Thus also [is] the resurrection of the dead. It is sown in corruption, it is raised in incorruptibility.
The chapter has been answering a question about what sort of body the dead will have, and the answer is a picture from the field: something real goes into the ground, and what comes out belongs to another order. Where the ESV says "perishable" and "imperishable," older translations — the ones the writers below use — say "corruption" and "incorruption."
The argument rests on farming. What goes into the soil and what comes up out of it are clearly linked, yet no one would confuse them.
Here we have the same picture again, used in a different way. A seed is sown in the earth. It keeps its identity, yet it comes up with a very different body. The acorn is buried, but the oak springs up. The point is plain. The dead body of the believer is laid in the grave. At the resurrection it will come up very different, yet it will still be the same body.
Notice the small word the verse repeats. It is not one body swapped for another, but one body carried through a change.
Scripture is careful to show that resurrection is real. It stresses that the very thing sown is the thing raised, though it is raised in new conditions. So we read, "It is sown in corruption; it is raised in incorruption." The identity stays, because the it that is sown is the it that is raised. Corruption is where man in the flesh ends up, and the body is in that state when it goes into the grave.
This also rules out a common misunderstanding of the glorified body as something manufactured elsewhere and handed to us.
We must not conceive of our future glorified bodies as though they were a new and improved suit of clothes, already existing somewhere in heaven, and coming to us straight out of heaven. So thinking, we should find ourselves in collision with 1 Corinthians 15:42-44, where a certain identity is preserved between the body of humiliation which is put down into the ground and the body of glory that is raised up.
The apostle does not call this throwing a body away. He calls it planting — and a farmer plants because he expects a return.
The body of the believer is sown in corruption, but raised in incorruption. Sown in dishonour, it is raised in glory. "Sown" is a word of triumph. It reminds us of the farmer, who sows to get a fitting harvest. The summoning shout of our Lord is still to come, and it will show His mighty triumph. Then what was sown in corruption, dishonour and weakness will rise in incorruption, glory and power. "Sown" is indeed a word of triumph when we lay our loved ones in the cold grave.
Decay is not a neutral fact of biology. It is the verdict of God on sin, running its course in the body — and yet that same ground becomes the place of harvest.
"It is sown in corruption." That is where the activity of natural life ends. Being mortal is only death put off. Ever since the first sin, the body of man has been doomed to return to dust. But the Lawgiver can make alive as well as kill... Judgment has sown what mercy is to reap... It is a sinful body, and decay is its badge of shame. But the Lord has bought it in righteousness, and He now entrusts it for a while to the safe keeping of the earth, which once was His own grave.
The word describes a condition, not a place. Writers also point out that older translations sometimes print it as "immortality."
This is the state that the bodies of the dead in Christ will have at the resurrection. Their bodies are decaying in their graves now. When the resurrection happens, and what is mortal has put on immortality, death will be swallowed up in victory! In Romans 2:7 and 2 Timothy 1:10 the same Greek word is used, and it should be translated 'incorruption' instead of 'immortality.'
That state is solid, not shadowy. Writers insist this is a real body you could touch, shaped like the risen Christ.
It is raised in incorruption, glory, and power. It is not a thin, airy body, as Chrysostom and Origen each said. It is a body filled with spirit life, as it once had animal life from the soul. It is not a spirit, but a spiritual body. It is not held in by earthly limits. It can pass through a closed door, or be touched. It can take food, though it needs none. We judge this from Him who rose as the great Head, pattern and power, and who said that a spirit does not have flesh and bones, as they saw He had.
The phrase "the resurrection of the dead" here does not cover everyone alike. The words of the verse settle the question.
Look for a moment at 1 Corinthians 15. To show how clearly it is God's people and no one else who are raised here, we read, "It is sown in corruption, it is raised in incorruption; it is sown in dishonour, it is raised in glory." How can you apply that to a general resurrection? "Raised in glory" — can you say that of the wicked? You cannot read one sentence about the resurrection here without seeing that it speaks of the resurrection of God's people. That is not to say others will never be raised. But these are in view, because they are redeemed and have life in Christ.
- Sown — burial is not throwing away but planting; the farmer's word turns a grave into a place of hope.
- Corruption — decay is God's sentence on sin running its course, and the body returns to dust. That is the honest state of what goes in.
- Identity — the it that is sown is the it that is raised; the acorn and the oak are one life, so no one is replaced.
- Incorruption — what comes up is a real body, not a ghost: touchable, free of earthly limits, patterned on the risen Christ.
- Harvest — judgment sowed the body, mercy will reap it, and this harvest belongs to those who are Christ's; no one is "raised in glory" without redemption.
It is sown in dishonour, it is raised in glory. It is sown in weakness, it is raised in power.
Paul answers a blunt question here: what kind of body comes out of the grave? Verse 43 gives two of his four contrasts, and each one starts with the dead body and ends with God's work.
Paul does not call it a burial. He picks a word from the farm, and that word carries the hope.
The word "sown" is a triumphant word. It reminds us of the farmer, who sows to get a suitable harvest. We still wait for the summoning shout of our Lord to show His mighty triumph. Then what was sown in corruption, dishonour and weakness will rise to a condition of incorruption, glory and power. The word "sown" is indeed a triumphant word when we commit our loved ones to the cold grave.
The first half of the verse does not flatter us. One writer shows how much human pride goes into the grave with the body.
The body of the Christian is sown in dishonour, for all man's glory is brought down into dishonour in the dust of death. What has a man to boast of when his body lies in corruption in the grave? This is the end of all man's pride and distinctions among men.
Corruption describes a physical process. Dishonour goes deeper. Even the grand tombs of the rich prove the point.
If corruption expresses the effect of a mortal condition, dishonour is a confession of its moral degradation. Our bodies are bodies of humiliation, and the grave is their hiding-place of shame. Human pride may refuse to admit this. Princes who had gold try in vain to keep up a shadow of their rank in the grand tombs they build for themselves. But the worm is still their brother.
