45 What Will Our Resurrection Bodies Be Like? (1 Corinthians 15:29-49)

Krisan Marotta: You're listening to Wednesday in the Word, and I'm glad you are. I'm Krisan Marotta, and this is my podcast about what the Bible means and how we know. Today we're gonna study 1 Corinthians chapter 15, verses 29 through 49. This is the 45th talk in our series on 1 Corinthians. As always, the lecture notes for today's talk are on the link below the podcast. And you can find them on my website, just go to wednesdayintheword.com slash 1 Corinthians 4 5. And you can also find previous talks in the series there and lots of information on how to improve your Bible study. There's no charge, no spam, no ads, no clickbait, only Bible study. Well, we are in the final section of 1 Corinthians. And in this letter, Paul deals with a variety of problems and questions. The majority of the letter is Paul responding to questions that the Corinthians have asked him, and he's also responding to a verbal report about the situation in the Corinthian church. Some in the Corinthian Church are arguing that there is no physical resurrection from the dead, and in chapter 15, Paul's correcting that perspective. And for Paul, this is not an abstract theological or doctrinal problem. Some theological questions we find interesting to debate, but they don't have a great deal of impact on the way we live our lives now. This topic of the resurrection is not one of those kinds of issues. As we've seen, this is a fundamental issue to the gospel. And Paul has argued that the gospel itself involves the hope of resurrection from the dead, and if you reject the resurrection, you're rejecting the gospel itself. So far, Paul has made three main points. First, we know there is a resurrection because Jesus rose from the dead. The apostles preached that Jesus rose from the dead, many people saw him after he was risen from the dead. Some of them were still alive at the time Paul is writing this, and they can testify to that fact. And Paul reminds them that when they accepted the gospel, this is one of the facts they accepted. Second, Paul argued the counterpoint. He argued that if Jesus was not raised from the dead, then his death accomplished nothing, and we are all still trapped in our sins. If there's no bodily resurrection, then Jesus, the man, did not rise from the dead, the gospel's false, we're all still dead in our sins, and Christians of all people are to be pitied. And third, he argued that resurrection is at the heart of the story of redemption because it is an essential part of how God intends to solve the problem of sin and death. So he compared Adam and Jesus, how the man Adam brought death into the world, and the man Jesus Christ is going to restore us to life. Ultimately, Jesus will bring all of creation under the perfect rule of God, abolishing death and all the enemies of God. So Paul has argued without the resurrection, the gospel makes no sense because the culmination of the gospel story is God bringing Christ's people back to life in glorified resurrected bodies so that we may live under his rule as he reigns over all of creation, establishing God's justice and righteousness over all the earth. In the section we're looking at today, Paul is going to make two more main points. First, he's going to point out some of the inconsistencies with their view, and he's going to say, look, if you Corinthians are right and there is no resurrection, look at where that leaves you. Think about the implications. So let's look at first Corinthians fifteen verses twenty nine through thirty four. Otherwise, what will those do who are baptized for the dead? If the dead are not raised at all, why then are they baptized for them? Why are we also in danger every hour? I affirm, brethren, by the boasting in you which I have in Christ Jesus our Lord, I die daily. If from human motives I fought with wild beasts at Ephesus, what does it profit me? If the dead are not raised, let us eat and drink for tomorrow we die. Do not be deceived. Bad company corrupts good morals. Become sober minded as you ought, and stop sinning, for some have no knowledge of God. I speak this to your shame. So Paul starts this section with this very strange statement in fifteen twenty nine about the baptism of the dead, and what is going on here? Well the short answer is no one really knows what's going on. One commentator I read mentioned forty different interpretive options that have been proposed for this verse throughout church history. Some take the verse literally, some take it metaphorically, but in the end, in my opinion, all of them are interpretive guesses. The plain reading of this verse is that the Corinthians are practicing some kind of vicarious baptism. But nowhere in the Bible are people commanded to be baptized for the dead, nowhere in Scripture do we see people practicing this practice of baptizing people for the dead, and on top of that we have no historical information about people being baptized for the dead in the ancient world, including Corinth. It's not a practice that developed in the early church as far as we can tell, and there's no record of it in pagan churches. So where does that leave us? Well, we know that this letter was not written to us modern Christians. It was written to a specific group of people who lived in Corinth in the first century and were part of the church