Lesson 33 – 1 Corinthians Chapter 15:33-49

Midway through chapter 15 Paul introduced us to the term “firstfruits.” A model of firstfruits can be seen in the Old Testament when the crops were ready for harvest, and the farmers were to bring a portion of their crops as an offering to the Lord. Firstfruits was a time of thanksgiving for God’s provision.

The firstfruits offering found its fulfillment in Jesus, we see this in verse 20, “But now Christ has been raised from the dead, the firstfruits of those who are asleep.” Jesus’ resurrection has paved the way for our resurrection.

Through Jesus’ sacrifice, believers are justified, redeemed, and reconciled to God. When the Father looked down on His Son’s sacrifice, He no longer saw the Law that had been broken by His people, but He saw the blood of His innocent lamb covering the sins of the people. We know and believe Jesus’ sacrifice was not a random occurrence, but a deliberate act of love, bridging the gap between God and man.

The resurrection of Christ was proof of the power of God, and that all believers will follow in the firstfruits of Jesus, in the first resurrection.

In verse 17, Paul states the obvious, that if the resurrection never took place, then we are all fools to follow Jesus. Then Paul proves the resurrection of Jesus through the witness account, stating that all the disciples along over 500 people saw Jesus.

The resurrection is true, and the best is yet to come for all those who believe. Paul and the apostles laid down their own lives to make sure the truth of the gospel and the resurrection of Christ was proclaimed throughout the world.

We continue in verse 33 where Paul gives us godly advice that has lasted through the centuries…

1 Cor. 15:33:
“Do not be deceived: “Bad company corrupts good morals.”

Surrounding ourselves with people who uplift, inspire, and challenge us in positive ways can make a huge difference in shaping our character. It’s like tending a garden, if the soil is rich, the plants will thrive.

On the other hand, if the company we keep is toxic, even the strongest roots can struggle and whither away. Wise parents will warn their children of the dangers of keeping bad company.

Paul quotes a proverb by the Greek poet Menander: “Bad company corrupts good character.” No doubt this proverb was well known among Greeks of this time, so the Corinthians would be familiar with this saying.

Today we might say, “garbage in, garbage out.” If we think we can run with the world and not become corrupt, we are indeed deceived by the company we keep. This doesn’t only happen by hanging out with people who behave badly, it also comes into play with the people we listen to or the teachings we subject ourselves to. The Corinthians needed to be careful of what sermons or lectures they were listening to.

This is good advice for us today. Just because someone has a preaching platform on Christian TV, doesn’t make it safe. It applies to Christian book stores as well; just because a book is sold in a Christian book store doesn’t mean it is something you should be reading. We need to always be Berean’s.

In the context of our verse, bad company was teaching something contrary to sound theology. In this case, false teachers were preaching to the people that there was no resurrection.

Our take away is that we need to be careful about the things we take in. A popular term we use today is “vetting.” Let’s make sure everything we ingest intellectually and spiritually has been properly vetted.

1 Cor. 15:34:
“Become sober-minded as you ought, and stop sinning; for some have no knowledge of God. I speak this to your shame.”

Here, we can say with certainty that Paul is the only adult in the room, everyone else in the Corinthian church has gone off the rails, so to speak.

Become sober-minded as you ought, and stop sinning…

Remember when you were in high school, and whenever the teacher was out sick and you had a substitute, unless that substitute ruled with an iron fist, the classroom would spin out of control very easily.

That’s kind of what we have here with the Corinthians; Paul wasn’t with them to keep them in line, so they found themselves in trouble because they were keeping bad company, they were listening to the wrong people. What was the solution for them? Become sober-minded as you ought, and stop sinning. The NLT says, “Think carefully about what is right, and stop sinning.”

It was time for the Corinthians to wake up, and clean up! They had the truth, but they didn’t completely believe it and therefore they didn’t fully follow it. Paul commands them to cease and desist the sin they were involved in.

1 Thess. 5:4-11:
“But you, brethren, are not in darkness, that the day would overtake you like a thief; for you are all sons of light and sons of day. We are not of night nor of darkness; so then let us not sleep as others do, but let us be alert and sober. For those who sleep do their sleeping at night, and those who get drunk get drunk at night. But since we are of the day, let us be sober, having put on the breastplate of faith and love, and as a helmet, the hope of salvation. For God has not destined us for wrath, but for obtaining salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ, who died for us, so that whether we are awake or asleep, we will live together with Him. Therefore encourage one another and build up one another, just as you also are doing.”

