The Truth comes to Corinth

Paul Announces our Final Victory over Death

1 Corinthians 15:54 But when this perishable will have put on the imperishable, and this mortal will have put on immortality, then will come about the saying that is written, “Death is swallowed up in victory.” NKJV

Paul now concludes this chapter by proclaiming the glorious victory we who are “in Christ” will win in Him at the moment of our physical death, even though it is always our inclination (because of the way our bodies are designed) to fight hard with all the resources at our disposal to live as long as humanly possible in these tents or earthen vessels our bodies. However, from God the Father’s perspective and that of our Lord Jesus Christ our death is a delight as described in this manner by the Psalmist when he wrote, “Precious in the sight of the LORD is the death of His saints” (Psalmist 116:15). Paul with his certain knowledge of this truth declares that as soon as this decaying flesh is put off, death will be instantly destroyed, decimated, and defeated for every one of us who have been born twice. Paul’s words he wrote here in 1 Corinthians 15:54 are drawn from the words spoken by the Lord God through the Prophet Isaiah when he said, “He will swallow up death for all time, And the Lord GOD will wipe tears away from all faces, And He will remove the reproach of His people from all the earth; For the LORD has spoken” (Isaiah 25:8). This confirms that this was God’s Promise to His people from the beginning and “in Christ” or in Christ death for sin and resurrection for justification, God the Father has made good on His Promise to His people.

1 Corinthians 15:55 “O death, where is your victory? O death, where is your sting?” NKJV

Paul appears to turn the focus of his discourse away from addressing the Corinthian believers to speaking directly to death itself and the author or originator of death the devil and denounces its hold or grip over him, the Corinthian believers and all believers in Christ of every generation exactly as the writer of Hebrews declared with these words, “Therefore, since the children share in flesh and blood, He Himself likewise also partook of the same, that through death He might render powerless him who had the power of death, that is, the devil, and might free those who through fear of death were subject to slavery all their lives” (Hebrews 2:14-15). Paul declares that through the Cross of Christ and His Resurrection from the grave deaths ability to hurt believers has been extracted or removed as one would remove the bee’s stinger or the snake’s venom sack. Paul with this question was again drawing from the Old Testament Scripture written by the Prophet Hosea when he said, “Shall I ransom them from the power of Sheol? Shall I redeem them from death? O Death, where are your thorns? O Sheol, where is your sting? Compassion will be hidden from My sight” (Hosea 13:14). The answers to each one of these two questions Paul answered in 1 Corinthians 15:54, but he still wants these believers and us today to be ever assured of this fact and reality, so he declares this truth to the culprit death and the devil (Revelation 20:10 & Revelation 20:14).

1 Corinthians 15:56 The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law. NKJV

Paul declares that it is all due to our sin nature that we die in the first place as Paul declared by these words earlier on in this same chapter when he said, “For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive” (1 Corinthians 15:22). Adam’s sin passed down to all of humanity is what makes death so fearful and frightening to every person, but when we encounter our Lord Jesus Christ and are made alive “in Him” the dread of our pending death is removed or taken away and then we begin to anticipate death, knowing it will usher us into Christ Presence and Love as well as destroy all of our sin “in us” and “around us” forever as we are clothed with our glorified body. It is the “law of God” that holds us captive as we look into it and see its complete perfection and our complete imperfection as Paul summarized for us in his letter to the Roman believers with these words in Romans 7:7-16.

1 Corinthians 15:57-58 But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. Therefore, my beloved brethren, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that your toil is not in vain in the Lord. NKJV

God’s Law is Holy and Perfect, but we are unholy and sinful and therefore, the law is bondage to us and only in our intimate union with Christ can we have victory over our sin, not through trying harder to keep the law, but “in Him” or in His Nature is perfection for we must go to Him to receive the victory God the Father has already given us, as it is declared in this manner by the writer of Hebrews, “Therefore, since we have a great high priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold fast our confession. For we do not have a high priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses, but One who has been tempted in all things as we are, yet without sin. Therefore let us draw near with confidence to the throne of grace, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need” (Hebrews 4:14-16). It is an unchangeable fact and eternal truth that we are victorious “in Christ” now and at the moment of our physical death. With this fact in mind, we must endeavor to be like a rock formed by a volcanic eruption firm and fixed on doing what our Lord Jesus Christ has commissioned and gifted each one of us to do for His Kingdom.

“Hosea had prophesied of Israel’s restoration under figure of a resurrection, and Paul grasps his words and fills them with a larger meaning. He modifies them, in a manner on which we need not enlarge, to express the great Christian thought that death has conquered man but that man in Christ will conquer the conqueror. With swift change of metaphor he represents death as a serpent, armed with a poisoned sting, and that suggests to him the thought, never far away in his view of man, that death’s power to slay is derived from-or, so to say, concentrated in-sin; and that at once raises the other equally characteristic and familiar thought that law stimulates sin, since to know a thing to be forbidden creates in perverse humanity an itching to do it, and law reveals sin by setting up the ideal from which sin is the departure. But just as the tracks in Paul’s mind were well worn, by which the thought of death brought in that of sin, and that of sin drew after it that of law, so with equal closeness of established association, that of law condemnatory and slaying, brought up that of Christ the all-sufficient refuge from that gloomy triad-Death, Sin, Law. Through union with Him each of us may possess His immortal risen life, in which Death, the engulfer, is himself engulfed; Death, the conqueror, is conquered utterly and forever; Death, the serpent, has his sting drawn, and is harmless. That participation in Christ’s life is begun even here, and God ‘giveth us the victory’ now, even while we live outward lives that must end in death, and will give it perfectly in the resurrection, when ‘they cannot die anymore,’ and death itself is dead.” Alexander MacLaren

“What triumph rings through those last four verses! As generations of Christians have stood around the mortal remains of their beloved, they have uttered these words of immortal hope. The trumpet’s notes will call those who have died and the saints that are still alive on the earth, into one mighty host of transfigured and redeemed humanity. Oh, happy day! Then we shall be manifested, rewarded, and glorified with Christ. All mysteries solved, all questions answered! Till then let us abound always in the work of the Lord.” F. B. Meyer

“Death, even for many an honest believer is not something that we think about often because although we trust our Lord we are still battling weaknesses, sin, and also fear at times because it is still many unanswered questions we have over things here that don’t make sense to us and can only be explained for us by our Lord Jesus Christ Himself.” Clifford D. Tate, Sr.

If you do not know the Lord Jesus Christ and His amazing healing power, pray this from your heart to the Lord Jesus Christ (you speaking directly to Him), Dear Lord Jesus, I confess to You that I am a sinner and I need Your forgiveness. I believe You shed Your Blood and died for my sins. I believe that You rose from the dead proving that You alone are God. I repent of my sins. I want to turn from my sins. I ask You Dear Lord Jesus to come into my heart and take control of my life. I want You to be my Lord, Savior, and my God. Amen...


Sincerely in Christ,


Clifford D. Tate, Sr.

Author of “Silent Assassins of the Soul - Are you Broken by Pornography and Masturbation? You can be Restored by the Lord Jesus Christ and brought into Deliverance, Freedom, and Victory! A Guide for Men and Women in the Enemy’s Crosshairs” e-book available now @ Amazon Kindle, @ Apple I Bookstore for IPod, Barnes and Noble for Nook, Reader Store for Sony Reade, Kobo, Copia, Gardners, Baker and Taylor, and eBookPie…

 

The Truth comes to Corinth

Paul Declares the Mystery of our Resurrection

1 Corinthians 15:50-53 Now I say this, brethren, that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God; nor does the perishable inherit the imperishable. Behold, I tell you a mystery; we will not all sleep, but we will all be changed, in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet; for the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised imperishable, and we will be changed. For this perishable must put on the imperishable, and this mortal must put on immortality. NKJV

Paul now draws his discourse of expounding or explaining the resurrection from  the dead by enlightening or opening the understanding of these Corinthian believers and us of what the parameters or the facts that define and determine what the resurrection of our physical bodies from the grave truly means from the perspective of God the Father. The first thing Paul does is remind us that we human beings are flesh and blood and we know that in this state or condition we are sinners and sinful in this flesh and blood, so Paul then declares the heavenly and eternal truth that no flesh and blood can inherit or be an heir to God’s Kingdom. Paul uses the English word cannot to make his point emphatic or strong and forceful to leave no doubts about this reality. This English word cannot is translated by two Greek words, the first Greek word for “can” is dunamai which means to be able or possible or to have power to or to be capable or strong enough. The second Greek word for “not” is ou which is a primary word expressing an absolute negative. Flesh and blood “cannot” inherit heaven because we have learned from the previous studies that it is not designed for habitation anywhere but here upon the earth as it is presently designed and created by God.

