2 Corinthians 6

2 Corinthians 6:1

The Government of Christ

The verses you just read actually form a sort of parenthesis. Some translations indicate that by putting this section in brackets. The verse next to this section, 1 Corinthians 15:29, is connected to the verse preceded by this section, 1 Corinthians 15:19. I will get back to that when we get to it. A parenthesis runs the risk to be overlooked, as if it is not that important. That is not the case with the Bible.

The parenthesis here, for example, gives an excellent overview of the course of history from the resurrection of Christ to the eternal glory, when time will have ceased. Though this parenthesis is brief, you feel how the radiation of the future encounters you. It is as if Paul has to stop for a moment from summarizing more arguments to demonstrate the foolishness of the error because he must first present the excellent and positive consequences of the resurrection of Christ.

1 Corinthians 15:20. After he had made the desperate conclusion, in the case that Christ had not been raised, the first verse you have read sounds like a cheer: “Christ has been raised”! He has been raised from the dead. That is quite different than if He had been raised out of the power of death. The latter means that He couldn’t be detained by death and that He was made alive again. This is how both the believers in the Old Testament and also the disciples believed in the resurrection of the dead. They believed that the dead, who died in faith, would be made alive again.

But when the Lord at a certain moment spoke about His resurrection from the dead, His disciples did not understand what He meant by that (Mark 9:9-10). What does it mean then that He has been raised from the dead? It means that He, of all the dead, was the only One Who has been raised, while all others have remained at the grave. He is called the First fruits, for He is the first Who has been raised with a resurrection body. Later others will follow. In 1 Corinthians 15:23 Paul continues his explanation. Those who will follow later are the believers, for there it is spoken of ‘those who are asleep’, and the word ‘asleep’ is only used for believers. That will also be made clear in 1 Corinthians 15:23.

1 Corinthians 15:21-22. But Paul, first of all, indicates what God means by the resurrection. The impressive thing about the resurrection of the Lord Jesus is that death has been conquered by a Man! Death also entered the world by a man, Adam. God said to Adam: ‘The day you eat of the tree of knowledge of good and evil, you will die.’ Adam was disobedient and that’s why death entered the world.

But now through another Man the resurrection of the dead has become a reality. It looked like death had the final say and that God’s plans could not be executed. No one has ever escaped the consequences of Adams deed, for all have died. [That, through the power of God, Enoch and Elijah went to heaven without dying (Hebrews 11:5; 2 Kings 2:11), is not included here, but it only confirms that God’s power is necessary to escape from death.] Opposite to Adam is Christ. Because Christ rose from death, all who belong to Him will be made alive.

1 Corinthians 15:23. Here you see that there is an order in the resurrection. There is no such thing like a general resurrection. The First fruits, Christ, has already been raised. All who, from Abel, the first believer who died, have died in faith, are still in the graves. That will be changed when Christ returns. Then He will call all up who are in the graves and belong to Him, from the graves, as He did with Lazarus (John 11:43).

1 Corinthians 15:24-25. Then He will establish His kingdom in this world and rule over it for a thousand years. That is not specifically mentioned in this section, but you can derive it from 1 Corinthians 15:24 and the verses that follow. What a wonderful time of peace and righteousness that will be. This period is comprehensively mentioned in the prophecies of the Old Testament. You also find sections in the New Testament that are about the public government of the Lord Jesus. After that wonderful time He will hand this kingdom over to God the Father. Then the end of all temporary things comes, and eternity starts.

With Him things have not happened like they did with all other rulers over the kingdoms of the earth, from whom the government was taken away by enemies or who handed their government over to other (failing) rulers. He will hand His kingdom over in an undamaged condition, purified from all evil, to God. His government is a fully righteous government that has no room for wrong. It is not possible for His enemies to enter into power anymore. They will be fully controlled by Him and they will never be able to revolt again. That is embedded in the expression “has put … under His feet”.

1 Corinthians 15:26. This doesn’t only apply to the earthly powers, but also to the last enemy, death, that will be abolished. Job called death “the king of terrors” (Job 18:14). Through death satan is still exerting his terror over all whom he keeps in bondage (Hebrews 2:14-15). Death will be entirely removed from creation at the very end of time only. Thus, also through the power of the Lord Jesus the dead unbelievers will be called up from the graves, wherever they may be, and be judged according to their works. That moment is poignantly described in Revelation 20 (Revelation 20:11-15).

1 Corinthians 15:27. Therefore there is not the slightest doubt about the predominating and eternal government of Christ: everything is put, without exception, under His feet. Still, it is obvious that when God has “put all things in subjection under His feet”, God Himself is not included. Therefore God is excepted from “all things”.

But still there is another exception from ‘all things’, which is a great wonder, and that is the church. This exception is mentioned in Ephesians 1 (Ephesians 1:22-23). There it is also said that God has subjected all things to the Lord Jesus, which makes the Lord Jesus “head over all things”. And, as you read there, it is in this position as ‘Head over all things’ that He is given to the church, “which is His body”. The church forms one body with the Lord Jesus. You have seen that already in an earlier section of this letter. Therefore, when the Lord Jesus reigns, He will do that together with the church, for a head and a body are connected inseparably with each other.

After the period that the Lord Jesus has ruled His kingdom perfectly and has handed the kingdom over to God the Father, then eternity can begin. In His millennial kingdom He, as Man, has fulfilled all the desires of God, without any mistake. The first man failed when he received the government over creation, but the Lord Jesus will show as the second Man how God purposed everything.

In all things He gives God the glory. He always did that and He will always do it. He did that when He was on earth in weakness as Man, from His birth till His death. He will do that when He, still as Man, will reign in glory and power during His millennial reign, when God subjects all things to Him. He will still do that when there is no mention of ruling anymore when eternity has started.

1 Corinthians 15:28. When it is written that the Son Himself also will be subject to God, then that is meant in relation to eternity. How should you imagine that? The Son is God, isn’t He? Is God subjected to God? This is an inconceivable mystery. The wonder of the Person of the Son consists of the fact that He is God and Man in one Person: He is fully God and fully Man. He was eternally God and became Man, without ceasing to be God (John 1:1-3; 14). The Son became Man and therein subject to the will of God. He fully accomplished that will. He became Man to remain that forever. As Man He also will eternally execute everything according to God’s will.

He, the eternal Son, became Man forever, “so that God may be all in all”. When that moment has become a reality, all plans of God are accomplished. The eternal rest for God has begun. The love and power of God have conquered in every respect on all areas. God may rest in His love. Everything that surrounds Him will be for Him and everything that is, will rejoice in Him. God will be seen everywhere and in everything and nothing else. All the desires of His heart will then be perfectly fulfilled….

Now read 1 Corinthians 15:20-28 again.

Reflection: What impresses you most when you think about eternity?

2 Corinthians 6:2

The Government of Christ

The verses you just read actually form a sort of parenthesis. Some translations indicate that by putting this section in brackets. The verse next to this section, 1 Corinthians 15:29, is connected to the verse preceded by this section, 1 Corinthians 15:19. I will get back to that when we get to it. A parenthesis runs the risk to be overlooked, as if it is not that important. That is not the case with the Bible.

The parenthesis here, for example, gives an excellent overview of the course of history from the resurrection of Christ to the eternal glory, when time will have ceased. Though this parenthesis is brief, you feel how the radiation of the future encounters you. It is as if Paul has to stop for a moment from summarizing more arguments to demonstrate the foolishness of the error because he must first present the excellent and positive consequences of the resurrection of Christ.

1 Corinthians 15:20. After he had made the desperate conclusion, in the case that Christ had not been raised, the first verse you have read sounds like a cheer: “Christ has been raised”! He has been raised from the dead. That is quite different than if He had been raised out of the power of death. The latter means that He couldn’t be detained by death and that He was made alive again. This is how both the believers in the Old Testament and also the disciples believed in the resurrection of the dead. They believed that the dead, who died in faith, would be made alive again.

But when the Lord at a certain moment spoke about His resurrection from the dead, His disciples did not understand what He meant by that (Mark 9:9-10). What does it mean then that He has been raised from the dead? It means that He, of all the dead, was the only One Who has been raised, while all others have remained at the grave. He is called the First fruits, for He is the first Who has been raised with a resurrection body. Later others will follow. In 1 Corinthians 15:23 Paul continues his explanation. Those who will follow later are the believers, for there it is spoken of ‘those who are asleep’, and the word ‘asleep’ is only used for believers. That will also be made clear in 1 Corinthians 15:23.

1 Corinthians 15:21-22. But Paul, first of all, indicates what God means by the resurrection. The impressive thing about the resurrection of the Lord Jesus is that death has been conquered by a Man! Death also entered the world by a man, Adam. God said to Adam: ‘The day you eat of the tree of knowledge of good and evil, you will die.’ Adam was disobedient and that’s why death entered the world.

But now through another Man the resurrection of the dead has become a reality. It looked like death had the final say and that God’s plans could not be executed. No one has ever escaped the consequences of Adams deed, for all have died. [That, through the power of God, Enoch and Elijah went to heaven without dying (Hebrews 11:5; 2 Kings 2:11), is not included here, but it only confirms that God’s power is necessary to escape from death.] Opposite to Adam is Christ. Because Christ rose from death, all who belong to Him will be made alive.

1 Corinthians 15:23. Here you see that there is an order in the resurrection. There is no such thing like a general resurrection. The First fruits, Christ, has already been raised. All who, from Abel, the first believer who died, have died in faith, are still in the graves. That will be changed when Christ returns. Then He will call all up who are in the graves and belong to Him, from the graves, as He did with Lazarus (John 11:43).

1 Corinthians 15:24-25. Then He will establish His kingdom in this world and rule over it for a thousand years. That is not specifically mentioned in this section, but you can derive it from 1 Corinthians 15:24 and the verses that follow. What a wonderful time of peace and righteousness that will be. This period is comprehensively mentioned in the prophecies of the Old Testament. You also find sections in the New Testament that are about the public government of the Lord Jesus. After that wonderful time He will hand this kingdom over to God the Father. Then the end of all temporary things comes, and eternity starts.

With Him things have not happened like they did with all other rulers over the kingdoms of the earth, from whom the government was taken away by enemies or who handed their government over to other (failing) rulers. He will hand His kingdom over in an undamaged condition, purified from all evil, to God. His government is a fully righteous government that has no room for wrong. It is not possible for His enemies to enter into power anymore. They will be fully controlled by Him and they will never be able to revolt again. That is embedded in the expression “has put … under His feet”.

1 Corinthians 15:26. This doesn’t only apply to the earthly powers, but also to the last enemy, death, that will be abolished. Job called death “the king of terrors” (Job 18:14). Through death satan is still exerting his terror over all whom he keeps in bondage (Hebrews 2:14-15). Death will be entirely removed from creation at the very end of time only. Thus, also through the power of the Lord Jesus the dead unbelievers will be called up from the graves, wherever they may be, and be judged according to their works. That moment is poignantly described in Revelation 20 (Revelation 20:11-15).

1 Corinthians 15:27. Therefore there is not the slightest doubt about the predominating and eternal government of Christ: everything is put, without exception, under His feet. Still, it is obvious that when God has “put all things in subjection under His feet”, God Himself is not included. Therefore God is excepted from “all things”.

But still there is another exception from ‘all things’, which is a great wonder, and that is the church. This exception is mentioned in Ephesians 1 (Ephesians 1:22-23). There it is also said that God has subjected all things to the Lord Jesus, which makes the Lord Jesus “head over all things”. And, as you read there, it is in this position as ‘Head over all things’ that He is given to the church, “which is His body”. The church forms one body with the Lord Jesus. You have seen that already in an earlier section of this letter. Therefore, when the Lord Jesus reigns, He will do that together with the church, for a head and a body are connected inseparably with each other.

After the period that the Lord Jesus has ruled His kingdom perfectly and has handed the kingdom over to God the Father, then eternity can begin. In His millennial kingdom He, as Man, has fulfilled all the desires of God, without any mistake. The first man failed when he received the government over creation, but the Lord Jesus will show as the second Man how God purposed everything.

In all things He gives God the glory. He always did that and He will always do it. He did that when He was on earth in weakness as Man, from His birth till His death. He will do that when He, still as Man, will reign in glory and power during His millennial reign, when God subjects all things to Him. He will still do that when there is no mention of ruling anymore when eternity has started.

1 Corinthians 15:28. When it is written that the Son Himself also will be subject to God, then that is meant in relation to eternity. How should you imagine that? The Son is God, isn’t He? Is God subjected to God? This is an inconceivable mystery. The wonder of the Person of the Son consists of the fact that He is God and Man in one Person: He is fully God and fully Man. He was eternally God and became Man, without ceasing to be God (John 1:1-3; 14). The Son became Man and therein subject to the will of God. He fully accomplished that will. He became Man to remain that forever. As Man He also will eternally execute everything according to God’s will.

He, the eternal Son, became Man forever, “so that God may be all in all”. When that moment has become a reality, all plans of God are accomplished. The eternal rest for God has begun. The love and power of God have conquered in every respect on all areas. God may rest in His love. Everything that surrounds Him will be for Him and everything that is, will rejoice in Him. God will be seen everywhere and in everything and nothing else. All the desires of His heart will then be perfectly fulfilled….

Now read 1 Corinthians 15:20-28 again.

Reflection: What impresses you most when you think about eternity?

2 Corinthians 6:3

The Government of Christ

The verses you just read actually form a sort of parenthesis. Some translations indicate that by putting this section in brackets. The verse next to this section, 1 Corinthians 15:29, is connected to the verse preceded by this section, 1 Corinthians 15:19. I will get back to that when we get to it. A parenthesis runs the risk to be overlooked, as if it is not that important. That is not the case with the Bible.

The parenthesis here, for example, gives an excellent overview of the course of history from the resurrection of Christ to the eternal glory, when time will have ceased. Though this parenthesis is brief, you feel how the radiation of the future encounters you. It is as if Paul has to stop for a moment from summarizing more arguments to demonstrate the foolishness of the error because he must first present the excellent and positive consequences of the resurrection of Christ.

1 Corinthians 15:20. After he had made the desperate conclusion, in the case that Christ had not been raised, the first verse you have read sounds like a cheer: “Christ has been raised”! He has been raised from the dead. That is quite different than if He had been raised out of the power of death. The latter means that He couldn’t be detained by death and that He was made alive again. This is how both the believers in the Old Testament and also the disciples believed in the resurrection of the dead. They believed that the dead, who died in faith, would be made alive again.

