“Having thus established the general principle of a resurrection, and its applicability to ALL mankind, because the redemption was “a ransom for ALL” (1 Tim 2:6), the Apostle proceeds to discuss particularly the First Resurrection, in which the Church is especially interested (he was not addressing his words to the world, but to the “sanctified in Christ Jesus” – 1 Cor 1:2). His words, found in Verses 42-44, describe, as clearly as it is possible for us to understand things so far beyond our plane of existence, the grandeurs and perfections of being which shall be ours when we shall have experienced this great change of the First Resurrection: we shall no longer be weak and imperfect, with dying tendencies and with animal bodies; but shall be incorruptible, powerful, and have spiritual bodies. “We shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is.” (1 John 3:2.) We will not discuss these verses particularly here, as they are not made a part of this lesson, and as we have treated them at length previously.

When, in the 50 Verse, the Apostle declares that flesh and blood cannot inherit the Kingdom of God, we are not to delude ourselves, as some dear Adventist friends are inclined to do, – by saying that “flesh and blood” cannot inherit the Kingdom of God, but flesh and bones can. We are to recognize that the Apostle, in the use of these words, “flesh and blood,” signifies human nature, as when our Lord Jesus, for instance, said to Peter, “Flesh and blood [humanity] hath not revealed it unto thee.”

The Apostle’s declaration thus properly understood, is that human nature cannot inherit the Kingdom of God (Understand here that the Apostle here was referring to the Heavenly phase of the Kingdom, NOT the earthly phase). This is in full accord with his own statements and the statements of other apostles, to the effect that we must become “New Creatures in Christ” – “partakers of the divine nature,” if we would be sharers with our Lord in the coming Kingdom (i.e., this phase of it), and it’s great and glorious work. Our Lord’s words to Nicodemus are in full accord with this, when he declared, “Except a man be born again [begotten now to a new nature, and born in the resurrection] he cannot enter the Kingdom of God,” and cannot even see it. (John 3:3.)

Earthly beings of human nature, flesh and blood, can see earthly beings, but as “no man hath seen God at any time”, likewise no man can see the glorified Son of God; and for similar reasons none will be able with the natural eye to see the glorified Church – for all these in their resurrection change will be spirit beings, and like their Lord, “the express image of the Father’s person.”

We must keep in memory the fact that the Church is entirely separate and distinct from the world; and that the hopes of the Church are to be differentiated from those of the world in every particular.

“Neither doth corruption inherit incorruption“: this word “incorruption” (aphtharsia) is the same that is rendered “immortality” in Rom 2:7, and in 2 Tim 1:10. It is rendered incorruption in Verses 42,53,54 of this chapter. The thought is that our flesh is subject to decay; but that the new body which all who participate in the First Resurrection shall receive, will be an incorruptible one – one that cannot decay, that cannot die. This incorruptibility, or immortality, to be attained in their resurrection by the faithful of the Lord’s disciples of this Gospel age, is to be applicable to all who will have a share in the (Heavenly or Ruling phase of the) Kingdom; and now the Apostle notices what might be a difficulty in the minds of his readers. He imagines them asking the question,

How will it be with those who will be alive and remain at the time of the second coming of the Lord and the setting up of his Kingdom, and the awakening of these sleeping brethren to immortality?

Will the living ones pass over into the Kingdom with flesh and blood and inferior bodies?

The Apostle undertakes to clear up this mystery; but although he handles his subject with lucidity the matter is not clear to the majority of the Lord’s people. We may presume that the Lord intended it to remain more or less of a “mystery” until now, in the due time for its fulfilment, it should be understood. The Apostle’s plain declaration is that “we shall not all sleep,” but this is misunderstood by many to mean, “We shall not all die.” (This is a common, but erroneous view held by many profess Christians, especially those who believe in the “rapture” of the Church here at the end of the age.)

There is a vast difference between dying and sleeping. We die in a moment, in an instant; it is the period of unconsciousness that is styled sleep, and the Apostle’s declaration, therefore, is that we shall not all pass through a period of unconsciousness, “but we shall all be changed.” It will be as impossible for the human nature, flesh and blood, of those living at the close of the Gospel age, to participate in the spiritual Kingdom which Christ will then establish, as it was impossible for any of the brethren of the past to do so.

How, then, will these get rid of their flesh and blood, their human nature?

We answer, that the Scriptural declaration is most explicit, that all who will be partakers with Christ in “his resurrection,” must be sharers with him in “his death.” As he himself expressed it, “Be thou faithful unto death, and I will give thee a crown of life.” It was not sufficient that our Lord should merely consecrate himself, nor that he should merely sacrifice portions of his time and energy in the service of the truth; – it was necessary that he should complete the matter of sacrifice in literal death.

And so, it must be with every member of his body; as it is written, prophetically of the Church, “I have said, Ye are gods, all of you children of the Most High; but ye shall die like men, and fall like one of the princes” – not like Prince Adam, a convict, but like Prince Jesus, in sacrifice – filling up that which is behind of the afflictions of Christ. – Psa 82:6,7; Col 1:24.

The change from corruptible to incorruptible, from mortal to immortal, from weakness to power, from ignominy to glory, from human nature to divine nature, in the case of these last members, will be so sudden as to occupy no appreciable space of time, and to be illustrated only by the twinkling of an eye; – the instant of their dying will be followed the next instant by their “change.”

Continued with next post.