1 Corinthians 15

1. 1 Corinthians 15 St Paul’s teaching on Life after Death

2. 1Cor 15 • The last great subject of Paul’s letter can be split into six parts, each dealing with a different aspect: • Christ’s Resurrection (15:1-11); • The denial of the Resurrection (15:12-19); • The consequences of Christ’s Resurrection (15:20-28); • Arguments from Christian experience (15:29-34); • Bodily resurrection (15:35-49); • Victory over death (15:50-58).

3. Christ’s Resurrection • Paul is clear to highlight that he is not the author of his own teachings regarding life after death; he simply passes on what Jesus already taught……in other words, the derivative nature of the Gospel is stressed. • This is the kērygma: that Christ died for our sins, in accordance to the Scriptures (i.e. it wasn’t an after-thought redacted in by the Early Church.) …Isaiah 53?

4. Christ’s Resurrection • Paul goes immediately from the burial of Jesus on to his resurrection. • Barrett: “if he was buried, the resurrection must have been the reanimation of a corpse.” • “He was raised” – passive…stress on the activity of the Father, who raised the Son. The Father will, therefore, rise us to new life.

5. Christ’s Resurrection • Paul gives a list of the resurrection appearances (vv5-7), but it is not exhaustive. • The inclusion of an appearance to “more than 500 brothers” is obviously important – why? • Paul’s insistence on most of them still being alive shows the confidence with which he could appeal to their testimony.

6. The Denial of the Resurrection • The exact views of those who said “there is no resurrection of the dead” (v12) is unclear • Maybe they held the typical Greek view of the immortality of the soul – rejecting any idea that the body would rise? • But Paul insists that the fact that the Father raised Jesus from the dead as central importance.

7. The Denial of the Resurrection • Paul illustrates the theological implications of the objects from Corinth: • if dead men don’t rise, then Christ did not rise; • if Christ did not rise, the Christian faith is empty. • The objectors are striking at the heart of our faith.

8. The Denial of the Resurrection • Paul’s logic continues remorselessly: • if Christ was not raised, “our preaching is useless”; • if there is no resurrection, all the apostles are shown to be liars.

9. Consequences of Christ’s Resurrection • St Paul shows that Christ’s Resurrection implies that of all believers. • With a few bold strokes, St Paul paints an unforgettable picture of God’s final, complete supremacy. • In the end, that is what matters.

10. Consequences of Christ’s Resurrection • v20 shows that, far from being “the most pitied amongst all men,” the fact of the Resurrection alters the whole situation!St Paul states this fact with simplicity and assurance.Clearly he has no doubts at all.

11. Consequences of Christ’s Resurrection • Christ wasn’t the first to be raised from the dead (don’t forget, he himself had raised some)but the people he raised would die in due course. • His Resurrection was to a life that knows no death. • Hodge: “the resurrection of Christ is a pledge and proof of the resurrection of his people.”

12. Consequences of Christ’s Resurrection • If Adam’s sin had far-reaching consequences (i.e. that death was brought on to the entire human race), then so too will Christ’s Resurrection. • “It was fitting that, as it was through a man that corruption entered the race, so it should be through a man that it was overcome.” (Morris)

13. Consequences of Christ’s Resurrection • St Paul only talks of two ‘orders’ in the entire chapter: Christ and his believers…nothing at all is written about the fate of non-believers. • St Pauls speaks of Christ “destroying all dominion, authority and power” (v24)“katargeō” (destroyed) = ‘render null & void’≠ battles, fights or rulers being dethroned. Paul speaks of all other rule, other than Christ, as being rendered completely inoperative.

14. Consequences of Christ’s Resurrection • v26: St Paul speaks of death being destroyed. • Lenski: death is dependent on Satan, sin etc… so when Christ destroys death, so too Satan and sin are destroyed, finally. • v27: similar to Ps 8, which discusses human’s dominion over the earth. Here though, St Paul makes ‘clear’ (‘dēlon’) that Christ has complete sovereignty over all creation.

15. Arguments from Christian Experience • v29 brings about an abrupt change in focus: St Paul moves from Christ to the Christian. • St Paul shows that certain actions, both among the Corinthians and in himself, logically imply a resurrection. • Unless there is to be a resurrection, the procedure of the Corinthians baptising their people, and Paul in his evangelism, are inexplicable.

16. Bodily Resurrection • People had evidently been ridiculing the idea of a bodily resurrection – how can it rise when it has been rotting away in the ground?! • St Paul uses the miracle of a harvest: a seed is buried, but it is raised up with a new and more glorious body. • He leads to the triumphant climax that our bodies are ‘sown up’ in corruption, dishonour & weakness, but will be raised in incorruption, glory & power.

17. Bodily Resurrection • It is fundamental to Paul’s thought that the after-life will be infinitely more glorious than this one…this necessitates a suitable body. • He describes it with the adjective ‘spiritual’ (v44) and expressly differentiates it from ‘flesh & blood’ (v50). • This is a marked difference from Jewish thought! (they expected an identical body)

18. Bodily Resurrection • v35: the Corinthians seemed preoccupied with the logistics of the resurrection by asking how it will happen. • Paul deals sharply with their objections: “Fool!”

19. Bodily Resurrection • It is important that what dies is nothing like what appears. • Paul develops the thought that the body that is raised it incomparably more glorious than the one that is buried. • cf v39.

20. Bodily Resurrection • The very feature that the average Greek regarded as incompatible with the body, is seen by St Paul as characteristic of the resurrection body – what is it? • Paul continues to pick out features of bodily life that seemed (to the Greeks) to demonstrate the folly of the resurrection, and showed they have no relevance to the resurrected body

21. Bodily Resurrection • Dishonour Some parts of the body were thought less-honourable that others & Jews thought a dead body conveyed uncleanness. …Paul’s message of a ‘glorified body’ makes these thoughts irrelevant.

22. Bodily Resurrection • WeaknessThe body is thought of as far weaker than the mind.The resurrection body will not be limited in the same way as our earthly bodies; they will not be limited by weakness, but characterised by power.

23. Bodily Resurrection • v45: Paul refers to Scripture to clinch his argument (in this case, Genesis.) • He calls Christ the ‘last Adam’, with finality. • First Adam: gave us death • Last Adam: gives us eternal life • Christ has a life-giving spirit in his work of saving sinners.

24. Bodily Resurrection • Just as throughout this life we have habitually borne the form of Adam, so in the life to come we shall bear that of our Lord.

25. Victory over Death • 1Cor 15 comes to a magnificent climax here. • St Paul makes clear that those who rise will not be creatures of flesh & blood, but will undergo a ‘change’. • Paul exults in the triumph Christ has won over death. This calls for a thanksgiving!

26. Victory over Death • The change will not be a long drawn-out affair, but sudden. • The sounding of the trumpet seems to be a signal for the dead to rise. • Paul stresses the continuity between our present and our future state with a fourfold use of the word ‘this’: • he emphasises that ‘this’ perishable and ‘this’ mortal will be clothed with imperishablity & immortality (v53)

27. Victory over Death • v54: St Paul begins to finish off with another reference to scripture (Is 25:8)  gives status to what he is saying! • Moral issues are the serious ones: it is not death that is harmful; but the sin. • Where sin is pardoned, death has no sting.

28. Victory over Death • v57: the BIG ‘but’! • Christ is victorious over death (Rom 6:9); • he has abolished it (2Tim 1:10); • he has redeemed us from the curse (Gal 3:13); • he has replaced the reign of sin with the reign of grace (Rom 3:20f)