The Resurrection of the Christ
1 Corinthians 15:35-58
Narcissism n. Excessive self-admiration or self-love. Can there be any doubt that Americans are narcissistic? We love to love ourselves. We share a compulsion to be the best-looking, the most fit. We do everything in our power to lengthen our lives and to look good in our declining years.
Not all of this is bad. Advances in medical technology have meant that a person can get a new knee, a new hip, an artificial limb, a new heart, kidney, liver, lung, cornea, etc. This past week Gary Heal was the recipient of this technology when he benefited from angioplasty and the insertion of arterial stents. These medical advances are truly saving hundreds of thousands of lives.
But some medical advances are much more narcissistic in nature. For example, did you know that last year there were 9 million plastic surgery procedures? I’m not talking about necessary reconstructive plastic surgery—I am referring to plastic surgery done for purely cosmetic and aesthetic reasons—9 million of these! On a more bizarre note, baseball Hall-of-Famer Ted Williams is now floating in liquid nitrogen at 350 degrees below zero. His family wanted him to be cryogenically frozen just in case medical technology advances to the point where they could unfreeze and resurrect him back to life. This is mankind’s best attempt at immortality. This may be even more difficult than it seems as his frozen head has been cracked ten times! (http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2002/12/20/national/main533849.shtml)
Why does this narcissistic attitude so strongly prevail? I think many are afraid of dying so they seek to prolong their lives. Others are afraid of living in their current state so they undergo multiples surgeries to nip, tuck and shape themselves into something else. Fundamentally we are afraid that if this life is all there is, than we better squeeze all of the enjoyment we can out of it.
I think this verse describes much of this narcissistic motivation. Meanwhile we groan, longing to be clothed with our heavenly dwelling, 3 because when we are clothed, we will not be found naked. 4 For while we are in this tent, we groan and are burdened, because we do not wish to be unclothed but to be clothed with our heavenly dwelling, so that what is mortal may be swallowed up by life. I know this verse was written for believers who are awaiting their heavenly home. This groaning by Christians is a longing for something better. Now if Christians are groaning for something better, when they have already been assured of its coming, then don’t you think non-Christians would also groan for something better? Of course they do—the whole world groans and longs for something better. But if they do not have an assurance of Heaven, they groan for something, but they don’t know what that something is. This groaning for immortality causes people to do ridiculous things like freeze themselves after they die in the hope of a rebirth. The only thing that prevents more people from freezing themselves is the price tag of $100,000. I guarantee you that if this procedure only cost $1000, right now millions of people would be floating in liquid nitrogen.
There is nothing wrong with groaning itself—groaning is good, but for the Christian groaning ought to be exclusively directed toward the resurrection of our glorified bodies at the second coming of Christ. On this resurrection Sunday of all days it is appropriate to focus on our final resurrection which will once and for all eliminate the groaning of our hearts—and bodies—for something much better.
35 But someone may ask, “How are the dead raised? With what kind of body will they come?” 36 How foolish! What you sow does not come to life unless it dies. 37 When you sow, you do not plant the body that will be, but just a seed, perhaps of wheat or of something else. 38 But God gives it a body as he has determined, and to each kind of seed he gives its own body. 39 All flesh is not the same: Men have one kind of flesh, animals have another, birds another and fish another. 40 There are also heavenly bodies and there are earthly bodies; but the splendor of the heavenly bodies is one kind, and the splendor of the earthly bodies is another. 41 The sun has one kind of splendor, the moon another and the stars another; and star differs from star in splendor.
42 So will it be with the resurrection of the dead. The body that is sown is perishable, it is raised imperishable; 43 it is sown in dishonor, it is raised in glory; it is sown in weakness, it is raised in power; 44 it is sown a natural body, it is raised a spiritual body.
If there is a natural body, there is also a spiritual body. 45 So it is written: “The first man Adam became a living being”; the last Adam, a life-giving spirit. 46 The spiritual did not come first, but the natural, and after that the spiritual. 47 The first man was of the dust of the earth, the second man from heaven. 48 As was the earthly man, so are those who are of the earth; and as is the man from heaven, so also are those who are of heaven. 49 And just as we have borne the likeness of the earthly man, so shall we bear the likeness of the man from heaven.
50 I declare to you, brothers, that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God, nor does the perishable inherit the imperishable. 51 Listen, I tell you a mystery: We will not all sleep, but we will all be changed— 52 in a flash, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, the dead will be raised imperishable, and we will be changed. 53 For the perishable must clothe itself with the imperishable, and the mortal with immortality. 54 When the perishable has been clothed with the imperishable, and the mortal with immortality, then the saying that is written will come true: “Death has been swallowed up in victory.”
55 “Where, O death, is your victory? Where, O death, is your sting?”