When our Lord Jesus Christ died on the Cross and rose from the grave the third day, He announced to His disciples then and to the rest of humanity in every generation “the new thing” or “the new creation” God the Father was doing in humanity as our Lord Jesus who poured out His Blood for our sins said this speaking of His New Resurrected Body to the disciples when He appeared to them and calm their fears, “But they were startled and frightened and thought that they were seeing a spirit. And He said to them, ‘Why are you troubled, and why do doubts arise in your hearts? See My hands and My feet, that it is I Myself; touch Me and see, for a spirit does not have flesh and bones as you see that I have’” (Luke 24:37-39). Our Lord Jesus announces the new eternal body of His (being the first fruits from the dead) and ours of flesh and bone, and the disciples touched, felt, manipulated, and verified by contact that it was our Lord Jesus in a new Resurrected Body. God the Father had no plan to redeem our existing flesh but as we learned from the last study “in Christ” God the Father condemned our sinful flesh (Romans 8:3) and “in Christ’s Resurrected Body” began a new race of humanity as we are “in Him” being prepared or sanctified right now by God the Holy Spirit for our life eternally in heaven in our new body of flesh and bone we receive at our death, yet it will be a spiritual body that will never see the corruption of aging or disease.

Our Lord Jesus is right now in heaven in His Resurrected Body and will eternally be in His Resurrected Body when we are with Him in heaven. Paul informs them and us that there will be some followers of Christ still alive when He comes to catch up His Church in the air to meet Him. Paul and every believer over 2,000 years ago were living every day in the expectation that our Lord Jesus Christ could come for them at any moment and some of the believers in Thessalonica had become disturbed by some letter that came to them implying that the rapture had already taken place, so Paul wrote to them these words reassuring them that they had not missed the rapture and been left behind, “Now we request you, brethren, with regard to the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ and our gathering together to Him, that you not be quickly shaken from your composure or be disturbed either by a spirit or a message or a letter as if from us, to the effect that the day of the Lord has come. Let no one in any way deceive you, for it will not come unless the apostasy comes first, and the man of lawlessness is revealed, the son of destruction, who opposes and exalts himself above every so-called god or object of worship, so that he takes his seat in the temple of God, displaying himself as being God. Do you not remember that while I was still with you, I was telling you these things?” (2 Thessalonians 2:1-5).

Paul describes the rapture as an event that takes place in the “twinkling” of an eye or in other words a moment in time or an instant and this is why the Thessalonians were so disturbed because they knew this would take place so fast that it would not be possible for one to get prepared if they were not already prepared by way of regeneration and the new birth. Paul proclaims that in this “twinkling” or instant we all “in Christ” will be changed or made different or transformed to be like Christ Jesus our Lord and Paul in his first letter he wrote to those Thessalonian believers had informed them of our Lord Jesus’ Second Coming with these words, “But we do not want you to be uninformed, brethren, about those who are asleep, so that you will not grieve as do the rest who have no hope. For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so God will bring with Him those who have fallen asleep in Jesus. For this we say to you by the word of the Lord, that we who are alive and remain until the coming of the Lord, will not precede those who have fallen asleep. For the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel and with the trumpet of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first. Then we who are alive and remain will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and so we shall always be with the Lord. Therefore comfort one another with these words” (1 Thessalonians 4:13-18). At this instant or moment our corruptible flesh and blood will be made by our Lord Jesus Himself incorruptible and immortal clothed to live in the heavenly realm forever with Him.

“A man with his gross earthly body, so thoroughly adapted to his earthly abode, would be all out of harmony with his surroundings in that higher world, and its rarified air would be too thin and pure for his lungs. Can there be any possibility of making him fit to live in a spiritual world? Apart from revelation, the dreary answer must be ‘No.’ But the ‘mystery’ answers with ‘Yes.’ The change from physical to spiritual is clearly necessary, if there is to be a blessed life hereafter. That necessary change is assured to all Christians, whether they die or ‘remain till the coming of the Lord.’ Paul varies in his anticipations as to whether he and his contemporaries will belong to the one class or the other; but he is quite sure that in either case the indwelling Spirit of Jesus will effect on living and dead the needful change.” Alexander MacLaren

“Despite the eternal words written here by the Apostle Paul, there still remains a lot or host of truth we don’t know about what we will be like with Jesus Christ our Lord in Heaven and I believe if our Lord would have disclosed in much more detail what awaits us when we put off this weak, frail, and corrupt sinful flesh we now inhabit, we would be so pre-occupied with it that we would be of no earthly good in our sojourn and pilgrimage on earth.” Clifford D. Tate, Sr.

If you do not know the Lord Jesus Christ and His amazing healing power, pray this from your heart to the Lord Jesus Christ (you speaking directly to Him), Dear Lord Jesus, I confess to You that I am a sinner and I need Your forgiveness. I believe You shed Your Blood and died for my sins. I believe that You rose from the dead proving that You alone are God. I repent of my sins. I want to turn from my sins. I ask You Dear Lord Jesus to come into my heart and take control of my life. I want You to be my Lord, Savior, and my God. Amen...


Sincerely in Christ,


Clifford D. Tate, Sr.

Author of “Silent Assassins of the Soul - Are you Broken by Pornography and Masturbation? You can be Restored by the Lord Jesus Christ and brought into Deliverance, Freedom, and Victory! A Guide for Men and Women in the Enemy’s Crosshairs” e-book available now @ Amazon Kindle, @ Apple I Bookstore for IPod, Barnes and Noble for Nook, Reader Store for Sony Reade, Kobo, Copia, Gardners, Baker and Taylor, and eBookPie…

The Truth comes to Corinth

Paul Declares the Wonder of the Christians Resurrected Body Part 3

1 Corinthians 15:45-49 So also it is written, “The first man, Adam, became a living soul.” The last Adam became a life-giving spirit. However, the spiritual is not first, but the natural; then the spiritual. The first man is from the earth, earthy; the second man is from heaven. As is the earthy, so also are those who are earthy; and as is the heavenly, so also are those who are heavenly. Just as we have borne the image of the earthy, we will also bear the image of the heavenly. NKJV

Paul now makes the contrast between the natural lives we all have in Adam the first man created by God to the supernatural life every repentant sinner receives from our Lord Jesus Christ the moment we are born again. Adam was created from the dust of the earth (Genesis 2:7) while our Lord Jesus Christ is very God from heaven who humbled Himself and put on human flesh to become a sacrifice for our sins as Paul wrote in this manner to the Roman believers here, “For what the Law could not do, weak as it was through the flesh, God did: sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and as an offering for sin, He condemned sin in the flesh” (Romans 8:3). Just as we have taken upon and in us the nature of Adam (sinful and rebellious), so have we now been given the nature of Christ Jesus our Lord just as Paul has already earlier written to these Corinthian believers in this same letter when he said, “Now we have received, not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, so that we may know the things freely given to us by God, which things we also speak, not in words taught by human wisdom, but in those taught by the Spirit, combining spiritual thoughts with spiritual words. But a natural man does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him; and he cannot understand them, because they are spiritually appraised. But he who is spiritual appraises all things, yet he himself is appraised by no one. For who has known the mind of the Lord, that he will instruct Him? But we have the mind of Christ” (1 Corinthians 2:12-16).

