BIG IDEA:
TRANSFORMATION OF THE BODY EQUIPS ALL BELIEVERS FOR GLORY
INTRODUCTION:
Steve Zeisler: All of our efforts to halt or even retard the aging process-the sagging flesh, the balding pate, the wrinkled face-are doomed to failure. The sure word of Scripture is that we are destined either to be raised imperishable in the resurrection, or that we will suffer eternal death.
Gordon Fee: With this magnificent crescendo Paul brings to a conclusion part III of the argument for the future bodily resurrection of believers (that began in v. 35). Having argued both for the reasonableness of a resurrection body (through the analogies of vv. 36–44) and for its certainty (on the basis of Christ’s heavenly body, vv. 45–49), he now emphasizes:
(1) the absolute necessity of transformation in order to enter the heavenly mode of existence (vv. 50, 53);
(2) the fact that both the living and the dead must be so transformed (vv. 51–52); and
(3) that the resurrection/transformation, which will take place at the Parousia (v. 52), will signal the final defeat of death (vv. 54–55).
Never one to let a theological moment pass without an exhortation, Paul concludes on the high note of Christ’s present victory over sin and the law as well (vv. 56–57), which leads to a concluding exhortation to “labor” for Christ in the context of hope (v. 58).
David Garland: In 1 Cor. 15:50–57, Paul continues to address the same problem that has driven the entire discussion: the metaphysical incompatibility between the heavenly order, which is spiritual and imperishable, and the earthly, organic order, which is fleshly and perishable. The polarity between the terrestrial and the celestial prohibits the ascent “of a terrestrial human form or substance to the celestial region” (Asher 2000: 153). Older commentators get it right: “Our present bodies, whether living or dead, are absolutely unfitted for the Kingdom” (Robertson and Plummer 1914: 376; cf. Godet 1887: 434; Edwards 1885: 449; contra Thiselton 2000: 1291). What is raised is not flesh and blood. The earthly frame will be utterly changed into a heavenly body of glory. Barrett (1968: 379) missteps in saying that Paul does not intend “to teach a direct incompatibility between flesh and the kingdom of God.” He does not need to teach it, because the Corinthian dissenters already take it for granted. Paul only concedes it. What he wishes to teach, however, is that this inherent incompatibility is overcome by change. His view differs significantly from 2 Bar. 50:2, which has God telling Baruch that the earth gives back the dead as it received them, “not changing anything in their form.” For Paul, change is absolutely necessary to make what was flesh and blood and perishable fit for what is imperishable and immortal.
Anthony Nosselli: God must transform the perishable, mortal bodies of dead and living believers into imperishable, immortal bodies to triumphantly defeat death. Similar to how the unrighteous are not fit to inherit the kingdom of God (6:9-10), our earthly bodies are not fit to inherit the kingdom of God. So God will transform the earthly bodies of believers into heavenly ones. Paul announces a mystery – something God had hidden but now has revealed. The mystery is that God will suddenly transform the earthly body of every believer – dead and alive – into a heavenly body when Christ returns. He will do that in a snap, in the twinkling of an eye. The trumpet will signal that the end has come (Mt 24:31; 1Th 4:16). Then God will resurrect dead believers and transform their earthly bodies into heavenly bodies, as well as transform the earthly bodies of believers who have not died. Our perishable, mortal bodies must take on the characteristics of Christ’s resurrected body.
Christ decisively defeated death at the cross (Heb 2:14), and after God transforms the bodies of believers, Christ will finally, completely, and permanently defeat death. That will climactically fulfill Isaiah 25:8 and Hosea 13:14. Death will die because Christ died and rose again. By permanently defeating death, Christ also permanently defeats sin. The law energized sin by giving it death-dealing power (Ge 3:1-6). By permanently defeating sin, Christ permanently ensures that God’s law is only life-giving for his people and not sin-empowering (cf. Ro 3:20; 4:15; 5:13, 20).