Believers of the “light” and believers of the “day,” are the ones who are thinking clearly and making the right choices, they’re keeping “good company.” We all have the capacity to choose not to sin, the problem is, we don’t always make the right choice.

Take an inventory of what is going on in your life. Are you listening to the right teacher? Are you spending time in God’s Word? Are you making the right choices? Are you keeping “good company?”

For some have no knowledge of God. I speak this to your shame…

Warren Wiersbe writes, “The believer who is compromising with sin has no witness to the lost around him, those who “have no knowledge of God.” What a shameful thing to be selfishly living in sin while multitudes die without Christ.”

There were those in the Corinthian church who knew the truth, in fact there were some who believed in the resurrection, but they were sitting on it, they weren’t sharing what they knew about Christ with others. So Paul says, I speak this to your shame…

Don’t sit on the truth that God has placed in your heart, don’t let satan intimidate you out of sharing your faith… give what you know to someone else.

1 Cor. 15:35:
“But someone will say, “How are the dead raised? And with what kind of body do they come?”

Paul raises some good questions that maybe you’ve had in the past. As it pertains to the resurrection, you may have said to yourself, “How could God possibly pull that one off? What about those who have died in combat, the ones who were vaporized by an explosion of some kind? What about people who have died at sea, and maybe eaten by sharks? Or even the people who were cremated after they died. And what about the people who died hundreds of years ago, there’s nothing left, they’re just dust.” How could God possibly reassemble the bodies of everyone who has died throughout the ages of history? How can God ever put Humpty Dumpty back together again?

Oh, ye of little faith, how big is your God? When I die, should I make sure they don’t cremate me… I don’t want to make things too hard on God… right?

Gen. 2:7:
“Then the Lord God formed man of dust from the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living being.”

God has no limitations, and because God is omnipotent and has infinite power, nothing can stop His declared will from happening, and nothing can thwart or stop His divine purposes from being fulfilled.

Matthew 19:26:
“And looking at them Jesus said to them, “With people this is impossible, but with God all things are possible.”

Jeremiah 32:27:
“I am the Lord, the God of all mankind. Is anything too hard for me?”

It’s good that we ask questions, because when we do the Holy Spirit directs us through the Scriptures. We might not get all the answers to our questions, but we are to walk by faith and not by sight.

Eph. 1:18-21:
“I pray that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened, so that you will know what is the hope of His calling, what are the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the saints, and what is the surpassing greatness of His power toward us who believe. These are in accordance with the working of the strength of His might which He brought about in Christ, when He raised Him from the dead and seated Him at His right hand in the heavenly places, far above all rule and authority and power and dominion, and every name that is named, not only in this age but also in the one to come.”

When the resurrection takes place, it is the surpassing greatness of God’s power that will make it happen.

Now in the hearts of the Corinthians, they were questioning God and what He can and can’t do, so Paul says…

1 Cor. 15:36:
“You fool! That which you sow does not come to life unless it dies;”

Paul has to hit them with the basics, so he talks to them about something they are familiar with, and that would be growing things. When you want to grow something, you sow a seed.

A very basic food group for them was bread, and bread comes from wheat. When a wheat seed is planted in the ground it dies, it’s actually decomposing as a seed; it must cease to exist in its original form as a seed before it can come to life. Jesus also talked about this.

John 12:24:
“Truly, truly, I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it bears much fruit.”

Before the resurrection could become a reality, Jesus had to die in His earthly body… when He died His earthly body ceased to exist.

1 Cor. 15:37:
“And that which you sow, you do not sow the body which is to be, but a bare grain, perhaps of wheat or of something else.”

Just as with growing wheat, there had to be an end to the old before there could be a new beginning.

Jesus died for us so we could have new life… and that new life includes our resurrection.

That which you sow… simply put, a seed is what you put in the ground… we sow seeds, we plant seeds.

You do not sow the body which is to be… the seed you plant in the ground doesn’t look anything like the mature plant it will be.

In regards to Jesus, His earthly body wasn’t anything like His resurrected body. Jesus’ resurrected body went from place to place as He willed, He didn’t use doors, He could move about unhindered. Jesus couldn’t do that with His earthly body (well He could, but He chose not to).

1 Cor. 15:38:
“But God gives it a body just as He wished, and to each of the seeds a body of its own.”

(NLT) “Then God gives it the new body he wants it to have. A different plant grows from each kind of seed.”

