Changes to the Body Resurrected

Transcript

GR 1370
02-10-08
Changes to the Body Resurrected
1 Corinthians 15:42-49
Gil Rugh

We're studying 1 Corinthians together, so if you'd turn in your Bibles to 1 Corinthians 15. And we've spent some time in this chapter, and it is a very exciting chapter for us as believers in Jesus Christ, for it's a chapter about the resurrection of the body. And the bodies that God has ordained will be ours for all eternity. As often is the case in scripture, this instruction from the Lord comes out of a disagreement. According to 1 Corinthians 15:12 there were some in the church at Corinth who were teaching that there would be no bodily resurrection for believers. Now remember that it was common among the Greeks to deny any future for the physical body. And the church often gets into trouble by trying to wed the thinking of the world and the truth of God together, thinking that they have a more effective position. We're not saying that those in the church at Corinth were denying the eternal existence of believers. Rather, they were denying that these physical bodies would be raised from the dead. And you could see how the church could become divided and if you are open to accepting a diversity of opinions, you could accept the fact. Look, the main thing is, do you believe that when you trust Christ as your Savior that, that assures that you will spend eternity in His presence? Yes. Well then, let's not bicker and fight over whether it will be in these physical bodies or not.

I was reading a theology this week and I was reading in the section of resurrection and some of those things. What they were basically saying, subjects like the millennium, tribulation, distinctions between Israel and the church aren't things that we have to divide over. We ought to be willing to let those things set aside and concentrate on the things that are important for us. And we've been through this. You can't take that position on the Word of God. God hasn't asked us to become His editors, He's not instructing us that if you can simplify this and narrow it down for Me, I would appreciate it. It's just the opposite. An offense to God that we would decide that large portions of His Word are not important.

The church at Corinth has those teaching this. So Paul has addressed that really through the opening 34 verses. And then two questions that follow-up on that. In verse 35, some will say, how are the dead raised? With what kind of body do they come? And we noted it's easy to become logical. Just think about it. Do you think these physical bodies could spend eternity in God's presence? I mean, just look around you, now really, do you think heaven is going to be like that? So the logic of it. Well, no. What kind of body would you have? I mean, think of all the problems—what would heaven be like if we were there in these bodies? Well, I guess it does make sense. Maybe it does, but it's not biblical. You know Paul has a great openness, a great patience to deal with questions from people who are desirous of better and more clearly understanding what God has said. But those that were teaching that there would be no bodily resurrection for believers in the church at Corinth weren't open to other information. Their questions were presented with the goal of denying and undermining the truth that God had revealed in the Old Testament scriptures, the truth that God had revealed through His apostles and prophets in the New Testament. For that Paul has no tolerance.

So his response to those two questions, he is blunt to the point that some call it rudeness. You fool. And some have tried to soften some of the English translation because that does sound rude to us in English. But that's exactly what Paul tells us. He addresses them as you fool. He has no tolerance for a question that would seek to undermine the truth of the Word of God and the foundation for this is a denial of the plan and purpose of God and His power in carrying out those purposes.

He's used a series of examples from the physical realm. Then he'll apply it to the resurrected body because part of the problem in the argument here is how are dead bodies going to be raised, what kind of body would it be? They've never seen a resurrected body. Christ had been raised, but the people in the church at Corinth hadn't seen him. Some of the apostles had seen him. Some of the others had seen him. But by and large most people hadn't seen the resurrected Christ. So Paul starts with things they can see. He started with the plant world, remember. Talked about the seed and the plant that comes out of the seed. Then in verse 39 he talked about different kinds of flesh—the flesh of humans, the flesh of animals, the flesh of birds, the flesh of fish. Now you'll note here, in these illustrations there will be a way in which they are the same, they are alike. The seed and the plants, they do connect. But there is a great difference. The flesh, they are all united, these are all areas of flesh. A person might be a vegetarian and say, I don't eat any flesh, meaning they don't eat animals, they don't eat birds, they don't eat fish. But flesh is what unites all these together. But within the various kinds of flesh there are major differences. Then he goes to the heavenly bodies, what are just summarized as planets. Talking about earth, moon, sun, stars, all of those in that group. The planets, stars, that realm. And there they are connected by certain things being the same, but there is difference. There is a glory for earth. There is a glory for the heavenly bodies. And he'll pick up that contrast. The glory of the earthly compared to the heavenly with the resurrection body. And even among the heavenly bodies one star differs from another
So in each of these areas there are areas that are alike, it connects, but there is great diversity.

