Transformed- Part 2

Last Sunday, as we resumed our
study in Paul’s epic treatise on the resurrection here in 1
Corinthians 15, we came into the fourth major section of this
letter, and so if God’s people would turn once again to 1 Corinthians, We’ve seen in weeks past from
verses 1 through 11, we saw that the resurrection is inextricably
part of the gospel. It can’t be unlinked. It can’t
be untied to the gospel. In verses 12 through 19, we saw
that the gospel is logically necessary. We saw a series of
Paul’s arguments on behalf of the gospel. And then in the third
section, verses 20 through 28, Paul showed that the resurrection
is theologically crucial. They just fit together, do these
principles. And then in the fourth section,
which we began last Lord’s Day, beginning in verse 35, Paul began
to describe the resurrection results in bodies that are substantively,
I practiced that word all week, they are substantively different. The point that Paul seeks to
make in this section, verses 35 through 49, is essential to
his overall argument in this chapter. Resurrection brings
about change. transformation, really, the bodies
of resurrected believers will be raised and transformed in
an amazing way. And so if you would, I want to
go back to this passage, we’ll take it in full, verses 35 through
49. But someone will say, how are
the dead raised? And with what kind of body do
they come? You fool, that which you sow
does not come to life unless it dies. And that which you sow,
you do not sow the body, which is to be, but a bare grain, perhaps
of wheat or something else. But God gives it a body just
as he wished, and to each of the seeds of a body of its own.
All flesh is not the same flesh, but there is one flesh of men
and another of flesh of beasts and another flesh of birds and
another of fish. There are also heavenly bodies
and earthly bodies, but the glory of the heavenly is one and the
glory of the earthly is 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 also is the resurrection
of the dead. It is sown in a perishable body. It is raised an imperishable
body. It is sown in dishonor. It is raised in glory. It is
sown in weakness. It is raised in power. It is sown in a natural body. It is raised a spiritual body. If there is a natural body, there
is also a spiritual body. So also it is written, the first
man, Adam, became a living soul. The last, Adam, became a life-giving
spirit. However, the spiritual is not
first, the natural, then the spiritual. The first man is from
the earth, earthy. The second man is from heaven,
As is the earthy, so also are those who are earthy. And as
is the heavenly, so also are those who are heavenly. Just
as we have borne the image of the earthy, we will also bear
the image of the heavenly. Now, Paul here begins his thought
in this section by answering a hypothetical question, if you’ll
recall. Paul is thinking of and really
responding as if someone posed a challenge, a series of questions,
to his doctrine of the resurrection. And so he presents a hypothetical
line of questioning in verse 35. Someone will say, how are
the dead raised and with what kind of body do they come? There
are two questions there. First, how? How are the dead
raised? How does this work exactly that
a dead person can come back to life It’s not a bad question
necessarily, but the second question shades that first question significantly. We can tell by Paul’s response.
The second question is this, with what kind of body do they
come? Not just how, but even if God could somehow raise someone
from the dead, with what kind of body would they come? What would they be like? What
would they look like? There’s a snarky undertone of
skepticism in that second question, and Paul responds accordingly
there in the middle of verse 36. The two questions are ostensibly
from the same person, and so Paul responds to the questions
as one, and he opens with a rebuke, you fool. And those are strong
words we saw, and by his response, Paul suggests that this doubting
individual is not thinking correctly. And he immediately launches into
a four-point response to this challenge that is thrown down
at the beginning of verse 35. Paul’s overall purpose in this
section is to demonstrate that the resurrection body is nothing
like our earthly body. That’s his main point. To believe
otherwise indicates a very faulty assumption that resurrected bodies
will somehow be made up of the same material as our earthly
bodies. Maybe newer, maybe younger. Our original hair color will
be restored, our muscles will be toned once again, but the
same body. The unthinking skeptic assumes
that resurrected bodies will just be a reconstituted version
of the original. And Paul lays out three examples
from the physical world that illustrate varied and changeable
substances. This is where we were last Lord’s
Day, leading up to verse 41. where Paul first uses the illustration
of vegetation, remember? And in short, he says that all
vegetables are not the same. If you need help with this, just
ask any kid if Brussels sprouts are as good as corn on the cob. All vegetables do not taste the
same. They vary in substance. That’s
Paul’s point. And they are not always even
the same substance throughout the course of their existence.
