1 Corinthians 15:50-58 Click here for Bible Verses
Hi GAMErs,
Today’s passage is 1 Corinthians 15:50-58. Let’s go!
1 Corinthians 15:50-53 (NIV)
50 I declare to you, brothers, that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God, nor does the perishable inherit the imperishable.
51 Listen, I tell you a mystery: We will not all sleep, but we will all be changed–
52 in a flash, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, the dead will be raised imperishable, and we will be changed.
53 For the perishable must clothe itself with the imperishable, and the mortal with immortality.
On verses 50-53: What is Paul saying here? Let me explain it this way. When you trust Jesus Christ as your Saviour, you become a new creation (2 Corinthians 5:17). You received a new heart and a new spirit (one destined to be with God forever rather than one destined to be apart from God forever) (Ezekiel 36:26). But while your spirit was made new in Christ, your body didn’t change. I would be really surprised if the moment you received Jesus into your life, you went from balding to a full head of hair, or from a beer belly to six pack abs, or from your current bodily measurements to a clothing size up or down. In other words, though some crucial changes happened in your spirit when you received Jesus, your body stayed the same. But so that we would be fully equipped for eternal life in heaven, we need a new, imperishable physical body that is fit for heaven to replace the old, physical, temporary “flesh and blood” bodies that we were born on earth with, which are perishable and which we were never meant to last for eternity. That is why Paul says that “flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God, nor does the perishable inherit the imperishable” (v50). That is why he also says “the perishable must clothe itself with the imperishable, and the mortal with immortality” (v53).
In verses 51-52 Paul describes how God will give us this new, imperishable body. It will happen, Paul says, “in a flash, in the twinkling of an eye” (v52) when the last trumpet sounds to welcome Jesus’ return (see also 1 Thessalonians 4:16 and Matthew 24:31). When he says in verse 51, “We will not all sleep, but we will all be changed”, he means that both Christians who have died (fallen asleep) and Christians who are still living at the time when Jesus returns will all be changed in this way.
1 Corinthians 15:54-57 (NIV)
54 When the perishable has been clothed with the imperishable, and the mortal with immortality, then the saying that is written will come true: “Death has been swallowed up in victory.”
55 “Where, O death, is your victory? Where, O death, is your sting?”
56 The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law.
57 But thanks be to God! He gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.
On verses 54-57: What is the sign that a person has overcome the problem of sin and death? Resurrection. When a person resurrects from the grave, never to die again, it shows that death and the problem that caused it – sin – no longer have any hold over that person. As Paul says in verse 54: “When the perishable has been clothed with the imperishable, and the mortal with immortality, then the saying that is written will come true: ‘Death has been swallowed up in victory'” (v54). Resurrection is our ultimate victory over sin and death.
Resurrection is not something we can achieve by ourselves. As Paul writes in verse 50, “flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God, nor does the perishable inherit the imperishable” (v50). In other words, on our own, we have no right, power or ability by ourselves to resurrect from the dead. But when we place our trust in Jesus Christ who conquered sin and death on our behalf, we the perishable are clothed with Jesus Christ the imperishable. It is God’s power at work in us through Jesus Christ that makes our new resurrection bodies possible. As Paul says in verse 57, “But thanks be to God! He gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.” As the most famous verse in the Bible says, “For God so loved the world that He gave His only Son that whoever believes in Him will not perish, but have eternal life.” (John 3:16)
Because of Jesus, death and sin no longer have any hold over us. Instead we can say, “Where O death is your victory? Where O death is your sting?” (v55).
1 Corinthians 15:58 (NIV)
58 Therefore, my dear brothers, stand firm. Let nothing move you. Always give yourselves fully to the work of the Lord, because you know that your labor in the Lord is not in vain.
On verse 58: Since through Jesus Christ we have the hope of resurrection and will be receiving bodies that one day will not perish, we have every reason to stand firm, to not let any smaller problem get the best of us, and to serve the Lord with all that we have, knowing that our labor in Him is not in vain (v58).
Thank You, God, for sending Your Son Jesus Christ, the imperishable one, to clothe us with what is imperishable. Thank You that because of Jesus we have an eternal, imperishable hope that is stronger than sin and death. In the mighty, imperishable name of Jesus we pray, AMEN!