But when the Lord at a certain moment spoke about His resurrection from the dead, His disciples did not understand what He meant by that (Mark 9:9-10). What does it mean then that He has been raised from the dead? It means that He, of all the dead, was the only One Who has been raised, while all others have remained at the grave. He is called the First fruits, for He is the first Who has been raised with a resurrection body. Later others will follow. In 1 Corinthians 15:23 Paul continues his explanation. Those who will follow later are the believers, for there it is spoken of ‘those who are asleep’, and the word ‘asleep’ is only used for believers. That will also be made clear in 1 Corinthians 15:23.

1 Corinthians 15:21-22. But Paul, first of all, indicates what God means by the resurrection. The impressive thing about the resurrection of the Lord Jesus is that death has been conquered by a Man! Death also entered the world by a man, Adam. God said to Adam: ‘The day you eat of the tree of knowledge of good and evil, you will die.’ Adam was disobedient and that’s why death entered the world.

But now through another Man the resurrection of the dead has become a reality. It looked like death had the final say and that God’s plans could not be executed. No one has ever escaped the consequences of Adams deed, for all have died. [That, through the power of God, Enoch and Elijah went to heaven without dying (Hebrews 11:5; 2 Kings 2:11), is not included here, but it only confirms that God’s power is necessary to escape from death.] Opposite to Adam is Christ. Because Christ rose from death, all who belong to Him will be made alive.

1 Corinthians 15:23. Here you see that there is an order in the resurrection. There is no such thing like a general resurrection. The First fruits, Christ, has already been raised. All who, from Abel, the first believer who died, have died in faith, are still in the graves. That will be changed when Christ returns. Then He will call all up who are in the graves and belong to Him, from the graves, as He did with Lazarus (John 11:43).

1 Corinthians 15:24-25. Then He will establish His kingdom in this world and rule over it for a thousand years. That is not specifically mentioned in this section, but you can derive it from 1 Corinthians 15:24 and the verses that follow. What a wonderful time of peace and righteousness that will be. This period is comprehensively mentioned in the prophecies of the Old Testament. You also find sections in the New Testament that are about the public government of the Lord Jesus. After that wonderful time He will hand this kingdom over to God the Father. Then the end of all temporary things comes, and eternity starts.

With Him things have not happened like they did with all other rulers over the kingdoms of the earth, from whom the government was taken away by enemies or who handed their government over to other (failing) rulers. He will hand His kingdom over in an undamaged condition, purified from all evil, to God. His government is a fully righteous government that has no room for wrong. It is not possible for His enemies to enter into power anymore. They will be fully controlled by Him and they will never be able to revolt again. That is embedded in the expression “has put … under His feet”.

1 Corinthians 15:26. This doesn’t only apply to the earthly powers, but also to the last enemy, death, that will be abolished. Job called death “the king of terrors” (Job 18:14). Through death satan is still exerting his terror over all whom he keeps in bondage (Hebrews 2:14-15). Death will be entirely removed from creation at the very end of time only. Thus, also through the power of the Lord Jesus the dead unbelievers will be called up from the graves, wherever they may be, and be judged according to their works. That moment is poignantly described in Revelation 20 (Revelation 20:11-15).

1 Corinthians 15:27. Therefore there is not the slightest doubt about the predominating and eternal government of Christ: everything is put, without exception, under His feet. Still, it is obvious that when God has “put all things in subjection under His feet”, God Himself is not included. Therefore God is excepted from “all things”.

But still there is another exception from ‘all things’, which is a great wonder, and that is the church. This exception is mentioned in Ephesians 1 (Ephesians 1:22-23). There it is also said that God has subjected all things to the Lord Jesus, which makes the Lord Jesus “head over all things”. And, as you read there, it is in this position as ‘Head over all things’ that He is given to the church, “which is His body”. The church forms one body with the Lord Jesus. You have seen that already in an earlier section of this letter. Therefore, when the Lord Jesus reigns, He will do that together with the church, for a head and a body are connected inseparably with each other.

After the period that the Lord Jesus has ruled His kingdom perfectly and has handed the kingdom over to God the Father, then eternity can begin. In His millennial kingdom He, as Man, has fulfilled all the desires of God, without any mistake. The first man failed when he received the government over creation, but the Lord Jesus will show as the second Man how God purposed everything.

In all things He gives God the glory. He always did that and He will always do it. He did that when He was on earth in weakness as Man, from His birth till His death. He will do that when He, still as Man, will reign in glory and power during His millennial reign, when God subjects all things to Him. He will still do that when there is no mention of ruling anymore when eternity has started.

1 Corinthians 15:28. When it is written that the Son Himself also will be subject to God, then that is meant in relation to eternity. How should you imagine that? The Son is God, isn’t He? Is God subjected to God? This is an inconceivable mystery. The wonder of the Person of the Son consists of the fact that He is God and Man in one Person: He is fully God and fully Man. He was eternally God and became Man, without ceasing to be God (John 1:1-3; 14). The Son became Man and therein subject to the will of God. He fully accomplished that will. He became Man to remain that forever. As Man He also will eternally execute everything according to God’s will.

He, the eternal Son, became Man forever, “so that God may be all in all”. When that moment has become a reality, all plans of God are accomplished. The eternal rest for God has begun. The love and power of God have conquered in every respect on all areas. God may rest in His love. Everything that surrounds Him will be for Him and everything that is, will rejoice in Him. God will be seen everywhere and in everything and nothing else. All the desires of His heart will then be perfectly fulfilled….

Now read 1 Corinthians 15:20-28 again.

Reflection: What impresses you most when you think about eternity?

2 Corinthians 6:4

The Government of Christ

The verses you just read actually form a sort of parenthesis. Some translations indicate that by putting this section in brackets. The verse next to this section, 1 Corinthians 15:29, is connected to the verse preceded by this section, 1 Corinthians 15:19. I will get back to that when we get to it. A parenthesis runs the risk to be overlooked, as if it is not that important. That is not the case with the Bible.

The parenthesis here, for example, gives an excellent overview of the course of history from the resurrection of Christ to the eternal glory, when time will have ceased. Though this parenthesis is brief, you feel how the radiation of the future encounters you. It is as if Paul has to stop for a moment from summarizing more arguments to demonstrate the foolishness of the error because he must first present the excellent and positive consequences of the resurrection of Christ.

1 Corinthians 15:20. After he had made the desperate conclusion, in the case that Christ had not been raised, the first verse you have read sounds like a cheer: “Christ has been raised”! He has been raised from the dead. That is quite different than if He had been raised out of the power of death. The latter means that He couldn’t be detained by death and that He was made alive again. This is how both the believers in the Old Testament and also the disciples believed in the resurrection of the dead. They believed that the dead, who died in faith, would be made alive again.

But when the Lord at a certain moment spoke about His resurrection from the dead, His disciples did not understand what He meant by that (Mark 9:9-10). What does it mean then that He has been raised from the dead? It means that He, of all the dead, was the only One Who has been raised, while all others have remained at the grave. He is called the First fruits, for He is the first Who has been raised with a resurrection body. Later others will follow. In 1 Corinthians 15:23 Paul continues his explanation. Those who will follow later are the believers, for there it is spoken of ‘those who are asleep’, and the word ‘asleep’ is only used for believers. That will also be made clear in 1 Corinthians 15:23.

1 Corinthians 15:21-22. But Paul, first of all, indicates what God means by the resurrection. The impressive thing about the resurrection of the Lord Jesus is that death has been conquered by a Man! Death also entered the world by a man, Adam. God said to Adam: ‘The day you eat of the tree of knowledge of good and evil, you will die.’ Adam was disobedient and that’s why death entered the world.

But now through another Man the resurrection of the dead has become a reality. It looked like death had the final say and that God’s plans could not be executed. No one has ever escaped the consequences of Adams deed, for all have died. [That, through the power of God, Enoch and Elijah went to heaven without dying (Hebrews 11:5; 2 Kings 2:11), is not included here, but it only confirms that God’s power is necessary to escape from death.] Opposite to Adam is Christ. Because Christ rose from death, all who belong to Him will be made alive.

1 Corinthians 15:23. Here you see that there is an order in the resurrection. There is no such thing like a general resurrection. The First fruits, Christ, has already been raised. All who, from Abel, the first believer who died, have died in faith, are still in the graves. That will be changed when Christ returns. Then He will call all up who are in the graves and belong to Him, from the graves, as He did with Lazarus (John 11:43).

1 Corinthians 15:24-25. Then He will establish His kingdom in this world and rule over it for a thousand years. That is not specifically mentioned in this section, but you can derive it from 1 Corinthians 15:24 and the verses that follow. What a wonderful time of peace and righteousness that will be. This period is comprehensively mentioned in the prophecies of the Old Testament. You also find sections in the New Testament that are about the public government of the Lord Jesus. After that wonderful time He will hand this kingdom over to God the Father. Then the end of all temporary things comes, and eternity starts.

With Him things have not happened like they did with all other rulers over the kingdoms of the earth, from whom the government was taken away by enemies or who handed their government over to other (failing) rulers. He will hand His kingdom over in an undamaged condition, purified from all evil, to God. His government is a fully righteous government that has no room for wrong. It is not possible for His enemies to enter into power anymore. They will be fully controlled by Him and they will never be able to revolt again. That is embedded in the expression “has put … under His feet”.

1 Corinthians 15:26. This doesn’t only apply to the earthly powers, but also to the last enemy, death, that will be abolished. Job called death “the king of terrors” (Job 18:14). Through death satan is still exerting his terror over all whom he keeps in bondage (Hebrews 2:14-15). Death will be entirely removed from creation at the very end of time only. Thus, also through the power of the Lord Jesus the dead unbelievers will be called up from the graves, wherever they may be, and be judged according to their works. That moment is poignantly described in Revelation 20 (Revelation 20:11-15).

1 Corinthians 15:27. Therefore there is not the slightest doubt about the predominating and eternal government of Christ: everything is put, without exception, under His feet. Still, it is obvious that when God has “put all things in subjection under His feet”, God Himself is not included. Therefore God is excepted from “all things”.

But still there is another exception from ‘all things’, which is a great wonder, and that is the church. This exception is mentioned in Ephesians 1 (Ephesians 1:22-23). There it is also said that God has subjected all things to the Lord Jesus, which makes the Lord Jesus “head over all things”. And, as you read there, it is in this position as ‘Head over all things’ that He is given to the church, “which is His body”. The church forms one body with the Lord Jesus. You have seen that already in an earlier section of this letter. Therefore, when the Lord Jesus reigns, He will do that together with the church, for a head and a body are connected inseparably with each other.

After the period that the Lord Jesus has ruled His kingdom perfectly and has handed the kingdom over to God the Father, then eternity can begin. In His millennial kingdom He, as Man, has fulfilled all the desires of God, without any mistake. The first man failed when he received the government over creation, but the Lord Jesus will show as the second Man how God purposed everything.

In all things He gives God the glory. He always did that and He will always do it. He did that when He was on earth in weakness as Man, from His birth till His death. He will do that when He, still as Man, will reign in glory and power during His millennial reign, when God subjects all things to Him. He will still do that when there is no mention of ruling anymore when eternity has started.

1 Corinthians 15:28. When it is written that the Son Himself also will be subject to God, then that is meant in relation to eternity. How should you imagine that? The Son is God, isn’t He? Is God subjected to God? This is an inconceivable mystery. The wonder of the Person of the Son consists of the fact that He is God and Man in one Person: He is fully God and fully Man. He was eternally God and became Man, without ceasing to be God (John 1:1-3; 14). The Son became Man and therein subject to the will of God. He fully accomplished that will. He became Man to remain that forever. As Man He also will eternally execute everything according to God’s will.

He, the eternal Son, became Man forever, “so that God may be all in all”. When that moment has become a reality, all plans of God are accomplished. The eternal rest for God has begun. The love and power of God have conquered in every respect on all areas. God may rest in His love. Everything that surrounds Him will be for Him and everything that is, will rejoice in Him. God will be seen everywhere and in everything and nothing else. All the desires of His heart will then be perfectly fulfilled….

Now read 1 Corinthians 15:20-28 again.

Reflection: What impresses you most when you think about eternity?

2 Corinthians 6:5

The Government of Christ

The verses you just read actually form a sort of parenthesis. Some translations indicate that by putting this section in brackets. The verse next to this section, 1 Corinthians 15:29, is connected to the verse preceded by this section, 1 Corinthians 15:19. I will get back to that when we get to it. A parenthesis runs the risk to be overlooked, as if it is not that important. That is not the case with the Bible.

The parenthesis here, for example, gives an excellent overview of the course of history from the resurrection of Christ to the eternal glory, when time will have ceased. Though this parenthesis is brief, you feel how the radiation of the future encounters you. It is as if Paul has to stop for a moment from summarizing more arguments to demonstrate the foolishness of the error because he must first present the excellent and positive consequences of the resurrection of Christ.

1 Corinthians 15:20. After he had made the desperate conclusion, in the case that Christ had not been raised, the first verse you have read sounds like a cheer: “Christ has been raised”! He has been raised from the dead. That is quite different than if He had been raised out of the power of death. The latter means that He couldn’t be detained by death and that He was made alive again. This is how both the believers in the Old Testament and also the disciples believed in the resurrection of the dead. They believed that the dead, who died in faith, would be made alive again.

But when the Lord at a certain moment spoke about His resurrection from the dead, His disciples did not understand what He meant by that (Mark 9:9-10). What does it mean then that He has been raised from the dead? It means that He, of all the dead, was the only One Who has been raised, while all others have remained at the grave. He is called the First fruits, for He is the first Who has been raised with a resurrection body. Later others will follow. In 1 Corinthians 15:23 Paul continues his explanation. Those who will follow later are the believers, for there it is spoken of ‘those who are asleep’, and the word ‘asleep’ is only used for believers. That will also be made clear in 1 Corinthians 15:23.

1 Corinthians 15:21-22. But Paul, first of all, indicates what God means by the resurrection. The impressive thing about the resurrection of the Lord Jesus is that death has been conquered by a Man! Death also entered the world by a man, Adam. God said to Adam: ‘The day you eat of the tree of knowledge of good and evil, you will die.’ Adam was disobedient and that’s why death entered the world.

But now through another Man the resurrection of the dead has become a reality. It looked like death had the final say and that God’s plans could not be executed. No one has ever escaped the consequences of Adams deed, for all have died. [That, through the power of God, Enoch and Elijah went to heaven without dying (Hebrews 11:5; 2 Kings 2:11), is not included here, but it only confirms that God’s power is necessary to escape from death.] Opposite to Adam is Christ. Because Christ rose from death, all who belong to Him will be made alive.