Christians should stand firm, or persevere, because they know that in the Lord their work is valuable (1Co 15:2, 10, 14, 17). What we believe about the future affects what we do now. Christ’s resurrection and the transformed heavenly body he will give us encourage us that what we do in our earthly body has meaning (cf. Gal 6:9). It is wonderful news for believers that God will transform our natural, earthly bodies into supernatural, heavenly ones. It is also wonderful news for family and friends of a dead believer. It helps believers not to grieve as others do who have no hope (1Th 4:13), and it enables believers to be sorrowful, yet always rejoicing (2Co 6:10). Christ’s resurrection guarantees that death will die.
Paul Gardner: At the heart of what the Corinthians must understand about the resurrection is the matter of continuity and discontinuity. It is this, which Paul has partially described in the preceding verses, that he now argues for in more detail. Continuity there certainly is: Christians are themselves raised from the dead. Yet, there is also great discontinuity. Thus, Paul continues his answer to the question of v. 35, “How are the dead raised?” and, “With what kind of body do they come?” while also moving the reader on to examining the resurrection itself. Verse 50 acts as a transitional verse as Paul’s argument progresses. There is an extraordinary and miraculous, God-ordained change that must take place at the resurrection if victory over death is finally to be established. Paul looks back to Isaiah and Hosea as he develops the idea of victory over death. Whether dead or alive at the coming of Christ, all believers will be “changed” (v. 51). This change, as the dead are raised and all are given incorruptible bodies, is the final evidence that death has been defeated, that the power of sin has been broken, and that God’s victory has been won “through our Lord Jesus Christ” (vv. 54–57). The final appeal in v. 58 reminds the Corinthians once again that Paul is not discussing the theology of the resurrection for its own sake but because true belief and trust in the resurrection has immediate and powerful implications for the present. It means that faithful and steadfast commitment to the Lord and his calling is not in vain.
The Necessity of the Transformation of the Body (15:50–58)
I. The Mortal Must Take on Immortality(15:50–53)
II. All Will See Christ’s Victory over Sin and Death (15:54–57)
III. Be Steadfast in the Lord’s Work: It Is Not in Vain (15:58)
I. (:50) MAIN PRINCIPLE: THE NECESSITY OF A RESURRECTION BODY –PHYSICAL BODY MUST BE TRANSFORMED INTO A BODY SUITABLE FOR THE SPIRITUAL KINGDOM
A. Transition – Closing out this section on the Resurrection of the Body
“Now I say this, brethren”
B. Main Principle Stated Twice
- Mortality must be Transformed to Immortality – Fit for the Kingdom of God
“that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God,”
Mark Taylor: Some argue that Paul has in mind two different groups; “flesh and blood” refers to those who are living at the time of Christ’s coming and “the perishable” refers to those who have already died. More likely, the parallelism is synonymous, meaning that “flesh and blood” refers to the perishable body. Paul simply repeats the analogy of the seed in 15:42: “The body that is sown is perishable, it is raised imperishable.”
John Piper: “Flesh and blood” simply means “human nature as we know it”–mortal, perishable, sin-stained, decaying. Something so fragile and temporary as the body we now have will not be the stuff of the eternal, durable, unshakable, indestructible kingdom of God. But that doesn’t mean there won’t be bodies.
Gordon Fee: Most likely the term refers simply to the body in its present form, composed of flesh and blood, to be sure, but subject to weakness, decay, and death, and as such ill-suited for the life of the future.
Robert Gundry: This denial is often misunderstood as a denial of the physicality of resurrection. But in addition to recognizing the natural meaning of “body” in connection with resurrection and the very meaning of “resurrection” as “a standing up” of bodies out of their graves, it’s important to note that the phrase “flesh and blood” doesn’t have to do with physicality as such—rather, with perishable physicality.
- Perishable must be Transformed to Imperishable
“nor does the perishable inherit the imperishable.”
Craig Blomberg: Verse 50 reminds us that our current sinful and mortal bodies are incapable and unworthy of coexisting with an infinite, holy God.