The fact of our sinful nature cannot be denied by any person who looks inwardly and truthfully at his or her own heart and it is what we have inherited from the first man Adam whom we are all of his offspring no matter what part of the world one resides. However, the fact of our new nature in Christ also cannot be denied as we see ourselves being drawn to read God’s Word and follow our Lord Jesus Christ desiring to see others be forgiven, even those we have never met in this life because we now have a proper perspective on this life and our pending physical death. The continual war between the “old man in Adam” and the “new man in Christ” will always rage on within us (Galatians 5:17), but we are assured of ultimate victory in Christ when we take our last breath here on the earth and are then ushered into His Presence. Paul wrote about this ultimate victory over sin through our resurrection life in Christ and finally at the death of our flesh when he wrote this to the Roman believers, “Therefore, just as through one man sin entered into the world, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men, because all sinned--for until the Law sin was in the world, but sin is not imputed when there is no law. Nevertheless death reigned from Adam until Moses, even over those who had not sinned in the likeness of the offense of Adam, who is a type of Him who was to come. But the free gift is not like the transgression. For if by the transgression of the one the many died, much more did the grace of God and the gift by the grace of the one Man, Jesus Christ, abound to the many. The gift is not like that which came through the one who sinned; for on the one hand the judgment arose from one transgression resulting in condemnation, but on the other hand the free gift arose from many transgressions resulting in justification. For if by the transgression of the one, death reigned through the one, much more those who receive the abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness will reign in life through the One, Jesus Christ. So then as through one transgression there resulted condemnation to all men, even so through one act of righteousness there resulted justification of life to all men. For as through the one man’s disobedience the many were made sinners, even so through the obedience of the One the many will be made righteous. The Law came in so that the transgression would increase; but where sin increased, grace abounded all the more, so that, as sin reigned in death, even so grace would reign through righteousness to eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord” (Romans 5:12-21).

Paul concludes his wonderful discourse on the glorious body that awaits us with these words, “As is the earthy, so also are those who are earthy; and as is the heavenly, so also are those who are heavenly. Just as we have borne the image of the earthy, we will also bear the image of the heavenly” (1 Corinthians 15:48-49). There are two key words Paul uses here that I want to highlight and the first is the English word borne or bear which is translated by the Greek word phoreo which means to have a burden or carry a load; it has the idea or analogy of someone wearing clothing seeing that your clothing is always on you or attached to you. Paul declares that as we are in this earthly life attached to the old nature we received from Adam on account of his sin and rebellion, but that union will be forever broken for those of us who have come to our Lord Jesus Christ at the Cross in repentance and faith and we will then be empowered by Him to put off forever our old man and bear or phoreo in His Righteous image forever and this English word image is the second of the two keys words in this discourse by Paul and it is translated by the Greek word eikon which means exact representation; likeness of the things (the heavenly things) or the moral likeness of renewed men to God the Father through the Son of God (Jesus Christ); the likeness given into which true Christians are transformed;  the likeness not only to the heavenly body, but also to the most holy and blessed state of mind, which Christ possesses in Himself. To think that at the moment of our death, we will be made just like our Lord Jesus Christ is completely and absolutely boggling and baffling to our mind still trapped here on the earth and in time, but this is exactly what Paul declares to us here and what is taught by every writer of New Testament epistles or letters.

“We must have weak, frail, mortal bodies by descent from the first Adam, before we can have lively, spiritual, and immortal ones by the quickening power of the second. We must die before we can live to die no more. Yet if we are Christ’s, true believers in Him (for this whole discourse relates to the resurrection of the saints), it is as certain that we shall have spiritual bodies as it is now that we have natural or animal ones. By these we are as the first Adam, earthy, we bear his image; by those we shall be as the second Adam, have bodies like His own, heavenly, and so bear His image. And we are as certainly intended to bear the one as we have borne the other. As surely therefore as we have had natural bodies, we shall have spiritual ones. The dead in Christ shall not only rise, but shall rise thus gloriously changed.” Matthew Henry

“Therefore, there is nothing left for us to do but to believe and receive this truth and shout our praises unto the Lord Jesus Christ for His Greatness and loving-kindness shown to each of us His children. We will spend all eternity doing so.” Clifford D. Tate, Sr.

If you do not know the Lord Jesus Christ and His amazing healing power, pray this from your heart to the Lord Jesus Christ (you speaking directly to Him), Dear Lord Jesus, I confess to You that I am a sinner and I need Your forgiveness. I believe You shed Your Blood and died for my sins. I believe that You rose from the dead proving that You alone are God. I repent of my sins. I want to turn from my sins. I ask You Dear Lord Jesus to come into my heart and take control of my life. I want You to be my Lord, Savior, and my God. Amen...


Sincerely in Christ,


Clifford D. Tate, Sr.

Author of “Silent Assassins of the Soul - Are you Broken by Pornography and Masturbation? You can be Restored by the Lord Jesus Christ and brought into Deliverance, Freedom, and Victory! A Guide for Men and Women in the Enemy’s Crosshairs” e-book available now @ Amazon Kindle, @ Apple I Bookstore for IPod, Barnes and Noble for Nook, Reader Store for Sony Reade, Kobo, Copia, Gardners, Baker and Taylor, and eBookPie…

The Truth comes to Corinth

Paul Declares the Wonder of the Christians Resurrected Body Part 2

1 Corinthians 15:43-44 It is sown in dishonor, it is raised in glory; it is sown in weakness, it is raised in power; it is sown a natural body, it is raised a spiritual body. If there is a natural body, there is also a spiritual body. NKJV

Paul now immediately gives even deeper detail of how our earthly houses, tents, or bodies die due to corruption but are raised, roused, and revived in incorruption or the Greek word aphtharsia which means without the ability to decay or unending existence, perpetuity, purity, and sincerity. This earthly and worldly body we are clothed with for our habitation on this earth in its atmosphere is just the opposite of the new body we will be receiving when we see our Lord Jesus Christ as we are then made just like Him. Paul declares the death of our bodies just like the lifeless seed being sown into the soil or ground and so is our completely decayed lifeless body sown into the belly of the earth’s ground in dishonor and this English word is translated by the Greek word atimia which means infamy or evil reputation; sown or buried in indignity or insult; sown in disgrace, reproach, and shame a vile, despicable or morally reprehensible body. Paul declares the reality of our body in its natural state or condition, for even in our redemption and resurrection life we have in our Lord Jesus Christ right now it is still woefully incapable of practicing that which is good (morally excellent or morally virtues Ephesians 2:10) at all times as we pilgrim and sojourn as aliens down here on the earth. This was the whole theme of Paul’s discourse in Romans 7. Despite it being a body physically and at times spiritually sown in dishonor, Paul declares it raised, roused, and revived in glory and this English word is translated by the Greek word doxa which means the absolutely perfect inward or personal excellency of Christ; the majesty of the angels as apparent in their exterior brightness; a most glorious condition; a most exalted state of that condition with God the Father in heaven to which Christ was raised after He had achieved His work on earth; the glorious condition of blessedness into which is appointed and promised that true Christians shall enter after their Savior’s return from heaven.

Paul wrote these words to the Roman believers as he looked to his and theirs and our future state or condition when Christ returns to the earth, he said, “For I reckon that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory (doxa) which shall be revealed in us” (Romans 8:18). Also Paul wrote to the Philippians about what was most desirable at all times in his heart when he said this, “More than that, I count all things to be loss in view of the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them but rubbish so that I may gain Christ, and may be found in Him, not having a righteousness of my own derived from the Law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness which comes from God on the basis of faith, that I may know Him and the power of His resurrection and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death; in order that I may attain to the resurrection from the dead. Not that I have already obtained it or have already become perfect, but I press on so that I may lay hold of that for which also I was laid hold of by Christ Jesus. Brethren, I do not regard myself as having laid hold of it yet; but one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and reaching forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus” (Philippians 3:8-14). Paul who by all accounts had much to boast about in his accomplishments in his service to our Lord Jesus Christ, planting many churches, healing many sick people, casting out demons, preaching and teaching everywhere he went, and writing many Divinely inspired letters that would become more than half of the New Testament Books and live on forever, but yet he was always aware of his infirmity and looking forward to that time when he would be made just like Christ Jesus our Lord and be raised up in Him in glory.

