Devotional Questions:
1 Corinthians 15:1-2
“If you are not persevering in the Christian faith, this is evidence that you did not have saving faith in the first place.”[1]
“The faith which collapses is the faith which has not thought things out and thought them through. For so many of us faith is a superficial thing. We tend to accept things because we are told them and to possess them merely at secondhand. If we undergo the agony of thought there may be much that we must discard, but what is left is really ours in such a way that nothing can ever take it from us.”[2]
- What is the test of genuine faith based on these verses?
- What does it mean to “take your stand” and “hold firmly” to the gospel?
1 Corinthians 15:12-19
- The skeptics mentioned in v.12 were rejecting the message of the resurrection of Christ based on their prior belief that there is no such thing as the resurrection of the dead. In other words, the specific message preached was rejected by their generalized response of “there is no such thing.” In what ways do I react similarly to messages asserting some truth which runs counter to my experience? In what ways am I not allowing God’s word, and the reality of God’s power and promises, to introduce new ideas, possibilities or vision into my life?
- Why is Christian faith completely dependent on the truth of the resurrection?
- If the resurrection were not true, why are Christians to be pitied above all men? What does this say about Christian life simply as a lifestyle choice?
1 Corinthians 15:50-58
- Why can’t flesh and blood inherit the Kingdom of God?
- What hope is there if death had not been “swallowed up in victory?”
- According to vv.54-55, what makes my Christian life ultimately triumphant regardless of struggles and setbacks that I experience?
- Based on today’s passage, list all the reasons that Paul gives for why we can stand firm. When do I feel that my labors for the Lord are in vain? In what ways can I give myself fully to the work of the Lord?
Additional Questions:
1 Corinthians 15:3-8
- What is the core of the gospel? Are my Christian commitment and my testimony solidly built upon this foundation?
- How did the gospel come to me? Think of the process by which the gospel gets received and passed on. What are some important factors involved in that process?
1 Corinthians 15:9-11
- What does it mean to live so that God’s grace is not without effect?
- What can I learn from Apostle Paul saying that he is the “least of the apostles” and “do not even deserve to be called an apostle” even though “he worked harder then all of them?”
- What kind of attitude would be in a person who works hard but feels that it’s not him but the grace of God that was within him? How does this contrast with my attitude when I “work hard” for the Lord?
1 Corinthians 15:20-23
- Why is the resurrection of Jesus not simply an isolated miracle pertaining to him alone?
- Contrast the fate of mankind expressed as “in Adam all die” versus “in Christ all will be made alive.” In what ways is the immensity of the movement from one fate to the other felt or shown in my life?
1 Corinthians 15:24-28
- What does v.24 foretell about the fate of the forces of evil that are in effect today?
- How does v.25 provide hope in my struggle to do God’s will in the midst of so much evil?
1 Corinthians 15:29-32
- What life philosophy makes the most sense if there is no resurrection, i.e., our lives simply end at death?
- How does Apostle Paul’s life of braving danger and dying “every day” flow from his conviction about the resurrection?
1 Corinthians 15:35-49
- What is the problem with the question in v.35, and others like it?
- ·What assumption about the resurrection life is held by the questioner in v.35? In what ways do I choose to hold onto my own experience as the standard by which I will judge the plausibility of spiritual truths and promises plainly stated in the Bible?
[1] Kenneth Barker, The New International Version Study Bible Notes CD, Pradis [software], (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan Publishing House, 1995) notes for verse.
[2] William Barclay, Barclay’s Daily Study Bible Series CD, The Bible Library v.3.2 [software], (Louisville, KY: Westminster Press, 1975) notes for verse.
