Believers Who Put On a Spiritual Body

50Now I say this, brothers, that flesh and blood can’t inherit God’s Kingdom; neither does the perishable inherit imperishable. 51Behold, I tell you a mystery. We will not all sleep, but we will all be changed, 52in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised incorruptible, and we will be changed. 53For this perishable body must become imperishable, and this mortal must put on immortality. 54But when this perishable body will have become imperishable, and this mortal will have put on immortality, then what is written will happen: “Death is swallowed up in victory.” 55“Death, where is your sting? Hades, where is your victory?” 56The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law. 57But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. 58Therefore, my beloved brothers, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the Lord’s work, because you know that your labor is not in vain in the Lord.

To be saved, we must believe that Jesus died for our sins and rose again on the third day, that he ascended and will come again, and that he is the Judge on the last day.

Because believing this matters so much, the Apostle Paul concentrated his testimony on the fact that Jesus had risen.

Paul said that he was the least of the apostles, and that in fact he was ashamed to be called an apostle, because he was the one who had persecuted the church and put Christians in prison.

But he confessed that he had become an apostle not by human effort but by the grace of God, and that because of this, late as he had come, he had been more faithful than the other apostles, so that this grace would not be futile.

Paul was truly a legalist who strove to keep the law.

Such a man met Christ on the road to Damascus and was struck blind, and as he was healed he became sure that Jesus, who bore the cross, was truly the Messiah.

And after he met the Lord, his whole character changed.

So he was able to make sacrifices for the Lord, and those sacrifices made him shine like a jewel.

Paul devoted himself to the Lord and yet stayed humble in a low place. He rebuked the foolish, proud and disorderly faith of the members of the church in Corinth, and said that believers who trust in the risen Lord must never live the life of faith indecently and without order.

At that time there were people in the church in Corinth who were zealous in their life of faith and yet did not fully believe in Jesus’ resurrection, and who were throwing the church into confusion.

The Apostle Paul told them that if Jesus had not risen, there would be none of the salvation they wanted, and the message he and the other apostles preached, that Christ would come again, would be false as well.

If Jesus had not risen, sinners’ sins would remain as they were, and as long as sin remained, there would be no way to stop death from reigning over people.

When Jesus came to this earth in the flesh, no one believed that he was the Messiah.

No matter how often he told them that he was the Creator, the Lord of the Sabbath, the fulfillment of the law, the temple, the Son of God and the Judge on the last day, people only hated and loathed Jesus and would not believe his words as they were.

Look at those people treating Jesus with such contempt, and you are reminded of Cain defying God, who had accepted Abel’s offering.

Abel prepared the sacrifice and the offering as he had learned from Adam, and he also showed God a life of faith worthy of having his sacrifice accepted. As a result God accepted Abel’s sacrifice, his gift and his life, and did not accept Cain’s sacrifice, his offering or his life.

Since God had accepted Abel’s offering, Cain ought, of course, to have tried to show God the same life of faith and obedience himself. Instead he could not overcome his unrighteous heart, and he ended up killing Abel.

No matter how many signs Jesus showed that he was the Son of God, the world, which rejects the light, vented its anger by killing Jesus.

But Jesus judged their unrighteousness by his resurrection, and proved that he is the Messiah and the Lord who will come again. If Jesus had not risen, the church could not have existed.

That is why the cross of Jesus is precious, and why it is grace that he met a complete death on the cross, overcame that death and rose again.

And if Jesus had not risen, the hope of the believers who believed in the resurrection and have fallen asleep in Christ would be in vain, and we too, who look toward eternal life and are giving our lives to the gospel, would be living lives in vain.

Satan holds on to people’s sins so that they cannot fight back, and if Jesus had not become the atoning sacrifice for us, all of us would still be locked in eternal death.

1 Thessalonians 4:14

14For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so God will bring with him those who have fallen asleep in Jesus.

Paul said that those who believe that Jesus died and rose again will, through Jesus, take part with him when Christ comes again.

