amplified in Romans 5:12, “Wherefore, as by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin, so death passed upon all men, for all have sinned.” Remember that physical death is the result of spiritual death. All sinned when Adam sinned. There is no personal sin in Romans 5:12.

“through man also the resurrection from the dead,” the second man is Jesus Christ, the last Adam. This jumps across and goes to the resurrection because in resurrection Jesus Christ had a body, a spirit, and a soul. He did not have an old sin nature. It was a trichotomous being, the Lord Jesus Christ, who ascended and as He came into the presence of the Father the Father said, “Sit thou at my right hand until I make thine enemies thy footstool.” It was the humanity of Christ which was seated, His deity does not sit down. It is through man that we have the resurrection of Christ. So we have a contrast in verse 21 of the two men who will be covered in this passage, the first Adam and the last Adam.

Verse 22, a contrast of the two positions.

“In Adam,” through physical birth. We are born into the first position, we are born into the second position. We are born into Adam with physical birth, we are born into Christ with regeneration.

“all die,” this time we have a different word for death. We have the word a)poqnhskw. A)po is the preposition of ultimate source; qnhskw simply means to die. To die from the ultimate source is the second death, and the second death follows the second resurrection. This is not spiritual death, this is not physical death, this is the second death.

“in Christ shall all be made alive,” this has two concepts. First of all, the concept to the point of salvation. At the moment we believe in Christ we enter into union with Christ. Jesus Christ is eternal life, 1 John 5:11,12. The Holy Spirit takes every believer at the moment of salvation and enters him into union with Christ. That is the baptism of the Spirit. As we enter into union with Christ our life becomes our life. We are in union with Christ as He is seated at the right hand of the Father but we are not equivalent to Christ because we do not have the body that He has. We have the position that He has but we do not have the body that He has. So “shall be made alive” refers first of all to the fact that positional truth occurs at the moment of salvation and we have His eternal life. But “shall be made alive” refers to the resurrection body, Philippians 3:21, we are going to have a body exactly like His glorious body.

Verse 23, the first phase of operation footstool. Operation footstool gets its name from Psalm 110:1. When Christ ascended and was seated at the right hand of the Father the Father said to Him, “Sit thou at my right hand until I make thine enemies the footstool of thy feet.” The enemies of Christ are still on the earth, and the enemies are Satan, the ruler of the world, plus all demons who operate under Satan. These enemies are going to be made His footstool [an idiom for conquest]. In order to make the enemies the footstool we must have something on earth with which to do it and that something is the Church or the body of Christ. The body of Christ, every believer being in union with Christ, is made up of numerous people out of every generation. When the number of these people is equivalent to the number of demons on the earth then the body is lifted. It takes seven years from the time of the Rapture to get this bride ready, to get rid of all the human good. The bride is prepared in three ways: a resurrection body, the removal of the old sin nature, the removal of all human good. Then the bride is ready to come back for operation footstool. So the Rapture of the Church is merely a staging area where the Church is prepared for operation footstool.

“But every man [literally, ‘each one’] in his own order,” the word for “order” here is a battalion, each believer in his own battalion. We have the battalion review at this point. Already having passed the reviewing stand is A-company, the Lord Jesus Christ. Getting ready to pass the reviewing stand is B-company, the Church. Next will be C-company, Old Testament believers and Tribulational martyrs, and then there is D-company.

“afterward” is an adverb which indicates an elapse of time, from the time of the resurrection of Christ to the end of the Church Age, the Rapture of the Church.

“they that are Christ’s at his coming,” the word “coming” here refers to the Rapture, 1 Thessalonians 4:13-18. At that point the Church is taken out of the world.

Verse 24, the last phase of operation footstool. “Then the end,” “then” is a particle used for chronological order, and the word “end” simply refers to the end of the Tribulation.

“when he shall have delivered up,” this means to give from immediate source, it indicates operation footstool; “the kingdom to God,” here the kingdom of God is going to take over in the earth and actually rule: the Millennium. When Christ delivers up the kingdom to God “even the Father” it means operation footstool is completed.

“when he shall have put down,” “when” simply amplifies the previous statement; “he shall have put down all rule,” this is Satan as the ruler of the world; “all authority” is the Greek word for delegated authority and it refers to Satan’s men of the Tribulation, 2 Thessalonians 2:4-11; Revelation 19:20; “and all power,” power is a reference to demon power, all demons are removed from the earth as per Zechariah 13:2; Colossians 2:15. So we have the last phase of operation footstool mentioned just briefly to show why the Rapture has to take place before the second advent. It is a part of the staging operation in the footstool attack.