there. Paul knows them very well. He lived among them for eighteen months. He had access to information about what's going on there that we don't have, and he had many, many other conversations with them apart from the letters that we have in Scripture. We know that Paul is responding to specific questions and situations in their church, so we've seen him correcting some of their other worship practices, for example, speaking in tongues, women wearing head coverings, and how they handle communion. It seems reasonable to assume that the Corinthians had adopted some kind of vicarious baptism, and this practice seems to be something they developed on their own. We don't have any record of any other New Testament church adopting this practice, nor do we have any record where a prophet or an apostle or anyone with authority commanded it. Paul doesn't explain what this practice was because the Corinthians already knew what it was and he already knew what it was. And that shouldn't bother us. That's part of reading someone else's letter. Also notice the language he uses. Some scholars have pointed out, well, he doesn't condemn the practice specifically, but that doesn't mean he approves of it. For all we know, he rebuked them for it in person or he criticized it in one of the letters that didn't survive. We can guess from what we know of him and his other letters that this is not a practice he would approve of. And notice the language he uses. He basically says, why do they do this? implying this is not his practice, this is the practice of some other group. He does not say, why do we have this practice? He says, Why do they have this practice of baptizing for the dead? Why do those people do this? The language here may not specifically condemn the practice, but it certainly doesn't condone it either, and it does imply that this is not one of the traditions Paul handed down to them. This is something those people are doing. So he's pointing out the inconsistency of baptizing someone for the dead if you don't believe in a resurrection. What's the point? If the dead aren't going to be raised, whether they believed or not, whether they were baptized or not, then why are you baptizing someone for the dead? What are you hoping to gain for them if not resurrection? So even though we don't know the specifics of the situation Paul's referring to, most everyone agrees that's the point he's making, that this practice is foolish if you don't believe in a resurrection. In fifteen thirty through thirty two, why are we also in danger every hour? I affirm, brethren, by the boasting in you which I have in Christ Jesus our Lord, I die daily. If from human motives I fought with wild beasts at Ephesus, what does it profit me? If the dead are not raised, let us eat and drink, for tomorrow we die. In fifteen thirty, I think we see another case where Paul is using the pronoun we to refer to himself. You'll notice he says we in fifteen thirty and switches immediately to I in fifteen thirty one. Now we talked about his use of pronouns in the early chapters of this letter, and I'm not going to go over it again, but let me just remind you that Paul frequently refers to himself in the third person plural, in not just Corinthians, but in several of his other letters. So in this next point, he says, think about the life that I, Paul, am living and why I do it. Every day I go out and preach the gospel, and every time I preach the gospel, I face the possibility of death. If there's no resurrection, why would I do that? I have no reason to constantly risk my life if there's no resurrection from the dead. So my behavior makes no sense if there's no resurrection. By that phrase I die daily, I think he means he faces the possibility of death on a daily basis. This language about fighting wild beasts at Ephesus is metaphorical, I think. There's no record of him literally fighting wild beasts, and we do know that Paul faced a great deal of suffering and opposition during his time in Ephesus, and that's where he's writing this letter from. Ephesus was one of the most difficult places he worked, and he faced a lot of personal suffering there. And in 2 Corinthians, he said it was so bad he had despaired of even living. He says, I swear by the boasting in you which I have in Christ Jesus our Lord. I think he's saying here, look, I went to Corinth and it was a pagan town. Few people in Corinth had ever heard the gospel before I came. So I preached the gospel in Corinth, and people came to believe it. You and the Corinthian church came to believe it. So there's a sense in which you Corinthian believers are my boast. Your coming to believe this message is a testimony to the gospel I preach. So he's basically saying, I swear by this work Christ did among you Corinthians through me, Paul. Just as you know that's true, because you lived it and your eyewitnesses, you can believe how I face death daily in Ephesus. Implicit in his point here is that he does in fact have a reason to risk his life preaching the gospel. He's preaching about salvation. He's teaching people how to be rescued from death. He himself hopes to be rescued from death and inherit eternal life. And resurrection is a key component to the very reason he preaches the gospel and risks his life doing so. What would be the point of constantly risking death for the sake of the gospel if there's no hope