Those 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 into heaven and will come again, and that he is the Judge of 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. In truth, he said, he was ashamed even to be called an apostle, because he had persecuted the church and thrown Christians into prison.

But he confessed that he had become an apostle not by human effort but by the grace of God. That grace, he said, was why he had labored more faithfully than the other apostles, late as he had come, so that it would not be in vain.

Paul had been a legalist in earnest, a man who strove with all his might to keep the law.

Then, on the road to Damascus, he met Christ and was struck blind; and as he was healed, he became convinced that Jesus, who had borne the cross, was the true Messiah.

From the day he met the Lord, his whole character was transformed.

It was this change that enabled him to make sacrifices for the Lord, and those sacrifices made him shine like a jewel.

Though he gave himself wholly to the Lord, Paul remained humble, content with the lowly place. He rebuked the members of the church in Corinth for a faith that was foolish, proud, and disorderly, and he told them that those who believe in the risen Lord must never practice their faith in a way that lacks decency and order.

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

To them Paul said that if Jesus had not risen, then the salvation they longed for did not exist either, and the message the apostles proclaimed, that Christ would come again, was a lie.

If Jesus had not risen, sinners would still be in their sins; and as long as sin remained, there would be no way to keep death from reigning over humanity.

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

However often he told them that he was the Creator, that he was Lord of the Sabbath, that he was the fulfillment of the law, that he was the temple, that he was the Son of God, that he would be the Judge on the last day, they did not take him at his word. They did nothing but hate and despise him.

Those who treated Jesus with such contempt call to mind Cain, standing in defiance of the God who had accepted Abel’s offering.

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

Once God had accepted Abel’s offering, Cain should have done all he could to show the same life of faith and obedience. Instead, he could not master the unrighteousness in his heart, and in the end he killed Abel.

However many signs Jesus gave to show that he was the Son of God, the world, which rejects the light, vented its rage by putting him to death.

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

Therefore the cross of Jesus is precious. That he died a complete death upon it, conquered that death, and rose again: this is grace.

And if Jesus had not risen, the hope of those who believed in the resurrection and have fallen asleep in Christ would be empty, and we too, who look toward eternal life and are giving our lives to the gospel, would be living for nothing.

Satan holds people fast by their sins so that they cannot resist him. Had Jesus not become the atoning sacrifice for us, every one of us would still be imprisoned 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 says that those who believe in the death and resurrection of Jesus will, through Jesus, have their part with Christ when he comes again.

We are not people waiting for Jesus to come the first time. We believed in the Jesus who has already come, we have been saved, and now we wait for the Jesus who will come again.

But if the resurrection were a lie, all of us who have believed in Jesus our whole lives would be of all people most to be pitied.

But since it is true that Jesus conquered death and rose again, we are clothed in his victory, we overcome Satan and death, and we have come to enjoy eternal life.

Jesus has now been raised from among all who had fallen asleep in death, and so he has become the first fruits of those who are asleep.

Romans 11:16 says that bread made from the first ripe grain for an offering to God is holy because the first fruit is holy. When bread is made from the flour of the first ripe grain offered to God, the whole loaf becomes holy bread.

Because Jesus has become the first fruits of victory over death, those who have been made one with him have become, like him, fruit that has triumphed over death.

Whatever shape the bread may take, if it is 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 that first ripe grain, Jesus Christ.

The holiness of Christ has made all of us God’s holy children, acceptable to him.

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. The whole human race, born of Adam’s seed, received Adam’s blood; and because of that it came to serve Satan as its father and was shut up in death.

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

So Jesus, who was without sin, offered himself as the atoning sacrifice to win forgiveness for the sin Adam committed, and he conquered death once for all.

Seen from the sinner’s side, everything up to this point was God simply doing his own work, with sinners having no part in it at all, for it was Jesus who chose death of his own will, overcame it, and rose again.

From here on, it is when we believe in what Jesus accomplished, that he conquered death, rose again, and now waits at God’s right hand for the day of his return, that we come to have a part with the Jesus who is coming again.

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

Those who have been blessed to enter the Kingdom of God by faith alone will follow Christ, the first fruits, and be raised 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 saints whose names are written in the book of life meet Christ in the air and celebrate the wedding feast, those who lived as if this world were everything, together with every rule, authority, and power, will face the terrible judgment of God.

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

Daniel was foretelling how great and how fearsome the authority of Jesus Christ would be.

Knowing this, Satan stirred people up to slander Jesus, to envy and attack him, and at last to hang him on a cross, so that Christ could not work in the world with that authority. But in the end the resurrection of Jesus brought Satan to defeat.

Are you not grateful that the Christ who died for you and conquered death is the almighty God himself?

How could a human being ever defeat Satan? How could a sinner ever cast off sin?

Atonement had to be made with blood. That is why the almighty God, the God who created humanity, took on a human body himself and came down to people lower than worms.

Yet no one recognized that Jesus was God the Son. It was the unclean spirits who first knew him for what he was: the Messiah, God the Son, the One who had come to pass judgment on death.

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

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

What a contradiction! Those who should have recognized Jesus and fallen down before him in gratitude were shouting for him to be crucified, while Satan, who had driven humanity into sin and death, was falling down before the Lord and confessing that he was the Son of God.

Satan groans because he is a spirit and knows all that God is doing, and because he knows why Jesus came into this world.

By luring Adam, God’s finest work, into sin, Satan had at last managed to shut him up in death and to make him a worthless creature that Satan could treat as he liked within his own domain. Now the Creator himself had come to restore that damaged work, so the forces of Satan must have grown frantic and wanted to obstruct the Messiah’s ministry.

