About this sermon
The resurrection of Christ, the firstfruits, guarantees the resurrection of those who belong to him. Every human being bears the image of the first Adam, a man of dust, frail and mortal. Believers will bear the image of the last Adam, the man of heaven, raised in a body that is imperishable, glorious, and powerful. The whole creation groans with them, waiting for that day. The hope of seeing one another again in the resurrection is true, and it satisfies the deepest longing of the human heart.
Sermon transcript
Our scripture reading this evening comes from 1 Corinthians chapter 15. 1 Corinthians 15. We will begin at verse 20 in our reading tonight. This is the word of God. Let us give attention to it. But in fact, Christ has been raised from the dead, the first fruits of those who have fallen asleep. For as by a man came death, by a man has come also the resurrection of the dead. For as in Adam all died, so also in Christ shall all be made alive, but each in his own order. Christ the firstfruits, then at his coming, those who belong to Christ.
Then comes the end, when he delivers the kingdom to God the Father, after destroying every rule and every authority and power. For he must reign until he has put all his enemies under his feet. The last enemy to be destroyed is death. For God has put all things in subjection under his feet.
But when it says all things are put in subjection, it is plain that he is accepted who put all things in subjection under him. When all things are subjected to him, then the son himself will also be subjected to him who put all things in subjection under him, that God may be all in all. Otherwise, what do people mean by being baptized on behalf of the dead? If the dead are not raised at all, why are people baptized on their behalf?
Why are we in danger every hour? I protest, brothers, by my pride in you, which I have in Christ Jesus our Lord. I die every day. What do I gain if, humanly speaking, I fought with beasts at Ephesus? If the dead are not raised, let us eat and drink, for tomorrow we die. Do not be deceived. Bad company ruins good morals. Wake up from your drunken stupor, as is right, and do not go on sinning. For some have no knowledge of God. I say this to your shame.
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, another glory of the stars, for star differs from star in glory.
So it is 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 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.
The grass withers and the flower fades, but the word of God abides forever. Let us pray. We praise you, O Lord, that you are the author of all truth, that you are the God who never lies and never turns back on your promises to us. And so we pray that you would grant us open ears to receive these great and precious truths from you, that as we hear your voice, that we might be strengthened in the inner man to serve you more and more. In Jesus’ name we pray, amen. We’ll be focusing this evening on verses 42 through 49. Let me begin with a question.
What is the last step of your sanctification? Perhaps you might think when I overcome, finally, that last besetting sin. Or hopefully, for the sober-minded, you wouldn’t say it was yesterday when I achieved perfection. Or some others might think, well, when I die, when I put off this mortal body and am taken into the presence of Christ. But none of these is really the final step of sanctification.
Because you remember, sanctification involves a putting off and a putting on. Sanctification is more than, much more than being an upstanding moral citizen. It is about being conformed, shaped. into the image of Christ himself, of the new and last Adam. As our Shorter Catechism says, sanctification is a work of God’s free grace wherein we are renewed in the whole man after the image of God and are enabled more and more to die unto sin and to live unto righteousness. And so, have you ever thought about how sanctification encompasses both the inner man but also one day the outer man, our bodies?
I believe Paul’s writing here and his teaching indicates that the resurrection of our bodies is the final culmination and consummation of our union with Christ in his glory, that we will see him as he is, and as John says, we will be like him because of that. In Corinthians, sanctification is a dominant theme, isn’t it?
And it’s a very remarkable book because it’s bookended by the cross in chapter one, as Paul emphasizes, that true spirituality. is formed and shaped by the wisdom of the cross. And he ends his letter speaking of the resurrection of Christ. And as it were, the Christian life, the church’s life, is lived in between these two realities of the cross and the resurrection. And that in the meantime, we are being formed into Christ’s likeness. He says in chapter 2, we have his mind, we have the mind of Christ. In 1 Corinthians 3, he says being united to Christ means we have his spirit.
And as he goes through the book in various ways, we have the love that is poured into our hearts, the gift that the spirit brings. But he ends his epistle, he ends the book by speaking of spirituality, true spirituality, in terms of the glory of the resurrection.
Now, some in Corinth were evidently thinking, the resurrection, that’s too fleshly, that’s too bodily. Because isn’t it about escaping from our mortal bodies? Isn’t it about leaving the prison house of our created physical bodies? And to this Paul responds with a very emphatic no. In glory, we will have our bodies on that last day. They will be the self-same bodies, but renewed, recreated, renovated, so that they will be shaped according to the kingdom of God in all its consummation reality.
And so he tells the church, he exhorts the church to hold on to that hope. Because, in fact, to give up the promise of the resurrection is to give up the whole faith. He says in verses, 16 through 19. If the dead are not raised, not even Christ has been raised. So if you call into question the whole idea of the resurrection, you obviously undermine Christ’s own resurrection. And if Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile and you are still in your sins. Without the resurrection, he says, we are the most pitied, pitiful of all people, if it is not true. But because it is true, we are to have this great hope, this great hope that we will be conformed to Christ, the first fruits from the dead. So let us consider this evening how conformity to Christ will be ours in the glorified body.