Commentary:
Introduction:
“Chapter 15 falls into two main sections. Verses 1-34 present Paul’s arguments for the certainty of the bodily resurrection, while verses 35-58 discuss the nature of resurrection bodies.”[1]
v.1 “The gospel was something which the Corinthians had received. No man ever invented the gospel for himself[…] It is something which he receives. Therein indeed is the very function of the Church. The Church is the repository and the transmitter of the good news.”[2]
vv.3-8 “Two lines of evidence for the death and resurrection of Christ are given here: (1) the testimony of the OT (e.g., Ps 16:8-11; Isa 53:5-6, 11) and (2) the testimony of eyewitnesses (Ac 1:21-22). Six resurrection appearances are listed here. The Gospels give more.”[3]
vv.3-4 “what I received I passed on to you as of first importance. Here Paul links himself with early Christian tradition. He was not its originator, nor did he receive it directly from the Lord. His source was other Christians. The verbs he uses are technical terms for receiving and transmitting tradition. What follows is the heart of the gospel: that Christ died for our sins (not for his own sins; cf. Heb 7:27), that he was buried (confirmation that he had really died) and that he was raised from the dead.
“on the third day. Cf. Mt 12:40. The Jews counted parts of days as whole days. Thus the three days would include part of Friday afternoon, all of Saturday, and Sunday morning.”[4]
vv.12-19 “Some at Corinth were saying that there was no resurrection of the body, and Paul draws a number of conclusions from this false contention. If the dead do not rise from the grave, then (1) ‘not even Christ has been raised’ (v.13); (2) ‘our preaching is useless’ (v.14); (3) ‘so is your faith’ (v.14); (4) we are ‘false witnesses’ that God raised Christ from the dead (v.15); (5) ‘your faith is futile’ (v.17); (6) ‘you are still in your sins’ (v.17) and still carry the guilt and condemnation of sin; (7) ‘those also who have fallen asleep [have died] in Christ are lost’ (v.18); and (8) ‘we are to be pitied’ who ‘only for this life . . . hope in Christ’ (v.19) and put up with persecution and hardship.”[5]
v.12 “Christ has been raised. Christ was raised historically on the third day. Paul uses this same verb form (that expresses the certainty of Christ’s bodily resurrection) a total of seven times in this passage (vv.4, 12-14, 16-17, 20).”[6]
“[T]he position of some in the Corinthian church is specified in verse 12[…], and it is to this challenge that Paul responds. By denying the resurrection, the Corinthians were almost certainly not denying life after death; virtually everyone in the ancient world believed in that. Rather, they would have been disputing the Jewish and Christian doctrine of bodily resurrection and endorsing one of the more Greek forms of belief that limited the afterlife to disembodied immortality of the soul (cf. 2 Tim. 2:17-18).”[7]
vv.20-22 “firstfruits. The first sheaf of the harvest given to the Lord (Lev 23:10-11, 17, 20) as a token that all the harvest belonged to the Lord and would be dedicated to him through dedicated lives. So Christ, who has been raised, is the guarantee of the resurrection of all of God’s redeemed people (cf. 1Th 4:13-18).
“death came through a man. Through Adam (Ge 3:17-19). the resurrection of the dead comes also through a man. Through Christ, the second Adam, ‘the last Adam’ (v.45; cf. Ro 5:12-21).
“in Adam all die. All who are ‘in Adam’—i.e., his descendants—suffer death. in Christ all will be made alive. All who are ‘in Christ’—i.e., who are related to him by faith—will be made alive at the resurrection (cf. Jn 5:25; 1Th 4:16-17; Rev 20:6).”[8]
v.22 “How will all be made alive? Paul does not suggest a universal salvation here, implying that all will be saved. Though every human being (those in Adam) faces physical death because of sin, every believer (those in Christ) can anticipate eternal life because of the resurrection.”[9]
v.23 “each in his own turn. Christ, the firstfruits, was raised in his own time in history (c. A.D. 30), and those who are identified with Christ by faith will be raised at his second coming. His resurrection is the pledge that ours will follow.”[10]
v.24 “the end. The second coming of Christ and all the events accompanying it. This includes his handing over the kingdom to the Father, following his destroying all dominion, authority and power of the persons and forces who oppose him.”[11]
v.32 “More than likely, wild beasts is a metaphor for Paul’s human opponents in Ephesus. Wild beasts was a label commonly given to wicked people. Just the same sort of opponents Paul faced in Corinth. He survived such opponents wherever he encountered them by persevering in his confidence in the resurrection.”[12]
v.33 “The application of the quotation is that those who are teaching that there is no resurrection (v.12) are the ‘bad company,’ and they are corrupting the ‘good character’ of those who hold to the correct doctrine (cf. Pr 13:20).”[13]
v.34 “stop sinning. The sin of denying that there is a resurrection and thus doubting even the resurrection of Christ, all of which had a negative effect on the lives they were living.