Now, having established that in the realm we can see—the plant world, the flesh world, the planet world—he's ready to apply that to the resurrection. So he says in verse 42, so also is the resurrection of the dead. And in applying this he'll answer the questions of verse 35, how are the dead raised? With what kind of body do they come? He has first shown them that you can have these kinds of connections. That seed results in that plant, there is a connection. There is flesh, but there is diversity in the realm of flesh—human, animal, birds, fish. There are heavenly bodies and there are earthly bodies, and the earth has its glory and the heavenly bodies have theirs. And then among the heavenly bodies there is diversity between them. So the connection and the diversity become what he is going to show.

Now you have things you have seen that at least give you a picture. Now that's the way it is with the resurrection body. What he is going to do now is draw a series of antitheses, contrasting statements, four pairs. Three of them, the first three, will use the preposition in, we miss it in our English Bibles, but I'll point it out to you. Then the fourth one is the one that draws the basic comparison that he's making. So also is the resurrection of the dead, verse 42. And there will be what he's going to say, what is the major point through that? There is a connection between these present and natural bodies and the resurrected body. But there is a huge difference. He'll be concentrating on the differences through these.

Verse 42, it is sown a perishable body, it is raised an imperishable body. Now in English this makes sense to us, and it's fine, it's a clear translation. As Paul wrote this in Greek it's much more simple and abrupt—sown in corruption, raised in incorruption. That preposition in is used and it's used in each of these three pairs. There is not even a verb expressed here. We supply it and that's fine, but it basically says, sown in corruption, raised in incorruption. So that's the contrast. This natural body, it's sown in corruption; the resurrected body, raised in incorruption. Now note it's the same body. This body, this physical natural body, he'll refer to it as a natural body, a soulish body in a moment, is sown in corruption. This same body is raised in incorruption. So it's the same body, but there is an overwhelming difference brought about. Sown in corruption. You know as a result of sin the whole creation was subjected to futility, Paul writes of this in Romans 8. The wages of sin is death. Corruption characterizes humanity as a result of sin. Now that's characteristic of this body. This corruption will become most clear when death occurs, and the corrupting process is accelerated.

I read something very disheartening to a man who is now in his mid-60s. One of the magazines had an article on the brain here in the last week or two, one of the news magazines. And they noted that the brain reaches its peak in your 20s and begins to deteriorate thereafter. Now I sit and think, I've spent the last 40 years going downhill. You know, we shoot up rather quickly into our 20s and there we've hit our peak. And then the author talks about the abilities and powers that diminish. And by God's common grace He slows that enough that we don't go down quite as fast as we come up, or a significant number of us would be gone. Same with our physical bodies. We are characterized by corruption. We reach our physical peak I believe also in our 20s they say, and it starts to wind down. Sometimes we have opportunity to be with our grandkids and we love it, but we always have to remark, the Lord had a purpose in having your children younger. Can you imagine starting your family at 60? Even if you were going to live to be 95. I couldn't do it. I love my kids but I don't think I could have had them . . . when I was 65 and then 70, 75. What happens? We are deteriorating.