Paul took us to the illustration of the seed and the plant and
the fruit. All can be said to be of the
same, and yet in their various phases they are different. Whatever seed you plant, Paul
basically says here, that is what you’re going to grow. The
seed is not going to change its structure or its pattern. It
is established by God, and that’s what Paul means when he says,
he gives it a body just as he wished. God is sovereign even
over the plant world. And he did this on day two of
creation, you’ll recall. Plants and trees yielding and
bearing fruit accordingly. And this was no different in
the animal world. The second point of Paul’s response,
not all animals are the same. And not all animals taste the
same. Salmon doesn’t taste like turkey. And chicken does not taste like
steak. Fish and birds and beasts and
mankind each have distinctive flesh. And Paul then sets forth
that third example, not only vegetables, not only plants,
not only animals, but third he sets forth the heavenly bodies
are different. The stars are different than
the planets. The sun is different than the
moon. They too are comprised of different, that is, differing
substances. Well, there’s a fourth point.
A fourth example of differing substances, and this one pertains
to the human body in its differing states. Not only in its natural
state as we know it, our physical bodies, but also in its spiritual
state, our resurrected bodies. And this, of course, is the landing
spot. This is Paul’s point, the whole
point that he’s been working to since verse 36. Paul is speaking of the transformation
of our physical bodies at our resurrection from the dead. And
as he has contemplated the varied substances of vegetable, animal,
and the celestial world, he comes now to his main point, a contemplation
of our bodily substance. And we will see that Paul presents
the same argument, the same argument under three different headings.
He makes the same argument three times. He speaks of diversities,
distinctions, and differences. Those are essentially the same
kind of thing. Let’s begin in verse 42, where
Paul begins with his contemplation of our bodily substance. And
he’s talking about not only our earthly natural bodies, but he
will also speak much about our spiritual resurrected bodies. And he wants to tell us first
about diversities between our dying bodies and our resurrected
bodies. It may come as news to you this
morning, but you are dying. We’re all dying from the moment
we’re born. We’re born under the curse of
physical death. We know that. In these verses
before us, verses 42 through 44, Paul begins his discussion
of our bodily substance by presenting four diversities between our
dying bodies and our resurrected bodies. When Paul begins this
sentence in verse 42 with, so that, he’s tying this discussion
back into his presentation of the other three substances, vegetable,
animal, and cosmic. And he applies the principles
that we learned there, the diversity of the substances considered,
and he brings that argument forward to the human body in accordance
with the same principles. And he says, so also is the resurrection
of the dead. These same principles apply to
the human body. Just as those other physical
elements are comprised of varying substances, so also are human
bodies. They possess one substance in
the physical realm and another substance in the spiritual realm.
Just as a squash takes one form as a seed and another form as
a plant, and still another form as a fruit, our human bodies
are also subject to change. That’s Paul’s point. The first
of four diversities that Paul presents is at the end of verse
42, if you would glance there, please. Paul says that our bodies
are sown in a perishable body but raised an imperishable body. The first thing that we should
understand about this is what Paul means by sown, planted. And we need not be overly literal
here and think that Paul is referring to our being literally planted
into the ground, buried at our death. That’s not what Paul means
here at all. He merely speaks of our inauguration
into this life, into a physical frame known as the human body. In that sense, we are sown. And as we have seen in weeks
past, because of Adam’s fall into sin, our physical body is
perishable. Not only is the potential there
for our physical demise, but it is inevitable, right? I never
get any argument from that. This is the first and overarching
quality of our physical bodies, that they are perishable. And
so our resurrected bodies could not be any more different. In
our resurrection, we are raised in an imperishable body. Whereas
our earthly bodies were given to aging, sickness, ultimately
decay, our resurrected bodies are made for eternity. They are
eternal and they are made to last forever. We can’t even conceive
of such a substance, right? You buy a car and it is planned
to fall apart in five years. But this is what Paul describes.