“some who are ignorant of God. Even in the Corinthian church. This, Paul says, is a shameful situation.”[14]
vv.35-49 “In discussing the nature of the resurrection body, Paul compares it to plant life (vv.36-38), to fleshly beings (v.39) and to celestial and earthly physical bodies (vv.40-41).”[15]
vv.36-39 “Plant organisms, though organized similarly in their own order, are different; the seed sown is related to the new plant that sprouts, but the new sprout has a different and genuinely new body that God has given it.”[16]
“He takes the analogy of a seed. The seed is put in the ground and dies, but in due time it rises again; and does so with a very different kind of body from that with which it was sown. Paul is showing that, at one and the same time, there can be dissolution, difference and yet continuity. The seed is dissolved; when it rises again, there is a vast difference in its body; and yet, in spite of the dissolution and the difference, it is the same seed. So our earthly bodies will dissolve; they will rise again in very different form; but it is the same person who rises. Dissolved by death, changed by resurrection, it is still we who exist.
“In the world, even as we know it, there is not one kind of body; each separate part of creation has its own. God gives to each created thing a body suitable for its part in creation. If that be so, it is only reasonable to expect that he will give us a body fitted for the resurrection life.”[17]
vv.42-44 “In applying these analogies, the apostle says that in the case of the resurrection of the dead, God will take a perishable, dishonorable, weak (and sinful) body—‘a natural body’ characterized by sin—and in the resurrection make it an imperishable, glorious, powerful body. ‘Spiritual body’ does not mean a nonmaterial body but, from the analogies, a physical one similar to the present natural body organizationally, but radically different in that it will be imperishable, glorious and powerful, fit to live eternally with God. There is continuity, but there is also change.”[18]
v.46 “We must read this as we would read great poetry, rather than as we would dissect a scientific treatise[…]. Paul insists that, as we are, we are not fit to inherit the Kingdom of God. We may be well enough equipped to get on with the life of this world, but for the life of the world to come we will not do. A man always needs to be changed to enter into a higher grade of life; and Paul insists that before we can enter the Kingdom of God we must be changed.”[19]
v.51 “mystery. Things about the resurrection body that were not understood but are now revealed […]
“We will not all sleep. Some believers will not experience death and the grave.
“we will all be changed. All believers, whether alive when Jesus comes again or in the grave, will receive changed, imperishable bodies.”[20]
v.52 “The last trumpet was common imagery in Jewish literature dealing with the end times. It is, figuratively speaking, the trumpet that blows to herald the Lord’s return and announce judgment. There are similar references to trumpets in 1 Thessalonians 4:16; Revelation 8:2; 11:15.”[21]
“Wherein lies the fear of death? Partly it comes from fear of the unknown. But still more it comes from the sense of sin. If a man felt that he could meet God easily then to die would be only, as Peter Pan said, a great adventure. But where does that sense of sin come from? It comes from a sense of being under the law. So long as a man sees in God only the law of righteousness, he must ever be in the position of a criminal before the bar with no hope of acquittal. But this is precisely what Jesus came to abolish. He came to tell us that God is not law, but love, that the centre of God’s being is not legalism but grace, that we go out, not to a judge, but to a Father who awaits his children coming home. Because of that Jesus gave us the victory over death, its fear banished in the wonder of God’s love.”[22]
v.56 “The sting of death is sin. It was sin that brought us under death’s power—it was Adam’s sin that brought his death and ultimately ours (see Ro 5:12).
“the power of sin is the law. The law of God gives sin its power, for it reveals our sin and condemns us because of our sin.”[23]
v.57 “victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. Victory over the condemnation for sin that the law brought (v.56) and over death and the grave (vv.54-55), through the death and resurrection of Christ (cf. Ro 4:25).”[24]
v.58 “Therefore. Because of Christ’s resurrection and ours, we know that serving him is not empty, useless activity.
