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1st Corinthians 15. Part 9
January 20th 2019
Milk
So, we left off with Paul having provided a list of comparisons on the resurrection, saying:
1Co 15:42 So also is the resurrection of the dead. It is sown in corruption; it is raised in incorruption:
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. There is a natural body, and there is a spiritual body.
And we left of reading but not discussing this last description.
It is sown a natural body; it is raised a spiritual body. There is a natural body, and there is a spiritual body.
Let’s talk about this before reading our next segment of passages. This part gets a tad bit more complicated than what we were given last week.
Thus far Paul has given us so much insight to the resurrection of the dead and last week we had to admit that much of it is incongruent with Jesus resurrection – which was purposeful in revealing that it was actually Him who rose after three days in the grave.
Paul has told us that the resurrection of the dead requires:
That the former body die and be buried and this body of corruption would be like a seed of a plant to come.
And once that body is buried from it would come an all together different body.
That the body that is given by God good will and pleasure in the resurrection is NOT like the Body that was buried. (And we just read the number of ways that the resurrected body is not corrupt, it is glorious, powerful and is as different as a plant is different from the seed it came from, as different from bodies on earth and bodies in the heavens, and that every body given by God would be of different glories – as different as the glories that we see in the heavens – those of the sun, moon and stars.
Paul also told us that each resurrected body would be given according to the type it originally came from, human to human, animal to animal.
And he wrapped this run at the resurrection with a very important differentiation, saying:
44 It is sown a natural body; it is raised a spiritual body. There is a natural body, and there is a spiritual body.
In order to properly understand what is being said here we have to consult the Greek words Paul uses – fortunately those of you who study with us here are more familiar with them than others generally speaking.
Going back to the creation of Man, and reading from the Greek translation of the Hebrew text, known as the Septuagint,
Moses wrote in Genesis 2:7
“And the LORD God formed man of the dust of the ground (sarx), and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life (pneuma); and man became a living soul (psuchekos).
Three words to describe the three part composition of human beings in the beginning and before the fall:
Sarx (the clay or body)
Pneuma (the spirit of God)
Psuchekos (the soul – mind, will and emotion)
Let me reread that passage with some emphasis:
“And the LORD God formed man of the dust of the ground (sarx),
Man was formed out of the dust of the ground. That is the origin of Man – the dust. And God formed MAN of the dust of the ground.
MAN OF THE DUST OF THE GROUND.
That is our origin. That is where we came from – this line defines Man this way. Man is not the product of God breathing. That is man becoming something more. But MAN is God forming us out of the dusty clay. Got that?
“And the LORD God formed man of the dust of the ground (sarx), and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life (pneuma);
Then God, unlike with what he appears to have done with the beasts of the field, does something different with Man – God breathed into His nostrils the breath of life.
I would suggest that when God gives something the breath of life, he has given them eternal life – it’s God’s breath, synonymous with His Spirit in the Greek.
Anyway, conjecture, but what is NOT conjecture is that BY breathing into the Man of Clay, something occurred
“and MAN BECAME a living soul” (psuchekos).
Prior to this, Man was a form out of Clay. But God stepped in and added a part from Himself to the mix – His Spirit – His breath. And as a result that product of the dust – MAN – became a living SOUL.
Again, how did Man become a LIVING soul – a living mind will and emotion?
BY GOD breathing in him His breath or spirit or ruach (Hebrew) or Pneuma (Greek).
Got all of that?
This first man was made a living soul by the breath of God. The order was He was created in the dust breathed into, and that Man became a living soul.
This is the origin of the first man.
But this first man, who was first of the ground, the earth, and having been made a living soul, choose to turn from God and disobey His wishes.
God told him in the day you do this you will surely die. He disobeyed and he immediately died Spiritually (as he was separated from God) he progressively died in His mind will and emotions, and he ultimately died in his body – with his body returning to the earth and his spirit to the God who gave it – and His soul to sheol.
From that point forward all human creations, instead of being tri-partite, became bi-partite – operating on ONLY the natural things absent the SPIRITUAL things.
His mind said, I think I want to do things.
His emotions said, I feel like doing things.
His will said, I will do things.
And his body did them.
That is the natural man – entirely of the earth, as the spirit that gave him life left Him spiritually dead.
This represents the Natural Body Paul is talking about – corrupt, dishonorable, weak.
This is what is planted – what was in the image of Adam, the father of the human race.
So when Paul says the resurrection of Man is “. . . sown a natural body”
But then Paul adds the detail of the actual resurrection, saying:
“it is raised a spiritual body.” There is a natural body, and there is a spiritual body.”
Remembering that in the resurrection there is a body involved, and it is not earthly, natural, and corresponding to the body bequeathed to our natural father Adam.
