Sermon Tone Analysis

Introduction

This week, we are concluding our three weeks in 1 Corinthians 15 that shows us the ultimate revealing of Christ and who he is through the resurrection.

Last week, we focused on the fact that the reality of the resurrection is the heart of the gospel message.

Christ has defeated humanity’s greatest enemy and put it under his feet.

When he comes again, we will enter with him into the new creation that he has established.

The victory that Christ has won for us is critical for our understanding of life in general.

This victory tells us that all of the suffering that is endured in this life because of sin will be changed.

The power over sin has already been defeated in Christ, but the effects of sin will not be gone until he comes again and that includes suffering and death.

Today, we are going to learn what Christ’s victory ultimately means for us as we follow him and trust in him in this life.

1. Christ gives us victory over death.

(vs.

35-38)

Paul’s next move in his argument about the reality of the resurrection is to answer questions that have either been posed to him in a letter written by the Corinthians, or they may only be rhetorical questions to forward his teaching.

“How are the dead raised?

With what kind of body do they come?”

He begins his answer with a strong statement, “You foolish person!”

In other words, he is not happy that they even question the reality of the resurrection in the first place.

This is the cornerstone of the Christian faith.

How could they not believe it?

As we mentioned briefly last week, the issues the Corinthians may have had with the resurrection of the body had to do with their misunderstanding that it was nothing more than a re-animation of dead bodies.

This would mean that even Jesus was a dead person with the same kind of physical body that he had.

Paul pushes the Corinthians to a different theological conclusion.

The Pharisees in Jesus’ day believed that the resurrected body was similar but different from the bodies we now have.

So, Paul would have similar understandings as well as physical evidence that is documented in the gospels.

He uses the analogy of a seed that is sown into the ground.

He goes back to the metaphor that he used earlier in association with first fruits at the Feast of Weeks or Pentecost.

He expands on it focusing on the radical transformation that takes place from a seed to a harvest.

The new creation that comes when Christ returns and that is found in

This new creation will be populated by those whose bodies have been transformed into something new and different.

Jesus tells us in John 12:24-26

In Christ, God has defeated death and given us the victory over it.

This leads us to our next point.

2. Christ gives us victory over our mortal bodies.

(vs.

42-44)

We know that if the Lord tarries and does not come that we will die.

This is a fact of life.

Our mortal bodies will no longer exist.

All of us have placed within the ground the bodies of loved ones.

Ashes have been spread over land and sea as a final resting place.

However, Paul reminds us is that regardless of what happens to our mortal bodies they will be given new life and transformed to possess and reflect the divine glory.

The same God who created all things and brought all things into existence has the ability to restore our bodies no matter how much of it may remain - “From dust you came and to dust you shall return.”

Just as the perishable body of Jesus was sown into the ground and was recognizable as the same person in the resurrected state even though glorified so will be our nature in the resurrection of the dead when he returns.

Paul later says in 1 Corinthians 15:53

But notice what Paul says about this resurrected body:

Our mortal bodies are sown in the dishonor of Adam’s sin and perishable.

But we are raised to imperishability, that is we will not die again, and glory.

We will return to the idealized state of humanity prior to the fall of creation and shine even brighter.

Our mortal bodies are sown in weakness.

We have physical limitations, disease, disabilities.

We experience aging and our bodies become frail.

Paul uses himself as an example of this in Philippians 3:21

All these weaknesses will be replaced by a resurrected body that exemplifies transformation and revitalization.

All disease and frailty will be gone.

There will be no more aches and pains.

We will have a body that is strong and will be sustained for eternity.

Paul says in Romans 8:11

And again in Revelation 21:4

We will have victory over our mortal bodies and all of the weaknesses and frailties associated with it.

This leads us to our final point.

3. We will rise in the image of Christ not the image of Adam.

(vs.

45-50)

In verse 44, Paul concludes his list of the ways the new body will be different from our present bodies by saying that we are sown as a natural body but raised as a spiritual body.

The word that is translated as “natural” could also be translated as “soul-animated.”

This is important because Paul is relating the natural body back to what is said in Genesis 2:7

God breathed life into Adam and he became a living soul or living creature.

What Paul means by “soul” is that which brings a sense of aliveness through breath, blood, energy and purpose.

All this is common to humanity.

So the point is what brings life not what the body is actually composed of.

What brings life to us as human beings is the fact that we are upright and moving.

We are breathing and have energy and purpose.

Once those functions end so do we in our present bodies.

If we stop breathing, we will die.

Breath is what gives us life.

Paul talks about the new body that we will have and be raised into is animated and given life through the Spirit.

Again, the body is not composed of “Spirit-stuff” but is given life through the Spirit.

Our existence through the Spirit overcomes the state of death that characterizes the first Adam and creation.

We will participate with the last Adam and the new creation at the resurrection.

Just as an aside look at Ezekiel 37:9-10 where the dry bones that have been manipulated back to having full bodies is brought to life:

Even in this instance where Israel is begin reconstituted after their time in exile, it is God that breathes life into them.

They are already bodies but are not given life or animation, if you will, until God breathes.

But this breath is not the same as when he breathed into Adam.

This is the Holy Spirit that gives life.

Now, in Christ, when we are raised from the dead, the old is gone and the new has come.

All the aspects the constitutes what is living in this world will be changed because our bodies will be changed from ones that are natural and of this world to ones that are spiritual and of Christ and the new creation.

We will not be of the dust but of heaven.

We will not have the image of the one born of dust, but we will bear the image of the man from heaven, Jesus Christ. 1 John 3:2 says,

The body we will have will be imperishable and undefiled.

We will be in the image of the resurrected Christ.

It is a body that will not die and is not effected by the ways of this world because we will be in the new creation.

Conclusion

The ultimate victory that is given to us is the victory over death.

As we have learned over the past three weeks, our trust and belief in Christ as Lord and Savior is something that is not just beneficial now but is for eternity.

We are no longer beholden to the sin that is given to us through Adam.

When humanity fell in the Garden, it separated us from God.

That separation led to humanity falling deeper and deeper into sin.

Even a great flood that destroyed all but eight human beings did not eradicate sin from humanity.

As soon as they got off the ark, Noah himself sinned through drunkenness.

When God made covenant with Abraham, Issac, and Jacob to be the seed to a chosen nation, they still fell into sin.

When God delivered the people of Israel from the hands of Pharaoh and the Egyptians and gave them the Law at Sinai, they squandered their relationship with God and fell into sin.

Yet, it was through these sinful people that God himself chose to come so that humanity could finally be fully redeemed and brought into a relationship with God that had been intended all along.

It is through the one man, Jesus Christ, that all people, Jew and Gentile alike, can come into the promise of God and know true salvation not based on our own personal works but on the work of Christ alone.