56 The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law. 57 But thanks be to God! He gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. 58 Therefore, my dear brothers, stand firm. Let nothing move you. Always give yourselves fully to the work of the Lord, because you know that your labor in the Lord is not in vain.
There is no mistake about what Paul is addressing in this section. He raises a rhetorical question that he knew was of significant interest to the believers in Corinth. 35 But someone may ask, “How are the dead raised? With what kind of body will they come?” That’s a clear question, isn’t it? If there is a resurrection, how are the dead raised and what kind of body will they have? The Corinthian believers did not have a problem with the resurrection. The problem that they had was with the idea of a resurrected body. You see, they thought that the body was sinful. They believed that living as a Christian was something that happened on the spiritual level and had little or nothing to do with their bodies. Several times in 1 Corinthians Paul corrected this false teaching about separation of the body from the spirit. For them salvation meant a separation from bodily influences, so the last thing they would ever expect was for their physical bodies to be resurrected. Does it matter that our bodies will be resurrected? This is not just a fine point of theological debate. The resurrection of our physical bodies really does matter. Before we get into those points, first we need to lay some groundwork.
The resurrection completes the gospel. In the first eight verses of this chapter, Paul defined the gospel. He wrote, Now brothers, I want to remind you of the gospel I preached to you. Here is an outline of the key points of the gospel.
1. Christ died—as we said last, the passion of Christ is true
2. He died for our sins—atonement
3. According to the Scriptures—his death and atoning work fulfilled the OT and Jesus’ teaching.
4. He was buried—his death and burial eliminate the “swoon theory” which states that Jesus didn’t actually die on the cross, he merely fainted and was revived later.
5. He was raised on the third day
6. Resurrection fulfilled Scriptures, including Jesus’ own prediction.
7. Over 500 eye-witnesses, most of whom were still living at the time of Paul’s writing and could therefore have spoken against it if it were not true.
The resurrection of Jesus completes the gospel, because without it, the message of the gospel falls apart.
The resurrection of Jesus proved he was the Son of God. Romans 1:4 says, who through the Spirit of holiness was declared with power to be the Son of God by his resurrection from the dead. The resurrection proves Jesus claims to divinity. If Jesus were merely a man and not also God, then he would never have been able to forgive sins. Lazarus was in the grace for four days—one day longer than even Jesus—but his resurrection did not bring forgiveness of sins. Jesus claimed to be God and proved this amazing claim by his resurrection.
The resurrection assures our final resurrection. Verse 17 says, if Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile; you are still in your sins. Without the resurrection, the entire Old Testament ceases to have meaning. Without the resurrection, all of Jesus’ teaching, miracles and life were one big lie. Without the resurrection, we live our average of 78 years on this planet, then we become worm food. Without the resurrection, Christianity crumbles into obscurity and we are fools for following the false savior called Jesus. The crowning achievement of all of human history and all salvation history was revealed when the stone was rolled away and Jesus walked out of the tomb.
Now tell me this: how can anyone say all religions are the same? Islam teaches that Jesus was an ordinary man who taken up into Heaven. Jesus never died, therefore he was never resurrected. Hinduism denies the deity of Christ and bodily resurrection. And this is the same as Christianity?! Christianity is unique because the resurrection is so unique. The resurrection is one of those absolute beliefs that you should be willing to die for. If you are not willing to die for this belief, then you have nothing to live for.
The resurrection of Jesus’ body is the pattern for our glorified bodies. Now we go back to v. 35 where Paul is responding to the rhetorical question, “How are the dead raised? With what kind of body will they come?” What did Paul think of this question? We know what he thought because he recorded it for us: How foolish! Now it is important to get the full meaning of what he was saying. The NLT reads: what a foolish question. Of course we know the NIV says: How foolish! But the ESV, which is a much more literal translation, reads like this: You foolish person. Paul was calling any such person who would doubt the bodily resurrection of Christians a fool. Why would Paul use such harsh language when writing to fellow Christians? If Paul had been a pastor in today’s world, he would probably be fired for such a comment. By calling them a fool, Paul does not mean they are stupid or dumb, but that they are foolish in the Biblical sense. Psalm 14:1 says, “The fool has said in his own heart, ‘There is no God.’” By calling them a fool Paul was saying that they had removed God from their question.
How often do we remove God from our own questions? How many times do we conclude that God can’t help us or won’t help us? We believe in God and in his power, but we often become situational atheists. A situational atheist is someone who, in certain situations, removes God and therefore thinks and behaves just like an atheist. We compartmentalize our lives—some parts God has control over, but other parts we hold back from him. In which parts of your life are you a situational atheist?
Like us, the believers in Corinth were guilty of removing God from their situation. So Paul explained the resurrection body to them. First he used the seed analogy, What you sow does not come to life unless it dies. 37 When you sow, you do not plant the body that will be, but just a seed, perhaps of wheat or of something else. 38 But God gives it a body as he has determined, and to each kind of seed he gives its own body.