So the point is this body is characterized by corruption. What happens at death? The corruption accelerates immediately. Why do we have to embalm bodies unless they are going to be buried on the same day? The body begins to deteriorate so rapidly it now becomes a source of disease. We've all seen pictures in disasters where they have to go in and recover bodies and you see people putting coverings over their nose and face because remember John 11:39 when Jesus told them to open the grave of Lazarus. Lazarus' sister, Martha, said, he's been in that tomb for four days. There will be a stench. It's a corruptible body. It’s a deteriorating body. And when it is placed in the grave and the process of death has overtaken it, then the decay accelerates rapidly. It is sown in corruption, but it will be raised incorruptible, raised in incorruption. Not subject to corruption, to decay, to deterioration. Now when we're all done we won't know everything there is to know about our new resurrected body, but one thing I know, it will not be subject to decay, corruption, anything like that. It will be a body that will endure forever.

Second comparison. It is sown in dishonor, verses 43, it is raised in glory. Sown in dishonor, raised in glory. And we follow this pattern. They don't even, in Greek, put a verb, not that it's a problem putting it in because the sense is there, but he's just basically making these simple statements. Sown in dishonor, raised in glory. . . . Just run down these about the contrasts between the one body, this physical body, the natural body, it is sown in dishonor, humiliation. One person said this, we indeed try to honor the dead whom we bury by clothing them in their best, giving them a fine casket, flowers, our attending presence, etc. Yet the body itself is enveloped in dishonor. We soon hurry it from sight, in a little while its decomposition would cause us to shrink from it in horror. That's true; it's sown in dishonor. Some prefer the translation humiliation. It characterizes our bodies, . . . our body in their present state becomes more obvious at the time of death and burial.

Contrast that with the resurrection body. It will be raised in glory. So contrast so great and yet you'll note, sown in dishonor and raised in glory. Same body, put in the grave ultimately, raised. But the grave is the end of what we call the natural life, this physical life, the dishonor, the humiliation, the lowliness of this body. Even as we try to give it all the glory we can, when all is said and done it ends in the grave, decaying. But the resurrected body is raised in glory, splendor, magnificence. He will transform our bodies into conformity with the body of His glory, we are told in Philippians 3:21. Remarkable. I mean, it is this body but it will have a glory associated with it that makes it beyond compare. And the analogy Paul has already used, like taking that little seed and then seeing the beautiful plant, the gorgeous flower or whatever and saying it's that seed, it has come of that but the glory is so vast, the difference is overwhelming.

The third comparison or antithesis—sown in weakness, raised in power. This present body is characterized by weakness. You know the Greeks were a lot like us. We've all seen the sculptures from Greece. The carvings on their vases or plates or whatever, the nude men in the athletic arena showing off the body. Great pride in their physical condition. But it still is a weak body. We all know you exercise, diet, and now they'll do body sculpting through surgery. Always trying to get a body that will look the best it can. But you know it's a weak body. Doesn't take much of an illness to put us down, does it? All of a sudden you get hit with a severed case of the flu and you're down. So much for that big strong body, you're just wiped out. And somebody calls and says, you want to go to . . . ? No, I'm all wiped out, I can hardly drag myself out of bed. Well what happened to that body? The week before you were running, you were exercising, you were . . . Well, it's a weak body. Disease overtakes it, ultimately death will. We see that weakness characterizes us in so many ways. That's the characteristic of this body and its ultimate weakness is shown when it dies. We've all had the experience of being with friends or loved ones around the time of death and you realize that body has come to the point where there is no strength left in it. Sometimes you can't get out of bed. It's a weak body. Even in our strongest times it's a weak body. People are struck down, one minute it seems they are healthy, the next week or next month they are fighting for their life. One well known preacher that I have great respect for, preaching, going to conferences, goes to the doctor, diagnosed with a serious disease, three months later he's dead. It's a weak body, that's characteristic of this body and its weakness is shown ultimately in death.

Martin Luther said this, took this out of a commentary, I don't recommend it to you, but R C H Lensky is a great Lutheran commentator, he died in the mid-'30s but his commentaries are still written. He's a-millennial so when you read him in certain passages you have to be careful, but it is a commentary you would find enjoyable and helpful. At any rate, he quotes Martin Luther when he writes, as weak as it is now without all power and ability when it lies in the grave, so strong would it eventually become when the time arrives so that not a thing would be impossible for it, if it has a mind for it. It will be so light and agile that in an instant it can float both here below on earth and above in heaven. That was Martin Luther on our resurrected bodies.