Verse 25, the Millennial reign of Jesus Christ. “For he must reign,” this is the Millennium, “till he has put all enemies under his feet.” And there is one enemy which is not put down until the end of the Millennium, that is the enemy death.

The results of resurrection, verses 26-34.

Verse 26, the destruction of death. Death is the last enemy to be put down by the angelic conflict. “Shall be destroyed” is a very interesting word in the Greek. It is a compound. Many of the Koine verbs are compounds composed of several other things. The Greek word is katargew. Kata is the preposition of norm or standard; a)rgew means to be without work, to be useless or unemployed. Originally the word was used for the unemployed because of a norm or standard. The word is used many ways in the Bible, it was used primarily of the Mosaic law which according to the norm or standard of grace is useless or unemployed. In other words, the Mosaic law is useless for salvation, it is useless for spirituality. Here it is used for death. According to the norm or standard of the angelic conflict as it relates to the resurrection death is going to be rendered null and void, rendered useless. Death will be neutralised by the norm or standard of resurrection. So in this compound verb kata refers to the resurrection and the a)rgew refers to being rendered useless. Death is rendered useless by means of resurrection. The death involved here is the physical death concept. Death is neutralised for the unbeliever in a sense by the second resurrection because in the second resurrection he passes into the second death, and the second death finds him in the lake of fire forever.

In verses 27 & 28, the triumph of God as the conclusion of the angelic conflict. We have had all of these enemies being put down in connection with the angelic conflict.

Verse 27, the phrase “he hath put” is a military word, u(potassw. Tassw means to be under the command of and u(po strengthens that, it is the preposition for authority. Tassw means also to arrange, to be arranged under the authority of, to submit. In this particular case the subject is God the Father, it is a part of His plan. In the overall plan of God the Father eventually everything will be subjected to Him.

“all things,” this includes at least three things in context. First of all, mankind. Also angels and death.

“under his feet,” a reference to operation footstool, Psalm 110:1, i.e. under the Lord Jesus Christ. This is the point of the triumph of God. The triumph of God is not completed until operation footstool is completed at the second advent, at which time the angelic conflict is resolved and, as we have seen, the last enemy to be put down is death.

“But when he saith,” we not how a quotation from Psalm 8:6, “all things are put under him.” This is a perfect tense. They were put under him in the past with the result that they will always be under Him. From the second advent on this will always be true. The passive voice: the whole operation is grace. Grace is used under the concept of the passive voice. The indicative mood is the reality of the ultimate triumph of God. There is no pronoun “him” here.

“it is manifest that he is the exception,” the Greek actually says, “obviously he is the exception.” There is no verb here. The exception is God the Father, the author of the divine plan that leads to this point of triumph.

“which did put all things under him,” He put all things under Christ. God Himself has now subordinated everything to His Son, Jesus Christ. Exception to all of this is the Father Himself. When it says “under him” we are talking about the God-Man. Everything is under Christ and that is under His humanity. Up until now and ll of the way to the second advent angels have it over man. By original creation angels are superior to man. This will be reversed starting at the second advent. The believer will have a resurrection body that will be superior to anything that has ever existed. The highest of all creation in the future from the second advent will be the believer in Christ. “Which did put all things” is one verb, u(potassw. In other words, God the Father having subordinated everything under the Son has completed the whole operation, and at that particular point the triumph of God is completed. The triumph of God demands a resurrection body.

Verse 28, “All things” refers to the completion of the plan of the Father and includes the triumph of the angelic conflict, the triumph of the human conflict, and the triumph over death.

“shall be subdued,” u(potassw, this time aorist passive. The aorist tense refers to the second advent when Christ returns with His bride in resurrection body. The passive voice means that Christ who is the subject has received everything put under Him and He has received it from the Father. The subjunctive indicates that at this point the triumph is not yet completed. At the time of writing when Paul wrote several things had to be accomplished first. The body has to be completed, it has to be taken out of the world in resurrection [Rapture of the Church], the bride has to be cleansed [removal of the old sin nature, removal of human good], the bride has to return with Christ, the demons plus Satan have to be removed from the earth. So the subjunctive mood here indicates that this is still not a completed operation.