The verse does not stop at dishonour. One writer ties glory to righteousness, and a believer's death to what he confessed all his life.
But if sown in dishonour, it is raised in glory. The death of a believer is the seal of his lifelong confession as a sinner and a worm. His resurrection will be the completion of his hope as a partaker, in Christ, of the righteousness of God. Glory is the natural ornament of righteousness, as dishonour is the inseparable consequence of sin.
One writer describes both changes in the body, and traces them back to Christ, who went this road first.
The way the body shows itself is completely changed — from dishonour, decline and humiliation, to "glory," a dignity and beauty impossible in our present bodily state. And the weakness of the vessel, which often sinks into utter helplessness in old age, will give place to a "power" we have not yet imagined. Christ was "crucified in weakness." He had taken a place lower than angels, who are mighty in strength. But God raised Him by His power, and gave Him in Manhood a place above angels. His bodily condition is now no barrier to the use of this marvellous power. So the capacity of our bodies will also be wonderfully changed.
Paul's repeated "it" holds the two halves of each clause together. What goes into the ground is what comes out.
The identity stays the same. The words show it, repeated four times: "It is sown … it is raised." Still, the condition it is in is of an entirely different order. This answers the question, "With what kind of body do they come?"
The raised body is not a ghost. One writer is careful to say what a "spiritual body" is not.
The body of the believer is sown in dishonour, corruption, and weakness: so all can see. What do we believe? It is raised in incorruption, glory, and power. It is not a merely airy body, but a body alive with spirit life, as it once was with animal life from the soul. It is not a spirit, but a spiritual body, not limited by earthly conditions.
This hope also settles a present question about our sins.
If we are believers, we are raised in glory. What is more, Christ Himself will come to bring us to Himself: "who will transform our lowly body to be like His glorious body." If Christ comes to fetch us and puts us in glory, what room is left to raise any question about our sins?
- Sown. Paul uses a farmer's word. Seed goes down expecting a harvest, so a Christian grave is a planting, not a disposal.
- Dishonour. The seed goes down in shame. The grave ends every human distinction and boast.
- Glory. The harvest comes up in glory, the fitting ornament of righteousness, as dishonour was the companion of sin.
- Power. Weakness gives way to power. Christ went first: crucified in weakness, raised by the power of God.
- The same "it." Four times Paul says "it is sown… it is raised." The body that goes down comes up: same identity, new condition.
It is sown a natural body, it is raised a spiritual body if there is a natural body, there is also a spiritual [one].
Paul has been answering a skeptic's question about the kind of body the dead will have. Here he sets two conditions of the believer's body side by side: the one laid in the grave, and the one God raises.
Paul says "sown… raised" four times. The body that goes down is the body that comes up — but not in the same condition.
The body sown in the grave bears the marks of corruption, dishonour, weakness and soulishness. We coin that last word because "natural" here is more literally "soulish" — something fitted for the animal soul rather than the spirit. It is raised in incorruption, glory, power, and a spiritual body rather than a soulish one. The body keeps its identity, as the words repeated four times show: "It is sown… it is raised." Yet its condition is of a different order altogether. This answers the question, "With what body do they come?"
The word behind "natural" comes from the Greek word for soul. It describes a person's moral state as well as the body.
The adjective translated "natural" — more exactly, "animal" — may present some difficulty when applied in this way, whether to a man's moral condition or to his body. So we think it well to note what the word points to. It points to that which, like the first Adam, lives because it has a soul, and not by the mighty energy of the Holy Spirit.
The other word in the verse, "spiritual," works the same way.
The soul-life now is, no doubt, a needed discipline for the spirit… The spiritual body changes this relation between spirit and soul. It puts the spirit fully in the governing place, and makes all conditions work in perfect subjection to it. That is the meaning of a spiritual body — not a body made of spirit, but a body marked by the spirit that dwells in it.
Some early writers pictured the raised body as thin air. The risen Christ rules that out. He could be touched, and He ate.
The body of the believer is sown in dishonour, corruption, and weakness: everyone sees that. What do we believe? It is raised in incorruption, glory, and power. It is not a thin or airy body, as Chrysostom and Origen each said. It is a body alive with spirit life, as it once was with animal life from the soul. It is not a spirit, but a spiritual body. It is not limited by earthly conditions. It can pass through a closed door, or be touched. It can take food, though it needs none. So at least we may judge from Him who rose as the great Head and pattern and power. He declared that a spirit does not have flesh and bones, as they saw He had.
Settling what the phrase means also settles what the raised body will do for us.
Once we know what "a spiritual body" means, many wrong guesses about it fall away. It is not the opposite of a material body. It is still material, for it comes — by divine power — from what is "sown" in the dust. But it is a body fitted, as never before, to be the servant of the spirit. It no longer ties the spirit to slow gains of knowledge through the senses. It no longer burdens the spirit with a frame that wears itself out and needs rest and repair. It can go with the spirit through the endless activities of a scene where there is no night, and no need of one.
The closing clause sets two statements together, and they do not stand on the same footing for us.
What is sown will never reappear in its original name and condition. Yet it keeps its identity. It is still the body of the man who occupied it when alive… The first of these two statements is a truism, and makes no real call on our faith. The second is a revelation which only faith can receive. It contradicts all natural experience and is as yet among the things not seen.
Paul's chosen verb is a farmer's word, and it changes how a burial feels.
The word "sown" is a triumphant word. It reminds us of the farmer, who sows to get a suitable harvest. One thing remains: the summoning shout of our Lord will display His mighty triumph. Then what is sown in corruption, dishonour and weakness will rise to a condition of incorruption, glory and power. The word "sown" is indeed a triumphant word when we commit our loved ones to the cold grave.
- Sown. Burial is seed-language: the body laid down is the body raised, its identity kept.