1 Corinthians 15:23. Here you see that there is an order in the resurrection. There is no such thing like a general resurrection. The First fruits, Christ, has already been raised. All who, from Abel, the first believer who died, have died in faith, are still in the graves. That will be changed when Christ returns. Then He will call all up who are in the graves and belong to Him, from the graves, as He did with Lazarus (John 11:43).

1 Corinthians 15:24-25. Then He will establish His kingdom in this world and rule over it for a thousand years. That is not specifically mentioned in this section, but you can derive it from 1 Corinthians 15:24 and the verses that follow. What a wonderful time of peace and righteousness that will be. This period is comprehensively mentioned in the prophecies of the Old Testament. You also find sections in the New Testament that are about the public government of the Lord Jesus. After that wonderful time He will hand this kingdom over to God the Father. Then the end of all temporary things comes, and eternity starts.

With Him things have not happened like they did with all other rulers over the kingdoms of the earth, from whom the government was taken away by enemies or who handed their government over to other (failing) rulers. He will hand His kingdom over in an undamaged condition, purified from all evil, to God. His government is a fully righteous government that has no room for wrong. It is not possible for His enemies to enter into power anymore. They will be fully controlled by Him and they will never be able to revolt again. That is embedded in the expression “has put … under His feet”.

1 Corinthians 15:26. This doesn’t only apply to the earthly powers, but also to the last enemy, death, that will be abolished. Job called death “the king of terrors” (Job 18:14). Through death satan is still exerting his terror over all whom he keeps in bondage (Hebrews 2:14-15). Death will be entirely removed from creation at the very end of time only. Thus, also through the power of the Lord Jesus the dead unbelievers will be called up from the graves, wherever they may be, and be judged according to their works. That moment is poignantly described in Revelation 20 (Revelation 20:11-15).

1 Corinthians 15:27. Therefore there is not the slightest doubt about the predominating and eternal government of Christ: everything is put, without exception, under His feet. Still, it is obvious that when God has “put all things in subjection under His feet”, God Himself is not included. Therefore God is excepted from “all things”.

But still there is another exception from ‘all things’, which is a great wonder, and that is the church. This exception is mentioned in Ephesians 1 (Ephesians 1:22-23). There it is also said that God has subjected all things to the Lord Jesus, which makes the Lord Jesus “head over all things”. And, as you read there, it is in this position as ‘Head over all things’ that He is given to the church, “which is His body”. The church forms one body with the Lord Jesus. You have seen that already in an earlier section of this letter. Therefore, when the Lord Jesus reigns, He will do that together with the church, for a head and a body are connected inseparably with each other.

After the period that the Lord Jesus has ruled His kingdom perfectly and has handed the kingdom over to God the Father, then eternity can begin. In His millennial kingdom He, as Man, has fulfilled all the desires of God, without any mistake. The first man failed when he received the government over creation, but the Lord Jesus will show as the second Man how God purposed everything.

In all things He gives God the glory. He always did that and He will always do it. He did that when He was on earth in weakness as Man, from His birth till His death. He will do that when He, still as Man, will reign in glory and power during His millennial reign, when God subjects all things to Him. He will still do that when there is no mention of ruling anymore when eternity has started.

1 Corinthians 15:28. When it is written that the Son Himself also will be subject to God, then that is meant in relation to eternity. How should you imagine that? The Son is God, isn’t He? Is God subjected to God? This is an inconceivable mystery. The wonder of the Person of the Son consists of the fact that He is God and Man in one Person: He is fully God and fully Man. He was eternally God and became Man, without ceasing to be God (John 1:1-3; 14). The Son became Man and therein subject to the will of God. He fully accomplished that will. He became Man to remain that forever. As Man He also will eternally execute everything according to God’s will.

He, the eternal Son, became Man forever, “so that God may be all in all”. When that moment has become a reality, all plans of God are accomplished. The eternal rest for God has begun. The love and power of God have conquered in every respect on all areas. God may rest in His love. Everything that surrounds Him will be for Him and everything that is, will rejoice in Him. God will be seen everywhere and in everything and nothing else. All the desires of His heart will then be perfectly fulfilled….

Now read 1 Corinthians 15:20-28 again.

Reflection: What impresses you most when you think about eternity?

2 Corinthians 6:6

I Die Daily

1 Corinthians 15:29. After he had spoken from the fullness of his heart about the future government of Christ, Paul returns to his argument in 1 Corinthians 15:29, which he left off in 1 Corinthians 15:19. He puts forward a new argument to emphasize further the importance of the resurrection. That argument is baptism. It may seem far-fetched to you, but you will see how much baptism is related to resurrection.

Now, do you remember what baptism means? In Romans 6 you read that baptism represents a burial (Romans 6:3-4). Through baptism you show that you are buried with Christ, Who died for you. Someone who is buried, does not exist anymore to this world. By being baptized you make known that you want to follow the Lord Jesus right through a world that has rejected Christ. Baptism makes you a follower of Him.

If you want to do that consistently, you will be treated by the world just as the world has treated Him. The Lord Jesus has said that the people of the world have persecuted Him and that they will persecute His disciples as well (John 15:20). From the moment you are baptized, you do not want to live for yourself anymore, but for Him Who died and was buried for you.

You are not the first who has been baptized. I assume that you are baptized; if not, what is keeping you from being baptized? If you are baptized you’re standing in a long, long line of people who preceded you. All who have been baptized, form, as it were, an army that is in a hostile area. They all want to follow the Lord Jesus right through oppression and enmity. The world is still the area where satan has authority.

That will change when the Lord Jesus comes, as you have seen in 1 Corinthians 15:20-28. But in this time you can be sure that you are a no one, which means that you are despised and rejected. This enmity can even reach the point that believers get killed. This causes empty places in the army. How wonderful it is then when new followers of Christ are baptized and added to fill up the places and to join the army. You understand that I make this comparison with the army only from a spiritual point of view.

What does this all have to do with the resurrection? I suggest you read 1 Corinthians 15:29 carefully. There it is about believers who have died and about others who are still alive and are baptized. The believers who died, have ceased to follow a rejected Christ and to live a life of contempt and despising. Others, of whom you are one, have got to know the Lord Jesus, were baptized and filled the empty places. They now walk behind Him, while they take part in the contempt and the despising involved.

What advantage does that all have, however, when there is no resurrection? The prospect of resurrection persuades people to abandon an easy-going and pleasant life, and to choose freely for a way of humiliation and mockery. At the resurrection there will be a reward for all deprivation suffered. Then God will restore everything we have abandoned for His sake.

You can look at the Lord Jesus. He has, for the joy that was set before Him, endured the cross and despised the shame (Hebrews 12:1-2). In Hebrews 11 believers are mentioned who “were tortured, not accepting their release, so that they might obtain a better resurrection” (Hebrews 11:35). I would suggest you read the whole of chapter (Hebrews 11) in that light.

1 Corinthians 15:30-31. Paul was familiar with that too! He was talking about others in 1 Corinthians 15:29. In 1 Corinthians 15:30-31 he talks about himself. The conditions he lived in were far from rosy. He was “in danger every hour”, and said: “I die daily.”

That is not exaggerated. It was maybe in the eyes of the Corinthians and therefore he empowered his words by pointing at their boast. What did their boast consist of? What was it they were boasting of? Whatever they were boasting of it was something they surely received through the preaching of the gospel. Therefore their boast was his boast and which he had in Christ. In addition to that, he says “our Lord”. Here he connects the Corinthians to himself as submitted to a common Lord.

1 Corinthians 15:32. Paul had to face death very often. This is the daily pattern of life for one who follows his Lord and Master closely. To him who makes efforts to declare Christ in every way and at every occasion, there is no ‘end of work time’, no entertainment program with appetizers. Paul was constantly aware on which ground he found himself. To him this world was a temporary place. He had to go through it and he did that with a clear mission.

He expected to receive his rest and reward at the resurrection. As long as he had no part in that yet, his life was a struggle and a battle. The people who threatened him, he compared with wild beasts. They were cruel and rude people who wanted to see blood. What happened to him in Ephesus is written in the book of Acts (Acts 19:23-41). What you read there is absolutely not a small thing. Just imagine the case that thousands of people are revolting against you because you preached the gospel to them! Would it be a strange thing for you to fear for your life? People become like beasts when whipped up as a mass. Wars past and present prove it to be true.

But what is the advantage of jeopardizing your life like that when dead are not raised? Then you’d better enjoy life today, for tomorrow you may be dead. Even people who grasp out of life all they could, are quite aware that there will be a moment for them to die. The thing is, that they think that it will only be tomorrow and not today. They always think they can postpone this fatal moment. They think: ‘I may die tomorrow, therefore I want to get the most out of life today.’

1 Corinthians 15:33. That seems quite logical and it is when you do not believe that resurrection is a reality. But because there is a resurrection for sure, this argument is a deception. Do not be deceived! Do not listen to people who think and live like that. Do not associate with them! He who does, will fall into the same pattern of life like them.

1 Corinthians 15:34. The apostle warns the Corinthians to “become sober-minded”, which means not influenced by a certain spirit of thinking. More often Christians are called to be sober (1 Peter 4:7). People who live without God, fool themselves and others that they are sober. They keep both feet on the ground and they only deal with the things they can see, they think. If you believe, you are not sober, but vague, they argue.

Don’t believe a word they say. Those are people who “have no knowledge of God” and therefore do not consider Him. The reality is the other way around. He who is sober listens to what God has to say in the Bible and acts accordingly. Then you live how you supposed to and do not sin.

Having no knowledge of God is common to unbelievers. Here, however, believers are addressed. If this had to be said about us, we should be deeply ashamed of ourselves. This ignorance is no lack of knowledge of God due to the fact that you have only known Him for a short time. A child of God has an anointing from the Holy One and knows all (1 John 2:20). That means that such a person has received the Holy Spirit and therefore is able to sense whether something is according to the will of God or not, without the necessity of quoting a certain verse from the Bible. Of course you will read a lot in the Bible to learn more about God. The ignorance that is meant here, regards believers who should have known better, but who have gone astray due to associating with wrong people.

Take note of this word and do not associate with people, whether unbelievers or ‘believers’, who want you to believe things that are in contrast with what God has said. That will also keep you from a life that dishonors God.

Now read 1 Corinthians 15:29-34 again.

Reflection: Do you think that a life with the Lord is worthy of all the hardships that are described in these verses?

2 Corinthians 6:7

I Die Daily

1 Corinthians 15:29. After he had spoken from the fullness of his heart about the future government of Christ, Paul returns to his argument in 1 Corinthians 15:29, which he left off in 1 Corinthians 15:19. He puts forward a new argument to emphasize further the importance of the resurrection. That argument is baptism. It may seem far-fetched to you, but you will see how much baptism is related to resurrection.

Now, do you remember what baptism means? In Romans 6 you read that baptism represents a burial (Romans 6:3-4). Through baptism you show that you are buried with Christ, Who died for you. Someone who is buried, does not exist anymore to this world. By being baptized you make known that you want to follow the Lord Jesus right through a world that has rejected Christ. Baptism makes you a follower of Him.

If you want to do that consistently, you will be treated by the world just as the world has treated Him. The Lord Jesus has said that the people of the world have persecuted Him and that they will persecute His disciples as well (John 15:20). From the moment you are baptized, you do not want to live for yourself anymore, but for Him Who died and was buried for you.

You are not the first who has been baptized. I assume that you are baptized; if not, what is keeping you from being baptized? If you are baptized you’re standing in a long, long line of people who preceded you. All who have been baptized, form, as it were, an army that is in a hostile area. They all want to follow the Lord Jesus right through oppression and enmity. The world is still the area where satan has authority.

That will change when the Lord Jesus comes, as you have seen in 1 Corinthians 15:20-28. But in this time you can be sure that you are a no one, which means that you are despised and rejected. This enmity can even reach the point that believers get killed. This causes empty places in the army. How wonderful it is then when new followers of Christ are baptized and added to fill up the places and to join the army. You understand that I make this comparison with the army only from a spiritual point of view.

What does this all have to do with the resurrection? I suggest you read 1 Corinthians 15:29 carefully. There it is about believers who have died and about others who are still alive and are baptized. The believers who died, have ceased to follow a rejected Christ and to live a life of contempt and despising. Others, of whom you are one, have got to know the Lord Jesus, were baptized and filled the empty places. They now walk behind Him, while they take part in the contempt and the despising involved.

What advantage does that all have, however, when there is no resurrection? The prospect of resurrection persuades people to abandon an easy-going and pleasant life, and to choose freely for a way of humiliation and mockery. At the resurrection there will be a reward for all deprivation suffered. Then God will restore everything we have abandoned for His sake.

You can look at the Lord Jesus. He has, for the joy that was set before Him, endured the cross and despised the shame (Hebrews 12:1-2). In Hebrews 11 believers are mentioned who “were tortured, not accepting their release, so that they might obtain a better resurrection” (Hebrews 11:35). I would suggest you read the whole of chapter (Hebrews 11) in that light.

1 Corinthians 15:30-31. Paul was familiar with that too! He was talking about others in 1 Corinthians 15:29. In 1 Corinthians 15:30-31 he talks about himself. The conditions he lived in were far from rosy. He was “in danger every hour”, and said: “I die daily.”

That is not exaggerated. It was maybe in the eyes of the Corinthians and therefore he empowered his words by pointing at their boast. What did their boast consist of? What was it they were boasting of? Whatever they were boasting of it was something they surely received through the preaching of the gospel. Therefore their boast was his boast and which he had in Christ. In addition to that, he says “our Lord”. Here he connects the Corinthians to himself as submitted to a common Lord.

1 Corinthians 15:32. Paul had to face death very often. This is the daily pattern of life for one who follows his Lord and Master closely. To him who makes efforts to declare Christ in every way and at every occasion, there is no ‘end of work time’, no entertainment program with appetizers. Paul was constantly aware on which ground he found himself. To him this world was a temporary place. He had to go through it and he did that with a clear mission.

He expected to receive his rest and reward at the resurrection. As long as he had no part in that yet, his life was a struggle and a battle. The people who threatened him, he compared with wild beasts. They were cruel and rude people who wanted to see blood. What happened to him in Ephesus is written in the book of Acts (Acts 19:23-41). What you read there is absolutely not a small thing. Just imagine the case that thousands of people are revolting against you because you preached the gospel to them! Would it be a strange thing for you to fear for your life? People become like beasts when whipped up as a mass. Wars past and present prove it to be true.

