Technicalities of Resurrection

But someone will ask, “How are the dead raised? With what kind of body do they come?” You foolish person! What you sow does not come to life unless it dies. And what you sow is not the body that is to be, but a bare kernel, perhaps of wheat or of some other grain. But God gives it a body as he has chosen, and to each kind of seed its own body. For not all flesh is the same, but there is one kind for humans, another for animals, another for birds, and another for fish. There are heavenly bodies and earthly bodies, but the glory of the heavenly is of one kind, and the glory of the earthly is of another. There is one glory of the sun, and another glory of the moon, and another glory of the stars; for star differs from star in glory.

So is it with the resurrection of the dead. What is sown is perishable; what is raised is imperishable. It is sown in dishonor; it is raised in glory. It is sown in weakness; it is raised in power. It is sown a natural body; it is raised a spiritual body. If there is a natural body, there is also a spiritual body. Thus it is written, “The first man Adam became a living being”; the last Adam became a life-giving spirit. But it is not the spiritual that is first but the natural, and then the spiritual. The first man was from the earth, a man of dust; the second man is from heaven. As was the man of dust, so also are those who are of the dust, and as is the man of heaven, so also are those who are of heaven. Just as we have borne the image of the man of dust, we shall also bear the image of the man of heaven. I Corinthians 15:35-49

There is very simple agricultural logic in this scripture. A thing does not reproduce until it undergoes a death process. John 24:12 (Jesus speaking) “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it bears much fruit.” The day I first read that, I understood that Jesus must die in order to accomplish our salvation and multiply His kingdom. From that point on, I was oriented to the plan of God. The concept of multiplication through death, therefore, has great spiritual meaning for me. A modern adage says “you can count the number of seeds in an apple, but you cannot count the number of apples in a seed.” Wonderfully expressive of God’s design for reproduction. You can save a seed on a shelf, dried, and it will not ever change. Put in in the ground, though, and water it and very soon it will spring to new life, grow and reproduce in kind..and on…and on….duplicating the type of life that was in the seed from the beginning.

I tell you this, brothers: flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God, nor does the perishable inherit the imperishable. Behold! I tell you a mystery. We shall not all sleep, but we shall 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 shall be changed.  For this perishable body must put on the imperishable, and this mortal body must put on immortality. When the perishable puts on the imperishable, and the mortal puts on immortality, then shall come to pass 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 brothers, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that in the Lord your labor is not in vain. I Corinthians 15:50-58

It should be obvious, brethren, that we will not inherit the kingdom of God in THESE bodies of corruption. Our bodies are saturated with the Old Sin Nature, which has been part of human dna since Adam sinned. His human spirit died (that’s what he used to fellowship with Jesus Christ in the garden), causing his cell structure to degenerate gradually until the body of flesh died also. It is not only about behavior, it is the source of illnesses and degeneration of the body. The body must die, because we cannot enter God’s presence with the Old Sin Nature intact. The body dies, and with it the OSN dies. How then can we function without a body? We can’t. God will give us a resurrected body; pure, not corrupt; clean and acceptable to Himself. Only Jesus has that now. His is the prototype. He is preparing to return and receive us to Himself, and when that happens we will be instantaneously changed!

Not all will have lain in the ground. Some will be still alive at the coming of the Lord for His own. He, who spoke the worlds into being can instantly change the fleshly bodies of His people into incorruptible, imperishable eternal bodies, suitable for heavenly citizenship. We do receive a reactivated human spirit at salvation, so God can communicate truth to us, but as long as we live in human flesh the spirit is competing with the OSN for dominance. When we are changed (resurrected), that will never again be an issue. Death has lost its sting, because through physical death we receive our immortality, the power of sin is overcome and we are the victors through our Lord Jesus Christ. That’s because of RESURRECTION! Even if you haven’t liked the idea, Corinthians, get used to it, because it is coming. As for now, stand fast in your faith, serving the Lord in whatever He has given you to do.

Your work will be rewarded. He KNOWS.