- Soulish. "Natural" means a body run by soul-life, like the first Adam — fitted to the soul, not to the spirit.
- Spiritual. The raised body is not made of spirit; it is governed by spirit, fully in subjection to it.
- Substantial. Christ risen is the pattern — touchable, able to eat, yet free of earthly limits.
- Seen by faith. Anyone knows a natural body exists. That a spiritual body exists is revelation, and only faith receives it.
Thus also it is written, The first man Adam became a living soul; the last Adam a quickening spirit.
Commentary for this verse has not been generated yet.
But that which is spiritual [was] not first, but that which is natural, then that which is spiritual
Paul has just set two men side by side: Adam, made a living soul, and Christ, the life-giving Spirit. Now he gives the order in which God works. That order is not an accident. It explains why the natural comes first and why God's best comes last.
One writer shows why the first man is called "natural" and the last is called spiritual:
To understand it we must consider the contrast between the two Adams, the first and the last. The first was made a living soul, as Genesis 2 tells us. The last is of another order entirely. Though as truly Adam (that is, Man) as the first, He is a life-giving Spirit. The one, then, is "natural" or "soulish"; the Other, spiritual. We might have expected that the spiritual would take precedence of the soulish as to time. But it is not so, as verse 46 points out. The first Adam had a "natural" or "soulish" body (verse 44), which was "earthy." All who come from him are earthy too, since they belong to his order.
If God's purpose was always the spiritual, why did He not begin there? One writer answers by looking at what a sinful man passes on to his children:
Man has become sinful; he fell at once after his beginning. God has purposes of grace toward him. Yet it is still a settled fact that as a sinner he first begets sons in his own image. They have no connection with the divine counsels. They are the seed of a fallen and corrupted nature. If God in His mercy does not step in, man can only beget evil. So we find the line of the flesh first, and the line of the Spirit second. God does not beget until sinful man has first shown what his nature could produce.
Once the rule is stated, it can be traced backwards through story after story where the first son is passed over:
Cain, the first man born into the world, was set aside in favour of the second, Abel... Ishmael, the seed after the flesh, set aside in favour of Isaac, the seed according to promise. Esau, the profane despiser of the birthright, set aside in favour of Jacob... Saul, head and shoulders above the people, and their choice, judged and set aside for David the young man, but the "man after God's own heart."
In each case what came first looked stronger and lasted longer — and that appearance is part of the trial:
It is well to notice that what is after the flesh always succeeds at first, to put the faithful to the test. Cain and his doings come first, before we hear of the true seed. Ishmael, the apparent heir, came long before the birth of Isaac. Esau remained in the promised land, while Jacob was a fugitive. Saul was king before David, and for a long time Saul seemed to hold the title to God's power, while David did not resist him.
This order tells us something about God's purpose, not only about history:
Here a great principle stands revealed, and it marks all God's ways. Once we see it, we can see that it has marked them from the beginning. From the very start of man's history as a sinner, God shaped His dealings with men after this pattern. This shows that His raising up of Christ, His sending of Him as a sacrifice for sin, and so His bringing in of spiritual and heavenly blessings, was no afterthought. It was a settled purpose, formed before man's sad history began.
The same order repeats in each person. It puts everyone into one of two families:
Notice first how God, when teaching us about His Spirit, divides mankind into two vast families. We cannot be in both — we are all in one or the other. There is no place in between, since birth decides entrance into each of them. First comes the natural family. We all entered it when we were born into the world. Afterwards comes the spiritual family. Grace brought us into that one, when we were born again.
The order stops at two, and one writer explains why:
Again and again God makes it clear that His thought was first the natural, and then the spiritual, and that the second is what God had before Him. And so the Lord Jesus Christ is the last Adam, the great Head of a new race, humanity truly, but new and altogether according to God. So perfect is He that never to all eternity will there need to be a third; the second is the last.
The order ends in a likeness. One writer says when that likeness will be complete:
We were, and are, naturally the family of the first man, and bore his image (compare Gen. 5:3); we, as now in Christ, shall also bear the image of Christ in the day that is coming... it is the full and final likeness. That cannot come until Christ completes salvation and transforms our humble body into the likeness of His body of glory.
- First — tested. The natural comes first so that man's own nature shows itself fully, before God brings in anything of His own.
- First — displaced. Cain, Ishmael, Esau, Saul: the one with the natural claim is set aside again and again, so the pattern was visible long before Paul named it.
- First — deceptive. What is after the flesh succeeds early and looks like the winner. That delay tests faith.
- Second — planned. Christ was no afterthought; the order itself proves a settled purpose formed before man's history began.
- Second — final. The second Man is the last Adam, and there will never be a third; the order closes when we bear His image.
the first man out of [the] earth, made of dust; the second man, out of heaven.
Paul has been contrasting the resurrection body with the body we carry now. Here he traces the difference back to two men and two origins.
One writer separates where the first man came from and what he is made of:
Here we see a contrast: the material beginning and make-up of the first man, and the heavenly origin of the second... The first man is earthly in where he came from, and earthy in what he is made of. He is both of and for earth. The blessings of Paradise were suited to the nature his Maker had given him. He was not made for heaven.
"From heaven" is not a statement about where Christ happens to be now. It describes what He is, and it does so by naming where He is from:
"Of the earth, earthy" — the first phrase gives the cause that makes him what he is; the second gives the character itself. But the cause came from origin; and so with "out of heaven." It is characteristic, but because of the place of origin. He has not ceased to be that now. The words do not describe what He is now because He has gone to heaven. They describe His character, which comes from His origin. It belongs to His Person. He is so now because He cannot be otherwise: because His origin was such, He was so on earth. Not that He came from, but that He was from, and of, and ever is.
The wording varies between translations, and commentators note it without treating it as a difficulty:
Verse 47 names the two as the first and second man, and gives their further character as "out of the earth made of dust" and the "Lord out of heaven," (or perhaps "out of heaven" only).
