And so it is written, “The first man Adam becme a living being.”  The last Adam became a living Spirit. (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 heavenly Man. 

The apostle Paul wrote the first letter to the faithful Corinthians in response to their doctrinal questions and our verses today concern their questions of how the dead are raised up and what resurrection body do they have?  The Corinthians believed that Jesus was raised from the dead but they did not believe that humans would be resurrected.  Paul devotes chapter 15 of 1 Corinthians to this – he moves from proof of Christ’s resurrection to proof of man’s resurrection.

The human race was created in the first man – what God deigned to give to all he conferred to that first man.  By the fall Adam ruined himself in sin and all men were drawn into that same ruin.  The second man, Jesus, true God and true man, restored our nature. We cannot be restored in Christ without first being born a living soul in Adam. – we live in this world in Adam but Christ Jesus is the beginning and author of heavenly life. The body of Christ was subject to death but by Gods providence, not to corruption. His heavenly life first appeared in His resurrection. The resurrection of Christ is the foundation of the gospel.    Christ is the prototype of our resurrection

Paul is saying the spirit of man is eternal but will not exist eternally without a body. God created man as a whole and will redeem him the same with body and spirit – the spirit will not go back into some cosmic deity. From birth we manifest corruption of the body – the grave reveals the truth about our bodies now but some day we will be raised and that resurrection will reveal the truth of our glorified body – the natural body and our supernatural body are to be different. As we are like Adam now we shall be like Christ – something different and something so the same: incorruptible.  When all flesh is gone – the human sinful part; the part that blocks the glory of God – we will shine forth in the Father.

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?  (13) But if there is no resurrection of the dead, then Christ is not risen.  (14) And if Christ is not risen, then our preaching is empty and your faith is also empty.  (15) Yes, and we are found false witnesses of God that He raised up Christ, whom He did not raise up – if in fact the dead do not rise. (16) For if the dead do not rise, then Christ is not risen.  (17) And if Christ is not risen, your faith is futile; you are still in your sins!  (18) Then also those who have fallen asleep in Christ have perished. (19) If in this life only we have hope in Christ, we are of all men most pitiable. (20) But now Christ is risen from the dead and has become the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep. 

The first letter to the Corinthians was written by the apostle Paul. The church at Corinth had sent a letter to Paul asking for clarification of doctrine he had preached and specifically about the resurrection of the human body.  The faithful at Corinth embraced the risen Christ, true God and true man, but did not extend this belief in resurrection to themselves.

In the early verses, chapter 15 of this letter, Paul had put forth proofs that Christ had risen and now lists the consequences of no resurrection of Christ. Christianity is a total belief system – you are either in or out. There is hope in Christ only and no other religion system covers us. If Christianity is not true – if Christ did not rise from the dead – we lose.  If Christ’s death had the power to save us, being alive will keep us and denial of this is the antithesis of Christian hope.

If Christ did not rise, and Christ was in every sense true human, the gospel is in vain; there was no acceptable sacrifice for our sin, no redemption, no justification.  And the Bible is false – the apostles are liars, all the faithful in history lived in vain.  If we deny a bodily resurrection we deny Christ.   But now in verse 20, after Paul has provided proof that Christ is risen, Paul claims for Christ firstfruits of the faithful.  The meaning of first fruits is from ancient Jewish law that the first fruits of the harvest were consecrated to God and then the rest of the harvest followed.  Christ’s resurrection was the first bodily resurrection and the rise of the dead – just like the harvest – will follow Him.

Moreover, brethren, I declare to you the gospel which I preached to you, which also you received and in which you stand, (2) by which also you are saved, if you hold fast that word which I preached to you – unless you believed in vain. (3) For I delivered to you first of all that which I also received: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, (4) and that He was buried, and that He rose again on the third day according to the Scriptures, (5) and that He was seen by Cephas, then by the twelve.  (6) After that He was seen by over five hundred brethren at once, of whom the greater part remain to the present, but some have fallen asleep.  (7) After that He was seen by James, then by all the apostles.  (8) Then last of all He was seen by me also, as by one born out of due time.  (9) For I am the least of the apostles, who am not worthy to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the church of God. (10) But by the grace of God I am what I am, and His grace toward me was not in vain; but I labored more abundantly than they all, yet not I, but the grace of God which was with me.  (11) Therefore, whether it was I or they, so we preach and so you believed. 

