Bible Reading for June 23 – I Corinthians 15:35-58

What will life be like when Jesus returns? While we’ve all heard well-intentioned speculation on this question at funerals, the fact is that we can’t be sure that the new heavens and the new earth will include all our favorite pastimes – golfing, boating, fishing, or hunting. In fact, we can’t be sure exactly what new abilities we’ll have – just because the resurrected Jesus was able to appear in a room with locked doors (John 20:19) and able to know where to find fish in the Sea of Galilee (John 21:6) doesn’t mean we’ll be able to do those things. After all, He is the Son of God.

But Paul insists that our resurrected bodies will in fact be like the one Jesus had when He walked out of His tomb on the third day. We will be changed (v. 51), and we will bear the image of Jesus instead of the image of Adam (v. 49). But exactly what our new spiritual bodies will be able to do remains to be seen (v. 44).

What we do know is this: we will still be who we are, but at the same time we’ll be completely changed. After all, a kernel of wheat and a stalk of wheat have the same DNA inside them – they’re thus made of the same essential stuff. But while the kernel is tiny and hard, the plant is tall and leafy and green – they don’t look anything alike (v. 37). Perhaps this radical change is why the disciples had a hard time recognizing the resurrected Christ at first (John 21:12). But the fact that Jesus’ resurrected body still bears the scars of His crucifixion (John 20:27) proves that He is still the same Person.

Of course, there is one characteristic of our spiritual bodies of which we can be certain – they will live forever with Jesus. They will no longer be able to perish, but will be immortal (v. 53). On the day that Christ returns, death itself will be destroyed (v. 26), along with the sin and rebellion that caused it (v. 56). On the day that Christ returns, those who love and trust Him will never again be separated from Him in any way, for any reason.

So, what will we be like when Jesus returns? When the trumpet sounds, we will be changed, wonderfully changed. Come, Lord Jesus.

I Corinthians 15:35-58 (ESV)

35 But someone will ask, “How are the dead raised? With what kind of body do they come?”
36 You foolish person! What you sow does not come to life unless it dies.
37 And what you sow is not the body that is to be, but a bare kernel, 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.
39 For not all flesh is the same, but there is one kind for humans, another for animals, another for birds, and another for fish.
40 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.
41 There is one glory of the sun, and another glory of the moon, and another glory of the stars; for star differs from star in glory.
42 So is it 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 natural body; it is raised a spiritual body. If there is a natural 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 natural, 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 also are those who are of the dust, and as is the man of heaven, so also are those who are of heaven.
49 Just as we have borne the image of the man of dust, we shall also bear the image of the man of heaven.
50 I tell you this, brothers: flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God, nor does the perishable inherit the imperishable.
51 Behold! I tell you a mystery. We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed,
52 in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised imperishable, and we shall be changed.
53 For this perishable body must put on the imperishable, and this mortal body must put on immortality.
54 When the perishable puts on the imperishable, and the mortal puts on immortality, then shall come to pass the saying that is written: “Death is swallowed up in victory.”
55 “O death, where is your victory? O death, where is your sting?”
56 The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law.
57 But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.
58 Therefore, my beloved brothers, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that in the Lord your labor is not in vain.