One writer sets the verse in its run of three, then marks a limit:
There is origin, verse 47; character, verse 48; and destiny, verse 49; all in contrast between those under Adam and under Christ. The word "out of" for the Greek here may be a little too strong in English. It is even more so if it is taken to mean that the Lord brought His body out of heaven. That would go far to affect the reality of the incarnation, as Luke 2 shows. It is characterization by source.
Cain was born before Christ, and so were countless others. Yet Scripture calls Christ the second man:
Let us keep it clear in our minds that He is not only "last Adam," but also "the second Man." This second title shows that God counts no man between Adam and Christ. Cain was not the second man. He was only Adam reproduced, and so were all men in their various generations. But when Christ was born, He was not Adam reproduced. In the virgin birth, by the work of the Holy Spirit, that inherited line was broken. A new and original Man appeared, worthy of being called "the second Man."
The very name "second man" carries a verdict on the first:
The very fact of there being "a second man" proves that the first man had been set aside: for if the first man had proved faultless, then no place would have been sought for the second. The first man is a total wreck — an irreparable ruin.
But the setting aside is not the end of the story. God's way is not repair:
And why the Second Man? Because evil has come in and spoiled the glory of the first. And here too is a difference beyond words. If manhood is to be raised up again, it cannot be in the old condition only. There is no good in bringing back what was so soon lost, and which might therefore be so soon lost again! God never simply restores: He replaces the first with what is different from it and far better. Yet it is not the mere setting aside of man in judgment, but help, salvation for him, and "the Second Man is the Lord from heaven."
The two origins produce two races. One writer traces that into the believer's present life and future body:
We began our existence as part of the race of the man "made of dust." Now, through grace, we are joined to the Man "out of heaven." In the first condition we could only show the features of the first man. Now, by the power of the Spirit of God, we are able to show the features of the "second Man." We still bear the image of the first man in our bodies. But we shall yet bear the image of the "second Man" — the heavenly One. Our destiny is to be with Him and like Him forever at His coming again.
- Origin. The first man came from the earth and is earthy in make-up. The second is marked by where He is from — heaven.
- Character. "From heaven" says what Christ is, not just where He came from. His origin gives His Person its character, and it did so while He walked on earth.
- Limit. Do not stretch the phrase to mean His body came down out of heaven. That would undercut the reality of His birth as a man.
- Displacement. God counts no man between Adam and Christ, so Christ is the second. A second was needed because the first was set aside, not repaired. God replaces with something better, and does it to save.
- Destiny. Everyone belongs to one man or the other. We have borne the image of the man of dust. By the Spirit we show the second Man's features now, and we will bear His image at His coming.
Such as he made of dust, such also those made of dust; and such as the heavenly [one], such also the heavenly [ones].
The apostle has just set the first man and the second Man side by side — one of dust, one from heaven. Verse 48 draws out what follows. Each head has a family that shares his character, and every reader belongs to one race or the other.
The verse describes two lines of descent. Each takes its stamp from the head it comes from.
Here we have, first of all, the two heads contrasted: the earthy and the Heavenly. Next we have the two races. The earthy race comes from the earthy head, and the heavenly race comes from the heavenly Head. It is the old creation and the new; the old in Adam, and the new in Christ.
The verse turns on origin. Adam's origin explains the sentence God passed on him after the fall. The second Man's origin is the exact opposite.
As to origin, the first man, Adam, was of the earth, "made of dust," as one translation correctly puts it. So God said to Adam after the fall, "you are dust, and to dust you shall return." In contrast, the "second Man" is "out of heaven." So the "first man" had his origin in dust — earthy. The "second Man" came "out of heaven."
A race carries the character of its head. One writer names the traits that mark each family.
Adam was, and still is, continued in his descendants. In the same way Christ is continued in the family that comes from Him. "As was the man of dust, so also are those who are of the dust" — fallen, sinful, ruined, lost, death-doomed, haters of God. And "as is the man of heaven, so also are those who are of heaven" — lovers of God, obedient children, holy, righteous, overcomers of the world, the antichrists, and the devil.
Much of chapter 15 looks ahead to resurrection, so it would be easy to read this verse as a promise. The tense of the sentence rules that out.
Let us not overlook this. We must wait for this perfection to be realized. But we do not have to wait to come under the headship of the last Adam, to be linked with the second Man. The end of verse 48 does not say that they shall be of heaven — it says they "are of heaven." We ARE heavenly. Is not that wonderful! Does it seem too wonderful? Are we inclined to shrink from it?
The first people told they were heavenly were far from model believers. One writer points to the real ground of their standing.
The union of the Christian with Christ is founded on the death and resurrection of the Lord Jesus. By the power of the Spirit he is even now united to Christ at the right hand of God. Is it not very striking that the apostle wrote this to the disorderly Corinthians? Every beginner takes a swipe at the Corinthians. They were indeed very faulty. Yet there are few believers now who are not far below the Corinthians. Yet these were the persons to whom the Holy Spirit addressed these words. If this had been said of the choicest saints on earth, one might have said — "Oh, yes, these are heavenly men." It does not, however, rest on personal merit. It is not a question of superior intelligence or of higher spiritual gifts. Of course, there ought to be intelligence, and there ought to be practical spirituality.
Verse 49 adds the image we shall bear. One writer separates what waits for that day from what God asks of us now.
We still bear the physical features of the "first man." Verse 49 assures us that we shall bear the physical features of the "second Man." We understand this to be the meaning of the word "image." We use the word physical on purpose. Ephesians 4 shows that we are to bear His moral features now. His characteristics are to be shown in us at the present time, while we wait to be conformed to His image.
This present standing shapes daily life.
So let us beware of trimming the truth down to suit our low walk. Behaviour that is low, fleshly, earthly and worldly does not suit those who are heavenly.
