Bible Groups

Chapter 15

1 Paul now turns to a fundamental issue which has been raised by the Corinthians, although we only find the problem stated in v. 12, ie apparent doubt in bodily resurrection. The Greeks seemed to believe in some sort of continuity after death for the soul, as the embodiment of wisdom, but had little regard for the body, which they saw as a prison for the soul. Therefore belief in bodily resurrection seemed difficult: was it immortality for the soul only; or resurrection of the body as it was at the time of death, as some Jews believed; or simply that they were newly created at Baptism into Christ, but that was all there is (2 Tim 2:18)? Paul insists that he is only repeating the Good News, which he has already proclaimed to them, and which they have received, and in which their faith continues. The phrases “that I proclaimed to you, in which you in turn received” represents the basis of tradition: the Good News was spread by handing on what had been received, and only later came to be written down.
2 And it is the Good News which saves: providing you hold on to its truth, salvation is on offer to you. It is not just a message about Jesus, the Good News has an effect - a salvific effect - it brings about a change in you which can lead to salvation. But if you do not hold on to it, your belief is vain, of no effect.
3 Again the technical phrase “I handed on to you what I had in turn received”. Paul is passing on what he has heard - he was not an eye-witness. And the core of his message is extremely important, ie that Christ died for our sins (Cf Is 53:5). This principle of atonement is key (but often misunderstood!). Without Christ we could not bridge the gap between the creator and the created. Only Christ can make us “at one” with God. Not so much purchasing our freedom with his death as enabling us to cross the great divide. God consciously created us with free will - it was not an accident, he did not create fallen, flawed creatures. But it was probably inevitable that with free will we human beings would not always behave as the perfect creatures we were intended to be. Only with the help of Christ can we overcome our sinfulness sufficiently to face and live with our maker. The story of Adam is how the Jews came to explain our fallen nature.
4 Vv 3b-5 probably represent an existing credal formula: to be a Christian you must believe that Jesus Christ died, was buried, was raised, and appeared some followers after his death. It is the longest credal formula in Paul’s writings. Paul implies, but does not mention the empty tomb. But “was buried” shows the reality of Christ’s death. While there is support in the Scriptures for resurrection (Ps 2:7, 16:8-11, Hos 6:2), the third day is not necessarily foretold. In quoting the credal formula here, Paul does not specifically state that Christ was raised “from the dead” (see v. 12), as does our more traditional formula.
5 Paul lists some of those to whom the risen Lord appeared. Some are not mentioned elsewhere, and some others Paul does not mention, eg the appearances to the women. But Paul writes in careful structures, and it may be that his selection is to match his structure of two triplets: first Cephas, then the twelve, then to more than 500; then James, all the apostles, then to Paul. This list is important because it is the only statement about Jesus’ post-resurrection appearances by an eye-witness. Note that “the twelve” is distinguished from all the apostles - not just to support Paul’s claim to be an apostle, but also because several others were called “apostles” in the NT. Perhaps we should try to refer to “the twelve” in that way, rather than as “the 12 Apostles”. No appearance to Peter/Cephas is recorded elsewhere, but Peter may have encouraged to see the Lord after fleeing from Calvary.
6 Neither is there any other record of an appearance to “more than 500", but the important point is that many of these witnesses are still alive and so can confirm what Paul is saying.
7 Presumably this was James the brother of the Lord, and encouraged him to assume responsibility for the Jerusalem Church, after taking no part in Jesus’ ministry before his death.
8 Last of all was the appearance to Paul - perhaps implying that there were no more appearances. Paul’s description of himself is almost as the result of a miscarriage or abortion, and he was reputed to be not good looking!
9 The least of the apostles because he persecuted the church, not because he worked or achieved less - he certainly worked more than most, and claimed tom do so.
10 But because God gave him this grace, he has worked all the harder. But Paul quickly deflects the credit for his work away from himself and to God’s grace.