Bodies that will never begin the process of growing old. Bodies
that will never be weakened through sickness or injury or disease. And since our bodies will never
die, they will never undergo decay the way our physical bodies
do. Paul points to a second diversity
here at the beginning of verse 43, if you would glance there.
Our bodies are sown in dishonor, but raised in glory. It has been
said that life ends not with a shout of victory, but with
the whimper of defeat. We see it from the first moment
that a young lady looks in the mirror and with horror discovers
a gray hair. Such experiences only continue
and they begin to pick up in their pace as we discover them.
So comes the first achy joint, the first prolonged recovery
from sickness or injury or surgery, the steady decline of our hearing
or eyesight, Things that we once took for granted we can no longer
do. The most notable and stout physical specimen declines into
an inability and ultimately failure. No amount of money, no measure
of power, no amount or quality or quality of friends can alter
the inevitable course. Our bodies are sown in dishonor. It’s the most pitiful experience
in our existence, but it is also at the same time the most common.
But this life is not all there is. And while our course of this
world is one of dishonor, the future in our resurrected bodies
will be raised in glory. This is an echo of the truth
that Paul articulates in Romans 8.21. There he tells us that
one day the creation itself will be set free from its slavery
to corruption into the freedom of the glory of the children
of God. Paul gives no additional detail here really as to what
this glory entails, what our resurrected and glorified bodies
will look like, We don’t know exactly what that looks like
for us, but we do have glimpses and descriptions of Christ’s
glorified body. You’ll remember on the Mount
of Transfiguration, Peter, James, and John observed Jesus’ face
shone like the sun. His garments became white as
light. The Apostle John gives a similar
description of the Savior in his opening chapter of Revelation,
verse 13. I saw one like the Son of Man,
clothed in a robe, reaching to the feet, girded across his chest
with a golden sash. His head and his hair were white
like wool, like snow. His eyes were like a flame of
fire. His feet were like burnished
bronze when it has been made to glow in a furnace. His voice
was like the sound of many waters. Now, in case you’re wondering,
I’m not suggesting for a moment that we’re all going to look
like that in our resurrected state. Jesus is, after all, the
King of kings and the Lord of lords. He will look different. My point is that in his resurrected
state, Jesus appears very different than the way he appeared on earth.
Remember, as Isaiah described him, he has no stately form or
majesty that we should look upon him, nor appearance that we should
be attracted to him, That’s not what the Apostle John describes
in Revelation chapter 1. Still, there in verse 43, we
find a third picture of this diversity between our dying bodies
and our resurrected bodies. Paul says that these bodies are
sown in weakness but raised in power. This image is in concert
with the previous two. Paul is painting a picture here
of our earthly bodies and our resurrected bodies. Our bodies
are perishable, dishonorable, and weak. And that pretty much
sums it up, doesn’t it? Believe it or not, as a little
kid, I played football for a number of years. I can hear you snickering. One year at our end of season
banquet, we had a special guest. He was a member of the Denver
Broncos. His name was Lyle Alzado. Now for some of you, just the
mention of the name says it all. For the rest of you, let me explain.