We are not people waiting for Jesus’ first coming. We are people who believed in the Jesus who came the first time, were saved, and are now waiting for Jesus to come again.

But if the resurrection were a lie, all of us who have lived our whole lives believing in Jesus would be pitiable indeed.

But because it is true that Jesus overcame death and rose again, we are clothed with Jesus’ victory, overcome Satan and death, and have come to enjoy eternal life.

Because Jesus has now risen from among all those who were sleeping the sleep of death, he has become the first fruits of those who are asleep.

Romans 11:16 says that the bread made from the first ripe grain, used in offering sacrifices to God, is holy because its first fruit is holy. Bread made from the flour of the first ripe grain offered to God becomes holy bread, the whole lump of it.

Because Jesus has become the first fruits who overcame death, believers who have become one with Jesus have become fruits that have overcome death, as Jesus did.

Whatever the shape of the bread made from the first ripe grain offered to God, all of it becomes holy bread.

All of us are bread made from the flour of the first ripe grain that is Jesus Christ.

Because Christ is holy, all of us have become God’s holy children, acceptable to God.

Just as we have been made holy through Christ, so through the sin Adam committed death entered this world, and all people became slaves of death. All humanity, born of Adam’s seed, received Adam’s blood, and so they served Satan as their father and ended up locked in death.

To save these sinners, there had to be at least one righteous person in this world without sin. But because Adam, the one man God created, sinned, there was not one righteous person in this world.

So, that the sin Adam committed might be forgiven, Jesus, who had no sin, offered himself as the atoning sacrifice and overcame death once for all.

Up to this point, as sinners see it, Jesus chose death himself and then overcame that death and rose again, so God has only been doing his own work, which has nothing to do with sinners.

From here on, when we believe what Jesus has accomplished—that he overcame death, rose again, and is waiting at God’s right hand for the day he comes again—the Jesus who will come again has something to do with us.

Only by holding on to this cord of faith can we remain in Christ, and on the last day, at the sound of the trumpet, take part in the marriage supper of the Lamb.

Believers who have received the blessing of entering the kingdom of God by faith alone will follow Christ, the first fruits, and rise at his coming, and they will enter the eternal kingdom.

1 Corinthians 15:24

24Then the end comes, when he will deliver up the Kingdom to God, even the Father; when he will have abolished all rule and all authority and power.

While the believers written in the book of life are meeting Christ in the air and celebrating the marriage supper, those who lived as if this world were everything, and all rule and authority and power, will receive God’s terrible judgment.

In Daniel 7:14 it is written that dominion was given him, and glory, and a kingdom, that all the peoples, nations and languages should serve him, and that his dominion is an everlasting dominion which will not pass away, and his kingdom one that will not be destroyed.

Daniel is prophesying beforehand how great and fearful the dominion of Jesus Christ is.

Satan knew this, and so, to keep Jesus Christ from working in the world with that authority, he stirred people up to slander Jesus, envy him and attack him, and hung him on the cross. But in the end Satan was defeated by Jesus’ resurrection.

Are you not thankful that this almighty God is the Christ who died for you and overcame death for you?

How could a human being overcome Satan, and how could a sinner shed their sin?

Because redemption had to be made with blood, almighty God, the God who created human beings, himself put on a human body and came to human beings who are worth less than worms.

Yet no one recognized that Jesus was God the Son. The first to recognize that Jesus was the Messiah, that he was God the Son and had come to judge death, were the unclean spirits.

In Mark 3:11-12, whenever the unclean spirits saw Jesus, they fell down before him and cried out that he was the Son of God.

But because it was not yet time for him to bear the cross, Jesus warned them not to make him known to the world.

What a contradiction! The people who truly ought to have recognized Jesus and fallen down before him in thanks were shouting to kill him on the cross, while Satan, who had driven human beings into sin and death, was bowing before the Lord and confessing that Jesus was the Son of God.