But what is the advantage of jeopardizing your life like that when dead are not raised? Then you’d better enjoy life today, for tomorrow you may be dead. Even people who grasp out of life all they could, are quite aware that there will be a moment for them to die. The thing is, that they think that it will only be tomorrow and not today. They always think they can postpone this fatal moment. They think: ‘I may die tomorrow, therefore I want to get the most out of life today.’

1 Corinthians 15:33. That seems quite logical and it is when you do not believe that resurrection is a reality. But because there is a resurrection for sure, this argument is a deception. Do not be deceived! Do not listen to people who think and live like that. Do not associate with them! He who does, will fall into the same pattern of life like them.

1 Corinthians 15:34. The apostle warns the Corinthians to “become sober-minded”, which means not influenced by a certain spirit of thinking. More often Christians are called to be sober (1 Peter 4:7). People who live without God, fool themselves and others that they are sober. They keep both feet on the ground and they only deal with the things they can see, they think. If you believe, you are not sober, but vague, they argue.

Don’t believe a word they say. Those are people who “have no knowledge of God” and therefore do not consider Him. The reality is the other way around. He who is sober listens to what God has to say in the Bible and acts accordingly. Then you live how you supposed to and do not sin.

Having no knowledge of God is common to unbelievers. Here, however, believers are addressed. If this had to be said about us, we should be deeply ashamed of ourselves. This ignorance is no lack of knowledge of God due to the fact that you have only known Him for a short time. A child of God has an anointing from the Holy One and knows all (1 John 2:20). That means that such a person has received the Holy Spirit and therefore is able to sense whether something is according to the will of God or not, without the necessity of quoting a certain verse from the Bible. Of course you will read a lot in the Bible to learn more about God. The ignorance that is meant here, regards believers who should have known better, but who have gone astray due to associating with wrong people.

Take note of this word and do not associate with people, whether unbelievers or ‘believers’, who want you to believe things that are in contrast with what God has said. That will also keep you from a life that dishonors God.

Now read 1 Corinthians 15:29-34 again.

Reflection: Do you think that a life with the Lord is worthy of all the hardships that are described in these verses?

2 Corinthians 6:8

I Die Daily

1 Corinthians 15:29. After he had spoken from the fullness of his heart about the future government of Christ, Paul returns to his argument in 1 Corinthians 15:29, which he left off in 1 Corinthians 15:19. He puts forward a new argument to emphasize further the importance of the resurrection. That argument is baptism. It may seem far-fetched to you, but you will see how much baptism is related to resurrection.

Now, do you remember what baptism means? In Romans 6 you read that baptism represents a burial (Romans 6:3-4). Through baptism you show that you are buried with Christ, Who died for you. Someone who is buried, does not exist anymore to this world. By being baptized you make known that you want to follow the Lord Jesus right through a world that has rejected Christ. Baptism makes you a follower of Him.

If you want to do that consistently, you will be treated by the world just as the world has treated Him. The Lord Jesus has said that the people of the world have persecuted Him and that they will persecute His disciples as well (John 15:20). From the moment you are baptized, you do not want to live for yourself anymore, but for Him Who died and was buried for you.

You are not the first who has been baptized. I assume that you are baptized; if not, what is keeping you from being baptized? If you are baptized you’re standing in a long, long line of people who preceded you. All who have been baptized, form, as it were, an army that is in a hostile area. They all want to follow the Lord Jesus right through oppression and enmity. The world is still the area where satan has authority.

That will change when the Lord Jesus comes, as you have seen in 1 Corinthians 15:20-28. But in this time you can be sure that you are a no one, which means that you are despised and rejected. This enmity can even reach the point that believers get killed. This causes empty places in the army. How wonderful it is then when new followers of Christ are baptized and added to fill up the places and to join the army. You understand that I make this comparison with the army only from a spiritual point of view.

What does this all have to do with the resurrection? I suggest you read 1 Corinthians 15:29 carefully. There it is about believers who have died and about others who are still alive and are baptized. The believers who died, have ceased to follow a rejected Christ and to live a life of contempt and despising. Others, of whom you are one, have got to know the Lord Jesus, were baptized and filled the empty places. They now walk behind Him, while they take part in the contempt and the despising involved.

What advantage does that all have, however, when there is no resurrection? The prospect of resurrection persuades people to abandon an easy-going and pleasant life, and to choose freely for a way of humiliation and mockery. At the resurrection there will be a reward for all deprivation suffered. Then God will restore everything we have abandoned for His sake.

You can look at the Lord Jesus. He has, for the joy that was set before Him, endured the cross and despised the shame (Hebrews 12:1-2). In Hebrews 11 believers are mentioned who “were tortured, not accepting their release, so that they might obtain a better resurrection” (Hebrews 11:35). I would suggest you read the whole of chapter (Hebrews 11) in that light.

1 Corinthians 15:30-31. Paul was familiar with that too! He was talking about others in 1 Corinthians 15:29. In 1 Corinthians 15:30-31 he talks about himself. The conditions he lived in were far from rosy. He was “in danger every hour”, and said: “I die daily.”

That is not exaggerated. It was maybe in the eyes of the Corinthians and therefore he empowered his words by pointing at their boast. What did their boast consist of? What was it they were boasting of? Whatever they were boasting of it was something they surely received through the preaching of the gospel. Therefore their boast was his boast and which he had in Christ. In addition to that, he says “our Lord”. Here he connects the Corinthians to himself as submitted to a common Lord.

1 Corinthians 15:32. Paul had to face death very often. This is the daily pattern of life for one who follows his Lord and Master closely. To him who makes efforts to declare Christ in every way and at every occasion, there is no ‘end of work time’, no entertainment program with appetizers. Paul was constantly aware on which ground he found himself. To him this world was a temporary place. He had to go through it and he did that with a clear mission.

He expected to receive his rest and reward at the resurrection. As long as he had no part in that yet, his life was a struggle and a battle. The people who threatened him, he compared with wild beasts. They were cruel and rude people who wanted to see blood. What happened to him in Ephesus is written in the book of Acts (Acts 19:23-41). What you read there is absolutely not a small thing. Just imagine the case that thousands of people are revolting against you because you preached the gospel to them! Would it be a strange thing for you to fear for your life? People become like beasts when whipped up as a mass. Wars past and present prove it to be true.

But what is the advantage of jeopardizing your life like that when dead are not raised? Then you’d better enjoy life today, for tomorrow you may be dead. Even people who grasp out of life all they could, are quite aware that there will be a moment for them to die. The thing is, that they think that it will only be tomorrow and not today. They always think they can postpone this fatal moment. They think: ‘I may die tomorrow, therefore I want to get the most out of life today.’

1 Corinthians 15:33. That seems quite logical and it is when you do not believe that resurrection is a reality. But because there is a resurrection for sure, this argument is a deception. Do not be deceived! Do not listen to people who think and live like that. Do not associate with them! He who does, will fall into the same pattern of life like them.

1 Corinthians 15:34. The apostle warns the Corinthians to “become sober-minded”, which means not influenced by a certain spirit of thinking. More often Christians are called to be sober (1 Peter 4:7). People who live without God, fool themselves and others that they are sober. They keep both feet on the ground and they only deal with the things they can see, they think. If you believe, you are not sober, but vague, they argue.

Don’t believe a word they say. Those are people who “have no knowledge of God” and therefore do not consider Him. The reality is the other way around. He who is sober listens to what God has to say in the Bible and acts accordingly. Then you live how you supposed to and do not sin.

Having no knowledge of God is common to unbelievers. Here, however, believers are addressed. If this had to be said about us, we should be deeply ashamed of ourselves. This ignorance is no lack of knowledge of God due to the fact that you have only known Him for a short time. A child of God has an anointing from the Holy One and knows all (1 John 2:20). That means that such a person has received the Holy Spirit and therefore is able to sense whether something is according to the will of God or not, without the necessity of quoting a certain verse from the Bible. Of course you will read a lot in the Bible to learn more about God. The ignorance that is meant here, regards believers who should have known better, but who have gone astray due to associating with wrong people.

Take note of this word and do not associate with people, whether unbelievers or ‘believers’, who want you to believe things that are in contrast with what God has said. That will also keep you from a life that dishonors God.

Now read 1 Corinthians 15:29-34 again.

Reflection: Do you think that a life with the Lord is worthy of all the hardships that are described in these verses?

2 Corinthians 6:9

I Die Daily

1 Corinthians 15:29. After he had spoken from the fullness of his heart about the future government of Christ, Paul returns to his argument in 1 Corinthians 15:29, which he left off in 1 Corinthians 15:19. He puts forward a new argument to emphasize further the importance of the resurrection. That argument is baptism. It may seem far-fetched to you, but you will see how much baptism is related to resurrection.

Now, do you remember what baptism means? In Romans 6 you read that baptism represents a burial (Romans 6:3-4). Through baptism you show that you are buried with Christ, Who died for you. Someone who is buried, does not exist anymore to this world. By being baptized you make known that you want to follow the Lord Jesus right through a world that has rejected Christ. Baptism makes you a follower of Him.

If you want to do that consistently, you will be treated by the world just as the world has treated Him. The Lord Jesus has said that the people of the world have persecuted Him and that they will persecute His disciples as well (John 15:20). From the moment you are baptized, you do not want to live for yourself anymore, but for Him Who died and was buried for you.

You are not the first who has been baptized. I assume that you are baptized; if not, what is keeping you from being baptized? If you are baptized you’re standing in a long, long line of people who preceded you. All who have been baptized, form, as it were, an army that is in a hostile area. They all want to follow the Lord Jesus right through oppression and enmity. The world is still the area where satan has authority.

That will change when the Lord Jesus comes, as you have seen in 1 Corinthians 15:20-28. But in this time you can be sure that you are a no one, which means that you are despised and rejected. This enmity can even reach the point that believers get killed. This causes empty places in the army. How wonderful it is then when new followers of Christ are baptized and added to fill up the places and to join the army. You understand that I make this comparison with the army only from a spiritual point of view.

What does this all have to do with the resurrection? I suggest you read 1 Corinthians 15:29 carefully. There it is about believers who have died and about others who are still alive and are baptized. The believers who died, have ceased to follow a rejected Christ and to live a life of contempt and despising. Others, of whom you are one, have got to know the Lord Jesus, were baptized and filled the empty places. They now walk behind Him, while they take part in the contempt and the despising involved.

What advantage does that all have, however, when there is no resurrection? The prospect of resurrection persuades people to abandon an easy-going and pleasant life, and to choose freely for a way of humiliation and mockery. At the resurrection there will be a reward for all deprivation suffered. Then God will restore everything we have abandoned for His sake.

You can look at the Lord Jesus. He has, for the joy that was set before Him, endured the cross and despised the shame (Hebrews 12:1-2). In Hebrews 11 believers are mentioned who “were tortured, not accepting their release, so that they might obtain a better resurrection” (Hebrews 11:35). I would suggest you read the whole of chapter (Hebrews 11) in that light.

1 Corinthians 15:30-31. Paul was familiar with that too! He was talking about others in 1 Corinthians 15:29. In 1 Corinthians 15:30-31 he talks about himself. The conditions he lived in were far from rosy. He was “in danger every hour”, and said: “I die daily.”

That is not exaggerated. It was maybe in the eyes of the Corinthians and therefore he empowered his words by pointing at their boast. What did their boast consist of? What was it they were boasting of? Whatever they were boasting of it was something they surely received through the preaching of the gospel. Therefore their boast was his boast and which he had in Christ. In addition to that, he says “our Lord”. Here he connects the Corinthians to himself as submitted to a common Lord.

1 Corinthians 15:32. Paul had to face death very often. This is the daily pattern of life for one who follows his Lord and Master closely. To him who makes efforts to declare Christ in every way and at every occasion, there is no ‘end of work time’, no entertainment program with appetizers. Paul was constantly aware on which ground he found himself. To him this world was a temporary place. He had to go through it and he did that with a clear mission.

He expected to receive his rest and reward at the resurrection. As long as he had no part in that yet, his life was a struggle and a battle. The people who threatened him, he compared with wild beasts. They were cruel and rude people who wanted to see blood. What happened to him in Ephesus is written in the book of Acts (Acts 19:23-41). What you read there is absolutely not a small thing. Just imagine the case that thousands of people are revolting against you because you preached the gospel to them! Would it be a strange thing for you to fear for your life? People become like beasts when whipped up as a mass. Wars past and present prove it to be true.

But what is the advantage of jeopardizing your life like that when dead are not raised? Then you’d better enjoy life today, for tomorrow you may be dead. Even people who grasp out of life all they could, are quite aware that there will be a moment for them to die. The thing is, that they think that it will only be tomorrow and not today. They always think they can postpone this fatal moment. They think: ‘I may die tomorrow, therefore I want to get the most out of life today.’

1 Corinthians 15:33. That seems quite logical and it is when you do not believe that resurrection is a reality. But because there is a resurrection for sure, this argument is a deception. Do not be deceived! Do not listen to people who think and live like that. Do not associate with them! He who does, will fall into the same pattern of life like them.

1 Corinthians 15:34. The apostle warns the Corinthians to “become sober-minded”, which means not influenced by a certain spirit of thinking. More often Christians are called to be sober (1 Peter 4:7). People who live without God, fool themselves and others that they are sober. They keep both feet on the ground and they only deal with the things they can see, they think. If you believe, you are not sober, but vague, they argue.

Don’t believe a word they say. Those are people who “have no knowledge of God” and therefore do not consider Him. The reality is the other way around. He who is sober listens to what God has to say in the Bible and acts accordingly. Then you live how you supposed to and do not sin.

Having no knowledge of God is common to unbelievers. Here, however, believers are addressed. If this had to be said about us, we should be deeply ashamed of ourselves. This ignorance is no lack of knowledge of God due to the fact that you have only known Him for a short time. A child of God has an anointing from the Holy One and knows all (1 John 2:20). That means that such a person has received the Holy Spirit and therefore is able to sense whether something is according to the will of God or not, without the necessity of quoting a certain verse from the Bible. Of course you will read a lot in the Bible to learn more about God. The ignorance that is meant here, regards believers who should have known better, but who have gone astray due to associating with wrong people.

Take note of this word and do not associate with people, whether unbelievers or ‘believers’, who want you to believe things that are in contrast with what God has said. That will also keep you from a life that dishonors God.

Now read 1 Corinthians 15:29-34 again.

Reflection: Do you think that a life with the Lord is worthy of all the hardships that are described in these verses?