Firstly, we must consider the frailty of the first Adam. Because before we’re conformed to the second Adam, we share in the constitution and the makeup of our first parent, Adam. He writes, the first man, verse 47, was from the earth, a man of dust. You could say if you were to translate his name literally, his name was Dusty, Adam of the ground. And so the stuff of our bodies is the stuff of this present created order. Now, children, some of you might have heard one of your family members saying, you have your mother’s eyes or your uncle’s ears or your brother’s lips. There’s a family resemblance, we notice, but when you look at all of humanity, we all share a family resemblance, don’t we, to our first parent, Adam. We’re made of the dust of the ground. And we only are alive because of God’s life-giving breath that he made and gave to Adam. We are a dusty people sharing in the image of the man of dust. Verse 49, we have borne the image of the man of dust. And so what he is speaking of here, and this is important to remember, that when he speaks of the body being sown, He’s not speaking of corpses, of dead bodies, but of our bodies now in this present age, as they were originally created.
So it was sown, firstly, perishable in verse 42. Perishable. Our bodies are liable to falling apart. Even Adam’s body was not his permanent, it was not an eternal body. It had, you could say, an expiration date. And by our very natures, we cannot last forever. Now, as a result of sin and the entrance of the curse, The progress of entropy and the fact that things tend to fall apart goes very quickly. Old houses, old cars, old clothes. We know the perishability of so much around us. And we know the perishability of our own bodies.
But secondly, he says, it is sown in dishonor. Probably better translated as sown in humility. Compared to the future, to the glorified existence, our present lives and the way we live now is humble in comparison. If you could think of in terms of clothing, we have not royal robes presently, but the clothing of a servant.
And this is what Paul is seeking to emphasize for the church. We can’t enter eternity as we presently are. We have to be changed. There has to be a renovation that we undergo. Notice as he says later in the chapter, I tell you a mystery, verse 51, we shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed. In other words, we will not necessarily all die because there will be those who are alive when Christ returns. But whether we are dead, asleep in Christ, or whether we are alive, what is the necessity? that we must all be changed from this present body and its perishability and its humility to one of imperishability and of glory. Next, he says, it is sown in weakness. It is raised in power.
How much do we realize this, the fragility, the constraints, the vulnerabilities of our present existence? How much we have to spend taking care of our bodies in terms of medicine and other treatments? And this is felt especially in old age, where the writer of Ecclesiastes so beautifully portrays life in the body, particularly in older age, when he says, remember your creator before the sun and the light and the moon and the stars are darkened and the clouds return after the rain and the day when the keepers of the house tremble and the strong men are bent and the grinders cease because there are few and those who look through the windows are dimmed. Comparing a body in poetic terms to a city that is But here we have the weakness of present existence and we know that to be true when we are sober minded.
But it is also a natural body, verse 44, a natural body of this present world order. But what is the comparison to? It’s compared to a spiritual body, which is to come. Now here is something we should all do, I think, when we read our New Testaments. When we read the word spiritual, we have a tendency to understand it in terms of not physical. And yet what Paul almost all, means all the time by this word is of the Holy Spirit. And so we should capitalize it, capital S, spiritual.
It is a body of the Holy Spirit, not temporary, but shot through with his fullness and with his power. And so the Apostle Paul tells the church, exhorts the church, to see how we are right now looking like our first parent, Adam, in his present form. in our present existence. And as Job says, we must realize that man, he will fly away like a dream and not be found. He will be chased away like a vision of the night. His bones are full of his youthful vigor, but it will lie down with him in the dust. In the dust.
This is true of all of us, and we must come to terms with that, that we cannot place our ultimate hopes in the continuation of our present lives, in our present bodies. And this is why it’s so crucial to see with the apostle in Romans 8 that the creation together with our bodies are longing for something better.
As he says in Romans chapter 8, Verse 19, the creation waits with eager longing for the revealing of the sons of God. For the creation was subjected to futility, not willingly, but because of him who subjected it in hope that the creation itself will be set free from its bondage to corruption and obtain the freedom of the glory of the children of God. All of creation In a way, shares our longing to be clothed with immortality. The creation, not through its own doing, but through our sin, subjected to futility. But notice what he says. Verse 23, not only the creation, but we ourselves who have the first fruits of the spirit grown inwardly as we eagerly await for adoption as sons. Adoption of sons in its final state. What does he say? The redemption of our bodies. This is the great object of the Christian’s hope. The redemption of our very bodies.
Because in this age, we realize so much is breaking down and falling apart. And if it was simply about living in terms of the first Adam, we would only waste away with no hope. But the reality in Christ is that though our outward nature is wasting away, our inner man is being renewed day by day. The resurrection has happened for Jesus, as we will see, and it’s significant for us, but our inner man is connected with that renewal, with that resurrection power. So right now, there are two principles at work within us. But one day what’s taken place in us by regeneration in our souls and our spirits will be true of our bodies as well. They will be constituted, imperishable, glorious, powerful, spiritual, we will resemble not finally the first Adam, but the last Adam clothed with his righteousness.