- Head. Two men stand at the head of two races — one made of dust, one out of heaven — and everyone descends from one or the other.
- Likeness. A race takes its character from its head. The earthy family is fallen and lost. The heavenly family loves God and obeys Him.
- Now. The verse says those of heaven "are" heavenly now, not "shall be" — the standing is present, not postponed to resurrection.
- Ground. The apostle wrote this to the disorderly Corinthians. It rests on union with Christ, not on merit, intelligence or attainment.
- Walk. What we already are decides how we live. Heavenly people are to show Christ's moral features now, and will bear His image in body later.
And as we have borne the image of the [one] made of dust, we shall bear also the image of the heavenly [one].
Paul has just set Adam and Christ side by side, and this verse draws the line from each head down to the family that comes from him. One commentator traces the logic word by word, and links our natural likeness to Adam back to Genesis:
Such as was the dusty one (Adam), such also the dusty ones (the race). Such as the heavenly One, such also the heavenly ones (Christians). Just as we bore the image of the dusty one, we shall bear also the image of the heavenly One. By nature we were, and still are, the family of the first man, and we bore his image (compare Genesis 5:3). Now that we are in Christ, we shall also bear the image of Christ in the day that is coming.
That verse is about Adam's son: "When Adam had lived 130 years, he fathered a son in his own likeness, after his image, and named him Seth" (Genesis 5:3, ESV). What Adam had become, he passed on.
The change described here is not only inward. It touches the part of us that still ages and dies:
Brought to Christ, we became the subjects of God's own workmanship, and we find ourselves moved out of the earthy and into the heavenly. That move, however, has not yet touched our bodies. We still bear the image of the earthy, so our bodies decay and remain under death and the grave. In resurrection we are to bear "the image of the heavenly." God will conform us to the image of His Son, not only in our characters, but in our very bodies.
Some old copies read "let us bear" instead of "we shall bear." That would turn a promise into a command. One writer backed the translators who kept the future reading:
In 1 Corinthians 15:49 the revisers have translated "we have borne," and they are right… Here too — and I have no doubt they are right — they have not simply followed the manuscript evidence to read "let us bear" for "we shall bear."
Read as a promise, the verse treats the coming likeness as settled. It even speaks of our present mortality as something already on its way out:
Looking at God's saints in Christ, Paul treats their mortal image as a thing already gone… Mortality is our condition here, but it is no longer our nature. We carry it as a burden that does not belong to us. Glory, not humiliation, is the proper home of the Christ who lives in us. As men, we were born into this world to die out of it again… But Christ has died, and is risen again, the Firstfruits of those who are asleep. And His death and life are ours also, by the grace of God. The harvest, then, will surely follow in its time.
There is one place in the Gospels where this image was put on display in advance — when Jesus was transfigured before three of His disciples:
In Christ we see the image of the heavenly that we shall wear in the coming glory… As He prayed, the disciples saw in the Person of Christ the earthly changed into the heavenly. Peter says, in effect: "We saw Him as a lowly Man. In an instant the garments of humiliation gave way to garments of glory. His face, that was more marred than any man's, became shining as the sun. We saw in Him the mighty power that, in 'the twinkling of an eye,' will change these bodies of humiliation into bodies of glory like His own."
The verse points forward, but it leaves something for today. One writer separates what waits for His coming from what should already show now:
While we still bear the physical features of the "first man," verse 49 assures us that we shall bear the physical features of the "second Man." We understand this to be the meaning of the word "image." … Ephesians 4 shows that we are to bear His moral features now. His characteristics are to show in us at the present time, while we wait to be conformed to His image.
Hope like that shapes what the heart wants:
Our hope is to be conformed to the image of God's Son in glory… Such is the desire, the object of hope in the soul. Now we are bearing the image of the earthy, but we hope to be made like Christ on high. "We know that when He appears we shall be like Him." A moral change is indeed worked in us now, but its effect is to produce the desire to be conformed to the image of God's Son in glory.
- Image inherited. We came into the world carrying Adam's likeness, just as Seth did. Nobody chose that family resemblance.
- Image transferred. Brought to Christ, we move out of the earthy family into the heavenly one. Our bodies are not changed yet.
- Image promised. "We shall bear," not "let us bear" — the verse states a future fact, not a duty we must achieve.
- Image previewed. While Jesus prayed, His disciples saw in Him the very glory we are to wear.
- Image expected. The likeness is coming, so His moral features should mark us now. The hope itself creates the desire.
But this I say, brethren, that flesh and blood cannot inherit God's kingdom, nor does corruption inherit incorruptibility.
Paul now says why the body must be changed: as we are, we cannot enter God's kingdom. That raises two questions — what is shut out, and which kingdom he means.
The verse names two states, the living and the dead, and shuts out both. One writer explains the words, and why a change of heart is not enough:
To have a title to God's kingdom, we must ourselves be born of God. To inherit it, in fact, we must be changed in form as well as in nature. "Flesh and blood" is a scriptural name for humanity while living; "corruption" is its name when dead. And God's saints are men, subject to the common lot of men, though Christ is in them and they are the Lord's… The point of this verse, and of the whole teaching of the chapter, is that man cannot be broken apart. In the Lord's own picture, a crippled or maimed body may enter into life. But a human spirit without a body has no place in God's kingdom, and no record in the Lamb's book of life. God's saints, then, whether dead or living, must undergo a further change than the conversion of their hearts to Him.
This is not a verdict on the body God made. It turns on what blood is for, and on the risen Christ's own words:
Paul does not seem to mean that flesh cannot inherit and blood cannot inherit, each on its own. He is speaking of the two together. The blood belongs to the present life. It carries change. It shows the need of constant food and renewal. A body that needs no renewal cannot need blood to renew it. So the Lord, risen from the dead, speaks of Himself as having flesh and bones, not flesh and blood. "A spirit does not have flesh and bones," He says, "as you see that I have"… He is not, of course, in the least implying that there is any evil in flesh and blood. That was the original creation, of which God pronounced that it was all very good; but it was good for its own sphere, not good for a higher one.