“unto him,” the Son; “then shall the Son be subject,” u(potassw again but this time it is future middle indicative. The future tense is not future, it is logical progression which is not what is called an ethical future. In other words, we are progressing in the concept of this triumph, because after God the Father puts everything under God the Son then we are going to see one more step in which God the Son Himself is going to be subject to the Father. The middle voice is reflexive and it indicates that it is the humanity of Christ which subjects Himself to the Father. His deity is coequal and co-eternal. This is brought out by the middle voice, the middle voice can only be for a human being. The indicative mood is the reality of this great triumph.

“unto him,” the Father; “that” introduces a purpose clause; “put all things under him, that God may be all in all,” the word “put” is not actually there; the word “may be” is not may be at all. It is “that God is all in all,” it is a present active subjunctive of e)imi. “God” refers to the Godhead in essence, it refers to the Father, the Son, and the Spirit.

“all in all” is an idiom for complete domination.

Paul is dealing with the subject of resurrection, so now he leaves the subject of the ultimate triumph of God and goes back to resurrection. He now points out in verse 29 the concept of resurrection. He uses as his argument here the fact that in every generation baptism is continued. Here in the first century people were baptised. Then these people all died. Then in the second century we have X number of generations and when people would believe they would be baptised. And we go all the way over to the 20th century and this is still going on. Baptism portrays resurrection. When the body goes into the water this is a picture of retroactive positional truth, as in Romans 6. The moment the person comes out into the air again this is current positional truth, union with Christ as Christ is seated at the right hand of the Father. So there are two factors in water baptism. When you are under the water you are identified with Christ in His death, and when you are above water again you are identified with the air which represents current positional truth, identification with Christ who is seated at the right hand of the Father. So coming out of the water portrays resurrection for it was by resurrection that Christ was seated at then right hand of the Father. If there was no resurrection of Christ then baptism would have died out. But baptism has not died out, it is perpetuated. The fact that baptism is perpetuated is — again going back to these Greeks who do not want any part of a resurrection — a picture of the validity of resurrection as a part of the ultimate triumph of God. This is prophecy, and Paul is looking down the corridors of time all of the way to the Rapture of the Church and he is seeing in every generation that people are going to be baptised.

Verse 29, “Else [should be “since”] what shall they do which are baptised for the dead.” The word “since” is a connective link which actually ties it in to the ultimate triumph of God. Until the resurrection or the ultimate triumph of God people will be baptised in the body. In so doing they are recognising the validity of resurrection. This will continue until the body is removed. If there were no resurrection body there would be no ultimate triumph of God and there would be no human race subjected to Him.

“what shall they do,” future active indicative. This future tense is again a logical future; “which are baptised,” present passive participle. The present tense in a participle form indicates the perpetuation of a custom, the ritual of baptism during the Church Age. The passive voice indicates that no believer baptises himself, the believer receives baptism administered by someone else. It means that if you receive a ritual you understand what it means. Tribulation saints will not be baptised. The Tribulation is a part of the Age of Israel. Why? There was no positional truth in the Old Testament. There will be no positional truth in the Tribulation and no positional truth in the Millennium, it belongs to the body of Christ only.

“which are baptised,” present passive participle, the perpetuation of ritual baptism during the Church Age. The passive voice: the subject which is the believer receives ritual baptism as a testimony to retroactive and current positional truth.

“for the dead,” the preposition u(per plus the genitive plural. What does u(per plus the genitive case mean? “Dead” is genitive plural, “dead ones.” The word “for” should be translated “instead of” or “in place of.” The dead ones are Christians who previously lived and who were previously baptised. In place of those who previously lived and were baptised are new generations, right up to the 20th century. This prepositional phrase, u(per plus the genitive, is used to indicate the perpetuation of a ritual; a ritual which represents a reality at the ultimate triumph of God.

“For the dead”

1. The ordinance of baptism is perpetuated in every generation, it has not died out.

2. If there is no resurrection from the dead water baptism would be meaningless and would have discontinued.

3. For water baptism signifies the resurrection of Christ and our union with Him.

4. If there is no resurrection then baptism would not perpetuated from one generation to the next over many centuries.

5. If there was no resurrection then the practice of ritual baptism would have been discontinued in the first century.

“if” is a first class condition in which the writer assumes something to be true in order to refute it; “the dead rise not at all,” he assumes for the moment that the dead rise not at all.

“why are they then baptised for the dead?” we have a serious punctuation problem in the English [KJV]. “If the dead rise not at all” is a new sentence.

“why are they then baptised” is a present passive indicative. It is a little different from “which are baptised” which is a participle. The present participle indicated a perpetuation, now he has established that. The indicative mood indicates this time the reality of it, it simply assumes the reality of the previous participle in the sentence.