“your labor in the Lord is not in vain. Our effort is invested in the Lord’s winning cause. He will also reward us at his second coming (Mt 25:21; cf. Lk 19:17).”[25]
“Appropriately, Paul returns from [this]… theological reflection to the practical implications for the Corinthians (v.58). Since Christ has been raised in bodily from, they too will one day be physically transformed. Therefore they should remain unswervingly committed to orthodox theology and totally dedicated to the work of the gospel—the purity of living and the faithful exercise of their distinctive avenues of service. No matter what the cost in this life, they can count on the ultimate triumph of all God’s people and all his purposes.”[26]
“The Christian life may be difficult, but the goal is infinitely worth the struggle.”[27]
[1] Craig Blomberg, 1 Corinthians, The NIV Application Commentary Series (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 1994) 295.
[2] William Barclay, Barclay’s Daily Study Bible Series CD, The Bible Library v.3.2 [software], (Louisville, KY: Westminster Press, 1975) notes for verse.
[3] Kenneth Barker, The New International Version Study Bible Notes CD, Pradis [software], (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan Publishing House, 1995) notes for verse.
[4] Kenneth Barker, The New International Version Study Bible Notes CD, Pradis [software], (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan Publishing House, 1995) notes for verse.
[5] Kenneth Barker, The New International Version Study Bible Notes CD, Pradis [software], (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan Publishing House, 1995) notes for verse.
[6] Kenneth Barker, The New International Version Study Bible Notes CD, Pradis [software], (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan Publishing House, 1995) notes for verse.
[7] Craig Blomberg, 1 Corinthians, The NIV Application Commentary Series (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 1994) 294-295.
[8] Kenneth Barker, The New International Version Study Bible Notes CD, Pradis [software], (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan Publishing House, 1995) notes for verse.
[9] Quest Bible Notes NIV, (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan Publishing House, 1994), 1649.
[10] Kenneth Barker, The New International Version Study Bible Notes CD, Pradis [software], (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan Publishing House, 1995) notes for verse.
[11] Kenneth Barker, The New International Version Study Bible Notes CD, Pradis [software], (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan Publishing House, 1995) notes for verse.
[12] Quest Bible Notes NIV, (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan Publishing House, 1994), 1649.
[13] Kenneth Barker, The New International Version Study Bible Notes CD, Pradis [software], (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan Publishing House, 1995) notes for verse.
[14] Kenneth Barker, The New International Version Study Bible Notes CD, Pradis [software], (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan Publishing House, 1995) notes for verse.
[15] Kenneth Barker, The New International Version Study Bible Notes CD, Pradis [software], (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan Publishing House, 1995) notes for verse.
[16] Kenneth Barker, The New International Version Study Bible Notes CD, Pradis [software], (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan Publishing House, 1995) notes for verse.
[17] William Barclay, Barclay’s Daily Study Bible Series CD, The Bible Library v.3.2 [software], (Louisville, KY: Westminster Press, 1975) notes for verse.
[18] Kenneth Barker, The New International Version Study Bible Notes CD, Pradis [software], (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan Publishing House, 1995) notes for verse.
[19] William Barclay, Barclay’s Daily Study Bible Series CD, The Bible Library v.3.2 [software], (Louisville, KY: Westminster Press, 1975) notes for verse.
[20] Kenneth Barker, The New International Version Study Bible Notes CD, Pradis [software], (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan Publishing House, 1995) notes for verse.
[21] Quest Bible Notes NIV, (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan Publishing House, 1994), 1649.
[22] William Barclay, Barclay’s Daily Study Bible Series CD, The Bible Library v.3.2 [software], (Louisville, KY: Westminster Press, 1975) notes for verse.
[23] Kenneth Barker, The New International Version Study Bible Notes CD, Pradis [software], (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan Publishing House, 1995) notes for verse.
[24] Kenneth Barker, The New International Version Study Bible Notes CD, Pradis [software], (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan Publishing House, 1995) notes for verse.
[25] Kenneth Barker, The New International Version Study Bible Notes CD, Pradis [software], (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan Publishing House, 1995) notes for verse.
[26] Craig Blomberg, 1 Corinthians, The NIV Application Commentary Series (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 1994) 317.
[27] William Barclay, Barclay’s Daily Study Bible Series CD, The Bible Library v.3.2 [software], (Louisville, KY: Westminster Press, 1975) notes for verse.