It is of another origin, and is equipped with all the elements necessary for human beings to thrive in the heavens, not on the earth.
For instance, there would be no reason for lungs would there. Not so sure about a heart pumping blood either. Get it.
That body is the natural body fitted to thrive in this natural world. So Paul plainly states, after having given us a series of differences between the natural body and the resurrected body adds that there is a natural and there is a spiritual body with the former being sown, and the later being raised.
It is of interest – great interest – that when Paul writes this the terms he uses for the natural body is Psuchekos (which refers to the soulish man) and when he speaks of the Spirit body the term he uses is Pneumatikos – of the Spirit.
Remember what Jesus said, when He walked the earth –
John 6:63 It is the spirit that quickeneth; the flesh profiteth nothing: the words that I speak unto you, they are spirit, and they are life.
So in the resurrection, in addition to all we have already talked about, the body buried is raised a spiritual body.
Just as the word psuchekos represents a body of the world passed on by Adam, the pneumatikon body seems to represent the opposite – one that is not subject to the laws of the vital functions or one not formatted or organized or sustained in the same ways.
It will still be a “body” which appears to be how we will relate or at least recognize each other but it will have a completely different orientation which will be pointed at its heavenly destination.
In the least I think we can suggest that this body will be:
Not subject to the laws of this material world.
Not sustained or nourished by the functions of this worlds bodies.
It will have an economy of its own; living without nourishment; not subject to decay; not liable to sickness, pain, or death.
Apparently, it will be very much like what we call A SPIRIT but sans – again – sans – ready:
Flesh, blood, bones, internal organs, veins, nerves, visibility to the natural eye, and therefore not subject to material limitations.
While we can personify and humanize this spiritual body, we CAN say that it WILL NOT be the body that was laid I the grave.
IT cannot have oxygen dependent organs, needs, nor flesh nor blood, as Paul will say at verse 50:
“flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God; neither doth corruption inherit incorruption.”
So again, in the LEAST, the flesh that covers our natural body and the blood that courses through our veins WILL be absent from the resurrected body – not to mention all the other caveats Paul has made.
We know however that Jesus resurrected body was of flesh and blood. Remember he said:
Touch and see for a spirit has not flesh and bone as you see me have.” So, again, this teaching of Paul’s AGAIN stands out very differently from what we read Jesus experiencing.
As a means to reiterate the importance of this part of his description of the resurrection, Paul says:
“There is a natural body and there is a spiritual body.”
I don’t know what else to say to prove that the bodies that we possessed here (our natural bodies) will NOT be the bodies we possess in the resurrection.
Not possible in the face of all of these statements. I admit that the resurrected bodies COULD appear like the former natural bodies – but they will not be those bodies of corruption reraised and repurposed. No way.
So having established these things, lets read our text for today where Paul now says:
45 And so it is written, The first man Adam was made a living soul; the last Adam was made a quickening spirit.
46 Howbeit that was not first which is spiritual, but that which is natural; and afterward that which is spiritual.
47 The first man is of the earth, earthy: the second man is the Lord from heaven.
48 As is the earthy, such are they also that are earthy: and as is the heavenly, such are they also that are heavenly.
49 And as we have borne the image of the earthy, we shall also bear the image of the heavenly.
50 Now this I say, brethren, that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God; neither doth corruption inherit incorruption.
Back to verse 45 were Paul adds
45 And so it is written, The first man Adam was made a living soul; the last Adam was made a quickening spirit.
When Paul cites a written passage it is only the first part of Genesis 2:7
This is quoted exactly from the translation by the Septuagint (which says MAN was made a living soul) and Paul added the words “first” and “Adam,” which he seems to have done to designate who he was talking about.
The meaning of the phrase “was made a living soul” in the Hebrew appears to best mean “was endowed with life.”
. . . made an animated being by having breathed into him the breath of life, and that it is the image of this animated or vital being which we bear about in the natural world.
Then Paul says, and “the last Adam.”
“The second Adam, or the “second man,” as he will say in verse 47.
That Christ is intended here is apparent, and has been usually admitted by most scholars and commentators.
He is called the second Adam because he stands in contradistinction from the first Adam; or (in speaking about the resurrection) as we derive our natural, animal, corrupt, dishonorable, weak and dying nature from the one (Adam), so we also derive our immortal, glorified, undying spiritual bodies from the other.
From the one we derive an animal or vital existence; from the other we derive our immortal existence which is manifested in and through our resurrection from the grave.
The first Adam stands at the head of all those who have a material existence represented by the words, “a living soul;” the other stands at the head of all those who shall have a spiritual body in heaven – which will be all again – but of varying glories and degrees.