Paul declares our earthly tents, houses, or bodies sown or buried in weakness and this English word is translated by the Greek word astheneia which  means feebleness of body or mind; by implication malady or moral frailty; diseased, infirmed, or sick. The body in itself is not evil as some over the years or centuries have attributed to it, but what the body is, even in our forgiven condition still weak because of the old man or nature that remains in us and also because of the corruption of sin (in the world) that continues to exist until Christ returns. Paul also was mindful of this truth all the time and constantly reminded the believers under his care and watch of this as well and he wrote these words to the Ephesians, “That ye put off concerning the former conversation the old man, which is corrupt according to the deceitful lusts; And be renewed in the spirit of your mind; And that ye put on the new man, which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness” (Ephesians 4:22-24). The body buried in all that weakness is resurrected or raised in power or the Greek word dunamis which means miraculous power or a miracle itself. Our glorified body will be absolutely perfect and no longer trapped in weakness but will be a supernatural miracle enabling us to explore the vast, huge, and immense universes created by our Lord Jesus Christ, for we will not be trapped in time any longer but will be able to travel just as our Lord Jesus is as the disciples were amazed at the miracle of His ascension back to heaven (Acts 1:9).

“Life on the other side will be as real and as earnest as here. We shall not dissolve into thin mist or flit as bodiless ghosts. We shall each be provided with a body like that which our Lord had after, He arose from the dead. It will be a spiritual body, able to go and come at a wish or a thought; a body that will be perfectly adapted to its spiritual world environment.” F. B. Meyer

“The new glorified body our redeemed and resurrected spirit and soul will occupy is going to be so awesome and wonderful and miraculous that human language does it no justice at all.” Clifford D. Tate, Sr.

If you do not know the Lord Jesus Christ and His amazing healing power, pray this from your heart to the Lord Jesus Christ (you speaking directly to Him), Dear Lord Jesus, I confess to You that I am a sinner and I need Your forgiveness. I believe You shed Your Blood and died for my sins. I believe that You rose from the dead proving that You alone are God. I repent of my sins. I want to turn from my sins. I ask You Dear Lord Jesus to come into my heart and take control of my life. I want You to be my Lord, Savior, and my God. Amen...


Sincerely in Christ,


Clifford D. Tate, Sr.

Author of “Silent Assassins of the Soul - Are you Broken by Pornography and Masturbation? You can be Restored by the Lord Jesus Christ and brought into Deliverance, Freedom, and Victory! A Guide for Men and Women in the Enemy’s Crosshairs” e-book available now @ Amazon Kindle, @ Apple I Bookstore for IPod, Barnes and Noble for Nook, Reader Store for Sony Reade, Kobo, Copia, Gardners, Baker and Taylor, and eBookPie…

The Truth comes to Corinth

Paul Declares the Wonder of the Christians Resurrected Body Part 1

1 Corinthians 15:35-42 But someone will say, “How are the dead raised? And with what kind of body do they come?” You fool! That which you sow does not come to life unless it dies; and that which you sow, you do not sow the body which is to be, but a bare grain, perhaps of wheat or of something else. But God gives it a body just as He wished, and to each of the seeds a body of its own. All flesh is not the same flesh, but there is one flesh of men, and another flesh of beasts, and another flesh of birds, and another of fish. There are also heavenly bodies and earthly bodies, but the glory of the heavenly is one, and the glory of the earthly is another. There is one glory of the sun, and another glory of the moon, and another glory of the stars; for star differs from star in glory. So also is the resurrection of the dead. It is sown a perishable body, it is raised an imperishable body. NKJV

Paul now addresses these skeptics of the Resurrection of the dead among the Corinthian believers even deeper by addressing a question he surely had been confronted with on numerous occasions during his missionary journeys. Paul wanted to lay out with detailed examination and even painstaking care the eternal glorious plan of God for every soul that would come to Him through the death, burial, and resurrection of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Paul being an eyewitness of the Glorified Risen Lord knew that we all who trust and love Him were destined to be just like Him as it is written by the Apostle John with these words, “Beloved, now we are children of God, and it has not appeared as yet what we will be. We know that when He appears, we will be like Him, because we will see Him just as He is” (1 John 3:2). The Sadducees (who Paul lived among for many years before his conversion) denied life after death or the resurrection of the dead and many other Jews and Non-Jews alike; therefore, Paul understood why even some in the Corinthian church would question it.

Paul refutes their question by showing the ignorance in which it is raised by them as he gives them the illustration of a farmer who plants a seed that dies into the soil of the earth, that it would then be made alive into something totally different than the one tiny seed that was planted. Our Lord Jesus Christ gave this illustration to the disciples Phillip and Andrew speaking of His pending death on the Cross when He said, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it bears much fruit” (John 12:24). Our Lord Jesus is declaring here to them and to us that just like in the natural world (all designed by Him and operate under His Laws and Authority) a lifeless seed brings forth plant life that produces fruit, wheat, and other things that man can use for food, shelter, and clothing, so in the supernatural world (also designed by Him and operate under His Laws and Authority) the death of the physical body does not kill the spirit but God takes the spirit and soul and reunites it with a new body a supernatural “spiritual body” that is completely different from the natural body.

Paul drawing from these words spoken by our Lord Jesus Christ writes to them and us, “But God gives it a body just as He wished, and to each of the seeds a body of its own” (1 Corinthians 15:38). Paul declares here that God the Father has determined before the foundation of the world what type of eternal body each “seed” or “soul” will be clothed with in heaven. The fact and reality that even human discovery of DNA proves that there are no two human bodies alike (not even identical twins) also testifies or bears witness to the truth of 1 Corinthians 15:38 that there will also not be any to “spiritual bodies” alike in heaven. Note: Paul does not address it here because his focus (rightly so) is to exalt the glorious beauty of our bodies in heaven, but there will also be prepared for the lost or the unsaved or unforgiven a distinct and unique “spiritual body” that will be prepared for their eternal suffering or torment in hell. Paul goes on in the next few verses to expound or explain the various differences of flesh God has clothed various animals with that function perfectly for the environment they inhabit.

I am an avid viewer of programs about wild animals on land and in the ocean. And it has often struck me how most of the men and women who operate, research, and work in the study of many different animals are always affirming and confirming (against their beliefs because most subscribe to evolution) the wondrous, powerful, awesome, and glorious hand of God in His Creation as they declare their utter amazement at every animal being designed and equipped with the exact body type and function to survive where they are located. Paul now refers to the difference in the celestial bodies (that of angels) and the terrestrial bodies (that of man on earth) and the difference as it is now is because the two bodies are clothed for their particular dwelling places.

Although we human beings are a spirit created in the image of God (Genesis 1:26) we are clothed with this terrestrial or the Greek word epigeios which literally means earthly or worldly. The bodies we occupy now are limited in their power and function because of sin, but when they die, then they will be raised in absolute perfection and be never marred by that disease of sin, it will be incorruptible. The writer of Hebrews has it as it most surely is for every one of us true believers as he writes this, “And as it is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the judgment: So Christ was once offered to bear the sins of many; and unto them that look for Him shall He appear the second time without sin unto salvation” (Hebrews 9:27-28). This is the internal longing of every one of us that have been regenerated and born again to receive our new eternal body never ever tempted by sin again to live forever in true loving obedience and adoration to our King of Kings and Lord of Lords Jesus Christ.