of resurrection at the end? Now he's not saying this is his only motive for preaching the gospel. He's pointing out the inconsistency of a gospel without the hope of resurrection into eternal life. And he's asking why continue to go through all this suffering for the sake of the gospel if there's no resurrection, which is a key component of this gospel I'm risking my life for. If there's no resurrection, then let's just eat, drink, and be merry and enjoy ourselves till the day we die. It's interesting that Paul brings himself into the argument because the Corinthians could very well answer his question why do you continue enduring this suffering? Well, Paul, it's because you're a fool, that's why. There's a sense in which arguing from his own life proves nothing, and we know there's a group in Corinth who is not very keen on Paul and has rejected his authority as an apostle. But he is in fact an apostle. He's one of the few people chosen by Jesus to speak on his behalf and carry his authority. So how Paul lives his life is supremely interesting. And I think he's counting on the fact that some in Corinth still recognize him as an apostle and believe he can teach them the words of life. So he's appealing to those people who may be confused by all the factions and debating in the Corinthian church and who still care about his opinion. And that personal note continues into the next verses. Let's look at thirty-three and thirty-four. Do not be deceived. Bad company corrupts good morals. Become sober minded as you ought, and stop sinning, for some have no knowledge of God. I speak this to your shame. Here we can see how seriously Paul takes this issue of the resurrection and how far the Corinthians have gone wrong. Their thinking is cloudy and confused as if they were drunk, and he's urging them to become alert and sober minded. They have fallen into sin and have no knowledge of God. That's a pretty serious charge to give to someone who claims to be a Christian. He's saying rather bluntly here, if you're looking for something other than the resurrection, then you know nothing about God. Essentially he's saying you don't understand the gospel and you are fooling yourself in this claim to faith. This quote bad company corrupts good morals is a quote from one of the ancient Greek poets, Menander, and the idea is you may start with good intentions, with good morals and good virtues and principles, but if you hang around with bad company, it's going to corrupt you. You hang around with the wrong crowd and you will eventually join them in your wrong behavior. Now I think those in Corinth who oppose Paul would be highly insulted by this quote because they think they're on the right side and Paul is on the wrong side. They think that they are the sophisticated, elite spiritual giants, and they've proved it by achieving this exalted spiritual state of speaking in tongues and adopting this sophisticated understanding of no resurrection. And now Paul's saying, well, in reality, you guys are the bad influence on everyone else. He just said, if the dead are not raised, let us eat and drink for tomorrow we die. And if you follow the implications of this teaching that there's no resurrection, eventually you're going to end up in that eat, drink, and be merry camp. If the dead are not raised, then I, Paul, should stop risking my life and preaching the gospel and start enjoying life. In fact, I fear that very attitude is spreading among you. So the theology of Paul's opponents contradicts the gospel and will ultimately corrupt the Corinthian church if it continues. And Paul sees this theology as so counter to the gospel that it reveals those who hold it know nothing about God. And that's a very serious issue. He's saying you need to wake up and take this seriously. This is not cool, sophisticated academics. Taking this view does not make you a spiritual giant or an academic elite. This is a step down the path to destruction. Wake up and look at where you're headed. Well that brings us to the next section of his argument where he responds to a potential objection. And I suspect he's heard this objection before in his teachings and his travels. He's taught enough to know that this is going to come up. So in fifteen thirty five and thirty-six, but someone will say, How are the dead raised? And with what kind of body do they come? You fool, that which you sow does not come to life unless it dies. Now this objection is being raised by his opponents, and we know this because he asks the question and immediately says, You fool, that tips us off that this is not a question asked by one of his faithful followers who's just a bit confused about the specifics of the theology. This is a question asked by someone who is out to discredit Paul's teaching that there's a bodily resurrection. So we want to understand the nature of the question because that sheds light on the type of answer Paul gives. We who believe in the resurrection might be very interested to know exactly what kind of body we'll have, like what age will we be? Will we have scars and flaws or will all those things get fixed? And Paul's not answering that question. He's not going to give us those kinds of details. He's speaking to someone who is trying to discredit his view, and he's going to explain why that charge carries no weight. So first let's figure out the objection. He gives us