It is raised in power. Weakness will not characterize our resurrected bodies. This body will be raised, but not raised like it was in this state—weak, frail, but raised in power, a body characterized by power. The contrasts are dramatic and he culminates with his final contrast. It is sown a natural body. It is raised a spiritual body, in verse 44. Sown a natural body, raised a spiritual body. The word translated natural, psychekon. You can hear the word psychos, psychekon. We get the word, “psychology,” “psychosis,” things of the soul, a word that means “soul.” It is sown a soulish body. It is raised a spiritual body. It is sown, and he's going to carry this to being a descendant of Adam. That's why we talk about the body in its breadth as well as in its culminating state when it dies, this physical body. It's a soulish body. It’s a body with a soul. But it's not the body totally transformed by the power of the Spirit of God. I think the contrast here is not that our physical bodies are somehow spiritual, of spirit character rather than the physical body. That's not the contrast with the natural here. Rather the soulish body is the body that is given life by the indwelling soul. Remember God created Adam from the dust of the earth and He breathed into his nostrils the breath of life and he became a living soul, a living being. That's all he is. The contrast is this body contrasted with the resurrection body, totally transformed by the power of the Spirit.

Come back to 1 Corinthians 2. Paul has used these terms already in 1 Corinthians 2. Not in the context of resurrection, but the comparison is the same. We have to break into the thought here. In verse 10 after saying that we don't learn of the things of God by natural means, our eyes, our ears and so on, in verse 9. He tells us in verse 10, God has revealed these things to us through the Spirit. We're talking about the Holy Spirit, for the Spirit searches all things, even the depths of God. Verse 12, now we have received not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, that we might know the things freely given to us by God. Verse 14, but a natural man does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him. He cannot understand them because they are spiritually appraised, discerned, examined. The natural man is our word, the soulish man. Same as we have over in chapter 15. Contrasted here with the man who has the Spirit of God enlightening him. So the soulish man is the man who has not experienced the power of the Spirit, Holy Spirit, in chapter 2. You say, he's telling here believers do have the Spirit. Yes. And Ephesians 1 tells us that we have the Holy Spirit and it's like a down payment. We have the earnest of the Spirit, the down payment of the Spirit. A down payment is a small portion, relatively speaking, given to guarantee the completion of the transaction. We have the Holy Spirit, not a portion of the Holy Spirit, but we have the Holy Spirit. But the fullness of His transforming power to glorify these bodies has not yet been realized. So the contrast we have is living in natural bodies and the bodies that will be totally transformed to bring us into conformity with the body of Christ's resurrected, glorified body. That's the contrast. This body is sown a natural body,
a body with the life and soul in it; but the resurrected body will be a body totally impacted by the Spirit of God and manifesting His power in its complete fullness. Sown a natural body, raised a spiritual body.

Come back to chapter 15. Those are the contrasts—sown in corruption, raised in incorruption; sown in dishonor, raised in glory; sown in weakness, raised in power. Summarize it up, it is sown a natural body, a soulish body; it is raised a spiritual body. Not a body of spirit, small s, but a body transformed by the power of the Spirit. We'll say more about this in our next study as we look further at the resurrected body of Christ and its characteristics.

Back in chapter 15, the last part of verse 44. If there is a natural body, there is also a spiritual body. That's the sovereign plan of God. Just as He ordained to give man a soulish body, He has ordained that man will have a body suitable for His presence for eternity, suitable for the fullness of the glory of His presence, which requires glory for eternity. So if there is a natural body, there is also a spiritual body. There is a body for this realm and a body for the realm to come, if you will. It's the same body, because the body that is sowed a natural body is raised a spiritual body, but it's a body totally transformed. So if there is a natural body, there is a spiritual body. So what's the discussion in effect? You want to know how are the dead raised, with what kind of body do they come, verse 35? They come with the body that God planned and by His power He brings about in raising these bodies--natural as they are now-- with all that he has described as natural bodies, transformed into bodies suitable for glory.

