The Suffering Argument (29-32)

Paul now delves further into his logic about the Resurrection. Verse 29 is a difficult verse, but Paul uses the practice as a question. (There are hundreds of interpretations of this verse. I do not seek to offer any as the right approach; I just merely inject my own simple thoughts on the subject. Right or wrong, it is how I handle the passage.)

Paul's question was, if Christ did not rise from the dead, then why are some, in honor of dead believers, being baptized as some kind of an act of honor and remembrance? While Paul did not condone this activity, he used it as an example of faith—some people's faith in the Resurrection (29).

Paul then asked why there were those who possessed such faith that they were determined to endure constant danger if the Resurrection was a farce. No group of serious-minded men and women would live a life in constant threat because of the Resurrection if the Resurrection was a hoax (30-31).

Paul launched into explaining himself as an example of a person who suffered for the Resurrection when he could have just as easily claimed he had seen the ghost or spirit of Jesus. To claim to have witnessed the bodily Resurrection of Jesus put those who preached it in constant danger, and yet they preached.

Paul mentioned the threat to his life in Ephesus where he nearly lost his life in a riot because of his teaching of the Resurrection (Acts 19:21-41).

Paul then posed the question: why keep preaching if it is not true? If it is not true, then nothing is true, and he should begin to live like the Epicureans and pursue pleasure and as much ease in this life as possible. If the Resurrection was not true, then Paul knew there was no new creation coming, just a dark and empty end. Without the Resurrection, everything dies and ceases to be, so who cares what anyone does? (32)

Paul's Advice Concerning the Resurrection (33-34)

Paul then told the Corinthians not to be deceived; keeping company with people who were a bad influence and denied the Resurrection so they could live for pleasure would end up not only harming their faith but would ruin their morals (33).

Paul continued to warn the Corinthians to spiritually wake up and knock it off. They were drunk on lust and pleasure, and it was causing them to live unbridled lives, leading them to sin or miss the mark of their real purpose. Paul then laid down the crushing truth: some of them had no experience or relationship with God at all (34). The Corinthians’ trifling with the established truth of the Resurrection was leading them to lead lives without discipline. They were being deeply affected by those who were rejecting the Resurrection so they could live as they pleased.

Practical Questions About the Resurrection (35-49)

Paul then launched into the all-important material about how what is sown in this life and in this body will infect and determine the world they will inherit. The New Heaven and New Earth are seeded by what Christ's saints sow in this life. In Paul's mind, this included sowing their bodies for the Kingdom which was present but was also coming. What will be reaped in a body would be what was sown in their body.

The question Paul attempted to answer is: how are the dead raised or what will their bodies be like? Paul thought the tone of such questioning foolish for it was a mocking question.  

The Corinthians would have known about Jesus' resurrected body, so it was clear His resurrected body was different from His birth body.

Paul taught that you sow a seed but what the seed produces is much different-looking with much greater potential.

The seed put in the ground, a bare kernel, is not what grows but something much more glorious comes from the seed planted (35-37).

The kernel that comes from the ground is given a brand-new, different-looking body. The seed planted will determine the resurrection body which will grow from the seed. It will have a body God chooses (38). 

Paul goes on to define different kinds of bodies which were created for different kinds of beings: humans, animals, birds, and fish.

There were different kinds of celestial bodies with different kinds of glories: sun, moon, and stars (39-41).

Just like a seed is planted, buried as if for dead, it rises to a different kind of body; so does the human body in the resurrection. Paul was focusing on the bodies that rise to live immortal and forever (42).

Paul reminded the Corinthians that their bodies were indeed planted and buried broken, weak, and temporal; they were just the same raised to be fearfully powerful, bodies that are both material and spiritual.

Paul was now talking well beyond imagination for he described the body as being physical and spiritual at the same time, something none of the Corinthians had ever seen (43-44).

Paul picked back up on contrasting Adam, the first man, with Christ the ultimate Man and the first of the new creation. The first Adam became a living person and shared his nature with all of his children. The last Adam, Christ, is a life-giving Spirit. First, the natural body came, but it was just the seed form of the spiritual body to come (45-46).

Adam came from the dust of the earth as did the bodies of all his children. Paul then told the Corinthians that Christ came from Heaven and is resurrecting a body for us which will be made of Spirit and matter. No one can conceive how such an act will happen. The promise to those who follow Jesus is clear: while some will have bodies raised in flesh only to be destroyed again (John 5:28,29; Revelation 20:6), others will be raised with celestial bodies to live and thrive (47-49). Some bodies are raised as just flesh; some are raised heavenly. 

The Kingdom Fulfilled (50-57) 

Paul concludes this chapter with how this age will come to an end, how death will be swallowed up in victory, and how mortality will be swallowed up by immortality. 

The end will all take place in one sudden, amazing moment.

Paul began by acknowledging a secret that God had revealed: the word “secret” in Greek is more like a mystery. A mystery was not something unknown, but in the Greek, the word “mystery” meant a truth that was once not understood could now be understood. A secret or mystery in the Greek was not so much something just a few knew about but some truth hidden and then revealed.

The truth Paul was revealing was that not all would die but instead, their bodies would be transformed into a spiritual body before they had a chance to die. It would be a sudden event, a blink-of-an-eye kind of event. It would happen when the last trumpet is blown. Revelation talks about different trumpets blown throughout history to warn God's people of things God is about to do. Paul recognized that there is a final trumpet when those who are alive and follow Jesus fully will be transformed instantly and then those who were dead will be resurrected to live forever (50-52). 

Paul absolutely recognized that those faithful to Christ must receive immortal bodies, for the Scriptures of God promise such. Besides all of that, Christ Himself was the first fruit of the entire resurrected universe. 

In Paul's mind, it is an established fact that there would be those who are raised to life, some before they die and others after they die. Those bodies resurrected would be spiritual and heavenly bodies and would never die again (53-54).

Paul then combined two passages from the Old Testament into a quote (Isaiah 25:8; Hosea 13:14) to confirm the eradication of death through the Resurrection. He used this quote to show that even God's Scripture promises such. 

Death is to be swallowed up in the victory of the Resurrection and the poisonous sting of sin eternally removed (55). 

Paul explained that the poisonous sting that infected the body with death was sin, and what gave sin its power was the Law.  

The Law empowered sin because the Law created shame and guilt within the sinful soul. Humans cannot live with the pain and depression of shame and guilt, so they sin or fulfill their lusts to try to put shame to sleep. It all became one vicious circle of sin and shame (56) until Jesus. 

Jesus gave His followers the victory over sin and death by forgiving sin and ridding the human heart of guilt and shame which left the soul sick with depression and disillusionment. Then He took on death—what a victory (57).

Paul's Final Charge (58)

Paul called upon the Corinthians to remain strong and immovable in their faith and allegiance to Christ. They were not to sell out to those who mocked the Resurrection and distorted virtue by teaching that it didn't matter what one did in and with his/her body.

They were to, instead of being full of foolish doubts designed to license lust, work with joy for the cause of Christ, knowing everything they did in their body was sowing seed in the world to come (58). To plant their bodies in the Kingdom now was going to reap a spirit/material body in the Kingdom which was waiting for Jesus to destroy every enemy.