In his playing years, Lyle Alzado was the biggest meanest, most
intense, most impactful player on the field in any game. He
was always going 100%. That night at our banquet, I
got to shake his hand. Or rather, I got to put my tiny
little hand into this massive paw. I remember looking at that. Huge
hand, his fingers were like giant sausages, scarred. I’d never met a human being so
large in my life. And then a number of years later,
I heard that he had contracted brain cancer. And I remember
seeing a news show about him years later. And I couldn’t believe
it was the same man. He was emaciated, nothing but
skin and bones, sitting in a chair, and you could only tell it was
the same man by his accent. These earthly bodies of ours
are sown in weakness. And that weakness touches every
single one of us. But once we decline and die and
fade away, if we are in Christ, Paul says that we will be raised
in power. In eternity, our souls will reside
in bodies that never tire, never sicken, never succumb to injury,
never contract any disease, and never die. We are raised in power,
not our own, but the power of Almighty God. Paul says it this
way in Romans 8-11, if the spirit of him who raised Jesus from
the dead dwells in you, he who raised Jesus from the dead will
also give life to your mortal bodies through his spirit who
dwells in you. That’s Paul’s point. The resurrection
is an exhibition of God’s power to raise us to new life, to an eternal living. in that power. There’s a fourth
diversity between our dying bodies and our resurrected bodies. Look
at verse 44. It is sown in a natural body
and raised a spiritual body. The final contrast has, of course,
been in Paul’s mind the entire time. The diversity exists between
our natural bodies and our spiritual bodies. By natural here, Paul
means to refer to these physical frames of ours into which our
souls are placed at conception, in which we conduct ourselves
as long as we’re alive. It’s a vehicle. Our natural bodies, and as the
natural body ages, it requires sustenance and food. It may be injured. It may require
surgery and rehab. It has God-ordained limitations. And as we’ve seen, those were
all imposed upon our natural bodies because of Adam’s fall
into sin. Because of that, we sweat, we
feel pain, we become fatigued, we falter, and we may even die. But like the seeds of a plant,
we don’t always live in such a state. Our bodies will one
day be transformed in the resurrection to a new and different state,
a different substance. Our bodies will be transformed
into a spiritual state, Paul says. Our souls will come to
reside in spiritual bodies. Paul doesn’t provide much in
the way of detail about the particulars of what is a spiritual body other
than what he says in these two previous verses. that the spiritual
body is imperishable, glorified, and with divine power. So let me just say that by spiritual,
Paul is not suggesting here that we will be in some manner ghosts
hovering about the galaxies. Spiritual beings in that sense,
that’s silly. A spiritual body in that sense
would be a contradiction of terms. He means here some kind of substance,
some kind of physical body, and it will be a body fitted for
eternity, not only in its durability, but also fit for its eternal
function, the everlasting worship of our Savior. Just as our bodies
function appropriately here on earth, we take in the oxygen,
we take in nutrients, we endure the cold and the heat, so also
our spiritual bodies will be perfectly fitted for the spiritual
realm in heaven. Philippians 3 says it this way,
our citizenship is in heaven from which we also eagerly await
a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, who will transform the body of
our humble state into conformity with the body of His glory. What
a great promise that is to God’s people. So the Lord is going
to change our bodies, not our natures, not our hearts, he’s
already begun and will complete that work. The focus here is
our physical body, not our moral nature, not our spirit, not our
hearts. He’s going to change. He’s going
to transform us in a glorious way. Our physical bodies, what
Paul refers here to, the body of our humble state. Whereas
now our bodies are subject to the effects of sin, suffering,
weakness, illness, even death, one day the Lord is going to
transform, refashion this body. Paul makes the same exact point
in verses 44 through 46. If you would turn to point number
two, look at the middle of verse 44 there. Not only are there
diversities between our dying body and our resurrected body,
there are distinctions between our natural and our spiritual
bodies. Look at the middle of verse 44.
If there is a natural body, there is also a spiritual body. Paul presents this just like
a logical, fact there, having introduced the topic of a natural
body and a spiritual body, Paul here in the remainder of verse
44 all the way down through verse 46 expands upon these concepts. He draws here on the distinctions
between natural and spiritual bodies. There are not only diversities
between our dying and resurrected bodies, there are distinctions
between our natural and our spiritual bodies. The bodies we possess
were designed for life in this world. And I take Paul to mean
here that not only would our physical bodies not serve us
in heaven, neither would our spiritual bodies be of use to
us here on earth. The natural body demands a spiritual
equivalent in heaven, a body specifically fitted to that spiritual
realm. And Paul says it forcefully here. If there is the one, there must
be the other. Just as we could not function
in heaven with these clunky, dilapidated, inefficient vehicles,
there must be a spiritual equivalence. for eternal use, and this idea
Paul supports by a citation from Moses, from Moses’ creation account
in Genesis 2.7. The first man, Adam, became a
living soul. He refers to Adam as the first
man, which immediately suggests that there will be a second.