Even the forces of Satan, who made humanity sinful, recognize Jesus and tremble before him. How, then, are we treating Jesus now?

Do you really know how fearsome the authority of Christ is, when even the forces of Satan shake with fear before it? Do you know how great the love of Jesus is, great enough to cover the wrath of God, who judges sin?

It was his knowledge of how fearsome the authority of Jesus Christ is that led the apostle Paul to confess that he died daily for the sake of righteousness.

According to 2 Corinthians 12, he was a man who had been taken up to the third heaven, where God’s throne is, and had come back.

While 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 there they hurled stones at Paul, who like Stephen was proclaiming the gospel, meaning to kill him.

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

He could not say for certain whether he was in the body or out of the body, but he said that when the Holy Spirit carried him up into Paradise, he heard many things that cannot be put into words.

The apostle Paul gave this testimony fourteen years afterward so that he would not boast of having seen heaven. He knew that even to see heaven and meet Jesus would profit nothing without true faith.

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

So Paul earnestly urged the Corinthians not to be taken in by those who falsely claimed that Jesus Christ had not risen.

Those listening to Paul would have thought along these lines.

How can a person be born again, when no one can enter a mother’s womb a second time? How can anyone say the dead will live again, when the dead cannot come back to life?

Such words, of course, come from those who judge by the flesh.

But if we hear the words of Jesus not with the flesh but with the spirit, the question is easily 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.

Because the first man, Adam, had a body of dust, he received life from God.

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

The body made of dust decays in this world, for it has received the penalty of death. But the soul held captive in that body sheds the flesh through bodily death and is set free in Christ.

I would ask you to picture a single seed lying in front of you.

From the seed alone, can you tell what form it holds?

God gives each kind of seed its form as he chooses.

Unless a seed decays and dies, you can never know what form it holds; but once it has decayed and died, the form hidden inside it will appear.

God gave every seed its form, and he made flesh different as well: not all flesh is the same, but there is the flesh of humans, of beasts, of birds, and of fish. Because flesh differs in this way, there are heavenly forms and earthly forms; yet the glory of the heavenly is one thing, and the glory of the earthly is another.

So it is with the resurrection of the dead, and that is why the soul that has held fast to its faith will at last rise in a spiritual body when Christ returns.

That does not mean, however, that you may treat your body carelessly.

Because the body that now clothes our souls is a fine instrument for displaying God’s glory, you must show God your faith by what you do in the body.

Since nothing made of this world’s matter can enter the Kingdom of God, Adam, who came from the earth, cannot enter God’s Kingdom with a body made of dust.

It is true that, because of sin, we face death and the putting off of the body. But only if we use that death as a tunnel through which we pass to put on a spiritual body will death hold no fear for us.

On the cross Jesus, too, put off the body made of dust, and three days later he was transformed into a spiritual body, a body of a beauty no human body can compare with.

He came into a room where the disciples had shut the doors, and in a moment he went to meet the two disciples on the road to Emmaus and blessed them with an understanding of the Scriptures. Jesus has a holy, perfect, and glorious body.

Now we wear a body made of dust. But once we pass through the gate of death and put off the flesh, the faith you have guarded with your whole life until now will be clothed in the glory of Christ and will cause you to bear the image of the heavenly.

If you want, then, to live out heaven on this earth, you must deny yourself, die with Jesus Christ on the cross, and live as one who has already put off the flesh. Only then, though you still wear a body, can heaven take shape within you, and can you 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, his love, and his blessing with your eyes?

Even if God were, at this very moment, solving your problems through his angels and turning back Satan’s schemes, the eyes of the flesh could not see it, and so you could not fully give thanks for that grace.

But if we look to God with the eyes of the spirit, we 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 he has prepared for us.

Heaven is our home, a home we can enter only through death, however much we may long for it.

We do not know when the last trumpet will sound. Perhaps by then some among us will have died and put off the body, and perhaps some will still be living.

Whether they have died or are alive to hear the trumpet, all who have faith will put off their present bodies and put on spiritual bodies.

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

We will have spiritual bodies that Satan can never attack or tempt into sin, bodies fit to live with Christ in heaven forever.

That is how precious your faith in Christ is today.

The world is now showing the signs of the end, just as Jesus told us it would. He told us beforehand and he warned us. Yet if you compromise with the world and miss your opportunity, then even if you 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.

Those who have received God’s inheritance as a great blessing will be freed from the fear of death; they will lift their praise toward God’s throne and sing songs of joy.

This is how Isaiah sings of that overflowing joy.

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.

Drawing on these words of Isaiah, the apostle Paul said that when this perishable body has put on the imperishable and this mortal has put on immortality, death will vanish forever.

Now, through the resurrection of Jesus Christ, we who belong to him have overcome death.

The world joins hands with Satan to hinder the faith of God’s people, to mock them, and to drag them down from the rock. But for those who have received the wondrous love and grace of Christ and will enter heaven, there is only one thing left to do: to sing praises of joy.

May you offer Christ your songs of thanksgiving every day.

Death may threaten us, but it is like an arrow that has already missed its mark and fallen to the ground. As long as we do not waver, then, we can live out heaven 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.

Friends, there is one thing I hope you will never forget.

Jesus atoned for your sins; he conquered death and rose again; and on the last day, at the sound of the trumpet, he will catch you up into the air and hold the wedding feast. I pray that you will keep this firmly in mind.

The faith you hold now is the key that opens the way to blessing; for that reason you must never lose it.

You hold the keys of the Kingdom of Heaven. May you enjoy the blessing of being guarded by the hosts of heaven within the love and grace of God.