2 Corinthians 6:10

I Die Daily

1 Corinthians 15:29. After he had spoken from the fullness of his heart about the future government of Christ, Paul returns to his argument in 1 Corinthians 15:29, which he left off in 1 Corinthians 15:19. He puts forward a new argument to emphasize further the importance of the resurrection. That argument is baptism. It may seem far-fetched to you, but you will see how much baptism is related to resurrection.

Now, do you remember what baptism means? In Romans 6 you read that baptism represents a burial (Romans 6:3-4). Through baptism you show that you are buried with Christ, Who died for you. Someone who is buried, does not exist anymore to this world. By being baptized you make known that you want to follow the Lord Jesus right through a world that has rejected Christ. Baptism makes you a follower of Him.

If you want to do that consistently, you will be treated by the world just as the world has treated Him. The Lord Jesus has said that the people of the world have persecuted Him and that they will persecute His disciples as well (John 15:20). From the moment you are baptized, you do not want to live for yourself anymore, but for Him Who died and was buried for you.

You are not the first who has been baptized. I assume that you are baptized; if not, what is keeping you from being baptized? If you are baptized you’re standing in a long, long line of people who preceded you. All who have been baptized, form, as it were, an army that is in a hostile area. They all want to follow the Lord Jesus right through oppression and enmity. The world is still the area where satan has authority.

That will change when the Lord Jesus comes, as you have seen in 1 Corinthians 15:20-28. But in this time you can be sure that you are a no one, which means that you are despised and rejected. This enmity can even reach the point that believers get killed. This causes empty places in the army. How wonderful it is then when new followers of Christ are baptized and added to fill up the places and to join the army. You understand that I make this comparison with the army only from a spiritual point of view.

What does this all have to do with the resurrection? I suggest you read 1 Corinthians 15:29 carefully. There it is about believers who have died and about others who are still alive and are baptized. The believers who died, have ceased to follow a rejected Christ and to live a life of contempt and despising. Others, of whom you are one, have got to know the Lord Jesus, were baptized and filled the empty places. They now walk behind Him, while they take part in the contempt and the despising involved.

What advantage does that all have, however, when there is no resurrection? The prospect of resurrection persuades people to abandon an easy-going and pleasant life, and to choose freely for a way of humiliation and mockery. At the resurrection there will be a reward for all deprivation suffered. Then God will restore everything we have abandoned for His sake.

You can look at the Lord Jesus. He has, for the joy that was set before Him, endured the cross and despised the shame (Hebrews 12:1-2). In Hebrews 11 believers are mentioned who “were tortured, not accepting their release, so that they might obtain a better resurrection” (Hebrews 11:35). I would suggest you read the whole of chapter (Hebrews 11) in that light.

1 Corinthians 15:30-31. Paul was familiar with that too! He was talking about others in 1 Corinthians 15:29. In 1 Corinthians 15:30-31 he talks about himself. The conditions he lived in were far from rosy. He was “in danger every hour”, and said: “I die daily.”

That is not exaggerated. It was maybe in the eyes of the Corinthians and therefore he empowered his words by pointing at their boast. What did their boast consist of? What was it they were boasting of? Whatever they were boasting of it was something they surely received through the preaching of the gospel. Therefore their boast was his boast and which he had in Christ. In addition to that, he says “our Lord”. Here he connects the Corinthians to himself as submitted to a common Lord.

1 Corinthians 15:32. Paul had to face death very often. This is the daily pattern of life for one who follows his Lord and Master closely. To him who makes efforts to declare Christ in every way and at every occasion, there is no ‘end of work time’, no entertainment program with appetizers. Paul was constantly aware on which ground he found himself. To him this world was a temporary place. He had to go through it and he did that with a clear mission.

He expected to receive his rest and reward at the resurrection. As long as he had no part in that yet, his life was a struggle and a battle. The people who threatened him, he compared with wild beasts. They were cruel and rude people who wanted to see blood. What happened to him in Ephesus is written in the book of Acts (Acts 19:23-41). What you read there is absolutely not a small thing. Just imagine the case that thousands of people are revolting against you because you preached the gospel to them! Would it be a strange thing for you to fear for your life? People become like beasts when whipped up as a mass. Wars past and present prove it to be true.

But what is the advantage of jeopardizing your life like that when dead are not raised? Then you’d better enjoy life today, for tomorrow you may be dead. Even people who grasp out of life all they could, are quite aware that there will be a moment for them to die. The thing is, that they think that it will only be tomorrow and not today. They always think they can postpone this fatal moment. They think: ‘I may die tomorrow, therefore I want to get the most out of life today.’

1 Corinthians 15:33. That seems quite logical and it is when you do not believe that resurrection is a reality. But because there is a resurrection for sure, this argument is a deception. Do not be deceived! Do not listen to people who think and live like that. Do not associate with them! He who does, will fall into the same pattern of life like them.

1 Corinthians 15:34. The apostle warns the Corinthians to “become sober-minded”, which means not influenced by a certain spirit of thinking. More often Christians are called to be sober (1 Peter 4:7). People who live without God, fool themselves and others that they are sober. They keep both feet on the ground and they only deal with the things they can see, they think. If you believe, you are not sober, but vague, they argue.

Don’t believe a word they say. Those are people who “have no knowledge of God” and therefore do not consider Him. The reality is the other way around. He who is sober listens to what God has to say in the Bible and acts accordingly. Then you live how you supposed to and do not sin.

Having no knowledge of God is common to unbelievers. Here, however, believers are addressed. If this had to be said about us, we should be deeply ashamed of ourselves. This ignorance is no lack of knowledge of God due to the fact that you have only known Him for a short time. A child of God has an anointing from the Holy One and knows all (1 John 2:20). That means that such a person has received the Holy Spirit and therefore is able to sense whether something is according to the will of God or not, without the necessity of quoting a certain verse from the Bible. Of course you will read a lot in the Bible to learn more about God. The ignorance that is meant here, regards believers who should have known better, but who have gone astray due to associating with wrong people.

Take note of this word and do not associate with people, whether unbelievers or ‘believers’, who want you to believe things that are in contrast with what God has said. That will also keep you from a life that dishonors God.

Now read 1 Corinthians 15:29-34 again.

Reflection: Do you think that a life with the Lord is worthy of all the hardships that are described in these verses?

2 Corinthians 6:11

I Die Daily

1 Corinthians 15:29. After he had spoken from the fullness of his heart about the future government of Christ, Paul returns to his argument in 1 Corinthians 15:29, which he left off in 1 Corinthians 15:19. He puts forward a new argument to emphasize further the importance of the resurrection. That argument is baptism. It may seem far-fetched to you, but you will see how much baptism is related to resurrection.

Now, do you remember what baptism means? In Romans 6 you read that baptism represents a burial (Romans 6:3-4). Through baptism you show that you are buried with Christ, Who died for you. Someone who is buried, does not exist anymore to this world. By being baptized you make known that you want to follow the Lord Jesus right through a world that has rejected Christ. Baptism makes you a follower of Him.

If you want to do that consistently, you will be treated by the world just as the world has treated Him. The Lord Jesus has said that the people of the world have persecuted Him and that they will persecute His disciples as well (John 15:20). From the moment you are baptized, you do not want to live for yourself anymore, but for Him Who died and was buried for you.

You are not the first who has been baptized. I assume that you are baptized; if not, what is keeping you from being baptized? If you are baptized you’re standing in a long, long line of people who preceded you. All who have been baptized, form, as it were, an army that is in a hostile area. They all want to follow the Lord Jesus right through oppression and enmity. The world is still the area where satan has authority.

That will change when the Lord Jesus comes, as you have seen in 1 Corinthians 15:20-28. But in this time you can be sure that you are a no one, which means that you are despised and rejected. This enmity can even reach the point that believers get killed. This causes empty places in the army. How wonderful it is then when new followers of Christ are baptized and added to fill up the places and to join the army. You understand that I make this comparison with the army only from a spiritual point of view.

What does this all have to do with the resurrection? I suggest you read 1 Corinthians 15:29 carefully. There it is about believers who have died and about others who are still alive and are baptized. The believers who died, have ceased to follow a rejected Christ and to live a life of contempt and despising. Others, of whom you are one, have got to know the Lord Jesus, were baptized and filled the empty places. They now walk behind Him, while they take part in the contempt and the despising involved.

What advantage does that all have, however, when there is no resurrection? The prospect of resurrection persuades people to abandon an easy-going and pleasant life, and to choose freely for a way of humiliation and mockery. At the resurrection there will be a reward for all deprivation suffered. Then God will restore everything we have abandoned for His sake.

You can look at the Lord Jesus. He has, for the joy that was set before Him, endured the cross and despised the shame (Hebrews 12:1-2). In Hebrews 11 believers are mentioned who “were tortured, not accepting their release, so that they might obtain a better resurrection” (Hebrews 11:35). I would suggest you read the whole of chapter (Hebrews 11) in that light.

1 Corinthians 15:30-31. Paul was familiar with that too! He was talking about others in 1 Corinthians 15:29. In 1 Corinthians 15:30-31 he talks about himself. The conditions he lived in were far from rosy. He was “in danger every hour”, and said: “I die daily.”

That is not exaggerated. It was maybe in the eyes of the Corinthians and therefore he empowered his words by pointing at their boast. What did their boast consist of? What was it they were boasting of? Whatever they were boasting of it was something they surely received through the preaching of the gospel. Therefore their boast was his boast and which he had in Christ. In addition to that, he says “our Lord”. Here he connects the Corinthians to himself as submitted to a common Lord.

1 Corinthians 15:32. Paul had to face death very often. This is the daily pattern of life for one who follows his Lord and Master closely. To him who makes efforts to declare Christ in every way and at every occasion, there is no ‘end of work time’, no entertainment program with appetizers. Paul was constantly aware on which ground he found himself. To him this world was a temporary place. He had to go through it and he did that with a clear mission.

He expected to receive his rest and reward at the resurrection. As long as he had no part in that yet, his life was a struggle and a battle. The people who threatened him, he compared with wild beasts. They were cruel and rude people who wanted to see blood. What happened to him in Ephesus is written in the book of Acts (Acts 19:23-41). What you read there is absolutely not a small thing. Just imagine the case that thousands of people are revolting against you because you preached the gospel to them! Would it be a strange thing for you to fear for your life? People become like beasts when whipped up as a mass. Wars past and present prove it to be true.

But what is the advantage of jeopardizing your life like that when dead are not raised? Then you’d better enjoy life today, for tomorrow you may be dead. Even people who grasp out of life all they could, are quite aware that there will be a moment for them to die. The thing is, that they think that it will only be tomorrow and not today. They always think they can postpone this fatal moment. They think: ‘I may die tomorrow, therefore I want to get the most out of life today.’

1 Corinthians 15:33. That seems quite logical and it is when you do not believe that resurrection is a reality. But because there is a resurrection for sure, this argument is a deception. Do not be deceived! Do not listen to people who think and live like that. Do not associate with them! He who does, will fall into the same pattern of life like them.

1 Corinthians 15:34. The apostle warns the Corinthians to “become sober-minded”, which means not influenced by a certain spirit of thinking. More often Christians are called to be sober (1 Peter 4:7). People who live without God, fool themselves and others that they are sober. They keep both feet on the ground and they only deal with the things they can see, they think. If you believe, you are not sober, but vague, they argue.

Don’t believe a word they say. Those are people who “have no knowledge of God” and therefore do not consider Him. The reality is the other way around. He who is sober listens to what God has to say in the Bible and acts accordingly. Then you live how you supposed to and do not sin.

Having no knowledge of God is common to unbelievers. Here, however, believers are addressed. If this had to be said about us, we should be deeply ashamed of ourselves. This ignorance is no lack of knowledge of God due to the fact that you have only known Him for a short time. A child of God has an anointing from the Holy One and knows all (1 John 2:20). That means that such a person has received the Holy Spirit and therefore is able to sense whether something is according to the will of God or not, without the necessity of quoting a certain verse from the Bible. Of course you will read a lot in the Bible to learn more about God. The ignorance that is meant here, regards believers who should have known better, but who have gone astray due to associating with wrong people.

Take note of this word and do not associate with people, whether unbelievers or ‘believers’, who want you to believe things that are in contrast with what God has said. That will also keep you from a life that dishonors God.

Now read 1 Corinthians 15:29-34 again.

Reflection: Do you think that a life with the Lord is worthy of all the hardships that are described in these verses?

2 Corinthians 6:12

How the Dead Are Raised

1 Corinthians 15:35. It is not very pleasant to ask a question about resurrection, when the person who replies to that, calls you “fool” (1 Corinthians 15:36). Who doesn’t have questions about the resurrection!? Though, you should keep in mind that Paul is still talking about people who do not take the resurrection seriously, which is the very case these days with so-called Christians. The question of 1 Corinthians 15:35 should be seen in that light. It is asked by a person who is not willing to be convinced that there is a resurrection. The question is only asked to satisfy his curiosity and not from an inner desire to know more of God’s dealings.

1 Corinthians 15:36. Therefore Paul rebukes the questioner by pointing out examples from nature. From those examples he could have learned some things about the resurrection. I heard about a man who was dying and who had been thinking a lot about death and thereafter. He did not believe in the resurrection of the dead. He had had a long sickbed. Out of his bed he could see the plants and the trees outside. He then noticed that in the autumn everything was, as it were, dying. Almost all colors were changing brown and the leaves fell off until there was nothing more left than bare branches. In winter everything seemed to be even dead. But what happened in the springtime? Then new life began! Buds appeared on the branches, which later became leaves and flowers. There was life after death!

This was the eye opener in his own situation. It led him to conversion and faith in the Lord Jesus. When he died, he knew that that was not the end, but that he went to his Savior and that he would even receive a new body one day.

1 Corinthians 15:37. What this man saw and noticed can be connected with what Paul is saying here. He points at the seed that is sown. That has to die first before it germinates and grows. And what is it that grows? Does it still look like a grain that has been sown? It absolutely does not look like that anymore. The grain that was sown in the ground is not the same as what comes out above the ground after a course of time. What comes out above the ground though, comes out from the grain that has been sown.

1 Corinthians 15:38. The kind of seed that is sown, determines what will come out of it. You would be very surprised when you plough up the ground, then sow grass seed into it to get a nice lawn, but instead of that get a flowing wheat field, after a course of time, wouldn’t you? That is not possible, of course. Each seed has its own body and its own inflorescence that becomes visible above the ground. This is how God has ordained it in nature. He has given everything its own body, its own shape. It is said in Genesis 1 that God made everything “after their kind” (Genesis 1:11; 21; 24; 25).

