Hope of resurrection
[1 Corinthians 15:51-58]
Do you believe that Jesus rose from the dead?
Today's text 1 Corinthians 15:35 raises two questions within the church in Corinth: (1) How are the dead raised? (2) With what kind of body will they come? As I meditate on the words of the Apostle Paul who answer these two questions, I hope and pray that all of us can be filled with the hope of resurrection.
The Bible, 1 Corinthians 15, gives us two hopes of resurrection:
First, the hope of resurrection is ‘You will be raised’ (1 Cor. 15:35-41).
Look at 1 Corinthians 15:36 – “How foolish! What you sow does not come to life unless it dies.” This verse is Paul's answer to the first question that arose within the church in Corinth, “How are the dead raised?” Paul's answer is that unless we die, we cannot experience the resurrection, just as the seed that is sown does not come to life unless it dies. What do you think of this word of Apostle Paul? Do you believe that people can live again without dying? Paul says that we cannot experience the resurrection without passing through the gate of death. Look at 1 Corinthians 15:3-4: “… that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures.” Jesus died on the cross for our sins “according to the Scriptures” and He was buried and rose again on the third day “according to the Scriptures”. What does it mean? It means that Jesus died “according to the Scriptures” and was resurrected “according to the Scriptures”. The fact that this Jesus died according to the Scriptures and rose again according to the Scriptures gives us eternal hope. That eternal hope is that we will rise from the dead just as Jesus rose from the dead.
Second, the hope of resurrection is ‘You will bear the likeness of the man from heaven’ (1 Cor. 15:41-46).
The second question that arose within the Corinthian church was, “With what kind of body will they come?” Apostle Paul's answer to this question is written in 1 Corinthians 15:42-44: “So will it be with the resurrection of the dead. The body that is sown is perishable, it is raised imperishable; it is sown in dishonor, it is raised in glory; it is sown in weakness, it is raised in power; it is sown a natural body, it is raised a spiritual body. ….” The Scriptures tell us that the resurrection of the dead is that firstly a perishable body will be resurrected into an imperishable, secondly, a dishonorable body will be resurrected into a glorious body, thirdly, a weak body will be resurrected into a powerful body, and fourthly, a natural body will be resurrected into a spiritual body. In a word, the resurrected body of the dead is referred to as “the body that will be” (v. 37). This body that will be was not planted by man (v. 37), but “God gives it a body as He has determined” (v. 38). What is the body that will be that God will give us according to what He has determined? Look at verse 49: “And just as we have borne the likeness of the earthly man, so shall we bear the likeness of the man from heaven.” What does the likeness of the man from heaven here refer to? Look at Philippians 3:21 – “who, by the power that enables him to bring everything under his control, will transform our lowly bodies so that they will be like his glorious body.”
So, there is something we are looking forward to. What is it? It is “the last trumpet.” Look at 1 Corinthians 15:51 – “Listen, I tell you a mystery: We will not all sleep, but we will all be changed--.” Since when the moment the last trumpet sounds, we will all change in an instant, we are waiting for the last trumpet to sound. At the moment of the sounding of the last trumpet, the dead will be clothed with an imperishable, immortal, glorious spiritual body (vv. 52-53). With the hope of this resurrection, I hope and pray that we all become more and more diligent in the work of the Lord without being shaken in our faith, giving thanks to God.
Believing that Jesus’ resurrection is my resurrection,
James Kim