“We are certainly in a common class with the beasts; every action of animal life is concerned with seeking bodily pleasure and avoiding pain.” Augustine

“Death to the Christian is the funeral of all his sorrows and evils, and the resurrection, of all his joys.” James H. Aughey

“In every seed there is the germ of a new and beautiful growth, more elaborate and yet identical; so in each of us there is something which has the capacity and potentiality of furnishing another body, through which the emancipated spirit will be able to express itself more perfectly than it can in this body, which is composed of coarser materials. It is not difficult to believe in this, when we have seen the caterpillar become the butterfly. The world is full of wonderful and beautiful things. God’s inventiveness reveals itself in a myriad differing organisms. It is by His will that the golden head of wheat is fairer than the little brown seed cast into the furrow; so it is His pleasure that the body which is to be shall surpass the present in glory.” F. B. Meyer

“The fact that angels reside in heaven right now and we human beings in the bodies we have now cannot do so is proof positive of the difference in the earthly body and heavenly bodies, but the great truth that awaits each of us born again as children of God is cemented by these words spoken from the lips of our Lord Jesus Himself when He said, ‘The sons of this age marry and are given in marriage, but those who are considered worthy to attain to that age and the resurrection from the dead, neither marry nor are given in marriage; for they cannot even die anymore, because they are like angels, and are sons of God, being sons of the resurrection’ (Luke 20:34-36).” Clifford D. Tate, Sr.

If you do not know the Lord Jesus Christ and His amazing healing power, pray this from your heart to the Lord Jesus Christ (you speaking directly to Him), Dear Lord Jesus, I confess to You that I am a sinner and I need Your forgiveness. I believe You shed Your Blood and died for my sins. I believe that You rose from the dead proving that You alone are God. I repent of my sins. I want to turn from my sins. I ask You Dear Lord Jesus to come into my heart and take control of my life. I want You to be my Lord, Savior, and my God. Amen...


Sincerely in Christ,


Clifford D. Tate, Sr.

Author of “Silent Assassins of the Soul - Are you Broken by Pornography and Masturbation? You can be Restored by the Lord Jesus Christ and brought into Deliverance, Freedom, and Victory! A Guide for Men and Women in the Enemy’s Crosshairs” e-book available now @ Amazon Kindle, @ Apple I Bookstore for IPod, Barnes and Noble for Nook, Reader Store for Sony Reade, Kobo, Copia, Gardners, Baker and Taylor, and eBookPie…

The Truth comes to Corinth

Paul Declares the Effects of Denying the Resurrection

1 Corinthians 15:29-34 Otherwise, what will those do who are baptized for the dead? If the dead are not raised at all, why then are they baptized for them? Why are we also in danger every hour? I affirm, brethren, by the boasting in you which I have in Christ Jesus our Lord, I die daily. If from human motives I fought with wild beasts at Ephesus, what does it profit me? If the dead are not raised, let us eat and drink, for tomorrow we die. Do not be deceived: “Bad company corrupts good morals.” Become sober-minded as you ought, and stop sinning; for some have no knowledge of God. I speak this to your shame. NKJV

Paul here in this letter to these Corinthian believers is teaching those skeptics among them that question the resurrection from the dead (as did the writer of Hebrews 2:9-15) that Jesus Christ had to taste or the Greek word used geuomai (Hebrews 2:9) which literally means to partake of or to visit or to examine or to experience death for every person so that He would then destroy death by the power of and in His Resurrection from the dead. Paul now writes perhaps some of his most controversial and misunderstood words in all of his letters concerning “baptism for the dead” and speaking of these words, we have the Mormons (who don’t believe in the True Christ of the Bible) declaring 1 Corinthians 15:29 as their justification for baptizing people continually for those who have already died. There are many interpretations of this verse and no doubt all those who hold to their interpretation feel they have it right, but let me truly upfront say that I have no idea what the Apostle Paul is conveying to these Corinthian believers with these words but what I do know from the Scripture is what my Lord and Savior Jesus Christ said to the first disciples as He commissioned them to proclaim the gospel or good news of His death and resurrection to the world, “And He said to them, ‘Go into all the world and preach the gospel to all creation. He who has believed and has been baptized shall be saved; but he who has disbelieved shall be condemned’” (Mark 16:15-16). Our Lord Jesus is here clearly defining salvation by one’s faith and not their water baptism as the words He speaks in the second half of Mark 16:16 bear witness.

Here is what Marvin R. Vincent had to say regarding 1 Corinthians 15:29, “Concerning this expression, of which some thirty different explanations are given, it is best to admit frankly that we lack the facts for a decisive interpretation. None of the explanations proposed are free from objection. Paul is evidently alluding to a usage familiar to his readers; and the term employed was, as Godet remarks, in their vocabulary, a sort of technical phrase. A large number of both ancient and modern commentators adopt the view that a living Christian was baptized for an unbaptized dead Christian. The Greek expositors regarded the words the dead as equivalent to the resurrection of the dead, and the baptism as a manifestation of belief in the doctrine of the resurrection. Godet adopts the explanation which refers baptism to martyrdom - the baptism of blood - and cites Luke 12:50, and Mark 10:38. In the absence of anything more satisfactory I adopt the explanation given above.” Paul was always being sought by satan to be put to death. For it was as if satan knew and understood the impact to the eternal souls of men Paul’s witness of Christ death, burial, and resurrection from the dead would be not only then, but until the Second Coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. We recall that only days after Paul was converted on the Damascus Road, satan put it into the heart of the Jews then to seek to snuff out his life (Acts 9:23-25).

Paul is declaring here to these Corinthian believers that this is all because of the resurrection from the dead that he continues to testify to the gospel of Christ despite the very real truth that he was always in the very clutches of death every single moment of every day that he walked with our Lord Jesus Christ proclaiming Him Alive from the dead. The enemy of our Lord and of Paul and these Corinthian believers and us the devil wants to kill anyone who will desire to see souls forgiven of their sin and given new life in Jesus Christ and for Paul and the first disciples it was even more perilous because this truth and reality was brand new, unlike us today who are living over 2,000 years removed from the Cross and the Resurrection of Christ Jesus our Lord. Paul as he wrote to the brethren in Romans 8:36 and as he documented some of his many encounters with hardship and near death in his second letter to these Corinthian believers in 2 Corinthians 11:23-27 declares his daily life to be that of a processional walk to the gallows as it were every single day as a pilgrim, sojourner, and alien, but he does it because he is certain of the resurrection from the dead and he is sure that his physical death is nothing more than a release from his body of death (Romans 7:21-24) into the far better life with Christ Jesus our Lord (Philippians 1:21-24).

Paul declares that it would be absolute absurdity for him to go on in his proclamation of the gospel and his belief in Christ’s Resurrection from the dead as well as his own resurrection of his body and to continue to be confronted by brutal unbelieving men who are energized by the prince of the power of the air satan himself (Acts 19:21-41), for it would be good or better for him to just live and let live or let everyone believe what they choose to believe and relax and enjoy this life to the fullest because when we all die that is it. Paul declares that this idea of let everyone believe what they want for there is more than one truth is evil and he commands these Corinthian believers and us today to have no fellowship with those who believe this and live their lives accordingly for they will be a corrupting influence on our walk with our Lord Jesus Christ. Paul commands them and us to awake and this English word is translated by the Greek word eknepho which means to rouse oneself out of a stupor; it has the idea of being sober, solemn, or serious minded or the idea of being sobered up after a night of drinking and getting drunk. Paul wants them and us to stop being so controlled by sin as someone is controlled by alcohol when they are drunk and not in proper use of all of their faculties and so are we when we allow sin to gain a controlling foothold into our lives.