Many assume sin is the only obstacle, so that forgiveness settles everything. The barrier is wider, and it reaches the believer too:
Flesh and blood, not merely sin, cannot enter the kingdom of heaven. Corruption — and that is what we are — cannot inherit what is incorruptible… Death need not come to everyone, and still less need everyone actually decay. But flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of glory… This has to do with the body. It is in his body that man is mortal, even when he has eternal life and will live by Christ and with Christ. The power of God will form the saints, whether living or dead, for the inheritance of glory.
"The kingdom of God" does not always mean the same thing in Scripture. So which kingdom is closed to flesh and blood?
It simply means that man as he is here below cannot inherit God's kingdom. It does not mean the kingdom God will one day set up on earth, where converted Israel and converted nations will be the subjects. It means the kingdom of God on the other side of death. The kingdom on earth for a thousand years will be an earthly thing. The kingdom in this verse is the kingdom of God in glory.
Miss that distinction, and the verse would clash with the promise of an earthly reign:
Clearly the reference is to the heavenly side of the kingdom. We know from the prophetic Scriptures that men in flesh and blood will pass into the kingdom on its earthly side. So we need to be changed. Even Job in his day said, "I would wait, till my renewal should come" (Job 14:14; older translations read "till my change come").
The present body has its own use. One writer names that use and its limit:
Our bodies of flesh and blood are mortal and corruptible. They suit our present place of testimony, but not our eternal home with God in heaven. Verse 54 of this same chapter shows what the new bodies are like, the bodies that suit our being with Christ: they are incorruptible and not subject to death.
- Barred — "Flesh and blood" names us alive, "corruption" names us dead; both states are shut out of the kingdom of glory.
- Not evil — The problem is unfitness, not sin. Blood belongs to a life that needs constant renewal; the risen Christ has flesh and bones.
- Not enough — A converted heart is not the whole answer. The body is still mortal, so God must change it too.
- Which kingdom — This is the kingdom beyond death. It is not the coming earthly reign, which people in flesh and blood will enter.
- Changed — We cannot inherit as we are, so God's power will fit us for it: the dead raised, the living transformed.
Behold, I tell you a mystery We shall not all fall asleep, but we shall all be changed,
Paul has spent the whole chapter proving that the dead in Christ will rise. That leaves one question open: what happens to believers who are still alive when the Lord comes? He answers with a secret, and the claim is startling. Not every Christian will die, but not one will enter glory unchanged.
The word "mystery" here does not mean a puzzle. It points to something new that God has now made known.
The resurrection of just and unjust was a well-known Old Testament truth... People knew about the raising of the dead saints, and even about the raising of the wicked dead. But the change of the living saints was a truth God had never revealed. Up to this point He had not made it known. It was a New Testament truth, and this is exactly what a "mystery" means. It was one of those truths God kept secret in the Old Testament and has now revealed. It is not so much a thing that is hard to understand once stated, as a thing that was never made known before.
The previous verse says flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God. That is the pressure behind this one. Dying is not what disqualifies us; our present bodily condition is.
Flesh and blood, not merely sin, cannot enter the kingdom of heaven. Corruption (for such we are) cannot inherit that which is incorruptible... Death is conquered. Death does not have to come to everyone, and still less does everyone have to pass through decay. But flesh and blood cannot possibly inherit the kingdom of glory... and we shall be changed (a change equivalent to resurrection)... We see that this relates to the body; it is in his body that man is mortal, even when he has eternal life.
So the change is no lesser substitute for resurrection.
In Scripture, "sleep" is said of the body, not of the soul.
Scripture connects the thought of "sleep" with the body... Death has now lost its terrors for the Christian, so that Scripture can call it "sleep."
That some believers will never sleep at all says something about the death of Christ.
The Old Testament saints, like Job, did know of the resurrection of the dead. But they knew nothing of this great secret: that God will change the natural bodies of the living saints into spiritual bodies, without those saints going through death. What a proof of the mighty power of the death of Christ! It has so fully met the penalty of death for the believer that he can be changed into the image of the heavenly without going through death.
The verse divides believers into two groups over dying, then puts them back into one over changing. Writers press the word "all" against any idea that some believers go first and others later.
We shall not all "sleep" (i.e. die) but we shall all be changed, whether alive or dead at the moment when the Lord comes for His saints... We shall "all be changed," you notice, "in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye" — not in many, or at least several, different moments. That is what would happen if the church entered its glory by a partial rapture, or by a series of partial raptures.
This verse is not the whole picture.
If we only had this Scripture we should not know into what likeness we are changed, nor what would happen to us when we are changed. This then is the first step in the great event that leads to our being with Christ.
Paul writes "we," placing himself and his readers among those who might never sleep.
Grant that "we" is a representative word. It does not mean only the people he wrote to, but everyone standing in the same privileges. Still, will anyone say that the apostle or the Corinthian saints knew the moment would be put off until they had fallen asleep? Was it not meant, beyond all doubt, to keep them in simple, constant expectancy of the Lord?
- Secret. "Mystery" means a truth God kept hidden and has now revealed. Resurrection was already known. The change of living believers was not.
- Sleep. In Scripture "sleep" is said of the believer's body, and this secret says some will never sleep at all.
- Change. No one escapes the change, because flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom. What resurrection does for the dead, the change does for the living.
- All. One moment, one company: dead and living reach the same point together, not in stages.
- Soon. Paul says "we." That word keeps every generation of readers watching for the Lord, instead of counting on death.
in an instant, in [the] twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet; for the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and *we* shall be changed.
Paul has been writing about the resurrection of the body. Verse 52 tells how fast the change happens, what signal starts it, and what the raised body will be like.