Because Satan is a spirit, he knows all of God’s works and knows why Jesus came into this world, and so he laments.

Satan had lured Adam, God’s finest work, into sin and had barely managed to lock him in death, making him a worthless thing he could treat as he pleased within his own domain. But the Creator came in person to restore that damaged work, so Satan grew anxious and would have wanted to obstruct the Messiah’s ministry.

Even Satan, who made people sinners, recognizes Jesus and fears him. How are we treating Jesus now?

Do you truly know how fearful Christ’s authority is, so fearful that Satan trembles, and how great Jesus’ love is, great enough to cover the wrath of God who judges sin?

Because the Apostle Paul knew how fearful the authority of Jesus Christ is, he confessed that for righteousness’ sake he died daily.

In 2 Corinthians 12 we see that he was a man who went up to the third heaven, where God’s throne is, and came back.

When Paul was preaching the gospel in Lystra, the Jews who had been harassing him followed him from Antioch and Iconium all the way to Lystra, and they threw stones at Paul, who was preaching the gospel like Stephen, to kill him.

Paul says that it was at this time that he was caught up to the third heaven.

He said that he could not know for certain whether he was in the body or out of the body, but that when he was caught up by the Holy Spirit into Paradise, he heard many unspeakable words.

The Apostle Paul knew that even if someone sees heaven and meets Jesus, it is of no use without true faith. That is why, so as not to boast of having seen heaven, he gives this testimony only after fourteen years have passed.

Because he had seen, heard and met, he was never deceived by a false gospel.

That is why Paul earnestly begged the believers in Corinth not to be deceived by the words of those who lied that there is no resurrection of Jesus Christ.

The people listening to Paul would have thought something like this.

How could anyone say that a person can be born anew, when no one can go back into their mother’s womb? And how could anyone say that the dead will live again, when the dead cannot live again?

Of course, this is something a person who judges by the flesh might say.

But if we hear Jesus’ words not with the flesh but with the spirit, it can easily be resolved.

1 Corinthians 15:46-47

46However that which is spiritual isn’t first, but that which is natural, then that which is spiritual. 47The first man is of the earth, made of dust. The second man is the Lord from heaven.

The first man, Adam, received life from God, because his body was dust.

But the second man, Jesus, is God, who came to redeem Adam’s sin and to give life to sinners; he is the Lord of life.

The body made of dust received the penalty of death, so it perishes in this world. But the soul locked inside the body sheds the body through the death of the flesh and becomes free in Christ.

Imagine that a single seed is lying in front of you.

Looking at that seed alone, can you tell what body it has?

God gives each seed a body as it pleases him.

Unless a single seed rots and dies, you can never know what body it has; but once it has rotted and died, the body hidden inside it will be revealed.

God gave each kind of seed its body, and flesh too is not all the same flesh: he divided it into the flesh of people, the flesh of animals, the flesh of birds and the flesh of fish. Because all flesh is different, there are celestial bodies and there are terrestrial bodies, but the glory of the celestial is one thing and the glory of the terrestrial is another.

The resurrection of the dead is like this too, and so the soul that has kept the faith will at last rise in a spiritual body when Christ comes again.

That does not mean you should treat your body carelessly.

You must show your faith by what you do in the body, because the body that now wraps our soul is a good tool for displaying God’s glory.

The material things of the world cannot enter the kingdom of God, so Adam, who was of the earth, cannot enter the kingdom of God with a body made of dust.

Of course, because of sin we meet the death in which we shed the body, but only if we use that death as a tunnel through which we put on a spiritual body will death not frighten us.

Jesus too shed the body made of dust on the cross, and three days later he was changed into a spiritual body and had a body so beautiful that no human body can compare with it.

He came into a room where the disciples had shut the doors, and in an instant he went to meet two disciples on their way to Emmaus and gave them the blessing of understanding the Scriptures. Jesus had a holy, perfect and glorious body.

