1 Corinthians 15:50–58

 1 Corinthians 15:50–58

This passage is one of the mountain vistas of scriptures. It is a beautiful, hopeful, and powerful description of what we have in the resurrection. Paul is setting the picture of the resurrection to counter the false teachers who were saying there wasn’t a resurrection; see verse 12. The Greek understanding of the afterlife was profoundly dispiriting. The Greek mythology that likely inflamed and motivated the false teachers saw the afterlife as an existence, but only barely. It was an existence of shadow, powerlessness, madness, and frustrated anger. In this existence there was the shell of a person with all of their vitality, joy, and beauty removed. Paul holds up the magnificent picture of our resurrection as a reminder of our future.

Living or dead when Christ returns we will be changed. Rather than the degrading Greek mythology offered, we will be amplified and enhanced in Christ’s return. Rather than disembodied spirits floating around or shadows and wraiths, we will become more of who we are. The mortal life that is over and finished is covered by, overwhelmed by, an undying immortal life. That which decays is embraced by that which cannot decay; that is our future. Sin and resulting death that have been our terrors since the fall are utterly powerless. Death and sin, rather than monsters, are seen as powerless as a scorpion with no stinger, like a bandit suddenly so weak he cannot stand and his weapon not a sword but rather a rotten thread.

Why turn to follow these teachers that will tell you that you will be degraded into nothing when the truth is that in the resurrection you will throw off every weakness and frailty? We will regain everything that was lost in the Garden of Eden and gain even more. Death, rather than intimidating us, is in fact overwhelmed by the resurrected saint. Less powerful than a boring, mindless tyrant, it’s hardly worth noticing.

Paul concludes with a practical application of this amazing truth. He tells us to be steadfast; this is from the word “to be seated”; be at home in the truth. Next we are to be immovable; don’t relocate. We do not need a theological or spiritual moving van. Then he adds “abounding” in the work of the Lord. The word abounding means “overflowing to exceed the ordinary or expected.” Because our work in the Lord is of eternal significance, it is not building a shadow life to come but a real life.

“Lord help me to live and serve in the hope of the resurrection. AMEN”