Thursday, March 30, 2017

A Physical Spiritual Body

Today’s Bible Reading:  Judges 8, Psalm 42, 1 Corinthians 15
Topic: Resurrection



SCRIPTURE:  1 Corinthians 15:35-50

35 But someone may ask, "How are the dead raised? With what kind of body will they come?" 36 How foolish! What you sow does not come to life unless it dies. 37 When you sow, you do not plant the body that will be, but just a seed, perhaps of wheat or of something else. 38 But God gives it a body as he has determined, and to each kind of seed he gives its own body. 39 All flesh is not the same: Men have one kind of flesh, animals have another, birds another and fish another. 40 There are also heavenly bodies and there are earthly bodies; but the splendor of the heavenly bodies is one kind, and the splendor of the earthly bodies is another. 41 The sun has one kind of splendor, the moon another and the stars another; and star differs from star in splendor.

42 So will it be with the resurrection of the dead. The body that is sown is perishable, it is raised imperishable; 43 it is sown in dishonor, it is raised in glory; it is sown in weakness, it is raised in power; 44 it is sown a natural body, it is raised a spiritual body.

If there is a natural body, there is also a spiritual body. 45 So it is written: "The first man Adam became a living being"; the last Adam, a life-giving spirit. 46 The spiritual did not come first, but the natural, and after that the spiritual. 47 The first man was of the dust of the earth, the second man from heaven. 48 As was the earthly man, so are those who are of the earth; and as is the man from heaven, so also are those who are of heaven. 49 And just as we have borne the likeness of the earthly man, so shall we bear the likeness of the man from heaven.

50 I declare to you, brothers, that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God, nor does the perishable inherit the imperishable.
(1 Cor 15:35-50 NIV)

OBSERVATION:

We often think of the body as physical and the spirit as non-physical. The body you can see, touch and feel; the spirit is invisible and beyond sensory perception. So when Paul speaks of a natural body and a spiritual body we tend to think of the one as physical and other as not. But the body that is raised imperishable, though a spiritual body, is apparently still a physical body without the weaknesses and failings we have only known the physical body to be heir to.


APPLICATION:

The resurrection of the dead is not just spiritual, but complete—just as Christ’s resurrection was both physical and spiritual—complete.


PRAYER:

Lord, thank You for shedding light upon my feeble mind. Thank You for these assurances. Amen.  -AP



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