Now he's going to bring this to two heads of the race—the first Adam and the last Adam. And that contrast, calling it the first Adam and the last Adam, is to indicate there are only two. He didn't say the first Adam and the second Adam as though maybe there will be a third or a fourth. There is the first Adam and there is the last Adam. Well why don't you just say first Adam and second Adam? Because the second Adam is the last one, emphasizing these two stand as heads over humanity.

So he comes in verse 45, so also it is written. The first man, and in case some are not sure what he's talking about or who he is talking about, he tells them, Adam became a living soul. The first Adam, the first man who was Adam became a living soul. Genesis 2:7. The word first is added here because at the creation of Adam they didn't know there was going to have to be a second. But because of sin you need the second Adam for salvation. So Paul says the first man, Adam, became a living soul, from Genesis 2:7. We're back here where I've mentioned before throughout this section. I have to mention it again. If you do not take the creation account in Genesis as a factual, literal account, as it is presented there, you are in trouble all through the scripture.

A theology I was reading this week on creation, the man was saying we used to take the opening chapters of Genesis literally. But with the development of modern geology in the 1800s we came to understand that you couldn't just take those as six literal days. So then he thinks he's come to a day age view that enables him to wed science and the Bible together. Remember the same problem the Corinthians had? We're going to take the ideas of the unbelieving Greek world and wed them together with what has been revealed about Christianity and we'll have something now that really works. What are you going to do if that's not a literal time in Genesis? The whole comparison here collapses. I mean, Adam is not the first man. I mean, where do you want to back up and make the first man? When did he cross the line from being an ape? And when did the ape cross the line from being a . . . [an ape to a man?] The New Testament takes it exactly as it's presented. So if you reject the opening chapters of Genesis, you not only have trouble with the opening chapters of Genesis, you have trouble with the whole rest of scripture. And Paul has already addressed this comparison of Adam and Christ and he develops it more fully in Romans 5, accepting again the factual statements of Genesis.

So the first Adam became a living soul, God created him out of the dust and breathed into him the breath of life and he became a living soul. That's the first Adam. He's drawn this comparison before. Back up to chapter 15 verse 21, for since by a man came death. There we're talking about Adam. Romans 5 develops that analogy and comparison between Adam in the Garden when he sinned and brought death. By one man came sin and by sin, death. So by a man also came the resurrection of the dead. For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ all will be made alive. Paul is back to that comparison and analogy. One man sinned, he brought death on all of his descendants. We all recognize that, even those who deny the account of Adam in the Garden can't get away from the fact they're going to die. They may deny the reality of sin, but they're going to die. They are fools, they just reject the reason they are going to die, but they're going to die because Adam sinned and we are all in Adam.

Now back in chapter 15 verse 45, the first man Adam became a living soul, the last Adam a life-giving Spirit. A life-giving Spirit, the same thing he said in verse 22. As in Adam all die, so in Christ all will be made alive. The comparison here is that Adam was given life by God, Christ, as a result of His resurrection, gives life. So in Adam all are identified. Now not everyone is going to be given life in Christ. You have to be in Christ. The comparison is there are two heads to the race. Now all of us are in Adam by being his descendants. It's through faith that we come to be in Christ, and all of those in Christ will be given a glorified, resurrected body. All those who have died, he'll get to those who don't die at the end of this chapter. So that's the comparison. That's why it's the first Adam and the last Adam. They stand the heads of the race, if you will, so they impact everyone in them. Adam in the Garden impacted everyone who would be in him, which is all humanity, who are his descendants. We are living beings, we are also dying, living beings, if you will. We became a living soul and that's passed on, but it's passed on with this corruption, weakness, humiliation. But Christ, all who come to be in Him, will be given life.