1 Corinthians 15:39. If you look around you in nature, this time not regarding the vegetation, but regarding men and the animal world, then you notice the same distinction. Man and animal are made from the same substance, namely flesh. Nevertheless, there is a huge variety of this matter. What an immense distinction God has made between men, animals, birds and fish! The examples that Paul mentions, come from the first creation, as it is originated in Genesis 1. But through the way he uses these examples, you learn that Genesis 1 has also something to say about the distinction that will be in the new creation.

1 Corinthians 15:40-41. To add more details in the distinctions, Paul now introduces the difference between the celestial and terrestrial bodies. In the previous verses he talked about the terrestrial bodies, while in 1 Corinthians 15:40-41 he goes a step higher and points at celestial bodies, as the sun, the moon and the stars. Each planet in the universe has its own special glory, which is given by God.

I just read in Psalm 19: “The heavens are telling of the glory of God; and their expanse is declaring the work of His hands” (Psalms 19:1). All glorious things that are seen in creation are the radiation of God Himself. He Himself is the Author and Executor of everything. He wants us to see that and praise Him for that. If that applies to the first creation, how much more it applies to the new creation. The new creation consists of a new heaven and a new earth. In the new heaven and on the new earth new people will dwell. How the new heaven and the new earth will be established, you can read in 2 Peter 3 (2 Peter 3:10-13).

We return now to 1 Corinthians 15. There it is about new people, as they will appear in the resurrection. Of these people there will be people who dwell on the new earth in a body with a terrestrial glory and there will be people who dwell in the new heaven in a body with a celestial glory. Jealousy will be no issue there, for sin does not exist anymore. Everyone will praise the wisdom of God, for He will give a body to all things as is fitting for everybody.

In summary, you can learn three things from the foregoing: 1. There is talk of seed that must die first, after which a body sprouts from what looks totally different than the seed (1 Corinthians 15:37-38). 2. There is talk of the differences between the bodies that are sprouted from the seeds (1 Corinthians 15:39). 3. There is talk of the difference between celestial and terrestrial bodies (1 Corinthians 15:40-41).

1 Corinthians 15:42a. These three things are taken from the first creation in which we live and prove that there is a resurrection. The conclusion is: “So also is the resurrection of the dead.”

1 Corinthians 15:42b-44. It has been proven that there is a resurrection and that the resurrection will happen in a way that is comparable with examples from nature. Still, what we will exactly be like, is not clarified by this proof. Neither does it become directly clear in the following verses. What has become clear is that everything will be far more wonderful, without any remembrance of weakness and the corruption of an earth where sin has done its destructing work.

You may compare this with a caterpillar and a butterfly. A caterpillar pupates. It spins silk all around itself and after a course of time a beautiful butterfly comes out of it. This transformation is really unimaginable. If you compare your earthly life with the caterpillar and your resurrected body with the butterfly, you then may have some idea of the transformation that will take place in the resurrection.

Paul uses for our ‘caterpillar life’ the words “perishable”, “dishonor”, “weakness” and “natural body”. These words indicate how terribly the consequences of sin have left its scars in our terrestrial body. When we die, this is the last and clearest proof of the decay our body has suffered from birth. Then our body is put into the ground: it is “sown”.

But to the believer that is not the end! Actually there is sown because there is a resurrection. And that resurrection shows a totally different and much more glorious body. The body is raised “imperishable”, “in glory”, “in power”, and as a “spiritual body”. The words that are used here, have to do with the Lord Jesus and His work, with heaven, with God and with the Holy Spirit.

Through His work on the cross the Lord Jesus has “abolished death and brought life and immortality to light” (2 Timothy 1:10). Heaven is the place where glory is seen and experienced and where we first were not able to come (Romans 3:23-24; Romans 5:2). It is the power of God that will make the resurrection possible (Ephesians 1:19-20).

We then will have a body that does not have any natural needs anymore. It doesn’t need food and drink anymore to remain alive. The life of the resurrected body is a spiritual life, which means that the Holy Spirit provides everything that body needs and that is fellowship with the Father and the Son. From that fellowship each activity takes place, both in the millennial kingdom and in eternity, in the Father’s house.

It seems wonderful to me to be occupied undistracted with everything the Father prepared for us based on the work of His Son in a realm where there is nothing that can disturb that anymore.

Now read 1 Corinthians 15:35-44 again.

Reflection: What characteristics of the resurrected do you find in the section?

2 Corinthians 6:13

How the Dead Are Raised

1 Corinthians 15:35. It is not very pleasant to ask a question about resurrection, when the person who replies to that, calls you “fool” (1 Corinthians 15:36). Who doesn’t have questions about the resurrection!? Though, you should keep in mind that Paul is still talking about people who do not take the resurrection seriously, which is the very case these days with so-called Christians. The question of 1 Corinthians 15:35 should be seen in that light. It is asked by a person who is not willing to be convinced that there is a resurrection. The question is only asked to satisfy his curiosity and not from an inner desire to know more of God’s dealings.

1 Corinthians 15:36. Therefore Paul rebukes the questioner by pointing out examples from nature. From those examples he could have learned some things about the resurrection. I heard about a man who was dying and who had been thinking a lot about death and thereafter. He did not believe in the resurrection of the dead. He had had a long sickbed. Out of his bed he could see the plants and the trees outside. He then noticed that in the autumn everything was, as it were, dying. Almost all colors were changing brown and the leaves fell off until there was nothing more left than bare branches. In winter everything seemed to be even dead. But what happened in the springtime? Then new life began! Buds appeared on the branches, which later became leaves and flowers. There was life after death!

This was the eye opener in his own situation. It led him to conversion and faith in the Lord Jesus. When he died, he knew that that was not the end, but that he went to his Savior and that he would even receive a new body one day.

1 Corinthians 15:37. What this man saw and noticed can be connected with what Paul is saying here. He points at the seed that is sown. That has to die first before it germinates and grows. And what is it that grows? Does it still look like a grain that has been sown? It absolutely does not look like that anymore. The grain that was sown in the ground is not the same as what comes out above the ground after a course of time. What comes out above the ground though, comes out from the grain that has been sown.

1 Corinthians 15:38. The kind of seed that is sown, determines what will come out of it. You would be very surprised when you plough up the ground, then sow grass seed into it to get a nice lawn, but instead of that get a flowing wheat field, after a course of time, wouldn’t you? That is not possible, of course. Each seed has its own body and its own inflorescence that becomes visible above the ground. This is how God has ordained it in nature. He has given everything its own body, its own shape. It is said in Genesis 1 that God made everything “after their kind” (Genesis 1:11; 21; 24; 25).

1 Corinthians 15:39. If you look around you in nature, this time not regarding the vegetation, but regarding men and the animal world, then you notice the same distinction. Man and animal are made from the same substance, namely flesh. Nevertheless, there is a huge variety of this matter. What an immense distinction God has made between men, animals, birds and fish! The examples that Paul mentions, come from the first creation, as it is originated in Genesis 1. But through the way he uses these examples, you learn that Genesis 1 has also something to say about the distinction that will be in the new creation.

1 Corinthians 15:40-41. To add more details in the distinctions, Paul now introduces the difference between the celestial and terrestrial bodies. In the previous verses he talked about the terrestrial bodies, while in 1 Corinthians 15:40-41 he goes a step higher and points at celestial bodies, as the sun, the moon and the stars. Each planet in the universe has its own special glory, which is given by God.

I just read in Psalm 19: “The heavens are telling of the glory of God; and their expanse is declaring the work of His hands” (Psalms 19:1). All glorious things that are seen in creation are the radiation of God Himself. He Himself is the Author and Executor of everything. He wants us to see that and praise Him for that. If that applies to the first creation, how much more it applies to the new creation. The new creation consists of a new heaven and a new earth. In the new heaven and on the new earth new people will dwell. How the new heaven and the new earth will be established, you can read in 2 Peter 3 (2 Peter 3:10-13).

We return now to 1 Corinthians 15. There it is about new people, as they will appear in the resurrection. Of these people there will be people who dwell on the new earth in a body with a terrestrial glory and there will be people who dwell in the new heaven in a body with a celestial glory. Jealousy will be no issue there, for sin does not exist anymore. Everyone will praise the wisdom of God, for He will give a body to all things as is fitting for everybody.

In summary, you can learn three things from the foregoing: 1. There is talk of seed that must die first, after which a body sprouts from what looks totally different than the seed (1 Corinthians 15:37-38). 2. There is talk of the differences between the bodies that are sprouted from the seeds (1 Corinthians 15:39). 3. There is talk of the difference between celestial and terrestrial bodies (1 Corinthians 15:40-41).

1 Corinthians 15:42a. These three things are taken from the first creation in which we live and prove that there is a resurrection. The conclusion is: “So also is the resurrection of the dead.”

1 Corinthians 15:42b-44. It has been proven that there is a resurrection and that the resurrection will happen in a way that is comparable with examples from nature. Still, what we will exactly be like, is not clarified by this proof. Neither does it become directly clear in the following verses. What has become clear is that everything will be far more wonderful, without any remembrance of weakness and the corruption of an earth where sin has done its destructing work.

You may compare this with a caterpillar and a butterfly. A caterpillar pupates. It spins silk all around itself and after a course of time a beautiful butterfly comes out of it. This transformation is really unimaginable. If you compare your earthly life with the caterpillar and your resurrected body with the butterfly, you then may have some idea of the transformation that will take place in the resurrection.

Paul uses for our ‘caterpillar life’ the words “perishable”, “dishonor”, “weakness” and “natural body”. These words indicate how terribly the consequences of sin have left its scars in our terrestrial body. When we die, this is the last and clearest proof of the decay our body has suffered from birth. Then our body is put into the ground: it is “sown”.

But to the believer that is not the end! Actually there is sown because there is a resurrection. And that resurrection shows a totally different and much more glorious body. The body is raised “imperishable”, “in glory”, “in power”, and as a “spiritual body”. The words that are used here, have to do with the Lord Jesus and His work, with heaven, with God and with the Holy Spirit.

Through His work on the cross the Lord Jesus has “abolished death and brought life and immortality to light” (2 Timothy 1:10). Heaven is the place where glory is seen and experienced and where we first were not able to come (Romans 3:23-24; Romans 5:2). It is the power of God that will make the resurrection possible (Ephesians 1:19-20).

We then will have a body that does not have any natural needs anymore. It doesn’t need food and drink anymore to remain alive. The life of the resurrected body is a spiritual life, which means that the Holy Spirit provides everything that body needs and that is fellowship with the Father and the Son. From that fellowship each activity takes place, both in the millennial kingdom and in eternity, in the Father’s house.

It seems wonderful to me to be occupied undistracted with everything the Father prepared for us based on the work of His Son in a realm where there is nothing that can disturb that anymore.

Now read 1 Corinthians 15:35-44 again.

Reflection: What characteristics of the resurrected do you find in the section?

2 Corinthians 6:14

How the Dead Are Raised

1 Corinthians 15:35. It is not very pleasant to ask a question about resurrection, when the person who replies to that, calls you “fool” (1 Corinthians 15:36). Who doesn’t have questions about the resurrection!? Though, you should keep in mind that Paul is still talking about people who do not take the resurrection seriously, which is the very case these days with so-called Christians. The question of 1 Corinthians 15:35 should be seen in that light. It is asked by a person who is not willing to be convinced that there is a resurrection. The question is only asked to satisfy his curiosity and not from an inner desire to know more of God’s dealings.

1 Corinthians 15:36. Therefore Paul rebukes the questioner by pointing out examples from nature. From those examples he could have learned some things about the resurrection. I heard about a man who was dying and who had been thinking a lot about death and thereafter. He did not believe in the resurrection of the dead. He had had a long sickbed. Out of his bed he could see the plants and the trees outside. He then noticed that in the autumn everything was, as it were, dying. Almost all colors were changing brown and the leaves fell off until there was nothing more left than bare branches. In winter everything seemed to be even dead. But what happened in the springtime? Then new life began! Buds appeared on the branches, which later became leaves and flowers. There was life after death!

This was the eye opener in his own situation. It led him to conversion and faith in the Lord Jesus. When he died, he knew that that was not the end, but that he went to his Savior and that he would even receive a new body one day.

1 Corinthians 15:37. What this man saw and noticed can be connected with what Paul is saying here. He points at the seed that is sown. That has to die first before it germinates and grows. And what is it that grows? Does it still look like a grain that has been sown? It absolutely does not look like that anymore. The grain that was sown in the ground is not the same as what comes out above the ground after a course of time. What comes out above the ground though, comes out from the grain that has been sown.

1 Corinthians 15:38. The kind of seed that is sown, determines what will come out of it. You would be very surprised when you plough up the ground, then sow grass seed into it to get a nice lawn, but instead of that get a flowing wheat field, after a course of time, wouldn’t you? That is not possible, of course. Each seed has its own body and its own inflorescence that becomes visible above the ground. This is how God has ordained it in nature. He has given everything its own body, its own shape. It is said in Genesis 1 that God made everything “after their kind” (Genesis 1:11; 21; 24; 25).

1 Corinthians 15:39. If you look around you in nature, this time not regarding the vegetation, but regarding men and the animal world, then you notice the same distinction. Man and animal are made from the same substance, namely flesh. Nevertheless, there is a huge variety of this matter. What an immense distinction God has made between men, animals, birds and fish! The examples that Paul mentions, come from the first creation, as it is originated in Genesis 1. But through the way he uses these examples, you learn that Genesis 1 has also something to say about the distinction that will be in the new creation.

1 Corinthians 15:40-41. To add more details in the distinctions, Paul now introduces the difference between the celestial and terrestrial bodies. In the previous verses he talked about the terrestrial bodies, while in 1 Corinthians 15:40-41 he goes a step higher and points at celestial bodies, as the sun, the moon and the stars. Each planet in the universe has its own special glory, which is given by God.

I just read in Psalm 19: “The heavens are telling of the glory of God; and their expanse is declaring the work of His hands” (Psalms 19:1). All glorious things that are seen in creation are the radiation of God Himself. He Himself is the Author and Executor of everything. He wants us to see that and praise Him for that. If that applies to the first creation, how much more it applies to the new creation. The new creation consists of a new heaven and a new earth. In the new heaven and on the new earth new people will dwell. How the new heaven and the new earth will be established, you can read in 2 Peter 3 (2 Peter 3:10-13).