the question, how are the dead raised and with what kind of body do they come? And I think you can imagine that in a kind of mocking, scoffing tone of voice from someone who denies the resurrection. Oh yeah, well, how are the dead raised? Exactly what kind of body could they have? How does that happen? Resurrection makes no sense. When people die, their bodies decay. They turn to dust and there's nothing left in some cases, like fire. So how could a foul, rotting corpse come back to life? I mean, what's it going to be like anyway? And remember, Paul, we know from our Greek philosophers that all things physical are bad and evil, and all things spiritual are good. So why would anyone want to resurrect a nasty, evil physical body when our spirits are already so pure and enlightened as evidenced by our sophisticated understanding and our speaking in tongues? So you see, Paul, resurrection makes no sense. I mean, how is that supposed to happen anyway? And what kind of body could they possibly have? I think that's the tone behind this question, and that's the kind of question Paul is answering. He's not trying to satisfy the curiosity of a genuine believer who might want a glimpse into the future. He's only going to tell us what we need to know to answer the objection. So let's look at thirty six and thirty seven. You fool, that which you sow does not come to life unless it dies, and that which you sow you do not sow the body which is to be, but a bare grain, perhaps of wheat or of something else. So he starts you fool, more evidence of how seriously the Corinthians have gone wrong. This is a foolish objection to raise. Why would the fact that the body decays be any problem for a resurrection? This is just one more example of how God does things. So look at seeds. Seeds start out with a certain body. You bury it in the ground, that seed dies, that body dies, it loses all its shape and form, but it takes on a new form. It turns into a shaft of wheat or of barley or something. And there's a continuity between the seed that you plant and the plant that grows out of it. We don't sow tomato seeds and get grapes. There's a continuity between what you start with and what you end up with, but on the other hand, there is discontinuity because what comes out of the ground looks nothing like the seed that went into the ground. And Paul's point is this is how God made the world to work. The seed can be the source of the new plant that grows and not be identical to it. It has a totally different form. So there is both continuity and discontinuity, and that concept ought to make sense to you. You watch it every planting season. What you start with determines what you end up with, but they're not identical. And then in thirty-eight and thirty-nine, but God gives it a body just as He wished, and to each of it the seeds a body of its own. All flesh is not the same flesh, but there is one flesh of men, another flesh of beasts, another of birds, and another of fish. So Paul's reminding them of God's design. God designed all different sorts of bodies, all different creatures and different living beings. They have an order, they have a logic. Their design and their body suits their nature and their purpose. That is all part of God's design. It shouldn't surprise us when we look at creation and we see all these differences. Each seed has its own body and produces a different kind of plant. Each living creature has its own body that suits its nature and its purpose. This is God's design on earth, but it also extends to the universe. He goes on in forty and forty one. There are also heavenly bodies and earthly bodies, but the glory of the heavenly is one and the glory of the earthly is another. There's a glory of the sun and another glory of the moon, and another glory of the stars, for star differs from star in glory. Alright, so Paul is making an analogy here. So he can make his point in the end. He's setting himself up for the point. He says, look, there are heavenly bodies and there are earthly bodies. There are things which have their existence on earth and things which have their existence in heaven. And I can look at all the earthly bodies, the animals, the fish, the birds, and so on, and they have a certain kind of glory, a kind of beauty and attractiveness. And then I look up at the sky, at the sun and the moon and the stars, and they have a different kind of glory, a different kind of radiance and attractiveness. So there's a glory to the sun and there's a glory to a lightning bug. But they're different. I can examine a lightning bug and wonder at how it's made, but I can't look at the sun at all because it's so bright. And ultimately he's going to say the heavenly is superior. It's on a whole nother level. But he's making the point here that heavenly bodies differ from each other. All of them shine in the sky, but they shine to different degrees and in different ways. The moon has a different glory from the sun, the stars have a different glory from the moon, and so forth. Now this is the analogy. As we look at creation, we can see that God has designed things so that seeds have a body, they die, they lose that body, and they become something different but related. That difference is part of God's design. Look at all the creatures of the earth. Look at the difference between the heavenly bodies and the earthly bodies. Part of the