Turn to Romans 8. We have some similar contrasts here. We have to pick up in verse 9, however you are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God dwells in you. Contrast between a believer and an unbeliever. The unbeliever is just the flesh . . . has the soul that gives him life. But he has not the Spirit of God dwelling in him. But if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ he does not belong to Him. If Christ is in you, though the body is dead because of sin. You see even as believers now, we are still living in a corrupted body, a weak body, a body subject to death. If Christ is in you, though the body is dead because of sin, yet the spirit is alive because of righteousness. Now verse 11, but if the Spirit of Him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, He who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will also give life to your mortal body through His Spirit who dwells in you. So that's the remarkable transformation we're talking about. Christ will give life, but He'll give it through the work of the Spirit. So these can be called spiritual bodies. So we have that down payment of the Spirit, if you will, that earnest of the Spirit dwelling within us now. But that's just a taste of what God has prepared for us when the ultimate climax of the salvation He has planned for us comes to fruition in the glorification of the body to prepare us for the wonder of His presence for eternity.

So what we're emphasizing here as you come back to 1 Corinthians 15:45, the last Adam became a life-giving Spirit. As a result of His resurrection from the dead, now He will give life to others that they might be raised from the dead. The primary focus in 1 Corinthians 15:45 is not on our salvation, our initial salvation, where we enter into life in Christ, although that's true. As you look at the overall life, the beginning, if you will, that's the process underway and we have the Spirit. But the contrast between death and the resurrection here focuses on when Christ will give life to us and He will call forth the dead from the grave.

However, there is an ordained order. The spiritual is not first, verse 46, but the natural. Then the spiritual. And he's going to develop this then in the following verses. So people are stuck as though the natural body was the end of the body. No, it's simply the first stage. First is the natural, the soulish, then there will be one of the Spirit, the body produced and developed. But it's not like this body stays in the grave, you can make a totally new one. No, He takes that body and makes it new. So the spiritual is not first. So we understand there is an order. Adam in the Garden was first. He is the first Adam. So the natural is first. Then the last Adam, then the spiritual.

Then the contrast. The first man is from the earth, earthy. The second man is from heaven. Need I say again, Paul takes the creation account in Genesis absolutely literally. Verse 47 literally reads, “the first man is from the earth.” The word for earth is gaes. The second word translated earthy literally means, “dust,” kwoikos. So we translate them as though they were forms of the same word, but in Greek they differ. He's from the earth, literally he is dust, because that's what Genesis said. God made man from the dust. Paul is absolutely literally taking the Genesis account and applying it here. The first man is from the earth. Dust is what he is. That's why God will say, you were made from dust, you will return to dust. He's dust. The second is from heaven. So Adam was made out of the dust, that is his origin. Where did Christ come from? He came down from heaven to be born at Bethlehem so the second man, the last Adam who is the second man in this analogy, comes down from heaven. He is a totally different origin. He didn't originate at Bethlehem, He's from heaven, and now He's gone back to heaven. And what is the connection? When He raises us we will have bodies from heaven, bodies suitable for heaven because they will be brought into conformity with the body of His glory. So the first man is from the earth, he is dust; the second man is from heaven, out of heaven. What do we get from Adam? What we have here—corruptible bodies, weak bodies, bodies of humiliation, bodies that now will die. But the last Adam, the second man, He's from heaven and His resurrection back to heaven now, He has provided for us life. And so in Him we receive bodies suitable for heaven. And remember there is one glory for earthly and one glory for heavenly in its comparison with the planets and the contrast of heavenly bodies and the earth. Well, we have the earthly body, but in Christ we are assured of the heavenly.