“Paul was in continual danger of death, and carried his life, as we say, in his hand. And why should he thus expose himself, if he had no hopes after life? To live in daily view and expectation of death, and yet have no prospect beyond it, must be very heartless and uncomfortable, and his case, upon this account, a very melancholy one. He had need be very well assured of the resurrection of the dead, or he was guilty of extreme weakness, in hazarding all that was dear to him in this world, and his life into the bargain.” Matthew Henry

“The denial of the Resurrection of Christ and of every human being raised from the dead will cause people to live only for this life now which appears to be all that there is and we see it done every day by countless billions, but that mentality is not to be ever prevalent in the life of a believer in Jesus Christ because we are sure of His Resurrection and ours to be with Him forever in heaven, and with this truth we must be constant in our fight with our own personal sin, so that we may not appear before Him in shame.” Clifford D. Tate, Sr.

If you do not know the Lord Jesus Christ and His amazing healing power, pray this from your heart to the Lord Jesus Christ (you speaking directly to Him), Dear Lord Jesus, I confess to You that I am a sinner and I need Your forgiveness. I believe You shed Your Blood and died for my sins. I believe that You rose from the dead proving that You alone are God. I repent of my sins. I want to turn from my sins. I ask You Dear Lord Jesus to come into my heart and take control of my life. I want You to be my Lord, Savior, and my God. Amen...


Sincerely in Christ,


Clifford D. Tate, Sr.

Author of “Silent Assassins of the Soul - Are you Broken by Pornography and Masturbation? You can be Restored by the Lord Jesus Christ and brought into Deliverance, Freedom, and Victory! A Guide for Men and Women in the Enemy’s Crosshairs” e-book available now @ Amazon Kindle, @ Apple I Bookstore for IPod, Barnes and Noble for Nook, Reader Store for Sony Reade, Kobo, Copia, Gardners, Baker and Taylor, and eBookPie…

 

 

 

The Truth comes to Corinth

Paul Declares God’s Destruction of our Last Enemy Death through Christ Resurrection

1 Corinthians 15:21-28 For since by a man came death, by a man also came the resurrection of the dead. For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ all will be made alive. But each in his own order: Christ the first fruits, after that those who are Christ’s at His coming, then comes the end, when He hands over the kingdom to the God and Father, when He has abolished all rule and all authority and power. For He must reign until He has put all His enemies under His feet. The last enemy that will be abolished is death. For He has put all things in subjection under His feet. But when He says, “All things are put in subjection,” it is evident that He is excepted who put all things in subjection to Him. When all things are subjected to Him, then the Son Himself also will be subjected to the One who subjected all things to Him, so that God may be all in all. NKJV

Paul now expounds or explains the Divine reason that our Lord Jesus Christ had to die and that is  ironically, to put human death to death once and for all. The fact that humanity suffers the ever looming reality of physical death has caused all human beings since the fall to fear the one inevitable fact that no one can escape because of Adam’s sin and disobedience. As we documented at the end of the last study, the writer of Hebrews documents for us this same concept Paul writes here to these Corinthian believers in this manner, “But we do see Him who was made for a little while lower than the angels, namely, Jesus, because of the suffering of death crowned with glory and honor, so that by the grace of God He might taste death for everyone. For it was fitting for Him, for whom are all things, and through whom are all things, in bringing many sons to glory, to perfect the author of their salvation through sufferings. For both He who sanctifies and those who are sanctified are all from one Father; for which reason He is not ashamed to call them brethren, saying, ‘I will proclaim Your name to My brethren, In the midst of the congregation I will sing Your praise.’ And again, ‘I will put My trust in Him.’ And again, ‘Behold, I and the children whom God has given Me.’ Therefore, since the children share in flesh and blood, He Himself likewise also partook of the same, that through death He might render powerless him who had the power of death, that is, the devil, and might free those who through fear of death were subject to slavery all their lives” (Hebrews 2:9-15). Paul is likewise reinforcing this same point for us by declaring that although Adam plunged humanity into physical death and spiritual death by his sin and rebellion, in the same manner our Lord Jesus Christ who was fully Man and died for man’s sin has by His Resurrection from the dead destroyed the curse of death both physically and spiritually for every person that comes to Him in repentance and faith and receives His Resurrection Life within them (Romans 8:11).

In the Counsel of the Heavenly Halls there stood the eternal truth that also was before the foundation of the worlds were lain and that is that man’s redemption and restoration from sin could only be done by a Man like them in order not only to satisfy Divine Justice but also Divine Order. Since it was man that fell into the quick sand of sin and death, then by Divine Order only another Man could pull man out of that quick sand. For before Jesus Christ, every single man that died physically due to the curse of death wrought by Adam’s sin stayed there in the earth never to come back in their body again, but Jesus Christ was not left by God the Father to the corruption of His Physical Body (Psalms 16:10), but instead His Body was raised a New Body by the Power of God’s Spirit and transformed into an Eternal Body never to die again. Listen to the words written by Alexander MacLaren back in the mid to late 1800’s, “That one Man risen from the grave was like the solitary sheaf of paschal first-fruits, prophesying of many more, a gathered harvest that will fill the great Husbandman’s barns. The Resurrection of Jesus is not only a prophecy, showing, as it and it alone does, that death is not the end of man, but that life persists through death and emerges from it, like a buried river coming again flashing into the light of day, but it is the source or cause of the Christian’s resurrection. The oneness of the race necessitated the diffusion through all its members of sin and of its consequence-physical death. If the fountain is poisoned, all the stream will be tainted. If men are to be redeemed from the power of the grave, there must be a new personal centre of life; and union with Him, which can only be effected by faith, is the condition of receiving life from Him, which gradually conquers the death of sin now, and will triumph over bodily death in the final resurrection. It is the resurrection of Christians that Paul is dealing with. Others are to be raised, but on a different principle, and to sadly different issues. Since Christ’s Resurrection assures us of the future waking, it changes death into ‘sleep,’ and that sleep does not mean unconsciousness any more than natural sleep does, but only rest from toil, and cessation of intercourse with the external world.”

Every human being is going to be raised from the dead, the saved and the lost alike but Paul is here strictly referring to those of us who belong to Christ Jesus our Lord as coming after Him being the first fruit, for the lost will be raised to eternal punishment (Revelation 20:11-15). When all are resurrected from death, then comes the end of this world as it has been allowed by God to go on for so many millenniums and God the Father will put all other rulers and enemies down forever (Psalms 110:1) and the last enemy that will be destroyed is death because the first two enemies satan and sin have already been defeated and destroyed by our Lord Jesus Christ on the Cross and His Resurrection from the dead destroyed death. This is how John Wesley put it so concisely but yet so precisely when he said, “In the same order they prevailed. Satan brought in sin, and sin brought forth death. And Christ, when He of old engaged with these enemies, first conquered Satan, then sin, in His death; and, lastly, death, in His resurrection. In the same order He delivers all the faithful from them, yea, and destroys these enemies themselves. Death He so destroys that it shall be no more; sin and Satan, so that they shall no more hurt His people.” For the Divine Order has our Lord Jesus Christ reigning until all things are under His feet as the Psalmist writes in this manner, “You make Him to rule over the works of Your hands; You have put all things under His feet” (Psalms 8:6). At the end of it all when death will be no more, the Divine Order will then be restored as our Lord Jesus Christ will subject Himself to God the Father and the Holy Trinity will be as it has always been before time was and that is all in all One God in Three Persons Blessed Trinity.

“God has reserved to Himself the right to determine the end of life, because He alone knows the goal to which it is His will to lead it. It is for Him alone to justify a life or to cast it away.” Dietrich Bonhoeffer

“It is grace at the beginning, and grace at the end. So that when you and I come to lie upon our death beds, the one thing that should comfort and help and strengthen us there is the thing that helped us in the beginning. Not what we have been, not what we have done, but the Grace of God in Jesus Christ our Lord. The Christian life starts with grace, it must continue with grace, it ends with grace. Grace wondrous grace. By the grace of God I am what I am. Yet not I, but the Grace of God which was with me.” Martin-Lloyd Jones

“Death is the last and best physician, which cures all diseases and sins - the aching head and the unbelieving heart. Sin was the midwife which brought death into the world; and death shall be the grave to bury sin! O the privilege of a believer!” Thomas Watson

“Death is the great equalizer of all men for all die whether they be young or old or rich or poor or black or white, but through the Resurrection of Jesus Christ our Lord death has been defeated, defused, and destroyed forever for all who put their faith and trust completely in Him.” Clifford D. Tate, Sr.

