This Sunday we continue our series called The Body of Christ: Learning & Re-Learning How to Be a Christian. Indeed, we are nearing the end of this series as we get closer to the season of Lent! We began with the Spirit’s presence in baptism and Paul’s assertion that we are united in the Spirit. And as we followed Paul’s argument, we were (hopefully) compelled by his illustrations of the diversity of the body. We were reminded of our physical presence. But this week, we are reminded that we are not only physical beings!
1 Corinthians 15:35-38, 42-50 (NRSV)
35 But someone will ask, “How are the dead raised? With what kind of body do they come?” 36 Fool! What you sow does not come to life unless it dies. 37 And as for what you sow, you do not sow the body that is to be, but a bare seed, perhaps of wheat or of some other grain. 38 But God gives it a body as he has chosen, and to each kind of seed its own body.
42 So it is with the resurrection of the dead. What is sown is perishable, what is raised is imperishable. 43 It is sown in dishonor, it is raised in glory. It is sown in weakness, it is raised in power. 44 It is sown a physical body, it is raised a spiritual body. If there is a physical body, there is also a spiritual body. 45 Thus it is written, “The first man, Adam, became a living being”; the last Adam became a life-giving spirit. 46 But it is not the spiritual that is first, but the physical, and then the spiritual. 47 The first man was from the earth, a man of dust; the second man is from heaven. 48 As was the man of dust, so are those who are of the dust; and as is the man of heaven, so are those who are of heaven. 49 Just as we have borne the image of the man of dust, we will also bear the image of the man of heaven.
50 What I am saying, brothers and sisters, is this: flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God, nor does the perishable inherit the imperishable.
Consider these questions:
- What question is Paul addressing in verse 35? What similar questions do you have or have you heard about the resurrection of the dead?
- How might Paul’s agricultural analogy of a seed “dying” help us understand how to envision how resurrection happens?
- The words “soul” and “spirit” can bring up a host of images and feelings. How do you understand these words in this context? How are they the same? How are they different?
- How does Paul’s analogy of the first man, Adam, and the last Adam (Christ) help us understand resurrection from the dead?
- What does Paul’s argument in verse 48 suggest about God’s work in us now?
- How does Paul’s promise in verse 49 give you hope? If it doesn’t give you hope, what does it say to you?
- How might Paul’s emphasis on the importance of resurrection give us a vision for what is and what is to come?