11 This complex and much quoted verse is also important: with all the other apostles, Paul teaches the same Good News, and this is what they have come to believe.
12 Paul now says what the problem is: some Corinthians have been saying there is no resurrection of the dead.
13 The crux of Paul’s argument is that if the dead - ie all dead in general - cannot be raised, then neither can Christ have been raised. Notice that for Paul Christ was raised by God, not by himself. Also implicit throughout this discussion is that Jesus Christ was fully human (in all but sin). Christ was not some not quite human being, who could die in some special way. A reverse syllogism: Men are not raised; Christ was a man; hence Christ was not raised. But Christ was raised. Therefore “men are not raised” is false (or Christ was not a man!).
14 And if Christ has not been raised, then we have all been wasting our time and efforts. And your faith will have no effect.
15 Indeed if Christ was not raised, we have been lying about God, a blasphemy.
16 Paul completes the argument: if the dead are not raised then Christ was not raised.
17 And your faith is futile, you are still separated from God by an uncrossable gulf. We are still in our sinful state, with no hope of salvation, ie of reaching our destined home with God.
18 And after death there is nothing - as many think. But there is something - and Paul refers to death as “fallen asleep”, to wake to a welcome from the Lord (Cf Jn 14).
19 And because we have hoped for more, we will be more to be pitied that if we had not believed - the disappointment will be all the greater.
20 Finally Paul almost trumpets that all is not in vain, in fact Christ has been raised. He is the first fruits, the token part of the harvest representing the consecration of the whole harvest, and implying that there will be a harvest - all can be raised from the dead, as Christ was.
21 Paul now compares Christ to Adam. Adam stands for the archetypal human being, who fell from perfection, and we all inherit that imperfection.
22 Christ enables all human beings to overcome that imperfection. Note that we all inherit Adam’s imperfection through our nature, but we are made alive again “through Christ” - salvation is available to all but only through Christ: we have to accept the offer.
23 Paul sees 3 stages: Christ raised first; then those who belong to Christ between Christ’s first and second coming;
24 Then finally all are subject to Christ, and He can then hand over the perfected creation to God.
25 Christ must reign and build his kingdom until all accept it.
26 Only then will death be destroyed, as the indicator of creation’s imperfection.
27 (Ps 110:1, Ps 8:7) All creation is subject to Christ. But of course this excludes the creator, since God is not part of creation.
28 When all creation finally accepts the reign of Christ, then Christ returns a perfectly ordered creation to God.
29 Paul now looks at some consequences of not believing in the resurrection of the dead. First an apparent practice of being baptised on behalf of the dead. We can only speculate what this might mean - over 200 suggestions have been made. Paul does not mention it with approval, merely as an example. But it perhaps suggests how strangely deviant were some of the Corinthian practices!
30 More to the point, why does Paul himself go on suffering and endangering himself - as he does - for the Gospel?
31 Metaphorically he dies every day - from fear, if not from actual bodily harm.
32 Why did he “fight the beast in Ephesus”? Not literally, as far as we know, but undoubtedly suffered much antagonism and occult danger (Acts 44) there. If the dead are not raised, we may as well enjoy ourselves feasting.
33 It is difficult to maintain good moral behaviour if those around you are undermining your beliefs. So shun them. “Avoid profane chatter” (2 Tim 2:16-18).
34 Sober up! Although this has been a philosophical discussion, it has very real implications: sin no more! Some of you have no knowledge of God - and the Corinthians thought they - of all people - did have knowledge of God. You should be ashamed that your knowledge is so poor!
35 An imaginary questioner poses two questions which follow once the possibility of resurrection of the body is accepted. Some Greeks thought the soul might continue after death, but not the body. Some Jews speculated about resurrection of our body with all its imperfections - and would we wear clothes? So Paul addresses these two issues: how would resurrection take place; and what would our resurrected body be like.