And the bottom line here is that Adam did no more than lie there. as a gathered up lump of dirt
until God breathed life into his nostrils. But at this point,
he became a living being, as Moses puts it, a living soul,
as Paul has it here. But the life of the second man,
to which Paul alludes, was quite distinct. So distinct that Paul
can only refer to him as the last Adam. For there will be
no other.” In Romans 5, as we reviewed a
few weeks ago, Paul offsets these two men, Adam and Christ. But
there, Adam is presented as the one who introduced sin into the
world. And Christ is the great restorer
of righteousness. That’s not Paul’s purpose here
in offsetting these same two individuals. The second man, Christ, did far
more than just lie there waiting for life-giving breath of God. Instead, conquering death and
the grave, Jesus Christ becomes a life-giving spirit. This is
quite a distinction. One brought death, the other
brings only life. The bottom line in this particular
contrast that Paul presents here is that between the natural body
and the one day to be transformed spiritual body, there is a great
difference. In his second letter to the Corinthians,
Paul speaks of this transformation as a process, and a process in
which, in one sense, the Christian is already experiencing. 2 Corinthians
3.18 says this, we all with an unveiled face, beholding as in
a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the
same image from glory to glory. We’re being transformed into
the image of Christ. By the way, here, that word that
Paul uses to speak of our transformation, listen to this, metamorpho, And
you heard it there, even in its compound form, morph, to change,
morpho. It’s the same exact word that
the gospel writers used to describe the change that Jesus underwent
when he was transfigured before them on the mountain. God will
transfigure us. God will morph us, God will change
us, God will transform us, and Jesus here is the model after
which we will be formed. What Paul says is we behold his
glory as in a mirror. We see Jesus in his glorified
spiritual state, and that becomes the pattern after which we are
formed. Paul says it this way in Romans
8, 29, he also predestined us to become conformed to the image
of his son. Likewise, the apostle John, we
looked at this verse a couple of weeks ago, we don’t have a
complete understanding of what a spiritual body looks like,
but 1 John 3 says, we will be like him. We know that when he
appears, we will be like him because we will see him as he
is. The cap to Paul’s point here
is in verse 46, not merely this distinction between natural and
spiritual bodies, but the order in which they are received. Paul
sets forth the natural first, then the spiritual, Adam first,
then Christ. Adam prepared us for Christ.
And Christ first in his incarnation and then in his resurrected and
glorified state. And for us, we have to be born
into these natural bodies before we can interface with Christ
and the gospel and then come to one day enjoy the blessing
of these spiritual bodies. Paul makes the same exact point
a third time, third way. In this contemplation of our
bodily substance, not only are there diversities between our
dying bodies and our resurrected bodies, there are distinctions
between our natural and our spiritual bodies. And thirdly, there are
differences between earthly and heavenly bodies. He speaks of
the same thing in a completely different way here. Look at verse
47, the first man is from the earth, earthy. I love that. He steers us into another means
of explaining this varied makeup of a dying natural body. This time his explanation centers
around the differences between earthy and heavenly bodies. And he’s still utilizing the
relationship between Adam and Jesus. And we know that because
it refers it again to the first man and the second man. The first
man, he says, is from the earth. The second man is from heaven.
