1 Corinthians 15:35-50

A magazine article earlier this year starts with this paragraph:

Hope feels elusive in America right now. Suicides and fatal drug overdoses—so-called deaths of despair resulting from a seeming lack of hope—are at unprecedented levels. Mental-health problems are on the rise: A recent CDC study of teenagers found a significant increase in sadness and vulnerability to suicide over the past decade, particularly among teen girls—a trend that began well before the coronavirus pandemic. In a recent Gallup poll, only 19 percent of Americans said they believe the country is going in the right direction.

https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2023/04/economics-hope-optimism-despair/673835/

Scientists and economists are both diving more deeply into the subject of ‘hope.’ A current understanding of hope is offered by a professor in the University of Oklahoma system:

“Hope is not a wish … Hope is about taking action to achieve goals.”

https://soonermag.oufoundation.org/stories/the-science-of-hope

God’s dealing with His people recorded in the OT, hope is most often described in terms of waiting, of living with confidence that God will fulfill His promises.

In 1 Corinthians 15 we can see discover the seeds of hope in the resurrection of Jesus.

1 Corinthians 15:35 HCSB

But someone will say, “How are the dead raised? What kind of body will they have when they come?”

How can that which is impossible be possible?

One of the earliest signs of hopelessness is when a person cannot see past their present.

Some in Corinth were struggling with the idea that this body could somehow be raised again.

Our hope centered in the resurrection of Jesus is built upon the following:

Hope: Embedded in Creation

The very mechanism of creation points to the possibility of hope.

Genesis 1:11–13 HCSB

Then God said, “Let the earth produce vegetation: seed-bearing plants and fruit trees on the earth bearing fruit with seed in it according to their kinds.” And it was so. The earth produced vegetation: seed-bearing plants according to their kinds and trees bearing fruit with seed in it according to their kinds. And God saw that it was good. Evening came and then morning: the third day.

‘With seed’ is a reminder that God set in motion a process by which each specific plant, each specific variety would be able to replicate itselt.

The seed and the plant/fruit which results bear little resemblance to one another.

The seed - often a small, tiny, hard shelled item doesn’t look like an apple or any other item.

Yet, once planted, nurtured, and cared for that tiny seed can produce a tree filled with apples.

For example:

How many apples come from an average apple tree?

That depends on the size of the tree. In the newer higher density plantings with trees on dwarfing

rootstocks growers can expect to harvest 200 to 300 apples per tree. In older apple plantings the

number of apples per tree could be 700 to 800

The seed - though nothing like the fruit it bears - must be transformed!

There is a process by which the seed - planted in the ground (just as our current physical bodies will return to dust) - becomes transformed by a God-given principle.

This process is embedded in creation and is visible across the entire canvas of God’s creation.

Hope: A New Creation

For hope to be concrete we need to understand that this creation is not the same as the new creation.

Listen to vs 42-44.

1 Corinthians 15:42–44 HCSB

So it is with the resurrection of the dead: Sown in corruption, raised in incorruption; sown in dishonor, raised in glory; sown in weakness, raised in power; sown a natural body, raised a spiritual body. If there is a natural body, there is also a spiritual body.

There is a common misconception among believers that resurrection means that this body will somehow inherit eternal life.

While there are similarities between the body we now have and the resurrection body we will be given there are significant differences:

These bodies are characterized by the following:

corruption/perishable

This body will die. It will return to dust.

However, God has the power to raise this body into an

incorruptible, imperishable condition

Our physical bodies are

sown in dishonor

The body as originally created by God is inherently good. As sin entered the world so did disease and dishonor.

However, our new, resurrection body will be

raised in glory

When Jesus was raised from the dead, His body - though recognizable - was different.

He passed through locked doors. He appeared in place separated by miles almost instantaneously.

When we are given our resurrection bodies they will be recognizable yet fit for a completely different kind of environment than the one in which we live.

sown in weakness

- our bodies are subject to illness, weariness, prone to injuries, and finally to death.

raised in power

Those ailments will no longer afflict our resurrection bodies!

sown a natural body

This body is shaped and influenced by the environment in which it lives.

Earlier in this letter and elsewhere in the NT there is a clear difference between one who is ‘spiritual’ and one who is ‘natural’

For example:

1 Corinthians 2:12 HCSB

Now we have not received the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who comes from God, so that we may understand what has been freely given to us by God.

1 Corinthians 2:13 HCSB

We also speak these things, not in words taught by human wisdom, but in those taught by the Spirit, explaining spiritual things to spiritual people.

As the Holy Spirit indwells those who confess Jesus as Lord our internal nature is changed.

Our resurrection bodies will be

a spiritual body

Like the resurrected body of Jesus, our resurrected bodies will reflect the full reality of the Holy Spirit’s indwelling us!

Hope: The Power of New Creation

The first ‘Adam’ is the one which we read of in

Genesis 2:7 HCSB

Then the Lord God formed the man out of the dust from the ground and breathed the breath of life into his nostrils, and the man became a living being.

This is the man from whom all creation is descended.

The second, and last, ‘Adam’ is Jesus.

As the ‘second’ or ‘last’ Adam, Jesus is the firstborn of the new creation -

Romans 8:29 HCSB

For those He foreknew He also predestined to be conformed to the image of His Son, so that He would be the firstborn among many brothers.

He is our ‘forerunner’ going before us into the presence of God.

His presence with God the Father now is our confidence that so too we will be in God’s presence for eternity - in the new creation.

REFLECT AND RESPOND

Hope: The Confidence of God’s Promise

1 Corinthians 15:50 HCSB

Brothers, I tell you this: Flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God, and corruption cannot inherit incorruption.

In Romans Paul makes this assertion:

Romans 10:9–10 HCSB

If you confess with your mouth, “Jesus is Lord,” and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved. One believes with the heart, resulting in righteousness, and one confesses with the mouth, resulting in salvation.

An orientation to a promised future

Because Jesus has been raised from the dead we have the confidence to wait -

What God has promised He will fulfill. Jesus - sitting at the right hand of the Father - in His resurrected body is all the assurance we need.

A pathway to the future

We are not left to our own devices to receive God’s promises.

He has built into creation the very principle of new life.

This body - regardless of the shape it is in - cannot inherit the kingdom of God.

We can - and as a culture we do - eat healthy, get more exercise, and so on.

However this body will fail. This body cannot exist in the eternal presence of God.

Knowing that Jesus has been raised from the dead we have all the assurance we need that indeed the pathway is open to us through the power of God.

Patience with which to wait

Hope, as used in the OT, most often was associated with waiting.

The one challenge al of us experience: waiting.

If pictures don’t automatically load on our phones, tablets, and computers we express frustration.

Watching a movie on a streaming service may occasionally experience buffering - and when that occurs we are often irritated

Waiting for more than a few moments for our food order to arrive makes us hangry.

Waiting - the patience and perseverance we need is a fruit of the Holy Spirit who indwells us.

Yes, we long for the time this body is resurrected, we ache to be reunited with loved ones who have died and are already in God’s presence.

But God has equipped us with the power to wait.