difference is in how much glory they have. The glory of the heavenly bodies is greater than the glory of earthly bodies. And remember, it's common to compare earthly things and heavenly things as a way of comparing the things of this world with the things of God. And that's going to come into play as well in this analogy. He's going to talk about how we have bodies made for this life, earthly bodies, and we will have resurrected or heavenly bodies that are made and suited for the age to come. But he hasn't made his point yet. He's given us the analogy, and now as we go on to the next verses, he's going to draw the analogy. He's going to make his point. So let's look at fifteen, forty-two through forty four. So also is the resurrection of the dead. It is sown a perishable body, it is raised an imperishable body. It is sown in dishonor, it is raised in glory. It is sown in weakness, it is raised in power. It is sown in natural body, it is raised a spiritual body. If there is a natural body, there is also a spiritual body. Alright, so here he makes the point. So also is the resurrection. The points in the analogy apply to the body that dies and the body that is resurrected from the dead. Now we want to be careful to apply the points that Paul has made and not push the analogy into all kinds of places that Paul didn't want to go. He has specified the points that are interesting to him. The difference between the seed that dies and the plant that grows, the fact that God designs bodies to be different and they suit their purpose, and then the difference between heavenly and earthly bodies with the glory of the heavenly body being greater than the earthly body. And remember all of this is part of his response to the challenge that a decayed rotting body cannot be resurrected. He is specifically concerned with the problem that this objection is raising. So he makes these four contrasts. The seed is sown perishable and raised imperishable. It is sown in dishonor, it is raised in glory, it is sown in weakness, and it is raised in power, and then it is sown a natural body, it is raised a spiritual body. So it's sown in corruption, it's a body that decays and decomposes, but it's raised incorruptible and indestructible. This is part of the objection his opponents are raising. How can a body that is decayed and fallen apart be raised? And Paul is saying, remember the seed, the form it has when it enters the ground falls apart and decays, and it comes out in this new form. There's a difference between where you start and where you finish. You start corruptible, but you come back incorruptible. That's the analogy. The human body is frail and weak and fragile, it's subject to breaking and falling apart even before death, as everyone who's getting older can tell you. But the body that comes back is full of glory in every way. It is strong, it is beautiful, it's glorious, the humiliation and weakness is gone. And in 1544, he says it is sown a natural body, it is raised a spiritual body. I just don't know of any way to translate this verse into English without being misleading. I'm going to try to explain what I think is going on here. Bear with me. This word that's translated natural is related to the word that he uses in the next verse when he says Adam became a living soul. It's related to that word soul. They're in the same word group. That makes natural and soul a bit misleading because to us in English, those two words are more like opposites. At least they don't appear to have a relationship. So to understand what Paul's saying, we need to look at how they're similar. If you take the idea of these words that's translated natural and soul in the next verse, and you look at where they overlap, that idea that joins them together is what Paul's getting at. Bear with me. In Genesis, God breathed the breath of life into Adam and he becomes a nefish. That's the Hebrew word that is used. It means a living soul. And to picture what he means, compare a dead body to a living body. If you've ever seen a dead body, you immediately can tell the difference. A dead body is not a nefish. It's missing something. It's missing a living soul. It has no nefish. The breath of life is gone. When you have the breath of life, you have nefish. You are a living, breathing soul. So this Greek word used as an adjective is the word natural. As humans, we are living souls by nature. The natural state of affairs for a human being is that I am a living, breathing, thinking, and moving soul. That's the idea of natural. This is the natural state of things. Normally we're living beings. Every human being, whether or not they're redeemed, is a living, breathing human being animated with the breath of life. This word as a noun is the idea of soul. The soul is that thing that makes us living, breathing people. A dead body has lost its soul. It's lost its breath of life, its animating force. Now we think of the soul as some exalted spiritual piece of me, but that's not the way Jewish thinking goes. For them, the soul is on the mundane side. It's like breathing. My soul is what I have if I am a living, breathing human being. So what I think he's saying here is it is sown a normal, common, natural, breathing human body, but it's raised a spiritual body. Now it's something more. When it's raised, it becomes something more. The new raised body has gone beyond our current