In no other place is Jesus referred to as Adam but Paul does compare them in Romans 5:12-19, saying
“Wherefore, as by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin; and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned:
13 (For until the law sin was in the world: but sin is not imputed when there is no law.
14 Nevertheless death reigned from Adam to Moses, even over them that had not sinned after the similitude of Adam’s transgression, who is the figure of him that was to come.
15 But not as the offence, so also is the free gift. For if through the offence of one many be dead, much more the grace of God, and the gift by grace, which is by one man, Jesus Christ, hath abounded unto many.
16 And not as it was by one that sinned, so is the gift: for the judgment was by one to condemnation, but the free gift is of many offences unto justification.
17 For if by one man’s offence death reigned by one; much more they which receive abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness shall reign in life by one, Jesus Christ.)
18 Therefore as by the offence of one judgment came upon all men to condemnation; even so by the righteousness of one the free gift came upon all men unto justification of life.
19 For as by one man’s disobedience many were made sinners, so by the obedience of one shall many be made righteous.
It’s possible that Paul pulled from the words of the Lord himself when he said that he was the way, the truth and the life, when he said
John 5:26 For as the Father hath life in himself; so hath he given to the Son to have life in himself;
When John wrote:
John 1:4 In him was life; and the life was the light of men.
When he told Mary:
I am the resurrection and the life!
When John added:
John 3:15-16 That whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have eternal life. For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.
The word “spirit” here, as in
And so it is written, The first man Adam was made a living soul; the last Adam was made a quickening spirit.
There are two important words here to consider in these descriptions of Adam and the Last Adam.
For the first Adam, Paul says that he was made a living soul. That word living is from the Greek, “dzah-o” and all it really means is he was made alive.
But the word used for “the last Adam was made a quickening Spirit” is a derivative of “dzah-o” – “dzoy–op-o-eh-o” and it means
(beat)
“a life-giving spirit. “
That’s big. That’s a big difference. Through Adam we have life. There it is. But through Christ we receive of His life-giving spirit.
Night and freaking day. One is related to the here and now, the human life that is as quick as vapor on glass; the other is a
LIFE-GIVING SPIRIT.
That means in the realms of the Spirit Christ Jesus provides the life that abides forever!
He said His kingdom was not of this world. Its of the heavenly world, the Kingdom to come, the Spirit world – where the life He gives thrives and abides.
No flesh thriving there. No material advancements there. No perfect resurrected bodies of flesh and bones.
Spirit bodies, given by God according to His good pleasure, and it appears according to the amount of life-giving they have received from Jesus.
I’m gonna step outside of things a bit here and make an observation but it is my suspicion that just as God said, and things were in the creation, that with His word made flesh, that when victorious Jesus says or speaks now, His words are life giving – just as the words of God were life giving in the beginning.
And that perhaps by and through His words, Jesus bestows this life-giving Spirit.
Just something to consider.
At this point Paul returns back to a principle he established in verse 36 when he said
“Thou fool, that which thou sowest is not quickened, except it die:”
Meaning, the physical, which is first, must die in order for the spiritual to blossom forward in the resurrection.
So now he says
46 Howbeit, that was not first which is spiritual, but that which is natural; and afterward that which is spiritual.
First the imperfect, then the perfect.
This idea is carried out further in the verses to come but they present us with a really, really important verse in the Bible that directly counteract the mythical LDS Plan of Salvation proffered by LDS missionaries all over the world.
That is LDS doctrine that all things were created spiritually first, and then the physical came second.
According to Paul that is not true – just the opposite as he says
46 Howbeit, that was not first which is spiritual, but that which is natural; and afterward that which is spiritual.
This is the true order in humanity – we began as the clay, formed and given life and we become spiritual beings by and through Christ.
The LDS suggest we begin existence as spiritual essences, are formed as spiritual sons and daughters of God, come and take on the physical and ADVANCE from there.
It is an absolute counter to the order Paul presents and it is really intriguing what each approach establishes in the heart of the receiver.
When a person accepts Paul’s versions – or the biblical version – they realize that we are reformed dirt – and that we have a creator to whom we are offered more than just remaining dirt, but can receive spirit life, becoming new creatures in Him and then being ADOPTED as Sons and Daughters into the family of God.
Its humbling, a bit frightening, and really truly faith-based. But the plan is affirmed in the Gospel of John who said:
John 1:11 He came unto his own, and his own received him not.
12 But as many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name:
13 Which were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God.
And then . . .
Galatians 3:26 For ye are all the children of God by faith in Christ Jesus.
And then . . .
2nd Corinthians 1:22 Who hath also sealed us, and given the earnest of the Spirit in our hearts.