Now we wear a body made of dust, but once we pass through the gate of death where we shed the flesh, the faith you have kept with all your life until now will put on the glory of Christ and make you bear the image of the heavenly.

So if you want to build heaven on this earth and live in it, you must deny yourself, die with Jesus Christ on the cross, and live as one who has shed the flesh. Only then, though you still wear a body, can you build heaven within you and live as one who belongs to heaven.

1 Corinthians 15:50

50Now I say this, brothers, that flesh and blood can’t inherit God’s Kingdom; neither does the perishable inherit imperishable.

Can you see God’s grace, love and blessing with your eyes?

Even if God is right now solving your problems through angels and has driven off Satan’s schemes for you, the eyes of the flesh cannot see it. That is why you cannot give full thanks for that grace.

But if you look to God with the eyes of the spirit, you will be able to see how great his grace and love are, and how beautiful and glorious are the heaven and the throne of God that he has prepared for us.

Heaven is our home, and however much we may long for it, we can enter it only by dying.

We do not know when the last trumpet will sound, but perhaps at that time some of us will be believers who have shed the body and died, and perhaps some will be believers still alive.

Whether they are believers who have died or believers who hear the trumpet while still alive, if they have faith, all of them will shed their present bodies and put on a spiritual body.

Then there will be no death, no greed and no sickness.

They will have spiritual bodies that Satan can never attack and never tempt into sin, and they will be clothed in spiritual bodies in which to live forever with Christ in heaven.

This is how precious your faith in Christ is now.

The world is now showing the signs of the end, just as Jesus told us. Jesus told us beforehand and warned us, and yet if we keep compromising with the world and miss the chance, then even if we want to turn back, there will be no chance left.

Death, which bound humanity with sin and ruled as it pleased, will now vanish forever under Christ’s judgment of wrath.

Believers who have received God’s inheritance as a great blessing will be set free from the fear of death, will lift their praise toward God’s throne, and will sing songs of joy.

Isaiah sings of this overwhelming joy in these words.

Isaiah 25:6-11

6In this mountain, Yahweh of Armies will make all peoples a feast of choice meat, a feast of choice wines, of choice meat full of marrow, of well refined choice wines. 7He will destroy in this mountain the surface of the covering that covers all peoples, and the veil that is spread over all nations. 8He has swallowed up death forever! The Lord Yahweh will wipe away tears from off all faces. He will take the reproach of his people away from off all the earth, for Yahweh has spoken it. 9It shall be said in that day, “Behold, this is our God! We have waited for him, and he will save us! This is Yahweh! We have waited for him. We will be glad and rejoice in his salvation!” 10For in this mountain Yahweh’s hand will rest. Moab will be trodden down in his place, even like straw is trodden down in the water of the dunghill. 11He will spread out his hands in the middle of it, like one who swims spreads out hands to swim, but his pride will be humbled together with the craft of his hands.

Quoting Isaiah’s words, the Apostle Paul said that when this perishable body has become imperishable and this mortal has put on immortality, death will vanish forever.

Now, through the resurrection of Jesus Christ, believers have overcome death.

The world has become one with Satan; it hinders believers’ faith, mocks them and tries to drag them down from the rock. But believers, clothed in the wonderful love and grace of Christ and bound for heaven, have nothing to do but sing praises of joy.

Offer Christ praises of thanksgiving every day.

Even if death threatens believers, that death is already like an arrow that has missed its target and fallen to the ground. So as long as believers do not waver, they can build heaven and live in it even on this earth.

Like the Apostle Paul, I too want to make a request of you.

Beloved, I hope you will be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the Lord’s work, because your labor for God is never in vain.

I hope you will not forget just this one thing.

Be sure to remember that Jesus redeemed you from your sins, overcame death and rose again, and that on the last day, at the sound of the trumpet, he will catch you up into the air and hold the marriage supper.

You must never lose the faith you now have, because it is the key to receiving blessing.

May you who hold the key to heaven enjoy the blessing of being protected by the angels of the heavenly host, in God’s love and grace.