The word behind "moment" is not a vague word for "soon." One writer traces it back to its parts and sets it against the slow farming picture Paul used earlier in the chapter.
The Greek word for moment is the word from which we get the English word atom. The first letter, a, means "not", and temnō means "cut", so it's a division of time that cannot be further divided. It is a tiny piece of time, and that is how long this change will take. It might be helpful to put it alongside verses 35 to 38 where we get the sowing of the body. What is sown is bare grain, but what comes up is different. That is a process, and it takes quite a while between sowing and harvesting. Here we get the other side of the picture: the whole process fits into the shortest time possible.
The size of the work makes the speed more startling, not less. The wording also draws a line between the dead and the living.
The saints will be glorified sooner than the mind can count or the eye can see. The work is immense in itself, and it reaches every spot on the globe. It happens when the final call goes out to the heavenly host to leave the place where it has camped... Notice: the verse does not say that we shall rise then, nor that they alone are in view — "we" too shall be changed.
Paul writes to people living inside the Roman empire, where trumpet calls were an everyday sound. Several commentators read the phrase as a picture borrowed from army life.
The "last trump" is but a military allusion, neither more nor less. There were three trumpets for breaking up the camp among the Romans. At the first, they folded the baggage; at the second, they fell into rank; at the third, they started all together.
If that is the picture, the "last" trumpet is the one that says march. It marks a departure, not an ending.
The last trump was that which in its military sense stood for departure. It was the signal to march, and that is the thought here. God is taking us into another place, and at the last trump, which sounds for this, we shall be changed into a condition corresponding with that which is implied in it.
Because "last" sounds final, readers often tie this trumpet to the seventh trumpet of Revelation. One writer keeps three trumpets apart and gives the rule for doing it.
The trumpets in Revelation are a symbolic series that belongs to that book alone. They are judgments — the last three are even called "woes" — and the last of all brings in the closing scene of God's judgment... In 1 Corinthians 15 the reference is only to the saints raised or changed. The picture comes from army life: the final signal when the legion marches out of its old camp. It would be a mistake to mix either of these up with the blowing of the great trumpet in Isaiah 27, which gathers the chosen people of Israel into the land that is their inheritance. Each one must be read in its own context.
Commentators differ over what the trumpet covers. Darby held that this one is "simply that of the resurrection of the dead, not that of the change of the living." Others tie the one blast to both events.
The change takes one moment. That detail weighs against the idea that some believers go up ahead of others.
Notice that we shall "all be changed," "in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye" — not in many different moments, or even in several. That is what it would be if the church were to enter its glory by a partial rapture, or by a series of partial raptures.
"Incorruptible" describes a body that can no longer decay — and the same person who was buried is the person who rises.
Scripture is careful to show that resurrection is a real thing. It stresses that what is sown is what is raised, though it is raised in new conditions... Decay is the end of man in his natural state, and that is the condition of the body when it goes into the grave. How different the Christian's body will be when it is raised, for then it will be incorruptible. People who are alive now have bodies that can decay. But when the dead are raised and the living are changed, their bodies will no longer be able to decay. They are of another order.
If the trumpet calls a camp to march, then the Christian's posture now is that of someone already packed.
The Christian is to be standing ready for the final trumpet call. He has already heard the call of the gospel. If he has truly answered it, he has separated himself from the world, packed his baggage, and is looking for the Saviour.
- Signal. The last trumpet is the blast that sends an army out of camp — a call to march, and not one of the judgment trumpets of Revelation.
- Speed. "Moment" means a slice of time that cannot be cut smaller; the slow sowing of verses 35–38 is compressed into an instant.
- Scope. From every spot on the globe, believers rise or are changed together — not in stages, not in groups.
- Substance. What is sown is what is raised: the same person, in a body of another order, no longer subject to decay.
- Stance. Baggage packed, separated from the world, listening for a call that could sound before you finish reading this sentence.
For this corruptible must needs put on incorruptibility, and this mortal put on immortality.
The verse states a necessity: the body we have now cannot enter glory as it is. Everything hangs on the little word "this" — the body that decays and dies is the very body that puts on what death cannot touch.
One writer defines the term, then shows how it lands on the dead and on the living:
The word immortality means not being liable to death, and in 1 Corinthians 15:53 it refers to the body. At the coming of the Lord the dead in Christ will be raised incorruptible, while the living Christians will put on immortality. It is the body that in death goes to corruption, and in resurrection puts on incorruptibility.
The word appears only three times in Scripture. Two of those are in this chapter. The third speaks of God Himself:
First, as to God Himself. He only has immortality, in the sense that it is inherent in Him, not bestowed, not acquired, but His, as in His own nature and being (1 Timothy 6:16). The other two cases (1 Corinthians 15:53-54) have to do with the saints alive on this earth when the Lord comes. They have mortal bodies, able to die and liable to death. Yet if the Lord comes, they will bypass death altogether, and mortality will put on immortality.
The need goes back to the previous verse. The problem is not just sin in us, but our whole present condition:
Flesh and blood, not merely sin, cannot enter the kingdom of heaven. Corruption (for that is what we are) cannot inherit what is incorruptible. So the apostle now reveals plainly what will happen: all the saints will enjoy incorruptibility. Death is conquered. Death does not have to come upon all. Still less does everyone have to decay. But flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of glory.
A change of heart is not the same as a change of body:
To have a right to God's kingdom, we must ourselves be born of God. To inherit it, we must in fact change in form as well as in nature… So God's saints, whether dead or living, need more than the conversion of their hearts to Him. They must undergo a further change.
Paul does not say we drop the perishable body. He says it puts on something more. One writer draws out that contrast, using the older wording "corruptible" and "incorruption" where the ESV reads "perishable" and "the imperishable":
"For this corruptible must" — not just put off corruption, but "put on incorruption, and this mortal" must not just slip out of this mortal life, as people say, but "put on immortality."