“for the dead,” again, it is “in place of the dead.” New believers in the next generation are baptised in place of believers who have died. Water baptism is perpetuated, it does not die with the death of one generation.

Now there are certain customs in one generation which are not perpetuated. If this had been merely a custom it would not have been perpetuated, but consistently in every generation has been the ritual of water baptism. This points to the reality of resurrection. If believers did not believe in resurrection then they would not submit to baptism for water baptism connotes resurrection.

Now he goes to another point on resurrection. If there is no resurrection then life is too short to suffer jeopardy. In verses 30-32 we have the believer facing jeopardy in phase two.

Verse 30, “And why stand we in jeopardy every hour?” The words “stand we in jeopardy” is one word in the Greek. It is in the present tense indicating keeping on being in jeopardy. it means to be in danger. “Why are we in danger every hour?” It doesn’t mean that Paul is necessarily in danger every hour, it means some believer is. The life of Paul illustrates that believers do face danger and run risks in this life. Why run risks if there is no resurrection? The fact that believers will face danger and run risks is again a reality of resurrection just as the perpetuation of ritual baptism is the reality of resurrection.

Verse 31, “I protest” is translated in the KJV like a verb and it isn’t a verb at all, it is an Attic idiom. It means to take a solemn oath but it is still not a verb. The word “rejoicing” is “boasting.” They had been boasting that there is no physical resurrection.

` “which I have in Christ Jesus our Lord, I die daily.” What he has in the Lord Jesus Christ is not the previous phrase but the fact that he dies daily. To die daily simply means to face peril of death. This is a present active indicative. If he actually died daily it would be in the aorist tense. If he died every day and then came alive the next day it would be aorist tense. This is present tense which means that he is actually in danger of death daily.

Verse 32, “If” is a debater’s first class condition. Paul pictures himself in the arena at Ephesus to illustrate the point. He is writing from Ephesus but he is not in the arena Ephesus. This is an illustration because whenever they threw a Christian into the arena it meant he was in constant danger. He was in danger until he came out alive or until he went to be with the Lord. So Paul uses this as an illustration of being in constant jeopardy.

“after the manner of” is one four-letter preposition, kata. It means “If after the norm or standard of men.” He is using a human illustration here.

“I have fought with beasts,” he is indicating that he actually hasn’t done this but let’s use it as an illustration. It is one verb. As long as he is in the arena with wild animals his life is in jeopardy.

“what advantageth me,” or, what profit is it to me? What profit is it for me to get into the arena with wild animals apart from the resurrection. There is no profit to the believer in exposing himself to daily peril of all types. The resurrection provides motivation for facing the vicissitudes of the Christian life. Neither Paul nor any other believer would go into the arena apart from complete confidence in the doctrine of resurrection.

“if the dead rise not,” debater’s 1st class condition. Let’s assume again the dead do not rise then here is what we do.

“let us eat and drink; for tomorrow we die,” In other words, he is saying that if there was no resurrection he would be living it up. Eat and drink here is an idiom for living it up. Let’s have our fun now because tomorrow when we die there is no more fun. So without the doctrine of resurrection the human viewpoint of hopelessness prevails.

Verses 33 and 34, the problem of evil friends versus Bible doctrine. Evil friends can be believers.

Verse 33, “Be not deceived,” present active imperative” “Stop being deceived,” literally. The Corinthians believers are being deceived by their friends who are under the influence of Hellenistic culture. Therefore they ridicule and reject resurrection. Rejection of resurrection leads to the philosophy of eat, drink and be merry for afterwards the fun is over. Rejection of resurrection causes the believer to imitate the unbeliever in seeking to derive happiness from life under the philosophy of eat, drink and be merry. Behind this is a principle: People are influenced by the people with whom they associate. If you associate with people who reject certain Bible doctrines, like rebound, whether believers or unbelievers then your viewpoint will be neutralised and your life will be barren or sterile. People who seek happiness through “eat, drink and be merry” are always miserable.

“evil communications” should be “evil companions” or “evil friends.” These friends can be believers or unbelievers. Evil friends are simply those rejecting doctrine. If you have Christian friends who do not like doctrine they are evil companions. Evil companions are those who have no place for doctrine in their lives. In this case evil companions are those who reject the doctrine of resurrection.

“corrupt [or spoil] good manners,” literally, “good usage.” There is no word “manners” here at all. The phrase should be translated: “Evil friends ruin good usage.” Good usage is the application of doctrine to experience.