The counterfeit Gospel, or plan of Salvation of Mormonism teaches its adherents that they are born children of God – that God is the Father of their spirits first, and that they come here as His Sons and daughters to be tested to see if they can pass through this mortality relatively unscathed as a means to then become God’s themselves.
The product of such a counterfeit is pride – a built-in but truly false identity with God that has zero basis in biblical reality as it allows the individual to sing, I am a child of God and he as sent me here, when the biblical narrative says:
“I’m a creature of God and need to have new life.”
In any case the apparent design of Paul in this verse seems to be to vindicate the proper order relative to the resurrection –
It all starts off with a material, natural, physical seed body that must die, be buried and only then will the Spiritual bestowal of a body from God occur.
So, Paul adds so clearly:
47 The first man is of the earth, earthy: the second man is the Lord from heaven.
And in this simple description we are able to ascertain a number of things about the first man and the second:
“The first is of the earth – earthy.” A mass of dusty clay – low, mean, mortal, weak, corruptible. The message is clear as day.
The second man is NOT earthly – He is the Lord from heaven.
Adam originated from below, the second Man originated from above. He is from heaven. The products of Adam are manifest -flesh, blood, sin, death.
The products from the Lord from heaven are also manifest – and they are NOT of this world.
The flesh profiteth nothing, said the Lord from heaven. And in terms of this passage there is no getting around it at all – the spirit that filled Jesus of Nazareth, that was his identity, came from above. It’s why he said in
John 3:31 He that cometh from above is above all: he that is of the earth is earthly, and speaketh of the earth: he that cometh from heaven is above all.
And then in John 8:23 he also said to the pharisees,
“Ye are from beneath; I am from above: ye are of this world; I am not of this world.”
So not only is it a Mormon myth that we were all first created spiritually and then materially, it is a sister myth that we all came from heaven, like Jesus, when He makes it perfectly clear that He alone came from above.
The rest of us have to be adopted into that heavenly family by faith in Him who, coming FROM above, took on a body of flesh and bone from Adam, and overcame all things while in it, to redeem the rest of us carnal creatures from sin, death and the grave.
Paul adds to this at verse a really important reality, saying:
48 As is the earthy, such are they also that are earthy: and as is the heavenly, such are they also that are heavenly.
Because Paul has been talking about the resurrection here, I’m not sure we can tell whether he is talking about the resurrection here in this verse or if he is just making a general statement about people on earth.
If the latter, then what he is saying is simply that those who are only sons of Adam, fleshly and carnal, they are fleshly and carnal. As is Adam the earthly so are his sons and daughters, earthly. And as is the heavenly (whom he called the Lord) so are those who are heavenly minded.
If this is not what he is saying, and he is actually still talking about the resurrection itself (which is a possibility) what he seems to be saying is:
Those who die and remain earthy will retain an earthly resurrection in the world to come.
This cannot mean a body of carnal flesh and blood – I don’t think – unless it does and the scripture that says flesh and blood cannot inherit the Kingdom of God, and so therefore those who are outside of the Kingdom are housed in bodies corrupted?
HMMMMMMMMM.
That would certainly be a bad resurrection.
And IF Paul is speaking of the Resurrection here then when he says:
“and as is the heavenly, such are they also that are heavenly,” meaning those who are heavenly on earth, placing their faith in Him who came from heaven, then the future lot is a heavenly resurrection.”
Some of these thoughts bear consideration after all, Paul is writing to believers and is explaining to them what the resurrection of believers is like.
Perhaps the resurrection of the damned is simply that receive no covering or body of glory, but remain undressed for the heavenly economies, and without the proper dress, in an eternal state of shame and embarrassment.
We cannot really say.
But what we CAN say is what Paul says, and so having said:
48 As is the earthy, such are they also that are earthy: and as is the heavenly, such are they also that are heavenly.
We now conclude with the last remark he makes, saying:
49 And as we have borne the image of the earthy, we shall also bear the image of the heavenly.
A final affirmation that though we began our existence in the image of Adam, earthly, the promise is that those who are in Christ will also – ALSO – bear the image of the heavenly.
And this is the hope all have in Christ,
Not only that we are saved and redeemed, but that at death (or for this crowd here at Corinth, at the return of Christ to take his bride) we will bear the image of the heavenly, leaving behind all traces of our former corrupt, weak person, and having God cloth us with a body fit for life in his eternal kingdom.
In other words, as we are so closely connected with Adam as to resemble him, having been born from above, as Christ came from above, we to, receiving Him by faith, will (by Divine pleasure) also resemble the heavenly Lord.
Which is why John said in his epistle:
1st John 3:2 Beloved, now are we the sons of God, and it doth not yet appear what we shall be: but we know that, when he shall appear, we shall be like him; for we shall see him as he is.
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