36 Paul’s response is very emphatic, even placing “fool” before “you” in the Greek: You should understand resurrection from the examples all around you in nature. A seed looks dead and nothing like the “body” that is given life by God, once the seed is buried in the soil where it dies. )He might also have mentioned butterflies coming from a caterpillar chrysalis).
37 What is sown is nothing like the body that follows sowing. It is not the new body that is sown, but something quite other.
38 It is God who gives the dead seed a new body, but its identity is retained. Not only the same species, but with all the genetic differences inherited from its parents.
39 Similarly each species in nature has its own type of body. Here Paul continues references to the various orders of creation on the 7 days from Genesis.
40 The “heavenly bodies” referred to here may be the bodies the Greeks thought their gods had.
41 Now Paul refers to the heavenly bodies as we understand the term: all the planets and stars have their own individual glory.
42 It is encouraging that Paul insists that we will retain our individuality afer our resurrection. Now Paul argues that our earthly bodies are not suitable for the live to come. Our bodies are perishable, so cannot exist in the eternal life to come.
43 Our bodies are without honour - when they are dead they have no citizen’s vote or property, but after death they will have glory. Our bodies are weak, especially after death, but after the resurrection they will have power. Cf “power and glory” attributed to Christ in the doxology after the “Our Father”.
44 The physical, earthly body must be distinguished from the spiritual body after the resurrection. It must be different, just as a star would not fit in the sea, nor a whale in the sky. But Paul is also saying that the very existence of a physical body implies the existence of a spiritual body, just as the seed implies the plant (Cf Jn 12:24) - perhaps continuing the idea from Genesis, where the Spirit breathed life into Adam.
45 From Genesis, the first man, Adam became a living being. The “last” Adam became a life-giving spirit: this must refer to Christ, who not only was raised to a spiritual body, but also gives the same life to us.
46 Although some Jews may have thought that the spirit came first, then our physical body, Paul says “No” the earthly body comes first.
47 Adam came from the earth, “dusty”; the second man, Christ, came from heaven. (Cf John’s Gospel: “In the beginning was the Word”).
48 We all inherit our earthly, dusty nature from Adam. But we can also inherit a heavenly nature from the man of heaven, Christ.
49 We are clothed in a body like Adam’s. So we can be clothed with Christ’s image.
50 To sum up: flesh and blood - a singular concept, not referring to the flesh as sinful, but simply our earthly nature - cannot exist in heaven. What will perish cannot inherit or live in a heaven which will not perish.
51 Now Paul reveals all: how it will happen is that we will all be changed. A new, spiritual body will replace our earthly body, but retaining our identity.
52 And it will take place in a flash, as quickly as a glance or blink of an eye. The last trumpet is that which the Jews sounded to announce a victory. All at once the dead will be raised and those still living will be changed. Paul here seems less optimistic than in Thess 4:13, written earlier, that he will still be alive at the second coming.
53 We must then replace our perishability with imperishability, our mortality with immortality.
54 Then Scripture will be fulfilled, quoting - with slight changes - from Isaiah (25:8) and Hosea (13:14).
55 Death gets its sting from sin: with the resurrection sin is conquered, and death - its consequence - with it. It is not just a natural happening, but a punishment by God.
56 But Paul adds that “the law” - any law is what convicts or tells us we have sinned. The law cannot save us, only point out our errors - and often tempt us to rebel simply be doing what is forbidden.
57 So we utter a heartfelt thanks to God for giving us this victory over death “through our Lord Jesus Christ”. Through Christ who led the way, and who is our Lord because he brings us this great benefit.
58 Paul ends with the warmest possible terms, “my beloved”, encouraging them to be steady, not flitting from one idea to another, but doing as well as possible the Lord’s work. For since Christ was raised from the dead, their work is not in vain - which otherwise it would be. But not forgetting that the Lord’s work is not easy - is “labour”. But in the Greek, Paul finishes the main body of his letter with “Lord”.

Paul's First Letter to the Corinthians

Chapter 15