Imagine
for a moment if you did not know anything about corn. Would you ever conclude
that a single kernel of corn could grow into something as large and fruitful as
a full cornstalk? Probably not. The seed that is sown is transformed into
something much greater than the original seed.
Now imagine if you knew nothing about the development of the human body. Would you ever guess that a single fertilized embryo cell like this, or even a 13 week old embryo like this could ever transform itself into something as beautiful and amazing as this—a precious newborn baby? On our own, none of us would ever be able to figure out such examples of sowing and reaping. Paul says, 42So will it be with the resurrection of the dead. The body that is sown is perishable, it is raised imperishable; 43 it is sown in dishonor, it is raised in glory; it is sown in weakness, it is raised in power; 44 it is sown a natural body, it is raised a spiritual body. As Christians, when we die, our bodies are “sown” into death, but that is not the end of the story. When Christ returns to the earth, there will be a great day of reaping when all believers receive their glorified bodies. You have probably heard preachers say that when that day arrives, people who spent their life in a wheel chair will be able to walk and run again. The blind will see and the deaf will hear. I believe these things are all true, but if that is all we believe about our resurrected bodies, we are thinking far too small. I would agree with C.S. Lewis who said, “We are far too easily pleased.” (The Weight of Glory) If a seed of corn reaps something greater than what is sown and if the seed of a human reaps something much greater than what was sown, then our resurrected bodies will reap something infinitely greater than what we have now. That’s why it is called a “glorified body”, the glory of our resurrected bodies will be far superior to what we have now.
But some may wonder, “why so much emphasis on physical bodies—why not just float around in Heaven as spirits?” The fact is that the body matters very much to God and it ought to matter to us. God is a Creator and he created our bodies for our enjoyment and use. Obviously having a body is superior to not having a body. Therefore, to have a glorified body in Heaven would be superior to existing as a spirit. But as I said before, the Corinthian believers had a problem with the body. They believed that any sinful action done in the body did not really affect their spiritual lives. He made this very plain to them in chapter 6, 19 Do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God? You are not your own; 20 you were bought at a price. Therefore honor God with your body. We either honor God with our bodies or else we dishonor him.
In Romans 6 Paul wrote, “Do not offer the parts of your body to sin as instruments of wickedness.” How do we offer the parts of our body as sin? We offer our eyes as instruments of sin when we look at things that are inappropriate. We offer our ears as instruments of sin when we listen to ungodly things. Our bodies are the vehicles for sin or for honoring the Lord. Our bodies are linked with our spirits—what happens in one directly affects the other. Our bodies matter to the Lord—both in this life and in the next.
One could hardly study this passage and skip over the last few verses. 54 When the perishable has been clothed with the imperishable, and the mortal with immortality, then the saying that is written will come true: “Death has been swallowed up in victory.” 55 “Where, O death, is your victory? Where, O death, is your sting?” 56 The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law. 57 But thanks be to God! He gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. This tells us that through Christ Jesus we will be victorious over death. You need to see the full force of this passage. There is a scoffing about the victory over death. Death is made a mockery. Death—where is your victory; death—where is your sting. Aha, you have no victory, you have no sting. We are victorious!
Do we have this victory now or is it only for the future? If we are believers then in some sense we have this victory now. The Holy Spirit guarantees our inheritance. But this is mostly a future promise. Death will be swallowed in victory. When? When we die? Yes, that is part of the promise, but as this text clearly says, the full victory promise will not be realized until Christ returns to the earth and we receive our glorified bodies. As wonderful as the promise of eternal life is for us now, death is not yet swallowed in victory. As wonderful as it will be to be present with Jesus immediately after we die, death will still not be completely swallowed in victory. But when Christ returns-in a flash, in a twinkling of the eye, at the last trumpet—we will all be changed.
Look finally at the last verse. What does final victory over death have to do with right now? 58Therefore, my dear brothers, stand firm. Let nothing move you. Always give yourselves fully to the work of the Lord, because you know that your labor in the Lord is not in vain. All of your hard labor will be worth it. Even if your body is falling apart now, it be will be transformed into something much greater. Even if you have to give up things for the Lord in this life, you will be rewarded with much more then. Let’s suppose that after a whole summer of hard work, the habitat house being built for the Hatfield’s burnt to the ground. All of that labor would be wasted. All of volunteer help would be in vain. This is impossible with God’s work. There can be no vanity, no emptiness in all work that is done to the Lord. Jesus is risen! For those who have placed their trust in Him, not only are your sins forgiven, but a new resurrection body, beyond what you could ever ask or imagine, is waiting for you.
Rich Maurer
April 11, 2004