Again, Paul is simply seeking for a new way to describe the
differences between these physical bodies and their spiritual counterparts. And here he employs the word
earthy. I like that. He uses the word
earthy to refer to the body in which Adam resided. The first
man, Adam, was from the earth, earthy. And in doing so, Paul
was not talking about the fact that Adam was formed out of the
dust of the earth. He was that. But there’s more
to that point here. Nor was it that he was a man
of the woods. You know, letting his hair grow
out, wearing Birkenstocks, skipping shampoo and deodorant, living
off the land, earthy in that sense. When he says here that
Adam was earthy, he points to the realm in which Adam resided,
that is, the earth. And his body was designed for
life there, and only there. Adam’s earthly body would do
him no good in heaven. And so the contrast is established,
and the difference that Paul points out is between that which
is from the earth, earthy, and that which is from heaven, heavenly. The second man, Jesus Christ,
is from heaven. He came from heaven. He has gone
on before us into heaven, where he reigns eternally. Paul expands
upon this contrast in verse 48, if you would just glance at it.
As is the earth, as is the earthy, so also are those who are earthy. As is the heavenly, so also those
who are heavenly. Paul’s point here is not enigmatic,
it’s not a big mystery, it’s plain to see, it’s not hard to
understand. Simply stated, those who live
on the earth are earthy. And those who would dwell in
heaven are to be heavenly. In other words, to live on the
earth, one must have an earthly body. To live in heaven, one
must have a heavenly body. It’s simple. There’s a vast difference
between the two bodies. The earthy will not do in heaven.
The heavenly will not do on earth. And this heavenly body secured
for us by Christ is not the flesh that Jesus acquired at his incarnation. Did you realize that? It’s not
the physical flesh. It’s the form of the body that
Jesus received at his resurrection and his ascension. Paul says
it this way in Romans 6. Therefore, we have been buried
with him through baptism into death, so that as Christ was
raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, so we
too might walk in newness of life. For we, if we have become
united with him in the likeness of his death, we will certainly
be in the likeness of his resurrection.” With that, Paul issues forth
an assurance here, a promise. Would you glance at verse 49?
Just as we have borne the image of the earthy, we will also bear
the image of the heavenly. There is no greater promise than
that. Paul is writing, teaching, ministering to a living, breathing
body of believers in the Corinthian church. And that would include
you and I. If you’re a believer in the Lord
Jesus Christ, this promise is for you. If a Christian can read these words
or hear them read, Paul is talking to them. And his assurance is
this, if you have borne the image of the earthly, if you have lived
in a human body, If you are living and breathing as a believer in
Christ, if your soul is currently incarcerated in the prison of
flesh, then rest assured, if that is the case, then we will
also bear the image of the heavenly. What Paul means is that if you’re
a Christian one day, you will lay aside the earthly vessel
of this body and you will put on the new heavenly version. Paul said it this way in his
letter to the Colossians chapter three. Therefore, if you’ve been
raised up with Christ, keep seeking the things above where Christ
is seated at the right hand of God. Set your mind on the things
above, not on the things that are on the earth. For you have
died and your life is hidden with Christ in God. When Christ
who is our life is revealed, then you also will be revealed
with him in glory. Would you humble yourself in
prayer before him? Our merciful God, we thank you. We thank you for revealing to
us the reality of these just feeble, weak, aging, wrinkly,
decaying bodies. Lord, we can read and understand,
and we know that to be true. Because of that, Father, we take
you at your word, that if there are dying, natural, earthy bodies,
then there must, according to your promise, be resurrected,
spiritual, heavenly bodies. Father, we rejoice in that this
promise is indeed for us for all believers. Lord God, in any
worship service like this. It’s almost inconceivable that
everybody in the room would be a Christian. If there are any
in our midst this morning who do not know the Lord Jesus Christ,
this promise can be theirs. Lord, this promise could be enjoyed
by anyone who places their faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, who
gives up this idea of working their way to heaven, that looks
only to the finished work of what Jesus accomplished on the
cross. Lord, we pray, do your work in
each person. Lord, for us, If we have placed
our faith in Christ, we do look forward. We see the reality of
our earthly demise. We see it every day. Lord, we
rejoice that one day we will be raised to be with Christ,
that we will be granted a spiritual equivalent of this earthly body.
And that we will enjoy eternity in heaven with Christ. Father, we thank you and we praise
you. We thank you for the richness of your word. We thank you for
its applicability to us. Father, we thank you and praise
you in Jesus’ name, amen.