So secondly, see with me the splendor of the last Adam in our text. As was the man of dust, so also those who are of the dust, verse 48. 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. We will be sanctified in terms of our image bearing with Christ.
Now who is Christ in his resurrection? He is called the man of heaven. And he’s also called, as we read in our text in verse 20, the first fruits of those who have fallen asleep. Now, this is a very crucial. description of Christ. Because it says that while the resurrection for Jesus was unique, it was not an isolated occurrence.
In other words, there is a connection between his resurrection and ours, just as there is a connection between the first fruits of a harvest and the rest of the harvest itself. Now, we tend to think of first fruits perhaps as the fruit that first appears on a tree, for instance, in spring or summertime. But, in fact, if you think back to the Old Testament background, the offering of the first fruits, the feast that accompanied that, was taking the whole, what was part of the whole harvest which had come, taking the first part of that and bringing it before the Lord. In other words, the first fruits meant that the whole harvest had come. And so what’s very remarkable is that Paul is saying that when Christ is raised on the third day, when he emerges from the tomb as the last Adam triumphant over sin and death, that he does so and brings the whole resurrection to bear in his own body and the resurrection promise to us who are in him. He is the first fruits.
Children, if you’ve ever seen a train coming into the station, you know that when the first car of that train comes in, what follows right behind but the rest of the train, the rest of the cars? So with Christ, when Christ is raised, he is the first one. He is, as he says in Colossians 118, the firstborn from the dead. But right behind him, as our brother is the rest of the family, is the whole church.
He is the one who is not only the first fruits, but able to give life to our mortal bodies. Notice in verse 45, the first man, Adam, became a living being. The last Adam became a life giving spirit. The first Adam receives life as God breathes into him, mouth to mouth, nose to nose, that spirit of life. But Jesus now in his glory, in his resurrection, is able to breathe eternal life onto his people, into his people. And he becomes this life-giving spirit, the one who recreates us, fathers us after his own image. By a man came death, but by a man has come the resurrection of the dead.
We are conformed to him, yes, in his sufferings. And this is something Paul speaks of over and over again, that if we are to believe in Christ, we must share in our cross bearing and in his reproach. But we’re also conformed to his glory. In the Brothers Karamazov, after a series of many tragic events, you remember If you have read that, all the hatred and bitterness, all the tragedy that befalls the characters and the lives of the story.
And at the end, a bunch of kids ask Alyosha, the Christian brother, can it be true what’s taught us in religion? That we shall all rise from the dead and that we shall live and see each other again. And isn’t this a question that we all have in our hearts? Is it true? And the word of God says it certainly is. The resurrection is yes and amen because of our Lord Jesus Christ. We need to keep this before our minds and our hearts.
I remember the testimony of a dear sister in the Lord who was dying and she said, pray either for healing now, but even if it doesn’t happen now, healing will happen at the resurrection. And that’s what we should think of and how we should perceive and receive the news of glory, that it is going to be our final healing for sick and battered sinners for those who even lie in the dust.
We will be raised imperishable. the splendor of Christ and his glory not fading from us as we reflect his glory. We’ll be raised in splendor with no blemish or spot or wrinkle or any such thing in either our souls or our flesh. We’ll be raised in power, no tiredness or weakness. No more of the spirit is willing but the flesh is weak. Both will be in perfect harmony with one another. It will be finally a spiritual body. No more warring between the flesh and the spirit as he says in Galatians 5.
But now we will desire only that which is righteous and good in that day, the son of righteousness will rise with healing in his wings. And this is our great hope. And this is why we are able to say with the apostle that we count everything as loss for the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus our Lord. Knowing him, Philippians three, that we may share in his sufferings, what does he say? Becoming like him in his death, But when we become like him in his death, we will also become like him in his resurrection, that by any means possible, I may attain to the resurrection from the dead. Brothers and sisters, it is a certainty. We can be confident about it. Why? Because God has said, I am the God of Abraham, Isaac, and of Jacob.
He is not the God of the dead, but of the living. His word promises that we will be in full and eternal union and communion with him. That we will no longer resemble our first father, Adam, in his frailty, and yes, even in our rebellion, but we will be fully sanctified When he appears, we will be like him, for we will see him as he is.
As the hymn says, so are we now where Christ has led, following our exalted head, made like him, like him we rise, ours the cross, the grave the skies. Alleluia, amen. Let’s pray. We sing a new song of praise unto you for the work of newness and of salvation that you have wrought through our Lord Jesus Christ.
We thank you that he gave himself for our sins to rescue us from this present evil age. And that as the triumphant head in his glory and in his resurrection, he calls us to share in that glory and promises that we will when he returns. We ask that you might fortify us until that day, help us to persevere without expectancy, without longing, without hope, to be clothed with full righteousness and immortality, to see the face of our risen king. We ask, oh God, that you would forgive us our many sins, forgive us of our doubts and our unbelief, and help us to have that faith and that confidence before you, that we might live lives pleasing to you as we have this great joy. In Jesus’ name we pray, amen.
The sermon text provided above is derived from the sermon audio recording making use of generative tools. It has not been manually edited. While transcription tools have a high degree of accuracy, the output may include generative textual, punctuation, and/or formatting errors.