We return now to 1 Corinthians 15. There it is about new people, as they will appear in the resurrection. Of these people there will be people who dwell on the new earth in a body with a terrestrial glory and there will be people who dwell in the new heaven in a body with a celestial glory. Jealousy will be no issue there, for sin does not exist anymore. Everyone will praise the wisdom of God, for He will give a body to all things as is fitting for everybody.

In summary, you can learn three things from the foregoing: 1. There is talk of seed that must die first, after which a body sprouts from what looks totally different than the seed (1 Corinthians 15:37-38). 2. There is talk of the differences between the bodies that are sprouted from the seeds (1 Corinthians 15:39). 3. There is talk of the difference between celestial and terrestrial bodies (1 Corinthians 15:40-41).

1 Corinthians 15:42a. These three things are taken from the first creation in which we live and prove that there is a resurrection. The conclusion is: “So also is the resurrection of the dead.”

1 Corinthians 15:42b-44. It has been proven that there is a resurrection and that the resurrection will happen in a way that is comparable with examples from nature. Still, what we will exactly be like, is not clarified by this proof. Neither does it become directly clear in the following verses. What has become clear is that everything will be far more wonderful, without any remembrance of weakness and the corruption of an earth where sin has done its destructing work.

You may compare this with a caterpillar and a butterfly. A caterpillar pupates. It spins silk all around itself and after a course of time a beautiful butterfly comes out of it. This transformation is really unimaginable. If you compare your earthly life with the caterpillar and your resurrected body with the butterfly, you then may have some idea of the transformation that will take place in the resurrection.

Paul uses for our ‘caterpillar life’ the words “perishable”, “dishonor”, “weakness” and “natural body”. These words indicate how terribly the consequences of sin have left its scars in our terrestrial body. When we die, this is the last and clearest proof of the decay our body has suffered from birth. Then our body is put into the ground: it is “sown”.

But to the believer that is not the end! Actually there is sown because there is a resurrection. And that resurrection shows a totally different and much more glorious body. The body is raised “imperishable”, “in glory”, “in power”, and as a “spiritual body”. The words that are used here, have to do with the Lord Jesus and His work, with heaven, with God and with the Holy Spirit.

Through His work on the cross the Lord Jesus has “abolished death and brought life and immortality to light” (2 Timothy 1:10). Heaven is the place where glory is seen and experienced and where we first were not able to come (Romans 3:23-24; Romans 5:2). It is the power of God that will make the resurrection possible (Ephesians 1:19-20).

We then will have a body that does not have any natural needs anymore. It doesn’t need food and drink anymore to remain alive. The life of the resurrected body is a spiritual life, which means that the Holy Spirit provides everything that body needs and that is fellowship with the Father and the Son. From that fellowship each activity takes place, both in the millennial kingdom and in eternity, in the Father’s house.

It seems wonderful to me to be occupied undistracted with everything the Father prepared for us based on the work of His Son in a realm where there is nothing that can disturb that anymore.

Now read 1 Corinthians 15:35-44 again.

Reflection: What characteristics of the resurrected do you find in the section?

2 Corinthians 6:15

How the Dead Are Raised

1 Corinthians 15:35. It is not very pleasant to ask a question about resurrection, when the person who replies to that, calls you “fool” (1 Corinthians 15:36). Who doesn’t have questions about the resurrection!? Though, you should keep in mind that Paul is still talking about people who do not take the resurrection seriously, which is the very case these days with so-called Christians. The question of 1 Corinthians 15:35 should be seen in that light. It is asked by a person who is not willing to be convinced that there is a resurrection. The question is only asked to satisfy his curiosity and not from an inner desire to know more of God’s dealings.

1 Corinthians 15:36. Therefore Paul rebukes the questioner by pointing out examples from nature. From those examples he could have learned some things about the resurrection. I heard about a man who was dying and who had been thinking a lot about death and thereafter. He did not believe in the resurrection of the dead. He had had a long sickbed. Out of his bed he could see the plants and the trees outside. He then noticed that in the autumn everything was, as it were, dying. Almost all colors were changing brown and the leaves fell off until there was nothing more left than bare branches. In winter everything seemed to be even dead. But what happened in the springtime? Then new life began! Buds appeared on the branches, which later became leaves and flowers. There was life after death!

This was the eye opener in his own situation. It led him to conversion and faith in the Lord Jesus. When he died, he knew that that was not the end, but that he went to his Savior and that he would even receive a new body one day.

1 Corinthians 15:37. What this man saw and noticed can be connected with what Paul is saying here. He points at the seed that is sown. That has to die first before it germinates and grows. And what is it that grows? Does it still look like a grain that has been sown? It absolutely does not look like that anymore. The grain that was sown in the ground is not the same as what comes out above the ground after a course of time. What comes out above the ground though, comes out from the grain that has been sown.

1 Corinthians 15:38. The kind of seed that is sown, determines what will come out of it. You would be very surprised when you plough up the ground, then sow grass seed into it to get a nice lawn, but instead of that get a flowing wheat field, after a course of time, wouldn’t you? That is not possible, of course. Each seed has its own body and its own inflorescence that becomes visible above the ground. This is how God has ordained it in nature. He has given everything its own body, its own shape. It is said in Genesis 1 that God made everything “after their kind” (Genesis 1:11; 21; 24; 25).

1 Corinthians 15:39. If you look around you in nature, this time not regarding the vegetation, but regarding men and the animal world, then you notice the same distinction. Man and animal are made from the same substance, namely flesh. Nevertheless, there is a huge variety of this matter. What an immense distinction God has made between men, animals, birds and fish! The examples that Paul mentions, come from the first creation, as it is originated in Genesis 1. But through the way he uses these examples, you learn that Genesis 1 has also something to say about the distinction that will be in the new creation.

1 Corinthians 15:40-41. To add more details in the distinctions, Paul now introduces the difference between the celestial and terrestrial bodies. In the previous verses he talked about the terrestrial bodies, while in 1 Corinthians 15:40-41 he goes a step higher and points at celestial bodies, as the sun, the moon and the stars. Each planet in the universe has its own special glory, which is given by God.

I just read in Psalm 19: “The heavens are telling of the glory of God; and their expanse is declaring the work of His hands” (Psalms 19:1). All glorious things that are seen in creation are the radiation of God Himself. He Himself is the Author and Executor of everything. He wants us to see that and praise Him for that. If that applies to the first creation, how much more it applies to the new creation. The new creation consists of a new heaven and a new earth. In the new heaven and on the new earth new people will dwell. How the new heaven and the new earth will be established, you can read in 2 Peter 3 (2 Peter 3:10-13).

We return now to 1 Corinthians 15. There it is about new people, as they will appear in the resurrection. Of these people there will be people who dwell on the new earth in a body with a terrestrial glory and there will be people who dwell in the new heaven in a body with a celestial glory. Jealousy will be no issue there, for sin does not exist anymore. Everyone will praise the wisdom of God, for He will give a body to all things as is fitting for everybody.

In summary, you can learn three things from the foregoing: 1. There is talk of seed that must die first, after which a body sprouts from what looks totally different than the seed (1 Corinthians 15:37-38). 2. There is talk of the differences between the bodies that are sprouted from the seeds (1 Corinthians 15:39). 3. There is talk of the difference between celestial and terrestrial bodies (1 Corinthians 15:40-41).

1 Corinthians 15:42a. These three things are taken from the first creation in which we live and prove that there is a resurrection. The conclusion is: “So also is the resurrection of the dead.”

1 Corinthians 15:42b-44. It has been proven that there is a resurrection and that the resurrection will happen in a way that is comparable with examples from nature. Still, what we will exactly be like, is not clarified by this proof. Neither does it become directly clear in the following verses. What has become clear is that everything will be far more wonderful, without any remembrance of weakness and the corruption of an earth where sin has done its destructing work.

You may compare this with a caterpillar and a butterfly. A caterpillar pupates. It spins silk all around itself and after a course of time a beautiful butterfly comes out of it. This transformation is really unimaginable. If you compare your earthly life with the caterpillar and your resurrected body with the butterfly, you then may have some idea of the transformation that will take place in the resurrection.

Paul uses for our ‘caterpillar life’ the words “perishable”, “dishonor”, “weakness” and “natural body”. These words indicate how terribly the consequences of sin have left its scars in our terrestrial body. When we die, this is the last and clearest proof of the decay our body has suffered from birth. Then our body is put into the ground: it is “sown”.

But to the believer that is not the end! Actually there is sown because there is a resurrection. And that resurrection shows a totally different and much more glorious body. The body is raised “imperishable”, “in glory”, “in power”, and as a “spiritual body”. The words that are used here, have to do with the Lord Jesus and His work, with heaven, with God and with the Holy Spirit.

Through His work on the cross the Lord Jesus has “abolished death and brought life and immortality to light” (2 Timothy 1:10). Heaven is the place where glory is seen and experienced and where we first were not able to come (Romans 3:23-24; Romans 5:2). It is the power of God that will make the resurrection possible (Ephesians 1:19-20).

We then will have a body that does not have any natural needs anymore. It doesn’t need food and drink anymore to remain alive. The life of the resurrected body is a spiritual life, which means that the Holy Spirit provides everything that body needs and that is fellowship with the Father and the Son. From that fellowship each activity takes place, both in the millennial kingdom and in eternity, in the Father’s house.

It seems wonderful to me to be occupied undistracted with everything the Father prepared for us based on the work of His Son in a realm where there is nothing that can disturb that anymore.

Now read 1 Corinthians 15:35-44 again.

Reflection: What characteristics of the resurrected do you find in the section?

2 Corinthians 6:16

How the Dead Are Raised

1 Corinthians 15:35. It is not very pleasant to ask a question about resurrection, when the person who replies to that, calls you “fool” (1 Corinthians 15:36). Who doesn’t have questions about the resurrection!? Though, you should keep in mind that Paul is still talking about people who do not take the resurrection seriously, which is the very case these days with so-called Christians. The question of 1 Corinthians 15:35 should be seen in that light. It is asked by a person who is not willing to be convinced that there is a resurrection. The question is only asked to satisfy his curiosity and not from an inner desire to know more of God’s dealings.

1 Corinthians 15:36. Therefore Paul rebukes the questioner by pointing out examples from nature. From those examples he could have learned some things about the resurrection. I heard about a man who was dying and who had been thinking a lot about death and thereafter. He did not believe in the resurrection of the dead. He had had a long sickbed. Out of his bed he could see the plants and the trees outside. He then noticed that in the autumn everything was, as it were, dying. Almost all colors were changing brown and the leaves fell off until there was nothing more left than bare branches. In winter everything seemed to be even dead. But what happened in the springtime? Then new life began! Buds appeared on the branches, which later became leaves and flowers. There was life after death!

This was the eye opener in his own situation. It led him to conversion and faith in the Lord Jesus. When he died, he knew that that was not the end, but that he went to his Savior and that he would even receive a new body one day.

1 Corinthians 15:37. What this man saw and noticed can be connected with what Paul is saying here. He points at the seed that is sown. That has to die first before it germinates and grows. And what is it that grows? Does it still look like a grain that has been sown? It absolutely does not look like that anymore. The grain that was sown in the ground is not the same as what comes out above the ground after a course of time. What comes out above the ground though, comes out from the grain that has been sown.

1 Corinthians 15:38. The kind of seed that is sown, determines what will come out of it. You would be very surprised when you plough up the ground, then sow grass seed into it to get a nice lawn, but instead of that get a flowing wheat field, after a course of time, wouldn’t you? That is not possible, of course. Each seed has its own body and its own inflorescence that becomes visible above the ground. This is how God has ordained it in nature. He has given everything its own body, its own shape. It is said in Genesis 1 that God made everything “after their kind” (Genesis 1:11; 21; 24; 25).

1 Corinthians 15:39. If you look around you in nature, this time not regarding the vegetation, but regarding men and the animal world, then you notice the same distinction. Man and animal are made from the same substance, namely flesh. Nevertheless, there is a huge variety of this matter. What an immense distinction God has made between men, animals, birds and fish! The examples that Paul mentions, come from the first creation, as it is originated in Genesis 1. But through the way he uses these examples, you learn that Genesis 1 has also something to say about the distinction that will be in the new creation.

1 Corinthians 15:40-41. To add more details in the distinctions, Paul now introduces the difference between the celestial and terrestrial bodies. In the previous verses he talked about the terrestrial bodies, while in 1 Corinthians 15:40-41 he goes a step higher and points at celestial bodies, as the sun, the moon and the stars. Each planet in the universe has its own special glory, which is given by God.

I just read in Psalm 19: “The heavens are telling of the glory of God; and their expanse is declaring the work of His hands” (Psalms 19:1). All glorious things that are seen in creation are the radiation of God Himself. He Himself is the Author and Executor of everything. He wants us to see that and praise Him for that. If that applies to the first creation, how much more it applies to the new creation. The new creation consists of a new heaven and a new earth. In the new heaven and on the new earth new people will dwell. How the new heaven and the new earth will be established, you can read in 2 Peter 3 (2 Peter 3:10-13).

We return now to 1 Corinthians 15. There it is about new people, as they will appear in the resurrection. Of these people there will be people who dwell on the new earth in a body with a terrestrial glory and there will be people who dwell in the new heaven in a body with a celestial glory. Jealousy will be no issue there, for sin does not exist anymore. Everyone will praise the wisdom of God, for He will give a body to all things as is fitting for everybody.

In summary, you can learn three things from the foregoing: 1. There is talk of seed that must die first, after which a body sprouts from what looks totally different than the seed (1 Corinthians 15:37-38). 2. There is talk of the differences between the bodies that are sprouted from the seeds (1 Corinthians 15:39). 3. There is talk of the difference between celestial and terrestrial bodies (1 Corinthians 15:40-41).

1 Corinthians 15:42a. These three things are taken from the first creation in which we live and prove that there is a resurrection. The conclusion is: “So also is the resurrection of the dead.”

1 Corinthians 15:42b-44. It has been proven that there is a resurrection and that the resurrection will happen in a way that is comparable with examples from nature. Still, what we will exactly be like, is not clarified by this proof. Neither does it become directly clear in the following verses. What has become clear is that everything will be far more wonderful, without any remembrance of weakness and the corruption of an earth where sin has done its destructing work.

You may compare this with a caterpillar and a butterfly. A caterpillar pupates. It spins silk all around itself and after a course of time a beautiful butterfly comes out of it. This transformation is really unimaginable. If you compare your earthly life with the caterpillar and your resurrected body with the butterfly, you then may have some idea of the transformation that will take place in the resurrection.