II. (:51-52) THIS TRANSFORMATION APPLIES TO ALL BELIEVERS –
BOTH THE DEAD AND THOSE STILL ALIVE AT THE TIME OF CHRIST’S RETURN
A. Mystery Truth
“Behold, I tell you a mystery”
A truth that was not unfolded in the Old Testament, but now God is making it known; we would never come to know this truth apart from God’s gracious revelation.
(Matt. 13:11; Luke 8:10; Rom. 11:25; 16:25; 1 Cor. 4:1; Eph. 1:9; 3:3-4, 9; 5:32; Col. 1:26-27; 2:2; 4:3; 2 Thess 2:7; 1 Tim. 3:9, 16; Rev. 1:20; 10:7; 17:5)
Ray Stedman: We have already come to understand that the word “mystery,” when it is used like this in Scripture, does not refer to something murky or mysterious or hard to understand. What it means, of course, is a truth that our human sense can never discover, that no scientific investigation will ever reveal, that no amount of intense research on the part of human beings will ever unravel.
Richard Hays: The mystery is that even the living will undergo transformation into a new form, receiving their resurrection bodies without having to pass through death.
B. Same Transformation – Despite Two Very Different Conditions
- Condition of Death for Most – but not All
“we will not all sleep,”
There will be one unique group of believers that is alive at the Return of Christ
David Garland: Paul does not intend to hint that he and the Corinthians belong to the last generation with the assertion “we will not all sleep” (cf. 11:30; 15:6). Those who interpret this verse to mean that he assumed that he would survive until the parousia must reckon with what he says in 1 Cor. 6:14, “God both raised the Lord and will raise us through his power.” This statement could be interpreted to mean that he expected death for himself and the Corinthians, but the identity of the “us” in 6:14 is as indeterminate as the “we” in 15:51. “We will not all sleep” anticipates only that the parousia will break into human history and directly affect those who are alive at that time (cf. 1 Thess. 4:15). When that event will occur is unknown and not at issue. The “all” refers generically to Christians who happen to be alive at the parousia. Since it can happen at any time, and since he is still among the living, Paul can include himself and the Corinthians in the first group: “We will not all sleep.”
- Reality of Transformation for All
“but we will all be changed”
Robert Gundry: In 1 Thessalonians 4:13–18 Paul is concerned to show that deceased believers will be at no disadvantage. Here he’s concerned that living believers will be at no disadvantage.
C. Suddenness of the Transformation
- Time Reference
“in a moment”
John MacArthur: Moment is from atomos, from which we get the word atom, and denotes that which cannot be cut, or divided, the smallest conceivable quantity. In the smallest possible amount of time our perishable bodies will be made imperishable.
- Physical Analogy Reference
“in the twinkling of an eye”
Ray Stedman: There is a generation of Christians that is never going to die. Scripture constantly anticipates this. There are some who will not even have to pass through the portals of death, such as we know it, but will instantly, while they are walking around, suddenly, without warning, be changed — “in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye.” That phrase refers to the little change of light that occurs when you blink. It is one of the fastest speeds known to our human experience, and that is how fast the change will take place to some.
D. Certainty of the Transformation for All Believers
- The End of the Church Age and the Return of Christ Will Come
“for the trumpet will sound”
Lowery: The trumpet in the Old Testament, signaled the appearance of God (cf. Ex. 19:16). It is the last blast for the church because this appearance shall never end (cf. 1 Cor. 13:12). (There is no basis for posttribulationists equating this trumpet with the seventh trumpet in Rev. 11:15-19. The trumpets in Rev. pertain to judgments during the Tribulation, whereas the trumpet in 1 Cor. 15:52 is related to the church.)
Gordon Fee: What will mark the Parousia is the blowing of “the last trumpet,” imagery that had been taken up into Jewish prophetic-apocalyptic in a variety of senses to herald the Eschaton: to sound the last battle cry (e.g., Jer. 51:27), to warn of the approaching day of judgment (Joel 2:1), to announce the coming of the Lord (Zech. 9:14), to summon the people of God from the four corners (Isa. 27:13). Since it is such common imagery for the heralding of the End, it may carry no metaphorical freight whatever in this instance. On the basis of the next clause, however, it is arguable that the imagery is that of summoning the dead from their graves. It is the “last” trumpet not because it is the final in a series, but because it signals the End.