This is about continuity or a connection. When a wheat seed grows it changes radically, but it continues to be wheat, there is a permanence to its life form. In other words, a wheat seed doesn’t become barley or corn, it continues to be wheat, but it matures.

Bible commentary says, “After Jesus was raised, no one recognized Him unless He revealed Himself to them. But once revealed, He was recognizable. The disciples knew His face, and they recognized His wounded side and pierced hands. In a similar way, our resurrected bodies as believers will have continuity with the bodies we have now. Our bodies will die and change form, but they will still be our bodies. Surely it is not too hard to believe that the God who has worked this process daily through the centuries in His creation of plants can do it with man.”

In the resurrection we will each have our own distinct body, and our loved ones will recognize us.

1 Cor. 15:39:
“All flesh is not the same flesh, but there is one flesh of men, and another flesh of beasts, and another flesh of birds, and another of fish.”

All flesh is not the same flesh, but there is one flesh of men…

Did you ever go to a mall, sit down and just people-watch? Or if you have ever been in the middle of New York City at lunch time, it is truly amazing to see how many different people there are.

All flesh is not the same flesh… you might find some similarities with people, but they’re not the same. That in and of itself shows how amazing God is with His creation, and then that mankind is absolutely distinct from the beasts, birds, and fish. Sorry evolution theorists, there are no cross-overs.

No two flowers, snowflakes, blades of grass, seeds or human beings… even identical twins… are not exactly alike. Oh, the power of God!

We will never be anything other than a human being and never any other human but the one we are… sorry transgender world, God made you one way, and you can’t change that, no matter how hard you try.

1 Cor. 15:40-41:
“There are also heavenly bodies and earthly bodies, but the glory of the heavenly is one, and the glory of the earthly is another. There is one glory of the sun, and another glory of the moon, and another glory of the stars; for star differs from star in glory.”

There are different bodies or structures in the universe (sun… moon… stars), and each is created with its own glory, and each is fitted to its own orbit and needs. While our present bodies are adapted for the conditions of time and earth, our resurrection bodies will be adapted for the environment of eternity and heaven.
Some also take this to mean there will be different degrees of glory for believers in heaven.

Psalm 148:13:
“Let them praise the name of the Lord, for His name alone is exalted; His glory is above earth and heaven.”

1 Cor. 15:42:
“So also is the resurrection of the dead. It is sown a perishable body, it is raised an imperishable body;”

Perhaps we can think of our bodies as a “wheat seed” like we’ve been talking about. When we die, our body is planted in the ground (like a seed), and when the resurrection takes place, we are raised from the grave with our new glorified body.

We are harvested from our earthly tent into a glorified body that will be able to stand before God, and last for all eternity. Just as we all differ from each other now on earth, we will also be unique in our own way in heaven. With this in mind, I think every angel is unique in their own way as well.

1 Cor. 15:43:
“It is sown in dishonor, it is raised in glory; it is sown in weakness, it is raised in power;”

Our bodies are sown in dishonor…

Psalm 51:5:
“Behold, I was brought forth in iniquity, and in sin my mother conceived me.”

In the very beginning we were made perfect in the image of God, but ever since man’s fall in the garden, our body and soul took on a sin nature.

Our bodies are sown in weakness…

Quite simply, our bodies are fallible, they’re frail and subject to getting sick and breaking. The older we get, the more it becomes obvious to us.

Psalm 103:14-16:
“For He Himself knows our frame; He is mindful that we are but dust. As for man, his days are like grass; as a flower of the field, so he flourishes. When the wind has passed over it, it is no more, and its place acknowledges it no longer.”

The good news is, our bodies will be raised in glory. Like a butterfly emerging from a cocoon, we will be raised in glory, so that we will be able praise and worship God as we were intended to.

Our bodies will be raised in power…

Faster than a speeding bullet, more powerful than a locomotive, able to leap tall buildings in a single bound… look, it’s our glorified bodies!

I don’t know what we will be able to do in our new bodies, but like heaven, it will be more than we can imagine. One thing is for sure, we will no longer say, “The spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak.” Our immortal glorified bodies will be imperishable, honorable, and powerful.

1 Cor. 15:44:
“It is sown a natural body, it is raised a spiritual body. If there is a natural body, there is also a spiritual body.”

We will go from the natural to the spiritual.

Our glorified bodies will no longer suffer from sickness and death, nor will they ever be subject to heat and cold, or hunger and thirst. Our new bodies will be honorable in that they will not be shamed or shameful because of sin.