Verse 34, the solution. The word “Awake” means sober up. “Sober up to righteousness.” In this case the intoxication of inebriation is ignorance or rejection of doctrine and substituting the philosophies of hedonism. To sober up here means to rebound and to separate yourself from the wrong crowd — those who do not like doctrine. “Righteousness” here is the filling of the Spirit which can only occur by rebound.

“and sin not,” stop sinning. In other words, if you are going to stop sinning you are going to have to rebound.

“for some [the evil companions] have not the knowledge of God [synonym for doctrine]: I speak this to your shame,” in other words, if you haven’t broken off and cleared yourself from them.

The background for this passage, without which you get lost in the details: You have to understand the Hellenistic view of after death. The idea of a resurrection body of any kind was totally repugnant to the Greek mind. They had been influenced by Plato and other philosophers into thinking that the body was essentially evil, and this is one reason why the Greeks had a most interesting type of culture. In their culture all you could drink, all of the living-it-up that you could get yourself involved in, the sooner you could go to heaven. With this in mind, one thing that you could say about the Greeks is that they lived it up to the hilt. As far as they were concerned this was the way to get into the plhrwma, the Greek heaven.

If you study the cultures of the ancient world and you study their religion you have to remember about their religions that in all of them they had more than one god; they had many gods. The gods more or less laid the pattern for the human beings. As went the gods, so went the human beings. The gods spent all of their time chasing. The male gods were all chasing women, and the female goddesses were chasing men. They lived it up, drank heavily, partied heavily, and we do not have anything in modern times to equal the parties that the Chaldeans, the Assyrians, the Greeks, the Romans, and others held. We know something about these parties from some of the literature which has come down from the ancient world. But you have to understand their whole viewpoint. The Greeks were the ones who came up with the thought: Why be good? Why be moral? What is the reason for it? Is there any reason for being moral? It won’t get you to heaven. The way you get to heaven is to live it up to the hilt in the body and then get rid of the body because it is the body which is evil. You have to understand their viewpoint. It is a very important viewpoint because it affects everything in 1 Corinthians. And when they came to the idea of a resurrection body all of these Corinthians, who were Greeks, rejected resurrection, i.e. a physical resurrection for themselves. They rejected a resurrection body. As far as they were concerned there soul and spirit, which the Greeks called the “shades,” would live in the Alletian fields which now had become heaven to them. The idea of having a body in eternity was foreign to them.

Verses 35-58: questions regarding the resurrection.

Verse 35, “But some will say,” the word “some” refers to Corinthian believers who are confused with regard to the doctrine of resurrection because either they are ignorant of the doctrine or they have not been able to jump over the hurdle of their own Hellenistic background. This is going to be a summary new of two big questions which are in the minds of the Corinthians.

“How are the dead raised up?” So the first question is a question of mechanics of resurrection or manner of resurrection. This question will be answered in verse 36. The second problem was a more extensive problem: “And with what body do they come?” This particular question will be answered in verses 37-49. Some Corinthians considered the resurrection body to be a reformed human body, and this follows the concepts of the Greeks in the 11th century BC in the Homeric period. Homer, who lived in the 9th century BC, wrote and sang about the heroes of 200 years before his own time. Many of the Greeks had the idea that you carried your body along with you. This is one reason why even old men in Greece worked out every day in gymnasiums, and this is why there was no such thing as a Greek out of physical condition. So some Corinthians considered the resurrection body to be merely a reformed human body. In other words, you get your human body back at whatever your human body was at its peak. Secondly, some Corinthians believed that the resurrection body had no organic relationship to the human body in time, that it was merely a spiritual type thing without what we would call a human body. So the big question: What kind of a thing is the resurrection body?

Verse 36, Paul calls them stupid. “Fool,” this is actually a very famous word in the Greek language: a)frwn. The word frwn means to think; the a) means “not.” The word is best translated “stupid.”

Paul immediately takes up an illustration from agricultural life, for you must remember that while industry was developing, at this time and throughout the ancient world the basis of all economy was essentially agriculture, “that which thou sowest,” the seed which you put into the ground, “is not quickened [made alive] except it die.” This was apparently very well known. The seed has to die before anything grows. From the death comes whatever is going to come up. Paul is establishing a framework for thinking resurrection and his framework is going to be very simple. Why did Jesus Christ rise from the dead? Jesus Christ had a resurrection body because He died physically as well as spiritually on the cross. Because of His physical death on the cross, if He is going to reign forever, if He is going to be the son of David, if He is going to come back, if all of these great passages in the scripture are going to be fulfilled, obviously He has to be resurrected. But not only does He have to be resurrected, He has to be resurrected to live forever. Resurrection is not completed until Christ in His humanity is accepted by the Father, and we have the problem of the Davidic covenant and the fact that the humanity of Christ is going to reign forever, and all of these things require a resurrection. A resurrection means that the soul and spirit of Jesus Christ have to have a physical body which is an eternal physical body. So death always precedes life.