- The Dead will be Transformed – Implies a Measure of Continuity
“and the dead will be raised imperishable”
John Piper: When he says “the dead will be raised” he means we—the dead–will be raised. If God meant to start all over with no continuity between the body I have now and the one I will have why would Paul say, “the dead will be raised“? Why would he not say, “The dead will not be raised” (since they are decomposed and their molecules are scattered into plants and animals for a thousand miles) and so God will start from scratch since there are no bodies to raise, and he will make totally new bodies that have no connection with the old ones? He did not say that, because it is not true.
- The Raised Dead and Those Still Living Will All be Transformed
“and we will be changed”
III. (:53) MAIN PRINCIPLE REPEATED – THE NECESSITY OF A RESURRECTION BODY — COMPLETION OF CHIASMUS
A. Perishable must be Transformed to Imperishable
“For this perishable must put on the imperishable”
Anthony Thiselton: Verse 53 expounds the resultant condition further: in place of decay we shall receive a mode of being which cannot wear out and is incapable of dying.
B. Mortality must be Transformed to Immortality – Fit for the Kingdom of God
“and this mortal must put on immortality”
Steve Zeisler: Because we are destined to die, as human beings we face two dilemmas:
1) our lives will end (we are mortal), and
2) our bodies deteriorate (we are perishable).
Solomon looks at life under the sun; but the Apostle Paul takes us to the next level – that of what awaits after death.
The fate of the sons of men and the fate of beasts is the same. As one dies, so dies the other. Indeed they all have the same breath and there is no advantage for man over beast. For all is vanity. All go to the same place. All come from the dust, and all return to the dust. Eccl.3:19-21
IV. (:54-57) THIS TRANSFORMATION DEFEATS SIN AND DEATH FOREVER
A. (:54) Victory Culminates at the Time of this Transformation
- The Time of Transformation
a. Perishable Transformed to Imperishable
“But when this perishable will have put on the imperishable,”
b. Mortality Transformed to Immortality
“and this mortal will have put on immortality,”
- The Triumph of Transformation
“then will come about the saying that is written, ‘Death is swallowed up in victory.’”
B. (:55-56) Victory Crushes All Enemies – Death, Sin, the Law = things we cannot defeat on our own
“O death, where is your victory?
O death, where is your sting?
The sting of death is sin,
And the power of sin is the law”
David Garland: The rhetorical questions now sneer defiantly at death’s impotence before the power and mercy of God, who wills to forgive sins (1 Cor. 15:3, 17) and to raise the dead.
Steve Zeisler: But the law offers no praise for good or even improving effort. It always demands absolute obedience and always condemns anything that falls short of that. This is why sin is so
powerful, and why we fear death so much.
Gordon Fee: Paul’s point in this theological aside is that death is not simply the result of decay through normal human processes. Rather, it is the result of the deadly poison, sin itself, which became all the more energized in our lives through acquaintance with the law. Hence, in exulting in Christ’s victory over death, Paul is reminded that that victory is the final triumph over the sin that brought death into the world, and over the law that has so frequently emboldened sin. But since both sin and the law have already been overcome in the cross, this compendium prefaces a final doxology that thanks God for present “victory” as well.
Craig Blomberg: Increasing transgressions is not the sole purpose of the Law. Indeed Reformation theology has traditionally recognized three uses of the Law, the other two of which are far more positive—as a deterrent to sin and as a moral instruction for Christians. But the first one is an important use and supports in some measure the classic Lutheran dichotomy between law and gospel.