If you do not know the Lord Jesus Christ and His amazing healing power, pray this from your heart to the Lord Jesus Christ (you speaking directly to Him), Dear Lord Jesus, I confess to You that I am a sinner and I need Your forgiveness. I believe You shed Your Blood and died for my sins. I believe that You rose from the dead proving that You alone are God. I repent of my sins. I want to turn from my sins. I ask You Dear Lord Jesus to come into my heart and take control of my life. I want You to be my Lord, Savior, and my God. Amen...


Sincerely in Christ,


Clifford D. Tate, Sr.

Author of “Silent Assassins of the Soul - Are you Broken by Pornography and Masturbation? You can be Restored by the Lord Jesus Christ and brought into Deliverance, Freedom, and Victory! A Guide for Men and Women in the Enemy’s Crosshairs” e-book available now @ Amazon Kindle, @ Apple I Bookstore for IPod, Barnes and Noble for Nook, Reader Store for Sony Reade, Kobo, Copia, Gardners, Baker and Taylor, and eBookPie…

 

The Truth comes to Corinth

Paul Confronts their doubts about Christ Resurrection

1 Corinthians 15:12-20 Now if Christ is preached, that He has been raised from the dead, how do some among you say that there is no resurrection of the dead? But if there is no resurrection of the dead, not even Christ has been raised; and if Christ has not been raised, then our preaching is vain, your faith also is vain. Moreover we are even found to be false witnesses of God, because we testified against God that He raised Christ, whom He did not raise, if in fact the dead are not raised. For if the dead are not raised, not even Christ has been raised; and if Christ has not been raised, your faith is worthless; you are still in your sins. Then those also who have fallen asleep in Christ have perished. If we have hoped in Christ in this life only, we are of all men most to be pitied. But now Christ has been raised from the dead, the first fruits of those who are asleep. NKJV

Paul having just finished giving such a strong testimony of his own personal revelation of our Resurrected Lord Jesus Christ and also earlier on in this same chapter reiterated the gospel to them that he preached to them when he first came to them is taken somewhat by surprise to discover that some of the Corinthian believers were questioning Christ Resurrection from the dead. Paul having spent most of his life in the Jewish religion and knew that this was the position of the religious Jewish sect known as the Sadducees (Mark 12:18) and it had no place in the fellowship of the Church of God. The skeptics were not and are not confined to these long ago people in the ancient city of Corinth, for we have had in every generation men and women who doubt the truth of Christ virgin birth, His Miracles such as walking on the water and others and yes surely many have said that He never rose from the grave in a new body. Some in every generation (including today) proclaim that His Resurrection was merely a “spiritual” resurrection and not a resurrection of His Physical Body as our Lord Jesus clearly made evident when He appeared to the disciples with these words documented for us in the Scripture, “While they were telling these things, He Himself stood in their midst and said to them, ‘Peace be to you.’ But they were startled and frightened and thought that they were seeing a spirit. And He said to them, ‘Why are you troubled, and why do doubts arise in your hearts? See My hands and My feet, that it is I Myself; touch Me and see, for a spirit does not have flesh and bones as you see that I have.’ And when He had said this, He showed them His hands and His feet. While they still could not believe it because of their joy and amazement, He said to them, ‘Have you anything here to eat?’ They gave Him a piece of a broiled fish; and He took it and ate it before them. Now He said to them, ‘These are My words which I spoke to you while I was still with you, that all things which are written about Me in the Law of Moses and the Prophets and the Psalms must be fulfilled.’ (Luke 24:36-44).

Despite these well documented and authenticated words from our Lord Jesus Christ Himself that surely all these Corinthian believers were taught or declared to them by the original Apostles who were still alive at this time, there were still skeptics or doubters among them. We recall even Thomas one of the original twelve doubted our Lord was resurrected from the dead and only believed when he saw Him standing before him (John 20:28-29). Therefore, it is no strange thing that we still to this very day have doubters, even among those who claim to be Christians. Paul now begins to confront their skepticism by declaring the distressing consequences if Christ did not rise from the grave or tomb as he and all the other Apostles have testified to from their own eyewitness accounts to Him being alive from the dead. First, Paul declares that if Christ did not rise from the dead, then every person preaching the gospel (1 Corinthians 15:3-4) is doing it with empty and useless words that can mean nothing nor can do anything for the souls of men which renders their faith in Christ likewise empty and useless or of no value to them eternally. The whole thing has been like a dream or a figment of one’s imagination or a good story of fiction that makes for a good stage play or in our day TV series or Motion Picture. For the truth of the matter is that if Christ Jesus our Lord did not rise from the dead, then He was just another Man who was deluded into thinking He was God and could not and did not absolve or dismiss or cancel the sins of anyone.

Finally, Paul declares the most depressing and the most deplorable thing of all if Christ did not rise from the dead is that everyone (including Abraham) have perished. This English word Paul uses here perish is translated from the Greek word apollumi which is a strong word meaning to destroy fully or to abolish or to put an end to. If this were the truth, then it would give acceptance or validity to the position of the Sadducees, but we know our Lord Jesus refuted their position thoroughly and completely when he said to some of them these words, “Jesus said to them, ‘The sons of this age marry and are given in marriage, but those who are considered worthy to attain to that age and the resurrection from the dead, neither marry nor are given in marriage; for they cannot even die anymore, because they are like angels, and are sons of God, being sons of the resurrection. But that the dead are raised, even Moses showed, in the passage about the burning bush, where he calls the Lord the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob. Now He is not the God of the dead but of the living; for all live to Him.’” (Luke 20:34-38).

Paul was well grounded and fixed in the truth of Christ Resurrection (having seen him personally and believed His words as Luke records above) and declares to these Corinthian believers and to us that if Christ had not been resurrected from the dead, then we all are the most miserable of all men upon the earth because we live not for this life alone, but our real life happens when we die and if Christ is not raised from the dead, then we will not be raised from the dead and our faith life and walk is all for nothing and so is our persecution for righteousness sake, for we would be better off to follow the pattern of eat, drink, and be merry for tomorrow you die (1 Corinthians 15:32). However, hold the phone because Paul declares to these skeptics in Corinth and in every generation all the way to today that Jesus Christ has risen from the dead and become the first fruits of all who have died in Him and will die in Him. This English word first fruits is translated by the Greek word aparche which means a beginning of sacrifice, it has the idea of the Jewish sacrifice of the first fruits of their crops and animals to the LORD in the Old Testament, but here Paul uses it to speak of Christ being the first human being to be raised from the dead to live forevermore (Revelation 1:17-18) and all who trust Him and are born again of His Spirit will follow after Him in like manner (Hebrews 2:9-15 & 1 John 3:1-2).

“The argument here goes to show, first, that our resurrection is intimately connected with Christ’s. There must be such a thing, because he, as the representative of humanity, arose from the dead, in a human body which, though more ethereal in its texture, was easily recognizable by those who had known Him previously. Mary was recalled by the well-known intonations of her Master’s voice. Thomas was compelled to believe, in spite of his protestations to the contrary. In fact, all of our Lord’s friends were convinced against themselves. They credited the tidings of the risen Lord as idle tales. Therefore, says the Apostle, it is far easier to admit that man will rise than to face the difficulties of a still buried Christ, a vain faith, a vain gospel, and a false testimony from so many accredited witnesses.” F. B. Meyer

“The Resurrection of Jesus Christ is a fact that should not be disputed, but in reality it is and has been ever since around A.D. 30 at the time of His death. If He did not rise from the dead, then He was not and is not God and no one need to pay much attention to Him or any of His Words, but if He did rise from the dead, then that is the most significant and important event in the history of humanity and likewise every single Word He ever spoke are the only Words of any importance to all of humanity.” Clifford D. Tate, Sr.