Verse 37 begins the answer to the second question. (In verses 37-41 we take an illustration from three kinds of life) Plant life, “And that which thou sowest, thou sowest not that body that shall be, but bare grain.” “Bare grain” means simply the seed all by itself, but after it dies and comes up it’s going to be … whatever the plant is. So the point is you have a physical body now and this physical body is going to die. Is there any relationship between our physical body now and the resurrection body? Yes, there is a relationship, but the body we have now is not going to look like the body we will have in the future. The body we will have in the future is going to be glamour to the enth degree. The comparison is this. You look at a seed and you can’t see a rose bush; you look at a seed and you can’t see a tulip, but there is a relationship between that seed and the tulip. That seed has to die first and then it will become something beautiful. When you drop that seed in the ground it is not going to look like that seed when it grows up, “it may chance be of wheat, or some other grain.”

Verse 38, “But God giveth it a body as it pleaseth him, and to every seed his own body.” We are going to have the same kind of body as Christ but we are all going to be different, just as a hollyhock is different from a sunflower. Every seed has a different body.

Verse 39, Animal life. “All flesh is not the same flesh: but there is one kind of flesh of men, another flesh of beasts, another of fishes, and another of birds.” They are all flesh but they are different. This analogy of this four is an indication of the fact that while we will have a resurrection body exactly like Christ no two resurrection bodies are going to be the same.

Verse 40, Celestial life. “celestial bodies” refers to the universe around us, the galaxies; “terrestrial bodies” refers to things like the earth, the planets, and so on. There is a great variety among planets and stars, and even among the galaxies. So we have all these light-bearing bodies around us and they are all different.

“but the glory of the celestial is one, and the glory of the terrestrial is another,” the point is apparently, the celestial are light bearing whereas the terrestrial is light reflecting. It illustrates something to us. The celestial body is a light-bearing body, it has light on the inside; whereas terrestrial is light reflecting. These two are used for a reason. The celestial is analogous to our resurrection body, whereas the terrestrial is analogous to our human body in time.

Verse 41, “There is one glory of the sun, and another gory of the moon, and another glory of stars.” Sun and moon are really in contrast, one is celestial, light-bearing, and one is light-reflecting. So the moon would be analogous to our human body today and the sun would be analogous to our body of the future resurrection body.

“and another,” another of the same kind of, “glory of stars.”

We can draw a number of conclusions from this verse. Each person retains his own identification in his resurrection body. The real you is the you inside, the soul and the Spirit. Just as the sun and the moon and the stars are all bodies in the universe they retain their own identification. Each believer will have a different glory or a different glamour.

Verses 42-49, the resurrection body is necessary for eternal relationship with Christ. Here is where the Greeks get clobbered.

Verse 42, the first contrast. “So also is the resurrection of the dead. It is sown in corruption” — to get a resurrection body you die, “it is raised in incorruption,” incorruption means not subject to death. It means permanent and nothing can change it or destroy it.

Verse 43, the next contrast, between disgrace and glory: “It is sown in dishonour.” The word for dishonour simply means without honour; the physical body is without honour. “It is raised in glory [glamour],” the resurrection body is going to have great glamour.

“it is sown in weakness,” the word “weakness” means sickness or feebleness. In other words, people die because they are feeble, because they are sick, because they deteriorate; “it is raised in power,” the word for power is inherent power, it is raised in the power of God.

Verse 44, the next contrast, between the natural and the spiritual body. “It is sown a natural body,” the body which dies is a soulish body, “it is raised a spiritual body,” which indicates, of course, that the body which we are going to have apparently is going to be clothed in light. “There is a natural body and there is a spiritual body,” the distinction exists between the two.