The first letter to the Corinthians was written by the apostle Paul. Our verses today address the bodily resurrection of the faithful. Paul founded the church in Corinth and the early Christians DID believe in the resurrection of Christ Jesus, but questioned the resurrection of  the faithful – in a letter to Paul they asked for clarification of this doctrine. So chapter 15 of Paul’s letter was not written to prove to Christians that Christ Jesus literally rose from the dead but to assure them that so also will they.

Paul begins by restating what was already accepted by the Corinthians – the resurrection of Christ.  The transformation of people in a corrupt culture like that of ancient Corinth was the first proof of the truth of the gospel.  In a world where the gospel was revolutionary and  upended the wisdom of the world, Christians, by grace, received the gospel – believed it and stood by it – meaning they showed evidence of their radically changed lifestyle.  These early Christians were the early church and the very existence of the church testified to the truth  of the gospel.  Something was sure going on in that ancient world that a revolutionary – and universal – doctrine was established so quickly.  The world was turned upside down

Paul moves to cite the testimony of scripture – the Old Testament prophecied exactly the circumstance of the promised messiah.  There was the testimony of eye witnesses; literally the resurrected Christ appeared to the apostles and many others.  The apostles went from a frightened group of men who had abandoned their leader in terror and were hiding in an upstairs room to a group of men of unshakable conviction – they were witnesses to the resurrected Christ unto death.  Paul then tells of the 500 witnesses to the resurrected Christ, many of whom were alive and could be easily questioned.  The change of behavior and transformation of the convicted could not have been fabricated – again something astonishing was gong on.  And, finally, the testimony of Paul himself; a man who had been the enemy of Christians had been totally transformed to become God’s chosen instrument.  The completed work of Christ Jesus was the singular event in history – out of time and space God entered the world and through Christ’s acceptable sacrifice man was made right with God – through grace, not the law.

But earnestly desire the best gifts. And yet I show you a more excellent way. (4:1) Though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I have become sounding brass or a clanging cymbal. (2) And though I have the gift of prophecy, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and though I have all faith, so that I could remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing.  (3) And though I bestow all my goods to feed the poor, and though I give my body to be burned, but have not love, it profits me nothing.  (4) Love suffers long and is kind; love does not envy; love does not parade itself, is not puffed up; (5) does not behave rudely, does not seek its own, is not provoked, thinks no evil; (6) does not rejoice in iniquity, but rejoices in the truth; (7) bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.  (8) Love never fails.  But whether there are prophecies, they will fail; whether there are tongues, they will cease; whether there is knowledge, it will vanish away.  (9) For we know in part and we prophesy in part.  (10) But when that which is perfect has come, then that which is in part will be done away.  (11) When I was a child, I spoke as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child; but when I became a man, I put away childish things.  (12) For now we see in a mirror, dimly, but then face to face.  Now I know in part, but then I shall know just as I also am known. (13) And now abide faith, hope, love, these three; but the greatest of these is love.

The first letter to the Corinthians was written by the apostle Paul. In our verses today he moves on from discussing spiritual gifts to discussing the essential ingredient for effective Christian living and ministry – love was needed.  Christian ministry without love is external and the same as empty pagan practices. For example, in pagan Corinth worship of idols was accompanied by gongs, cymbals and trumpets and the pagan rituals meant nothing because they worshipped false idols. Paul compares his preaching – without love – to this empty worship. We are warned not to do anything our of mere obligation, legalism or recognition – all means nothing without love. Wow.

The church at Corinth did not yield to the Spirit; it was prideful, selfish and ill motivated resulting in no meaningful spiritual life. All gifts, knowledge, power of prophecy; all  understanding of all mysteries of God and His sovereign plan without love amounts to nothing. Paul is saying that it doesn’t matter what gifts you have, without love you have nothing.

Love is not an abstraction;  it is a divine quality. Love is the essence of Christ. Love is not emotion but an act of the will.  It is a yielding to the life of the Spirit. Our closing verses today tell us that when the faithful enter eternal life, he/she will be perfect in enduring love and all the spiritual gifts will be unnecessary. Love alone will endure. Love never fails.