normal human bodies and become something better than our current normal, natural human existence. Now remember, Paul is defending the idea of a bodily physical resurrection, and it's tempting to try to understand this phrase raised a spiritual body to mean somehow that we will not have a body at all. But that simply cannot be his point because throughout this chapter he's been arguing for exactly the opposite. He is not arguing that we are going to be incorporeal ghosts. That just doesn't fit with what he said in the rest of the chapter or with the rest of Scripture. He started all this by pointing to Jesus in his resurrected body. And we know from the gospels that Jesus went to a great deal of trouble to demonstrate that he had an actual real physical body. He ate, he drank, people touched him and hugged him, and he made it clear that he was physically present in a body. So whatever it means to be raised a spiritual body, it does not mean that we are incorporeal. What Paul is contrasting here is the idea of the natural and the spiritual, and we have seen this contrast in the letter before. Way back when he compared the natural man with the spiritual man. And he said the natural man is what you are by nature. He argued that the natural man is not capable of understanding the things of God. The spiritual man, by contrast, is what you are after God's spirit has been at work in you, and you are now capable of understanding the things of God. So the spiritual person is the one who has been transformed and is under the influence of the Holy Spirit. So when you put all this together, I think by spiritual body he means the body that has been transformed by the Spirit of God. It is no longer our common, natural, earthly, living, breathing body. It is the body that God's Spirit intends to transform us into in glory. So he's contrasting the natural body with the body that has been transformed by the work of the Spirit of God, the body we will have when the Spirit of God is done changing us, a body that is truly and fully under the influence of the Spirit of God and is transformed and made everything God intends it to be. He goes on in forty five, if there is a normal, natural breathing body, there is also a spiritual one. Let's look at forty-five. So also it is written, the first man Adam, became a living soul, and that's the word I was talking about there that's translating the Hebrew nephish. And I would understand that as a normal living breathing human. The first man Adam became a normal, living, breathing human. The last Adam became a life-giving spirit. So he's saying, Whether we're redeemed or not, we are living, breathing souls. Everyone has that. The first man Adam became a normal, living, breathing human being, and all his descendants after him are also normal, natural, living, breathing humans. By contrast, the last Adam, Jesus Christ, is a life-giving spirit. Let's examine this contrast. Remember, Paul is defending the resurrection of the body with two important pairs. The first pair is the contrast between the natural and the spiritual, as I've just defined it. We've defined the natural as the normal human existence and the spiritual as the kind of life we will have when we are fully under the influence of the Spirit of God. And that pairing helps us understand the resurrection. We start out with the natural, we end up with the spiritual. The second pair is Adam and Christ. The man Adam brought death to all his descendants, and the man Jesus will bring life to all his descendants. And once again that helps us understand the resurrection. Christ was resurrected as the first fruits, and we are going to follow him in that. God intends to make us fully spiritual, fully under the influence of the Spirit, and fully experiencing the life Christ offers. So Genesis said God made Adam a Nephish, a normal living, breathing human being. But Christ is not just another Adam. He is not just a normal living, breathing human being. After the resurrection, he became a life giving being. He gives life to those who trust him. As a man, he himself was fully under the influence of the Spirit and reflected the character of God, and he was truly spiritual in contrast to the natural man, and he will make all his followers truly spiritual, fully transformed by the Spirit as He was. Now remember, Paul is arguing for a bodily resurrection. The idea of moving from the natural to the spiritual supports a resurrection. The idea of death from Adam, life from Christ, supports this transition to a resurrected existence. Now he goes on to explain this a little more, and I'm going to tweak the New American Standard Translation to make it more clear what I think Paul means. So this is 46 through 49. However, the spiritual is not first, but the natural, and I would say the natural is the normal breathing life. So the spiritual, the life that is fully transformed by the spirit is not first the natural, the normal breathing existence, then the spiritual. The first man is from the earth that is made of the earth, and the second is from heaven. As is the one who is made of the earth, so also are those who are made of the earth, and as is the one who is heavenly, so also are those who are heavenly. Just as we have borne the image of the one who is made of earth, we will also bear the image of the heavenly. So Paul can is concluding the section with