OUR FATHER TO WHOM OUR LABOUR IS NOT IN VAIN
1 Corinthians chapter 15 verses 29 - 58 continues with the Apostle Paulˋs contention that there would indeed be a ressurection of the dead.
29 Otherwise, what will they do who are baptized for the dead, if the dead do not rise at all? Why then are they baptized for the dead? 30 And why do we stand in jeopardy every hour? 31 I affirm, by the boasting in you which I have in Christ Jesus our Lord, I die daily. 32 If, in the manner of men, I have fought with beasts at Ephesus, what advantage is it to me? If the dead do not rise, “Let us eat and drink, for tomorrow we die!”
The ˋbaptism of the deadˋ mentioned here (and nowhere else in sccripture) has be used to institute a religious practice among some groups where a living person is physically baptised as a proxy for a person who is dead so that the dead person can benefit from the mandatory rite even if they had not had a chance to experience it in life.
This interpretation is clearly a misreading of the text. The baptism of the dead is the same baptism mentioned by the Lord Jesus in the book of Mark 10 verse 38:
“You don’t know what you are asking,” Jesus said. “Can you drink the cup I drink or be baptized with the baptism I am baptized with?”
The baptism mentioned here is the baptism of death that Jesus would endure for the sake of all men. The baptism mentioned by Paul, in the context, is the baptism unto death that believers suffered for the sake of the gospel and for righteousness. The question paul is asking is why would there be any need for someone to die for the sake of the gospel if there was no ressurection of the dead. He asks why they, as servants of the gospel, suffered jeopardy and struggled against wid beasts and other hazzards if this life was all there was? Why wouldnˋt they just âdopt the precept that went, ˋEat drink and be merry for tomorrow we dieˋ.
33 Do not be deceived: “Evil company corrupts good habits.” 34 Awake to righteousness, and do not sin; for some do not have the knowledge of God. I speak this to your shame.
Here, Paul cautions the believers against associating with those who held that belief because they would be wrongly guided away from righteousness and towards sin based on the false doctrine that there was no ressurection.
35 But someone will say, “How are the dead raised up? And with what body do they come?” 36 Foolish one, what you sow is not made alive unless it dies. 37 And what you sow, you do not sow that body that shall be, but mere grain—perhaps wheat or some other grain. 38 But God gives it a body as He pleases, and to each seed its own body.
39 All flesh is not the same flesh, but there is one kind of flesh of men, another flesh of animals, another of fish, and another of birds.
40 There are also celestial bodies and terrestrial bodies; but the glory of the celestial is one, and the glory of the terrestrial is another. 41 There is one glory of the sun, another glory of the moon, and another glory of the stars; for one star differs from another star in glory.
42 So also is the resurrection of the dead. The body is sown in corruption, it is raised in incorruption. 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. There is a natural body, and there is a spiritual body. 45 And so it is written, “The first man Adam became a living being.” The last Adam became a life-giving spirit.
To answer the question of how the dead were raised, Paul uses an anology of a seed that falls to the ground and dies and then becomes alive in a new plant. For a human being who has been given eternal life becuase of their faith in Christ, they die and are then made alive again in a spiritual body in the image of the heavenly man Jesus.
46 However, the spiritual is not first, but the natural, and afterward the spiritual. 47 The first man was of the earth, made of dust; the second Man is the Lord from heaven. 48 As was the man of dust, so also are those who are made of dust; and as is the heavenly Man, so also are those who are heavenly. 49 And as we have borne the image of the man of dust, we shall also bear the image of the heavenly Man.
50 Now this I say, brethren, that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God; nor does corruption inherit incorruption. 51 Behold, I tell you a mystery: We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed— 52 in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed. 53 For this corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality. 54 So when this corruptible has put on incorruption, and this mortal has put on immortality, then shall be brought to pass the saying that is written: “Death is swallowed up in victory.”
55 “O Death, where is your sting? O Hades, where is your victory?”
56 The sting of death is sin, and the strength of sin is the law. 57 But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.
58 Therefore, my beloved brethren, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that your labor is not in vain in the Lord.
In this passage, the Apostle Paul reveals a mystery of the ages; In an instance, all who will inherit the kingdom of God will be raised up in a new incorruptible and immortal body. At that moment, those who are dead in Christ will be raised from the dead in immortal bodies while those who are alive and in Christ, will be caught up with Him and transformed in a twinkling of an eye when the last trumpet blows to mark then of the dispensation we are in.
At that moment, death will be defeated and rendered non-functional because sin is the sting that causes death and the law, in its judgement of sin, is what gives sin its strength but the Lord Jesus Christ, having lived a perfectly sinless life even to the point of submitting to an agonizing death in mental and physical anguish, was victorious over sin and death and we are each given this victory through Him.
Amen.
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