From Dust to Glory

Is resurrection really possible? In Christ, death is not the end, but the doorway to life eternal.

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From Dust to Glory

Good Morning. Today, we’re walking through our epistle lesson, looking at the resurrection, with the perspective on some of the problems early Christians had in explaining it to the Pagan world. Hopefully, as we examine some of the issues Paul was struggling with in explaining the Resurrection of Jesus, and our future resurrection to the Greeks in Corinth who had become Christians, we’ll see some things we will find helpful in understanding it ourselves.

For many new converts who came from the NON-Jewish culture at the time of Jesus, the idea of a PHYSICAL resurrection was hard to grab a hold of, although most Jews saw it throughout the Old Testament. For the Gentiles, many had no idea why someone would want to physically rise from the dead. They thought simply being a spirit forever was just fine. So, questions came up, which the apostles, like Paul in 1 Cor 15, had to answer. This morning we began in v. 35:

But someone will ask, ‘How are the dead raised? With what kind of body do they come?’

Their reasoning was “foolishly” simple, “If we can’t understand why God would do something, then He’s probably not doing it.” Christians were often answering fair questions like: What about bodies that have been destroyed? What about those who were cremated? What about those lost at sea, or eaten by animals? How could God ever bring something like that back together?

Underneath all of those questions is really just one question, “Is this really possible?” Paul answers that question directly, and in an interesting way using the example, a parable of something we see every day. V. 36-38 record Paul saying…

What you sow does not come to life unless it dies. And what you sow is not the body that is to be, but a bare kernel… God gives it a body as he choses. So if that’s a little complicated, so lets unpack.

Paul is saying, You’re asking a question that has an example all around you, and everyone will see as soon as we leave church today. Consider a plant seed. You put it into the ground, and what happens? It goes into the earth, it breaks down, it dies in a sense. But something new comes out of it. It doesn’t still look the same, but they are clearly connected.

You do not plant an acorn and get an acorn back. You get something greater. Something fuller. Something alive in a new way. Where’s the Acorn? That’s not really a question anymore. Death is not an obstacle to resurrection, it is part of the process. A seed has to go into the ground before new life comes.

Now it’s true that what comes out is different from what went in, but it’s still connected. But because we see it all the time, you never connect it with the Resurrection. God does this constantly in creation, so why should resurrection seem impossible? All around us we see patterns of life coming out of death.

Then Paul moves to the second question, “What kind of body will it be?” And again, he points us to what we can already see in v. 39.

For not all flesh is the same, but there is one kind for humans, another for animals, another for birds, and another for fish.

In other words, God already makes different kinds of bodies suited for different kinds of life. Fish are made for water. They don’t do well on land, and birds don’t last long under water. Different bodies Then he goes further, v.40

There are heavenly bodies and earthly bodies, but the glory of the heavenly is of one kind, and the glory of the earthly is of another

God already creates different kinds of bodies for different environments, why is it strange for him to give you a body suited for eternity?

^{verse 42} So is it with the resurrection of the dead. What is sown (planted in the ground) is perishable, what is raised is imperishable. (it won’t die)

This body you have right now is wearing out. You feel it. I feel it. It weakens, it ages, it slows down. But that is not the end of the story. V. 43 says

It is (planted in the ground) in dishonor; it is raised in glory.

Our bodies are not as impressive as we pretend they are. They fail us, don’t listen and break down. And in death, they return to the dust. Paul says, what is raised will be glorious. Whole. Clean. More alive than we can imagine.

^{verse 43} It is sown in weakness; it is raised in power.

Human strength is fragile. It does not take much to bring us down. But the resurrection body will not be fragile. It will not fail, because

It is sown a natural body; it is raised a spiritual body 

A body fit for eternity, a body perfectly fitted for life with God. Right now, you live in what we might call an “earth suit.” It is designed for this fallen world. But it is not designed for eternity, it’s made to die. I saw an interesting movie recently, “Death Becomes Her,” which has a theme of how horrible it would be if you could live forever in this body, as the main characters kept trying to glue body parts back on themselves. You don’t magic potions to make this body last for eternity, because it decays and it breaks. But one day, God will give you something new, a “heaven body,” fitted for eternal life in his presence.

You actually see a glimpse of this in Jesus after the resurrection. It is still him, but they don’t recognize Jesus at first. The disciples eventually recognize him, especially since He bears the marks of the cross. But He’s also different. Transformed. Alive in a new way.  

Paul explains in verse 45: The first man Adam became a living being; the last Adam became a life-giving spirit.

In one sense, there are two kinds of people. Those who belong to Adam, and those who belong to Christ. Adam was formed from the dust. And all of us, by sharing in his Human Nature, bear his image. Vs. 47-48

 ^47-48 The first man was from the earth, a man of dust… As was the man of dust, so also are those who are of the dust.

But then comes Christ, the last Adam. And he does not just live, he gives life. When you partake of His nature, when you receive him, something changes at the deepest level. Life begins again. Not outwardly yet, but inwardly at first. But Paul continues, if you belong to him, then your future is tied to him.

⁴⁹ Just as we have borne the image of the man of dust, we shall also bear the image of the man of heaven.

That’s the promise. Right now, we all look like Adam. We live like him, we struggle like him, we carry the marks of a fallen world. But if you are in Christ, that is not your final form.

St. John says it this way, We are God’s children now, but what we will be (one day) has not yet appeared. We know that when He appears we’ll be like Him, because we shall see Him as He is.

That’s where this is going. The promise isn’t just about bodies, it’s about belonging. To belong to Adam is to share in death. To belong to Christ is to share in life. And not just life now, but life that carries through death to eternity. That changes how you see your body. It changes how you face death, and it changes how you live right now. Because we’re not just preparing for the end of life, we’re preparing for what comes after, we are living for eternity.