Anthony Thiselton: Through his atoning work Christ has removed death’s sting. The word denotes the bite of a venomous animal or the sting of a scorpion’s tail. Death has poison fangs if we encounter it in the context of sin and the law (v. 56). But because Christ has dealt with sin and the law, it now faces Christians as a stingless death: as a cup of poison from which an antidote has neutralized and removed the poison. For Christ himself has absorbed in his own person the sting and the poison of death.
John MacArthur: It is not, of course, that Christians no longer sin, buty that the sins we commit are already covered by Christ’s atoning death, so that sin’s effect is not permanently fatal. “The blood of Jesus his Son cleanses us from all sin” (1 John 1:7). But for those who do not believe, death’s sting tragically remains forever.
C. (:57) Victory Comes as a Gift from God through Christ
“but thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.”
Mare: If it were not for sin, death would have no sting. It is the law of God with its stringent moral demands that strengthens the power of sin by showing us how sinful we are, and thus condemns us. But death does not have the final victory!
R.C.H. Lenski: “Victory” connotes enemies and battle, but it is not for us, for we should never win. This stupendous victory is being given to us. The last phrase therefore names the Victor, names him as the medium through whom the victory gift becomes ours.
Mark Taylor: Even though Paul’s derision of death and his assertion of victory is in the present tense, the final victory awaits the return of Christ when those who belong to him will be raised (15:23). In other words, Paul contemplates death’s defeat in the light of resurrection day. It is quite presumptuous to downplay the present reality of death and its power over humanity. We need not fear death (cf. Heb 2:14–15), but neither should we deny it (15:21–22; Rom 6:23). Paul faced death daily but with confidence in God who raises the dead (cf. 2 Cor 1:8–9; Rom 8:31–39). Thiselton explains, “Even if the last resurrection is still future, the basis of the victory is a present gift, providing grounds for present exultation and thanksgiving.”
(:58) APPLICATION: PERSEVERE IN SERVING THE LORD
A. Transition to the Application
“Therefore, my beloved brethren”
B. 2 Exhortations to Perseverance in Serving the Lord (first two are very similar)
- Stand Firm — “be steadfast” / “immoveable”
Don’t give up; Don’t be distracted
Mark Taylor: To “stand firm” in this context is to hold fast to the gospel and to the belief in the resurrection that the gospel proclaims. Otherwise they have believed in vain. Having established the fact of resurrection as central to God’s redemptive plan, Paul concludes by urging them to rid themselves of the belief that there is “no resurrection of the dead” and to prosper in the work of the gospel knowing that all such work is not in vain (cf. 15:10,14).
- Serve to the End — “always abounding in the work of the Lord”
Stay Focused and Engaged
Assurance that Spiritual Ministry Matters
“knowing that your toil is not in vain in the Lord.”
Robert Gundry: The certainty of believers’ resurrection, should they die before the second coming, and of transformation, should they live till then, ought to breed a resolve that prevents being moved away from faith and that prompts activity in the work of evangelism.
Richard Hays: The resurrection of the dead serves as a warrant validating not only Christian preaching but also “the work of the Lord” more generally; everything that we do stands under the sign of Christ’s resurrection, and all our actions are thereby given worth and meaning. The resurrection is the necessary foundation for faithful action in the world. . .
Paul saw that underneath all the dismaying problems of the Corinthians lay one massive theological fallacy: they denied the resurrection of the dead. And by doing that, they denied the importance of the world that God created. They denied – whether they meant to or not – that these flawed bodies of ours are loved by God and will be redeemed. And therefore – whether they meant to or not – they denied that what we do with these bodies is of ultimate significance in God’s eyes. So they lapsed into confusion, both moral and theological.
Craig Blomberg: Given the Corinthians’ tendency to divorce theology from ethics, Paul’s conclusion (v. 58) remains telling. It is just like him to conclude his discussion with very practical applications. Here he reminds us that it is the resurrection hope, and only this hope, that keeps believers in every place and time from despair and helps them stay faithful in Christian service. In fact, the resurrection demonstrates four sweeping principles that affect all of life: truth is stronger than falsehood, good is stronger than evil, love is stronger than hatred, and life is stronger than death.