Verse 45, the contrast of position. “And so it is written [quotation from Genesis 2:7], The first man Adam became a living soul.’ This refers to three things. It means that he was created in the image of God, Genesis 1:26, the Hebrew verb asah; but in Genesis 1:27 we have, “Let us make man in our image” and this time we have bara. These are two different verbs in the Hebrew. Asah means to make something out of something, out of a pattern; and the pattern out of which man, the inner man, was made is God. So the pattern is image. Then when He says, “Let us make him,” this time bara means ex nihilo, out of nothing. How can you reconcile these two verbs? The pattern is God. This is the immaterial part of the pattern, so in man being created in the image of God we have three concepts. The first is self-consciousness, the bona fide ego, man is aware of his own existence. Secondly, we have the principle of moral reasoning power, moral though pattern. Under this concept we have the principle of a norm established. Then finally we have the principle self-determination which we call volition. Under the first concept here we have “I am,” which are the key words. Next. “I ought.” Next, “I will.” That is the image of God pattern. This is the first Adam.

“the last Adam became a quickening spirit,” a life-giving spirit. So the contrast is between the first and the last Adam. The first Adam had a human body which contained soul and spirit. His human spirit had fellowship with God and his human soul had fellowship with the woman and dominated the animal kingdom. When he sinned he died spiritually, lost his human spirit, he picked up the old sin nature; so the first Adam got us into this mess. The last Adam, Jesus Christ, had exactly the same, a human spirit and a human soul. He came into the world that way and He went out that way, therefore He was the basis of life. The first Adam is the basis of death and the last Adam is the basis of life. So we have another contrast, and this contrast sets up the principle: the body which we have we have from our first Adam, and it can only produce death. But the body we get from the last Adam, the resurrection body, can only mean life forever.

Verse 46, a fifth contrast. “Howbeit that was not first which is spiritual, but that which is natural.” First we have the natural and afterward we get the spiritual, “and afterward that which is spiritual.”

Verse 47, the sixth contrast. “The first man is of the earth, earthy.” This is a reference to his body. The word “earthy” means made of earth. The thing that the earth and the human body have in common are chemicals. When the human body dies it reverts to the chemicals of the soil. The first man is made of earth, literally “from the source of the earth.” What is going to happen to the earth after the last ? It is going to be destroyed. The basis of the destruction of the earth and the basis of the destruction of the universe will be some kind of a chemical reaction. So a body which is simply made from the earth is not going to survive such a cataclysm. We will have a body which is not made of the earth.

“the second man is the Lord from heaven,” the word “Lord” is not found in the original. It should be, “the second man is from heaven.” In other words, his body is designed in heaven, it [his body] is designed to last forever.

Verse 48, the seventh contrast, the contrast of believer and unbeliever. “As the earthy, such they also which are earthy.” The word “earthy” simply refers to the natural body and this is to remind the Greeks that while part of their philosophy is true, the body is not all evil but it contains the basis of evil which is the old sin nature, it obviously will not survive for eternity. The person who has an “earthy” body could not survive in that body in eternity, it is not constructed for eternity so we are going to get a body which is.

“and as the heavenly, such are they also that are heavenly,” the heavenly are those who are going to receive a resurrection body, those who are born again. So the contrast is once again the fact that the body which we are going to receive is one which can exist in eternity.

Verse 49, the eighth contrast. “And as we have borne the image of the earthy,” the word ‘borne’ here really means to wear. But the real you is the soul, and you wear the body over the soul. The body you wear is not going to last forever but the soul keeps on going. Then we are going to wear in the future a new body and the “image is of the heavenly.”

Verse 50, it becomes obvious that there is a need for a resurrection. All of these contrasts and analogies have pointed in that direction. “Flesh and blood” simply refers to the human body, it “cannot inherit the kingdom of God.” When we die the soul goes to be with God, the soul and spirit go to heaven., but we don’t take the body along. The body can’t even be in heaven, much less inherit eternity. We wouldn’t even want it in eternity.

“neither doth corruption inherit incorruption,” corruption is simply the human body subject to physical death; incorruption is the resurrection body in eternity. We have to have an eternity body to live in eternity.

This brings us in verses 51-54 to the mechanics of resurrection.

Verse 51, “Behold, I show you a mystery,” a mystery is a doctrine pertaining to the Church Age, a doctrine which was not revealed in the Old Testament. The doctrine which is in view is the Rapture of the Church which was not revealed in Old Testament times. The second advent was revealed, the resurrection of Old Testament saints at the second advent was revealed in Daniel 12, but we have absolutely nothing about the Rapture in the Old Testament. So it is a mystery, something formerly unknown and now revealed, defined in Ephesians 3:1-6.

