May 8, 2015
Today’s reading from Encounter with God

Our Future Hope

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Opening Prayer

Patient Father, thank You for raising my spirits, for granting me patience, and for changing my attitudes. To You, Lord, be all the glory.

Read 1 CORINTHIANS 15:35-58

[35] But someone will ask, “How are the dead raised? With what kind of body will they come?” [36] How foolish! What you sow does not come to life unless it dies. [37] When you sow, you do not plant the body that will be, but just a seed, perhaps of wheat or of something else. [38] But God gives it a body as he has determined, and to each kind of seed he gives its own body. [39] Not all flesh is the same: People have one kind of flesh, animals have another, birds another and fish another. [40] There are also heavenly bodies and there are earthly bodies; but the splendor of the heavenly bodies is one kind, and the splendor of the earthly bodies is another. [41] The sun has one kind of splendor, the moon another and the stars another; and star differs from star in splendor. [42] So will it be with the resurrection of the dead. The body that is sown is perishable, it is raised imperishable; [43] it is sown in dishonor, it is raised in glory; it is sown in weakness, it is raised in power; [44] it is sown a natural body, it is raised a spiritual body. If there is a natural body, there is also a spiritual body. [45] So it is written: “The first man Adam became a living being”; the last Adam, a life-giving spirit. [46] The spiritual did not come first, but the natural, and after that the spiritual. [47] The first man was of the dust of the earth; the second man is of heaven. [48] As was the earthly man, so are those who are of the earth; and as is the heavenly man, so also are those who are of heaven. [49] And just as we have borne the image of the earthly man, so shall we bear the image of the heavenly man. [50] I declare to you, brothers and sisters, that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God, nor does the perishable inherit the imperishable. [51] Listen, I tell you a mystery: We will not all sleep, but we will all be changed- [52] in a flash, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, the dead will be raised imperishable, and we will be changed. [53] For the perishable must clothe itself with the imperishable, and the mortal with immortality. [54] When the perishable has been clothed with the imperishable, and the mortal with immortality, then the saying that is written will come true: “Death has been swallowed up in victory.” [55] “Where, O death, is your victory? Where, O death, is your sting?” [56] The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law. [57] But thanks be to God! He gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. [58] Therefore, my dear brothers and sisters, stand firm. Let nothing move you. Always give yourselves fully to the work of the Lord, because you know that your labor in the Lord is not in vain.

Scripture taken from the THE HOLY BIBLE, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION, NIV Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.

Reflect

“We will be with the Lord forever” (1 Thess. 4:17). Rejoice in your future hope!

The thrust of the Corinthians’ objection to resurrection is found in the second of the questions in verse 35, given the prevailing worldview that denigrated physicality. Using an analogy from nature, Paul explains the idea of continuity with transformation that will take place at the resurrection. Everyone understands that a plant has a completely different physicality from that of the seed from which it sprang, but no one doubts the continuity between the two (37-38). No one doubts the different kinds of physicality demonstrated in the world of nature and the heavens, nor that each is perfectly suited to its environment (38-41). So it is, argues Paul, in the physicality of our human bodies, which are perfectly suited for this environment (with all their frailties) but will be useless in the perfect world to come (50).

We need a resurrected body perfectly suited to that world. Through the actions of God, our resurrected bodies will have continuity with our present bodies but they will also have been transformed for life in eternity, not limited by our present physical and spiritual frailties.

This does not imply, however, that all Christians will die before Jesus returns, but all Christians will be transformed in an instant at the return of Christ (51-52). It will happen “in a flash,” and the “powerful taunt of death” (Gordon Fee) will be overcome (54-55) as the full and final victory over death, “the last enemy” (26), is complete. So their faith and Christian life are not futile (58); they can confidently continue following Christ. This chapter might point us to our future hope, but this hope is not removed from ethics, as it helps us to remain faithful in Christian service. Our work for Christ is not in vain.

Apply

“There will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain” (Rev. 21:4). What does this glorious hope mean to you?

Closing prayer

Lord, I thank You that death for the Christian is “gain” (Phil. 1:21). I am fully alive in Christ, and one day I will live forever. Hallelujah!

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