1 Corinthians 15:50-58
Now I say this, brethren, that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God; nor does the perishable inherit the imperishable. Behold, I tell you a mystery; we will not all sleep, but we will all be changed, in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet; for the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised imperishable, and we will be changed. For this perishable must put on the imperishable, and this mortal must put on immortality. But when this perishable will have put on the imperishable, and this mortal will have put on immortality, then will come about the saying that is written, “Death is swallowed up in victory. 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; but thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. Therefore, my beloved brethren, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that your toil is not in vain in the Lord.
I regularly preach (but not from a pulpit) that (if we are to become honest) we will eventually wrestle with God. I believe He invites us to wrestle (in a sense) by investing our mental energy studying the scriptures, by deliberately exerting our spirit’s energy in waiting on Him and engaging our imaginations where they are rusted and immoveable. These things are unnatural and therefore uncomfortable. So the match looks exhausting. We are intimidated and tell ourselves that academics are for others called to such lofty things.
This is the malarky I was entertaining this morning. I was tempted to take this detour but it was as if the Lord were standing in the middle of the off-ramp (He knows all my feeble escape moves) saying, “No. Back to the main highway.” (I’m also becoming familiar with some of His moves.) “Yes Lord. Great idea! I was just about to suggest the same thing.”
After one of my un-pulpited unplanned sermons a friend asked,” You are just exhausting aren’t you?” I wanted to say, “Yes, but you should meet my friend Jesus.” A famous mentor of mine (from my Dead Mentor’s Society) said, “A subject has never truly gripped you until you are mentally out of breath with it. That is how I felt going into the ring this AM facing off with 1 Corinthians 15.
1 Corinthians 15 looked imposing because it addressed life-after-death while I wanted to meditate about Life-before-death. More accurately I want to talk about Life-while-living. This passage seems to suggest that you really don’t start living until the worms begin their work. I don’t believe that is at all what Paul was teaching. Corinth not only had major morality problems. They also had major theological problems. Pagan greek culture had seeped back into the community of believers there. It was distorting the sound doctrine of the Resurrection and it was causing division. With the effects of bad morality and bad doctrine there wasn’t much left to distinguish Corinthian saints from non-Christians. This was deeply troubling to Paul, their spiritual father who came to them…
…. determined to know nothing among them except Jesus Christ, and Him crucified. (1 Cor 2:2)
So he poses his question…..
Now, let me ask you something profound yet troubling. If you became believers because you trusted the proclamation that Christ is alive, risen from the dead, how can you let people say that there is no such thing as a resurrection? (1 Cor 15:12)
They were able to think this error because it was a well aimed fiery missile launched by the prince of this world working, as he does, through culture. So, specifically, what strongholds (lofty things attempting to exalt itself themselves above the knowledge of God) were Paul battling in Corinth. I have included the following thumbnail-study to answer this question….
Greek Philosophy and the Resurrection
- To the Greek way of thinking it would have been inconceivable that a person’s earthly body would come back to life after death. When Paul met with the philosophers on Mars Hill in Athens (Acts 17:18-34), he spoke of Christ’s resurrection from the dead and most of the philosophers mocked him.
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- The Epicurean philosophers taught simple materialism: there is no existence beyond death.
- The Stoic philosophers taught that at death the soul was merged with Deity, and so there was a loss of individual personality.
- The Platonist philosophers taught that the soul was immortal, but they denied the idea of a bodily resurrection.
- The word translated resurrection is the Greek term anastasis, which literally means “to stand up again.” The doctrine of the resurrection has to do with the physical body, rather than with the immortality of the soul or whether there will be some kind of existence after the grave. Resurrection means that a person will “stand up again” after he dies — that he will come back to life in the body.
While Paul may have had an intercessory team calling down these principalities and binding them, he personally planned on shutting them down (teacher that he was) with sound doctrine.
In the kingdom of God which has come in Christ and is coming in Christ, resurrection Life is not just reserved as a post-trumpet “and-the-dead-shall-rise” experience. We have been raised up already! Christ is now our Life.
Therefore we have been buried with Him through baptism into death, so that as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, so we too might walk in newness of life. (Romans 6:4)
For you have died and your life is hidden with Christ in God. When Christ, who is our life, is revealed, then you also will be revealed with Him in glory. (Colossians 3:3-4)
Paul is keen that Jesus’ resurrection life be manifest in the lives of believers while still in their mortal bodies. This happens as God becomes King in each individual heart. As God becomes King in our hearts, God’s kingdom expands. As it expands our prayer is answered…
Thy kingdom come on earth as it is in heaven.
I believe if Paul were speaking to the American evangelical Church he would be doing battle with a spirit that says the kingdom comes only after we die. This is a demonic idea which breads passivity and hopelessness. Everywhere this doctrine persists, the army is too often in the barracks just waiting for Reveille.
An hour into my tussle with this passage I realize that I also battle the world, the flesh and the devil. This evil trinity aspires to divide our hearts and the Body of Christ with “either / or“, “black-or-white” options which appeal to earthly wisdom, demonic in nature. Within the Mystery of Christ we frequently find truth to be “both / and” not just “either / or”. That is once again the case today. Now, a few hours later, I conclude in hope that I am both raised from death (in my spirit) by the Spirit and I will be raised from death (in my body) by that same Spirit. The Seed of resurrection Life is planted in my heart. By God’s grace it has taken root. It has even born fruit. That Seed is none other than Christ Himself. There is no Life outside of Him. I feel sure that is why Paul determined to focus on the resurrected Life so exclusively. If we were to see fully, we would see that He is literally all we have and that He is our Radically Abundant Sufficiency – our All In All.
Father, Thank You that our toil is not in vain in You. Through the manifestation of resurrection Life within us, give this unbelieving world something fresh to wrestle with. Let them see the newness of life in your family. Transform us Lord as You have always intended; not just in that ultimate twinkling of an eye but over time as we simply walk with You in the Spirit. Permit this lost world to see the perishable putting on the imperishable, and mortality putting on immortality. Let them puzzle, “Surely their old lives have been swallowed up in victory.” May those perishing see the steadfast and immoveable brethren abounding in the work of the Lord. May they see the liberty of the Spirit and ask, “O death, where is your victory in these people ? Where is your sting in them?” Amen