look, God has an order to things. We start out as normal living, breathing bodies, and he brings us ultimately to life as transformed spiritual people. That's the order of things. Now many commentators have suggested that the Corinthians have gotten it into their heads that they are already super spiritual, exalted beings because they speak in tongues and so forth, and that's why Paul's emphasizing the order here. And that seems entirely possible to me. Paul's saying, look, you guys, you have a normal human existence here on this earth. You aren't going to be fully transformed into a truly spiritual existence until the resurrection. So this stuff about how you're already super spiritual, enlightened beings, that's just foolishness. That's not the way it works. Like the seed that dies and then is transformed into its new form, so we have our human existence now, our normal living, breathing existence, and we will be resurrected into a truly spiritual existence after death, where we are truly spiritual, freed from death, freed from decay, freed from corruption and futility, and fully reflecting the character of God. And notice he's returned to this metaphor of the earthly and the heavenly. Earlier he said, look at the world, there are earthly bodies and there are heavenly bodies. And now he's saying we have that same kind of difference here. We have our earthly bodies, and ultimately we're going to have our heavenly bodies. Adam was a man of this earth, he was made from the stuff of this earth, and all of us who are descended from him are also made from the earth. We are like him in that way. But Christ, the second Adam, is heavenly, and those who are descended from him are going to be heavenly in this same sense. The idea of him being from heaven is not talking about his divine self that became incarnate in man. Paul's talking about the man Jesus who has been resurrected into a different type of existence. The metaphor he's using is that before he was earthly, but now he's heavenly. And we know he's talking about the man Jesus because Paul's point is the followers of Jesus are going to be heavenly like him. Now we're not going to be divine, but we are going to be heavenly in the sense that we are going to be fully transformed by the Spirit of God into a new type of existence. The life that Adam had is normal human existence made of the earth and from the earth, but the life that Christ offers his followers is from heaven and made of the stuff of heaven. Just as we were like our first Father, Adam, we can be like our second father, Christ, if we trust and believe in him. And how do we get from here to there? How do we get from the natural to the spiritual, from the earthly to the heavenly? Through the resurrection, we who trust in Jesus Christ will be resurrected. And that's his point. How can you possibly throw out the resurrection? It is central to the hope of the gospel. And it's no problem that the earthly body dies like a seed that dies in the ground because we will be brought back in newness of life in a different form, transformed and glorified. And let me wrap up this section. This may all seem like high theology and what's the big deal and why does Paul spend so much time on this? But Paul says this is crucial for how you live your life today, because this theology is about the point of human existence. Where I think I'm heading determines the choices I make now. As Paul said, if I don't believe in a resurrection, I might as well eat, drink, and be merry, for tomorrow I'm gonna die, and that's the end. There's nothing else. But if I understand that the point of all of history, the point of creation, the climax of the whole story of redemptive history is that one day we are going to stand with Jesus in glorious resurrected bodies, fully transformed by the Spirit, then that changes how I live my life today. Because I know where I'm headed, I have perspective. There's a point to the trials, there's a point to the sufferings and the tragedies of life. And if I understand that those trials and sufferings and tragedies mature and perfect my faith, and that faith is what I need to stand with Jesus in glory, then I'm going to choose differently. I'm going to live my life differently. I'm going to strive to choose wisdom and righteousness and strive to love God with all my being and to love my neighbor as myself. But if I don't understand that, if I don't have that perspective on what this life is all about, then I might as well just go along with the Corinthians and eat and drink for tomorrow we're going to die. So Paul's point is this is not abstract theology. This is crucial. This is the goal of life, and you need to understand this so that it puts your life and your daily choices into perspective now. You've been listening to the Wednesday in the Word podcast. My mission is to teach you both what the Bible means and how we know. I don't accept any advertising on my website, nor do I ask for donations, but I do love hearing from you about what you've learned. So please drop me an email and tell a friend what you've learned and where you learned it. You can hear previous episodes on wednesdayintheword.com. Our theme music is graciously provided by Reggie Coates. You can find his music on heartfeltmusic.org. Thanks so much for listening today. I'm Kristan Morata, and I'll see you next week at Wednesday in the Word.