If you do not know the Lord Jesus Christ and His amazing healing power, pray this from your heart to the Lord Jesus Christ (you speaking directly to Him), Dear Lord Jesus, I confess to You that I am a sinner and I need Your forgiveness. I believe You shed Your Blood and died for my sins. I believe that You rose from the dead proving that You alone are God. I repent of my sins. I want to turn from my sins. I ask You Dear Lord Jesus to come into my heart and take control of my life. I want You to be my Lord, Savior, and my God. Amen...


Sincerely in Christ,


Clifford D. Tate, Sr.

Author of “Silent Assassins of the Soul - Are you Broken by Pornography and Masturbation? You can be Restored by the Lord Jesus Christ and brought into Deliverance, Freedom, and Victory! A Guide for Men and Women in the Enemy’s Crosshairs” e-book available now @ Amazon Kindle, @ Apple I Bookstore for IPod, Barnes and Noble for Nook, Reader Store for Sony Reade, Kobo, Copia, Gardners, Baker and Taylor, and eBookPie…

 

The Truth comes to Corinth

Paul Declares his own Personal Eyewitness to the Resurrected Christ

1 Corinthians 15:8-11 And last of all he was seen of me also, as of one born out of due time. For I am the least of the apostles, that am not meet to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the church of God. But by the grace of God I am what I am: and His grace which was bestowed upon me was not in vain; but I laboured more abundantly than they all: yet not I, but the grace of God which was with me. Therefore whether it were I or they, so we preach, and so ye believed. KJV

Paul now speaks of himself being an eyewitness to our Resurrected Lord and Savior Jesus Christ and as he so commonly does in all of his epistles or letters Paul counts himself as lowly and unworthy to have even had such a high, lofty, and wonderful privilege. In the Last study, we included 1 Corinthians 15:8 and this was a mistake because we will include it here to expound Paul’s words declaring his personal witness to our Resurrected Lord Jesus. Paul was so humbled, shocked, and in awe that our Lord Jesus Christ would save such a sinner as himself, he wrote this English phrase “one born out of due time” describing his birth into the family of God as an aberration or deviance from the norm and this English phrase is translated by the Greek word ektroma which means or speaks of an untimely birth or an abortive birth or abortion altogether or miscarriage. Paul felt so strongly about the unworthiness of his redemption that he referred so disparagingly or belittling or with such a negative opinion of his own new birth and Apostleship.

This is the one and only time this Greek word ektroma is ever used in the New Testament, but the Hebrew equivalent to this word nephel is used on four different occasions and the one most akin or similar to the strong point being made here by Paul is the Old Testament man of God Job as he bemoans or laments his condition to the point of cursing the day of his birth and he said, “Or as an hidden untimely birth (nephel same as ektroma) I had not been; as infants which never saw light” (Job 3:16). Here is what brother Marvin R. Vincent (1834-1922) had to say about Paul’s choice of words in this verse, “Paul means that when Christ appeared to him and called him, he was - as compared with the disciples who had known and followed Him from the first, and whom he had been persecuting - no better than an unperfected fetus among living men.” This is exactly what the Apostle Paul wanted to convey to these Corinthian believers and to us his utter disgust of what he did to the beloved children of God before his conversion and I gather from these words that Paul never allowed himself to forget what horrible things he did to many Christians and it always kept him humbled, even here declaring that he too was an eyewitness to our Resurrected Lord Jesus.

Paul was visited by our Lord Jesus on several occasions that he documented for us in the Scripture, the first being at the time of his salvation on the Damascus Road (Acts 9:3-5), but also when he first came to Corinth and was rejected by the Jews there in the synagogue our Lord Jesus appeared to Paul in a vision and said these words, “Do not be afraid any longer, but go on speaking and do not be silent; for I am with you, and no man will attack you in order to harm you, for I have many people in this city” (Acts 18:9-10). Our Lord Jesus even took Paul up into the Throne Room of Heaven after he was stoned to death at Lystra and then resurrected Paul from death and sent him on back into the mission field. Paul spent three (3) years in Arabia being taught personally by our Lord Jesus Christ all of the many revelations even the first eleven (11) Apostles were not privy to (Galatians 1:15-18) as even the Apostle Peter acknowledges of Paul in (2 Peter 3:15-16). Paul although he had these personal revelations of our Lord Jesus Christ refers to himself as the least of the Apostles and this English word least is translated by the Greek word elachistos which means smallest or lowest in importance, rank, or excellence and he so declared himself to be so here and in his letter to the Galatians because of his persecution of the saints (Galatians 1:13-14).

Paul now with this new life so vibrantly within him wanting to make amends for his days, weeks, months, and years in Jewish Pharisee ignorance toiled and travailed more than all the other first Apostles that walked with our Lord Jesus Christ from the beginning of His earthly ministry, but he and they all taught and preached the same gospel as declared by him in (1 Corinthians 15:3-4). It was always apparent by the works he performed as he was empowered by the grace of God. Paul when writing to brother Timothy probably summed it all up in great fashion with these words, “I thank Christ Jesus our Lord, who has strengthened me, because He considered me faithful, putting me into service, even though I was formerly a blasphemer and a persecutor and a violent aggressor. Yet I was shown mercy because I acted ignorantly in unbelief; and the grace of our Lord was more than abundant, with the faith and love which are found in Christ Jesus. It is a trustworthy statement, deserving full acceptance, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, among whom I am foremost of all. Yet for this reason I found mercy, so that in me as the foremost, Jesus Christ might demonstrate His perfect patience as an example for those who would believe in Him for eternal life” (1 Timothy 12:16).

“Paul resembled such a birth, in the suddenness of his new birth, in that he was not matured for the apostolic function, as the others were, who had personal converse with our Lord. He was called to the office when such conversation was not to be had, he was out of time for it. He had not known nor followed the Lord, nor been formed in His family, as the others were, for this high and honourable function. This was in Paul’s account a very humbling circumstance.” Matthew Henry

“It is evident, however, that deeply as Paul might feel his unworthiness, and his unfitness to be called an apostle, yet that this did not render him an incompetent witness of what he had seen. He was unworthy; but he had no doubt that he had seen the Lord Jesus; and amidst all the expressions of his deep sense of his unfitness for his office, he never once intimates the slightest doubt that he had seen the Saviour. He felt himself fully qualified to testify to that; and with unwavering firmness he did testify to it to the end of life.” Albert Barnes

“Paul was so shaken by the revelation of our Lord Jesus Christ to him on the Damascus road because he was devout in his Jewish Pharisee heritage and was certain that he was worshipping the One True God in truth, and after he encountered ‘The Truth Jesus Christ’ he was so overwhelmed with the magnitude of his sin, that he never allowed himself ever any since of privilege as an Apostle over the other believers in our Lord Jesus Christ.” Clifford D. Tate, Sr.

If you do not know the Lord Jesus Christ and His amazing healing power, pray this from your heart to the Lord Jesus Christ (you speaking directly to Him), Dear Lord Jesus, I confess to You that I am a sinner and I need Your forgiveness. I believe You shed Your Blood and died for my sins. I believe that You rose from the dead proving that You alone are God. I repent of my sins. I want to turn from my sins. I ask You Dear Lord Jesus to come into my heart and take control of my life. I want You to be my Lord, Savior, and my God. Amen...


Sincerely in Christ,


Clifford D. Tate, Sr.

Author of “Silent Assassins of the Soul - Are you Broken by Pornography and Masturbation? You can be Restored by the Lord Jesus Christ and brought into Deliverance, Freedom, and Victory! A Guide for Men and Women in the Enemy’s Crosshairs” e-book available now @ Amazon Kindle, @ Apple I Bookstore for IPod, Barnes and Noble for Nook, Reader Store for Sony Reade, Kobo, Copia, Gardners, Baker and Taylor, and eBookPie…