Verse 48, as is the earthy, so are those who are earthy; as is the heavenly, so are those who are heavenly. You bear the image according to your parentage. This kind of analogy and pictures are used elsewhere. Jesus talks about in John 8 that you are of your father the devil, so you always do his work. In 1 John, John uses that analogy. By this the children of God and the children of the devil are obvious. So here Paul is saying, verse 48, as is the earthy, so all those are of the earth. So all of those in Adam partake of the characteristic of Adam, you are earthy, you are dust. And very quickly after your physical death your body will begin the process of returning, and made from dust you'll return to dust. So also are those who are heavenly. Now the last Adam, the second man, is from heaven, He is heavenly and He is going to give me a heavenly body, a body of the Spirit, a body that the Spirit makes new for heaven. So I will partake of His characteristics. The analogy is almost overly simple, brutally clear. The contrast is direct.

Let's go back to Romans 8. There is a great section in here. We’ll touch on in another study. But down in verse 29, for those whom He foreknew, and here he is talking about God's work according to His purpose. Those whom He foreknew He also predestined. Note this, to become conformed to the image of His Son so that He would be the firstborn among many brethren. Then those He predestined He called, He justified, He glorified because we are predestined to become conformed to the image of His Son. Where did His Son come from? Where did His Son return to? What did He ask His Father in John 17? Restore to Me the glory which I had with You before the world was and the One who came from heaven and returned to heaven now provides heavenly bodies for those who come to be in Him. That's God's predestined plan. It will be accomplished by the power of the Spirit, the sovereign authority of Christ carrying out the purposes of His Father.

Come back to 1 Corinthians 15:49, summarizes it up. Just as we have borne the image of the earthy, we also will bear the image of the heavenly. It's a settled matter. Just as surely as you have the image of Adam, made of earth, dust, so if you have believed in Christ you will bear the image of the heavenly. So the question, how are the dead raised? By the sovereign power of God accomplishing the plan that He has set down from eternity. With what kind of body do they come? A heavenly body, a body that conforms to the body that Christ had after His resurrection from the dead, a body suitable for heaven, for residence in the presence of God. What's the problem? The answers are clear and simply. The only ones denying them are those who are denying the character of God, His sovereignty, His plans as revealed in His Word, His power as able to accomplish His Word. Any wonder he says, “you fools,” and deals with them as those who have rejected the basic truths of God's Word. I mean, we're down to foundational issues, the issue of creation. Let's not argue over that, let's just stick with what is necessary for salvation. Isn't it amazing? You ought to understand this, this is all about our salvation, who is in Christ, what does it mean to be in Christ. Contrast that with being in Adam. You see your theology begins to break down in one area. The devil is a master at this. Break it down in this area and act like that's no big deal, but now it's unraveling and what do we have.

What a beautiful plan, isn't it? And we're not done because now God is going to address what about those who don't die. If flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God, what happens if we're alive when Christ comes? That will be the last part of this chapter. But first I will talk in our next study about some of the specific characteristics of the resurrected, glorified body.

We are all in Adam, everybody sitting in this room. But everybody in this room is not necessarily in Christ. That's the dividing line. We are united in that we are all in Adam, but not everybody in this room is necessarily in Christ. You come to be in Christ when you understand the awful situation you are in when you are in Adam, and you are a sinner, separated from God, alienated from Him, on your way to hell and not heaven. Christ came, suffered and died and was raised so that you, by God's grace, might turn from your sin and place your faith in Christ alone. And then you experience His cleansing. You are made new, the Spirit takes up residence within you and then you are being prepared and readied for the ultimate glory that will belong to all of us who belong to Christ.

Let's pray together. Thank you, Lord, for your remarkable grace. You are a sovereign, awesome God, a God who brought all things into creation by the speaking of the word. Lord, even sin that has brought such disastrous consequences upon creation, but it subjected the creation to emptiness, futility, cannot destroy the beauty of the plan that You established. Even though the first Adam failed miserably and brought sin, disgrace and death upon all his descendants, so the last Adam, the second man, took upon Himself humanity so that by His death He might pay in full the penalty for our sin. He was raised in glory, and Lord, He is the One who will give life to these bodies of dust to transfer them and transform them from corruption to incorruption, from dishonor to glory, from weakness to power, from a natural body to a spiritual body. Thank you for the power of salvation in Jesus Christ, in whose name we pray, amen.