“We shall not all sleep,” the world for sleep, koimaw, refers only to the body, the soul never sleeps. This word is used only for the death of the believer. What happens when you go to sleep? You wake up? This is exactly why this word is used for Christian death only. The body that goes to sleep is the body of corruption; the body that we receive in resurrection is a body of incorruption. So going to sleep is an analogy to Christian death; waking up is receiving a resurrection body. Remember that the soul does not sleep. The soul remains in the presence of the Lord until the resurrection when it receives its “new suit” and goes out in public.

Here is the mystery, though. We are not all going to die, “We shall not all sleep.” There is going to be one generation of believers who will not see physical death, and that generation of believers will be alive when the Rapture takes place.

“but we shall all be changed,” this is the change from the human body to the resurrection body, and it takes place without going through death. There will be one generation which will not see physical death.

Verse 52, how long is it going to take to change over? “In a moment, in the winking of an eye, at the last trump,” it existed at that time. Military life was so designed in that time in order that troops might be assembled. The troops in this case refer to the Church, the body of Christ, and so the trump simply assembles the Church. It is the same trumpet as 1 Thessalonians 4:16.

Rev. 3:10 confirms that the church doesn’t go through the Tribulation. “Last” = last blast of the trumpet for the Church. It closes God’s dealings with the Church in this age and thus is “last” for her rather than last of all.

“for the trumpet shall sound and the dead shall be raised,” the dead are those who have died physically. And notice how they are going to be raised” “incorruptible.” In corruption is their resurrection body; and we [believers who are alive when the Rapture takes place] shall be changed.” “We” refers to the believers who are alive at the Rapture and will be given a resurrection body.

Verse 53, “For this corruptible” is the body of the dead believer, the bodies of those whose souls and spirits are in the presence of the Lord; “must put on incorruption.” What is incorruption? The resurrection body for one who has already died.

“and this mortal,” What is a mortal? One who is still alive in his body; “must put on immortality.” Immortality and incorruption are exactly the same thing as a resurrection body but the two terms differentiate the mechanics for receiving the same.

Verse 54, when this takes place. “So when this corruptible shall have put on incorruption, and [when] this mortal shall have put on immortality, then [reference to the Rapture] shall be brought to pass the saying that is written, Death is swallowed up in victory.” Here is the victory over death. The saying is written in Isaiah 25:8 which, by the way, covers the doctrine of resurrection from the Old Testament standpoint. The words “swallowed up” means to drink down in the sense of annihilating it. The victory of resurrection is given in the next two verses.

Verse 55, this is a quotation from Hosea 13:14. When the grave claims the body of the person this is supposed to be a victory for the grave but the victory is only temporary and the resurrection takes care of it.

Verse 56, “The sting of death is sin” and this is a reference to the sin nature. The sting of death is from having the old sin nature; “and the strength of the sin nature is found in the law” because the law proves that we have a sin nature. The inherent strength of the sin nature lies in the law for another reason. When you look at the law and keep it what have you accomplished? Human good. So the strength of the sin nature is in its human good, and this human good, of course, is going to be judged for the unbeliever at the last . This human good uses the Mosaic law as the norm to establish its self-righteousness. Human good ignores the sin aspect and emphasises the self-righteousness aspect.

What is the victory in all of this? Verses 57 and 58, going from legalism to grace.

Verse 57, “But thanks to God,” thanks is literally “grace.” Grace is the basis of victory; God does all the work. God provides the body and before that He provided salvation.

“who giveth us the victory,” and He gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. In other words, Jesus Christ has already been resurrected.

Verse 58, “Therefore beloved,” beloved refers to their position in Christ, which in a sense anticipates their future resurrection; “brethren,” they are born again believers. Now he gives three applications to this victory of resurrection. The first is stability in time, the second is production in time, and the third is purpose in time.

Stability in time: “be ye [become, literally] steadfast, unmoveable,” this is a present active imperative, “keep on becoming.” The word “steadfast” means stabilised, oriented in your thinking to grace. “Unmoveable” means unshakeable; “steadfast” is doctrine in the soul, and you actually think doctrine. “Unshakeable” means you apply it to your experience.

Production in time: “abounding” means multiplying, multiplying divine good; “work of the Lord” is divine good. How do you multiply divine good? Through the filling of the Holy Spirit, application of doctrine to experience, faith-rest technique, living in the Word, occupation with Christ.

Purpose in time: “forasmuch as ye know.” If you are going to be oriented to the plan of God you must know what it is all about; “that your labour [production of divine good] is not in vain [not useless, not empty] in the Lord.” The life of the believer has meaning and purpose and definition.