Paul uses for our ‘caterpillar life’ the words “perishable”, “dishonor”, “weakness” and “natural body”. These words indicate how terribly the consequences of sin have left its scars in our terrestrial body. When we die, this is the last and clearest proof of the decay our body has suffered from birth. Then our body is put into the ground: it is “sown”.

But to the believer that is not the end! Actually there is sown because there is a resurrection. And that resurrection shows a totally different and much more glorious body. The body is raised “imperishable”, “in glory”, “in power”, and as a “spiritual body”. The words that are used here, have to do with the Lord Jesus and His work, with heaven, with God and with the Holy Spirit.

Through His work on the cross the Lord Jesus has “abolished death and brought life and immortality to light” (2 Timothy 1:10). Heaven is the place where glory is seen and experienced and where we first were not able to come (Romans 3:23-24; Romans 5:2). It is the power of God that will make the resurrection possible (Ephesians 1:19-20).

We then will have a body that does not have any natural needs anymore. It doesn’t need food and drink anymore to remain alive. The life of the resurrected body is a spiritual life, which means that the Holy Spirit provides everything that body needs and that is fellowship with the Father and the Son. From that fellowship each activity takes place, both in the millennial kingdom and in eternity, in the Father’s house.

It seems wonderful to me to be occupied undistracted with everything the Father prepared for us based on the work of His Son in a realm where there is nothing that can disturb that anymore.

Now read 1 Corinthians 15:35-44 again.

Reflection: What characteristics of the resurrected do you find in the section?

2 Corinthians 6:17

How the Dead Are Raised

1 Corinthians 15:35. It is not very pleasant to ask a question about resurrection, when the person who replies to that, calls you “fool” (1 Corinthians 15:36). Who doesn’t have questions about the resurrection!? Though, you should keep in mind that Paul is still talking about people who do not take the resurrection seriously, which is the very case these days with so-called Christians. The question of 1 Corinthians 15:35 should be seen in that light. It is asked by a person who is not willing to be convinced that there is a resurrection. The question is only asked to satisfy his curiosity and not from an inner desire to know more of God’s dealings.

1 Corinthians 15:36. Therefore Paul rebukes the questioner by pointing out examples from nature. From those examples he could have learned some things about the resurrection. I heard about a man who was dying and who had been thinking a lot about death and thereafter. He did not believe in the resurrection of the dead. He had had a long sickbed. Out of his bed he could see the plants and the trees outside. He then noticed that in the autumn everything was, as it were, dying. Almost all colors were changing brown and the leaves fell off until there was nothing more left than bare branches. In winter everything seemed to be even dead. But what happened in the springtime? Then new life began! Buds appeared on the branches, which later became leaves and flowers. There was life after death!

This was the eye opener in his own situation. It led him to conversion and faith in the Lord Jesus. When he died, he knew that that was not the end, but that he went to his Savior and that he would even receive a new body one day.

1 Corinthians 15:37. What this man saw and noticed can be connected with what Paul is saying here. He points at the seed that is sown. That has to die first before it germinates and grows. And what is it that grows? Does it still look like a grain that has been sown? It absolutely does not look like that anymore. The grain that was sown in the ground is not the same as what comes out above the ground after a course of time. What comes out above the ground though, comes out from the grain that has been sown.

1 Corinthians 15:38. The kind of seed that is sown, determines what will come out of it. You would be very surprised when you plough up the ground, then sow grass seed into it to get a nice lawn, but instead of that get a flowing wheat field, after a course of time, wouldn’t you? That is not possible, of course. Each seed has its own body and its own inflorescence that becomes visible above the ground. This is how God has ordained it in nature. He has given everything its own body, its own shape. It is said in Genesis 1 that God made everything “after their kind” (Genesis 1:11; 21; 24; 25).

1 Corinthians 15:39. If you look around you in nature, this time not regarding the vegetation, but regarding men and the animal world, then you notice the same distinction. Man and animal are made from the same substance, namely flesh. Nevertheless, there is a huge variety of this matter. What an immense distinction God has made between men, animals, birds and fish! The examples that Paul mentions, come from the first creation, as it is originated in Genesis 1. But through the way he uses these examples, you learn that Genesis 1 has also something to say about the distinction that will be in the new creation.

1 Corinthians 15:40-41. To add more details in the distinctions, Paul now introduces the difference between the celestial and terrestrial bodies. In the previous verses he talked about the terrestrial bodies, while in 1 Corinthians 15:40-41 he goes a step higher and points at celestial bodies, as the sun, the moon and the stars. Each planet in the universe has its own special glory, which is given by God.

I just read in Psalm 19: “The heavens are telling of the glory of God; and their expanse is declaring the work of His hands” (Psalms 19:1). All glorious things that are seen in creation are the radiation of God Himself. He Himself is the Author and Executor of everything. He wants us to see that and praise Him for that. If that applies to the first creation, how much more it applies to the new creation. The new creation consists of a new heaven and a new earth. In the new heaven and on the new earth new people will dwell. How the new heaven and the new earth will be established, you can read in 2 Peter 3 (2 Peter 3:10-13).

We return now to 1 Corinthians 15. There it is about new people, as they will appear in the resurrection. Of these people there will be people who dwell on the new earth in a body with a terrestrial glory and there will be people who dwell in the new heaven in a body with a celestial glory. Jealousy will be no issue there, for sin does not exist anymore. Everyone will praise the wisdom of God, for He will give a body to all things as is fitting for everybody.

In summary, you can learn three things from the foregoing: 1. There is talk of seed that must die first, after which a body sprouts from what looks totally different than the seed (1 Corinthians 15:37-38). 2. There is talk of the differences between the bodies that are sprouted from the seeds (1 Corinthians 15:39). 3. There is talk of the difference between celestial and terrestrial bodies (1 Corinthians 15:40-41).

1 Corinthians 15:42a. These three things are taken from the first creation in which we live and prove that there is a resurrection. The conclusion is: “So also is the resurrection of the dead.”

1 Corinthians 15:42b-44. It has been proven that there is a resurrection and that the resurrection will happen in a way that is comparable with examples from nature. Still, what we will exactly be like, is not clarified by this proof. Neither does it become directly clear in the following verses. What has become clear is that everything will be far more wonderful, without any remembrance of weakness and the corruption of an earth where sin has done its destructing work.

You may compare this with a caterpillar and a butterfly. A caterpillar pupates. It spins silk all around itself and after a course of time a beautiful butterfly comes out of it. This transformation is really unimaginable. If you compare your earthly life with the caterpillar and your resurrected body with the butterfly, you then may have some idea of the transformation that will take place in the resurrection.

Paul uses for our ‘caterpillar life’ the words “perishable”, “dishonor”, “weakness” and “natural body”. These words indicate how terribly the consequences of sin have left its scars in our terrestrial body. When we die, this is the last and clearest proof of the decay our body has suffered from birth. Then our body is put into the ground: it is “sown”.

But to the believer that is not the end! Actually there is sown because there is a resurrection. And that resurrection shows a totally different and much more glorious body. The body is raised “imperishable”, “in glory”, “in power”, and as a “spiritual body”. The words that are used here, have to do with the Lord Jesus and His work, with heaven, with God and with the Holy Spirit.

Through His work on the cross the Lord Jesus has “abolished death and brought life and immortality to light” (2 Timothy 1:10). Heaven is the place where glory is seen and experienced and where we first were not able to come (Romans 3:23-24; Romans 5:2). It is the power of God that will make the resurrection possible (Ephesians 1:19-20).

We then will have a body that does not have any natural needs anymore. It doesn’t need food and drink anymore to remain alive. The life of the resurrected body is a spiritual life, which means that the Holy Spirit provides everything that body needs and that is fellowship with the Father and the Son. From that fellowship each activity takes place, both in the millennial kingdom and in eternity, in the Father’s house.

It seems wonderful to me to be occupied undistracted with everything the Father prepared for us based on the work of His Son in a realm where there is nothing that can disturb that anymore.

Now read 1 Corinthians 15:35-44 again.

Reflection: What characteristics of the resurrected do you find in the section?

2 Corinthians 6:18

How the Dead Are Raised

1 Corinthians 15:35. It is not very pleasant to ask a question about resurrection, when the person who replies to that, calls you “fool” (1 Corinthians 15:36). Who doesn’t have questions about the resurrection!? Though, you should keep in mind that Paul is still talking about people who do not take the resurrection seriously, which is the very case these days with so-called Christians. The question of 1 Corinthians 15:35 should be seen in that light. It is asked by a person who is not willing to be convinced that there is a resurrection. The question is only asked to satisfy his curiosity and not from an inner desire to know more of God’s dealings.

1 Corinthians 15:36. Therefore Paul rebukes the questioner by pointing out examples from nature. From those examples he could have learned some things about the resurrection. I heard about a man who was dying and who had been thinking a lot about death and thereafter. He did not believe in the resurrection of the dead. He had had a long sickbed. Out of his bed he could see the plants and the trees outside. He then noticed that in the autumn everything was, as it were, dying. Almost all colors were changing brown and the leaves fell off until there was nothing more left than bare branches. In winter everything seemed to be even dead. But what happened in the springtime? Then new life began! Buds appeared on the branches, which later became leaves and flowers. There was life after death!

This was the eye opener in his own situation. It led him to conversion and faith in the Lord Jesus. When he died, he knew that that was not the end, but that he went to his Savior and that he would even receive a new body one day.

1 Corinthians 15:37. What this man saw and noticed can be connected with what Paul is saying here. He points at the seed that is sown. That has to die first before it germinates and grows. And what is it that grows? Does it still look like a grain that has been sown? It absolutely does not look like that anymore. The grain that was sown in the ground is not the same as what comes out above the ground after a course of time. What comes out above the ground though, comes out from the grain that has been sown.

1 Corinthians 15:38. The kind of seed that is sown, determines what will come out of it. You would be very surprised when you plough up the ground, then sow grass seed into it to get a nice lawn, but instead of that get a flowing wheat field, after a course of time, wouldn’t you? That is not possible, of course. Each seed has its own body and its own inflorescence that becomes visible above the ground. This is how God has ordained it in nature. He has given everything its own body, its own shape. It is said in Genesis 1 that God made everything “after their kind” (Genesis 1:11; 21; 24; 25).

1 Corinthians 15:39. If you look around you in nature, this time not regarding the vegetation, but regarding men and the animal world, then you notice the same distinction. Man and animal are made from the same substance, namely flesh. Nevertheless, there is a huge variety of this matter. What an immense distinction God has made between men, animals, birds and fish! The examples that Paul mentions, come from the first creation, as it is originated in Genesis 1. But through the way he uses these examples, you learn that Genesis 1 has also something to say about the distinction that will be in the new creation.

1 Corinthians 15:40-41. To add more details in the distinctions, Paul now introduces the difference between the celestial and terrestrial bodies. In the previous verses he talked about the terrestrial bodies, while in 1 Corinthians 15:40-41 he goes a step higher and points at celestial bodies, as the sun, the moon and the stars. Each planet in the universe has its own special glory, which is given by God.

I just read in Psalm 19: “The heavens are telling of the glory of God; and their expanse is declaring the work of His hands” (Psalms 19:1). All glorious things that are seen in creation are the radiation of God Himself. He Himself is the Author and Executor of everything. He wants us to see that and praise Him for that. If that applies to the first creation, how much more it applies to the new creation. The new creation consists of a new heaven and a new earth. In the new heaven and on the new earth new people will dwell. How the new heaven and the new earth will be established, you can read in 2 Peter 3 (2 Peter 3:10-13).

We return now to 1 Corinthians 15. There it is about new people, as they will appear in the resurrection. Of these people there will be people who dwell on the new earth in a body with a terrestrial glory and there will be people who dwell in the new heaven in a body with a celestial glory. Jealousy will be no issue there, for sin does not exist anymore. Everyone will praise the wisdom of God, for He will give a body to all things as is fitting for everybody.

In summary, you can learn three things from the foregoing: 1. There is talk of seed that must die first, after which a body sprouts from what looks totally different than the seed (1 Corinthians 15:37-38). 2. There is talk of the differences between the bodies that are sprouted from the seeds (1 Corinthians 15:39). 3. There is talk of the difference between celestial and terrestrial bodies (1 Corinthians 15:40-41).

1 Corinthians 15:42a. These three things are taken from the first creation in which we live and prove that there is a resurrection. The conclusion is: “So also is the resurrection of the dead.”

1 Corinthians 15:42b-44. It has been proven that there is a resurrection and that the resurrection will happen in a way that is comparable with examples from nature. Still, what we will exactly be like, is not clarified by this proof. Neither does it become directly clear in the following verses. What has become clear is that everything will be far more wonderful, without any remembrance of weakness and the corruption of an earth where sin has done its destructing work.

You may compare this with a caterpillar and a butterfly. A caterpillar pupates. It spins silk all around itself and after a course of time a beautiful butterfly comes out of it. This transformation is really unimaginable. If you compare your earthly life with the caterpillar and your resurrected body with the butterfly, you then may have some idea of the transformation that will take place in the resurrection.

Paul uses for our ‘caterpillar life’ the words “perishable”, “dishonor”, “weakness” and “natural body”. These words indicate how terribly the consequences of sin have left its scars in our terrestrial body. When we die, this is the last and clearest proof of the decay our body has suffered from birth. Then our body is put into the ground: it is “sown”.

But to the believer that is not the end! Actually there is sown because there is a resurrection. And that resurrection shows a totally different and much more glorious body. The body is raised “imperishable”, “in glory”, “in power”, and as a “spiritual body”. The words that are used here, have to do with the Lord Jesus and His work, with heaven, with God and with the Holy Spirit.

Through His work on the cross the Lord Jesus has “abolished death and brought life and immortality to light” (2 Timothy 1:10). Heaven is the place where glory is seen and experienced and where we first were not able to come (Romans 3:23-24; Romans 5:2). It is the power of God that will make the resurrection possible (Ephesians 1:19-20).

We then will have a body that does not have any natural needs anymore. It doesn’t need food and drink anymore to remain alive. The life of the resurrected body is a spiritual life, which means that the Holy Spirit provides everything that body needs and that is fellowship with the Father and the Son. From that fellowship each activity takes place, both in the millennial kingdom and in eternity, in the Father’s house.

It seems wonderful to me to be occupied undistracted with everything the Father prepared for us based on the work of His Son in a realm where there is nothing that can disturb that anymore.

Now read 1 Corinthians 15:35-44 again.

Reflection: What characteristics of the resurrected do you find in the section?