In the natural, our bodies are made for living on the earth. I know Elon Musk wants us to live on Mars, but we’re made for the earth. There are times when our bodies are “agreeable,” meaning a time when we’re not sick and perhaps nothing hurts, and all of our facilities seem to be working. It’s these times when we can enjoy the glories of the earth, feel the warmth of the sun in the winter, and a cool breeze in the summer. Enjoy the beauty of the mountains, or watch waves come crashing in at the ocean. This can be life in the natural, enjoying what God has created, even though the earth is still cursed.

Raised a spiritual body…

Luke 20:35-36 (NLT):
“But in the age to come, those worthy of being raised from the dead will neither marry nor be given in marriage. And they will never die again. In this respect they will be like angels. They are children of God and children of the resurrection.”

When we receive our glorified bodies, we will be perfected for heaven. We will not be the same as angels, but we will be like them in that, we too will be thoroughly equipped and fitted for heavenly, spiritual, and supernatural living.

1 Cor. 15:45:
“So also it is written, ‘The first man, Adam, became a living soul. The last Adam became a life-giving spirit.’”

The first man, Adam, became a living soul… Paul got this from Gen. 2:7b “and man became a living being.” He wasn’t just a human being, but a perfect human being. Perfect as he was, he still didn’t have a glorified body.

One Bible commentary writes, “Adam and Eve originally were in a probationary period. Had they proved faithful rather than disobedient, their bodies would have been glorified and immortalized by eating the fruit of the Tree of Life. Because they sinned, however, they were put out of the garden lest they eat of the tree of life and live forever in a state of sin.”

Gen. 3:19:
“By the sweat of your face you will eat bread, till you return to the ground, because from it you were taken; for you are dust, and to dust you shall return.”

I know, many of us blame all our woes on Adam and Eve, but how many of us could say that we wouldn’t have fallen in the garden as well?

The last Adam became a life-giving spirit…

The last Adam is the superior Adam, because He is Jesus!

Romans 5:15,19:
“For if by the transgression of the one the many died, much more did the grace of God and the gift by the grace of the one Man, Jesus Christ, abound to the many.”

“For as through the one man’s disobedience the many were made sinners, even so through the obedience of the One the many will be made righteous.”

Because Jesus loved us and completed the work the Father set before Him, we will inherit glorified bodies in the resurrection. All descendants of Jesus will receive spiritual bodies.

1 Cor. 15:46:
“However, the spiritual is not first, but the natural; then the spiritual.”

We begin our earthly journey in the natural… it is not until we’re born again by the life-giving Spirit of the last Adam that we become spiritual beings.

1 Cor. 15:47:
“The first man is from the earth, earthy; the second man is from heaven.”

Does this mean we smell like dirt? In a way it does, we are from the earth… we’re earthy.

Gen. 2:7:
“Then the Lord God formed man of dust from the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living being.”

We were made from the earth.

The second man is from heaven…

John 3:13:
“No one has ascended into heaven, but He who descended from heaven: the Son of Man.”

John 6:38:
“For I have come down from heaven, not to do My own will, but the will of Him who sent Me.”

Through the first Adam we are tied to earth, but with the second man, He has direct contact with heaven; to say the least, He is an expert on the subject.

1 Cor. 15:48:
“As is the earthy, so also are those who are earthy; and as is the heavenly, so also are those who are heavenly.”

Until the Lord comes for us, we can see ourselves as mere clay pots, earthly vessels waiting to be taken to our heavenly home, but in Christ, we have become heavenly.

1 Cor. 15:49:
“Just as we have borne the image of the earthy, we will also bear the image of the heavenly.”

We have history with the first Adam, our roots come from the earthy as is says in this verse, but through Jesus we are transformed into new creations, and the day is coming when there will be no going back to the earthy… only forward with Christ in the new bodies He has promised us.

We’ll close with this…

Phil. 3:20-21:
“For our citizenship is in heaven, from which also we eagerly wait for a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ; who will transform the body of our humble state into conformity with the body of His glory, by the exertion of the power that He has even to subject all things to Himself.”

Theologian Erich Sauer (1898–1959) wrote of the resurrection, “So the graveyards of man become the seed plots of the resurrection, and the cemeteries of the people of God become through the heavenly dew the resurrection fields of the promised perfection.”

It’s wonderful to think about the resurrection, and as believers, it should get you excited. We come from the earth, and because of our first parents, we will return to the earth. The great news is, because of Jesus we won’t remain in the earth… like a seed fully grown, we rise up into glorified bodies to be with our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ for all eternity.