This is why the desire of the believer is not simply to die. Death removes the body; the hope here adds to it:
He did not merely want to be unclothed and so escape present trials, blessed as that will be. He longed for the full blessing of having the new body. He was looking for the rapture. Then the bodies of living believers will become bodies of glory, without passing through death.
Commentators differ on whether the verse's two halves point to two groups. One writer takes them that way:
Verse 53 insists that it is "this corruptible" that must "put on incorruption"! That is, our present body is the one that must take on an altered condition. This no doubt refers primarily to those who have died, while "this mortal" refers to those still living, though subject to death. Putting on immortality means being clothed with what death cannot touch.
Others hold that both phrases describe the one unfit body from two angles:
I do not believe that 1 Corinthians 15:53 speaks of two classes. "This mortal" speaks of the body as joined in life to the soul. "Corruptible" is its nature when it is not kept alive. Neither state is fit for glory, where only an undying and incorruptible body belongs.
The change is not something a believer receives at death. It waits for one event:
Death is not swallowed up in victory when a Christian dies and goes to be with Christ; but when He comes, and the dead are raised, and the living changed. What was done individually in the case of Enoch and Elijah, will be done on a grand scale at His coming. All the living saints then will be changed, and will go to be with the Lord, without passing through death.
- Must — the need is not only moral but physical. Flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God, so conversion of heart is not enough.
- This — the same body is in view. Our present body takes on a new condition; it is not swapped for another.
- Put on — the language is of clothing, not discarding. Believers long not to be unclothed by death but to be clothed with a body death cannot touch.
- Body — immortality here means not being liable to death, and it applies to the body. God alone has it in Himself; to us He gives it.
- When — at the coming of the Lord, the dead raised and the living changed. Commentators differ. Do the verse's two halves name those two groups, or describe one unfit body twice?
But when this corruptible shall have put on incorruptibility, and this mortal shall have put on immortality, then shall come to pass the word written Death has been swallowed up in victory.
This verse names a moment. It is the point where an old prophecy finally comes true. Two questions follow. When is death swallowed up? And who is covered by the words "the perishable" and "the mortal"?
The word "then" fixes an event. Commentators say it is not the moment a Christian dies. It is the moment of resurrection and change at Christ's coming. They also stress that the verse says put on, not merely put off.
"For this perishable body must" — not merely put off corruption, but — "put on the imperishable, and this mortal body must" not merely shed this mortal life, as people say, but "put on immortality." So "when the perishable puts on the imperishable, and the mortal puts on immortality" — clearly the glorified state — "then shall come to pass the saying that is written: 'Death is swallowed up in victory.'" Death is not swallowed up in victory when a Christian dies and goes to be with Christ. It happens when He comes, when the dead are raised, and when the living are changed.
One writer separates what is better for us from what is victory for Him.
To depart and be with Him, with the soul apart from the body, is "far better" than the present life. Yet that is not His victory. For the body it is the last experience of what sin brought in. His victory comes "when the perishable puts on the imperishable, and the mortal puts on immortality" — then, and not before, "shall come to pass the saying that is written: 'Death is swallowed up in victory.'"
The two phrases are not repetition. Commentators read them as covering believers who have died and believers still alive when Christ comes.
Verse 53 insists that it is "this perishable body" that must "put on the imperishable"! That is, our present body is the one that must be brought into a changed condition. This no doubt refers first of all to those who have died, while "this mortal body" refers to those still living, though still subject to death. To put on immortality is to be clothed with what death cannot touch.
Why two words? Because a body can be in two states.
A living body is mortal, subject to death. A dead body is subject to corruption.
The saying Paul quotes comes from one place only. (Older translations of Isaiah 25:8 read "in victory"; the ESV has "He will swallow up death forever.")
Where is this saying written? In only one other place in Scripture. In Isaiah 25:8 you will find the passage that the apostle quotes: "He will swallow up death in victory."
In Isaiah the words stand beside Israel's deliverance. That setting fixes the timing.
The resurrection coincides with the deliverance of Israel, which itself will be "life from the dead" for the world (Rom. 11:15). So the first open stroke at death will be at this very time... It is when His reign over the earth is to begin, not when it ends.
Does death itself then stop existing? One writer answers with a picture.
The swallowing up of death in victory is not necessarily the destruction of death. Think of an enemy who has long been winning. He has laid his grim grip on the rightful subjects of some mighty prince. The prince's armies may swallow that enemy up in victory and set all his captives free — and yet the tyrant's life may be spared. He may even be spared to act as jailer to the prince's enemies. It is exactly so here. Death has held the bodies of God's beloved people in his grasp. At the coming of the Lord, the Prince of life, he will be forced to release every captive. Still death is not destroyed. For a thousand years longer it acts, so to speak, as the jailer of those unhappy ones who have lived and died in sin. They too will be raised in the resurrection of judgment, and then death itself will be destroyed.
The event is future, but the thanksgiving is not postponed.
Death itself, of course, is not yet swallowed up... But when "the mortal puts on immortality, then shall come to pass the saying that is written: 'Death is swallowed up in victory.'" Then Christ's place, beyond everything that could hinder us, will be ours, even as to our bodies. Yet before these things happen, we can already say: "Thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ."
- Written — the words come from Isaiah 25:8, the only other place they appear. There they stand beside Israel's deliverance, at the start of Christ's reign.
- Then — the fulfilment waits for one moment. Not a believer's death, not the comfort of being with Christ, but resurrection and change at His coming.
- Put on — the body does not merely shed corruption. It puts on the imperishable, and death can never touch it again.
- Both — "this perishable body" covers those already in the grave, "this mortal body" those still living. Two conditions, one shared outcome.
- Not yet destroyed — Christ releases every captive, yet death survives as jailer until the end. Even now the thanks are ours through our Lord Jesus Christ.