108 - The Necessity of a New Creation

The Necessity of a New Creation; 1 Cor 15:45-49

1 Corinthians 15:39 ^NASB "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." When we look at this passage Paul is breaking down each of the different kinds and he uses the Greek phrase allos [a)lloj] which is another of the same kind. He is talking about the same body, which is why he uses allos. They each have a body and it is a mortal body, but they are different categories. There are human beings, animals, fish and birds—all categories. Then in v. 40 ^NASB "There are also heavenly bodies and earthly bodies, but the glory of the heavenly is one, and the {glory} of the earthly is another." Here, for the word "another," he uses the Greek word heteros [e(teroj], which is another of a different kind. So it is drawing a distinction here between heavenly and earthly. That is foundational to understanding what we are talking about here because he is going to draw this analogy between that which pertains to the earth and is temporal and that which pertains to heaven and is eternal. It is crucial to maintain these categories. In verse 40 there are two different categories of splendour. [41] "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." In those glories allos is used, it is all the same kind. Then Paul draws the comparison: [42] "So also is the resurrection of the dead." He uses the comparative adverb there, houtos [o(utwj], and that sets up the analogy between what he has said about the difference between the earth and the heavens, or the temporal and the eternal, and what would be the present life and the future resurrection life. So he says the present life "is sown a perishable {body,}" or corruptible, the Greek noun phthora [fqora], "it is raised an imperishable {body;} [43] it is sown in dishonour [a)timia = dishonour], it is raised in glory; it is sown in weakness [a)sqeneia = a lack of physical strength], it is raised in power [dunamij]." What we see here is the contrast between the present temporal and the future perfect.

This presupposes this distinction in time that goes back to Genesis 1:11 ^NASB "Gen 1:11 Then God said, "Let the earth sprout vegetation, plants yielding seed, {and} fruit trees on the earth bearing fruit after their kind with seed in them"; and it was so." Then in vv. 24, 25 "Then God said, "Let the earth bring forth living creatures after their kind: cattle and creeping things and beasts of the earth after their kind"; and it was so. God made the beasts of the earth after their kind, and the cattle after their kind, and everything that creeps on the ground after its kind; and God saw that it was good."

This whole section in 1 Corinthians 15 is built on the analogy of a seed being sown. A temporal body is sown one thing, but it has to die. There is a break in continuity. There is the seed and then the plant, but there is a break in continuity between the seed and the plant. Every analogy breaks down f we push it too far so we have to be careful of that. Verse 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.}" Now we bring in a fourth category. It is sown psuchikos [yuxikoj, i.e. soulish] but it is raised spiritual [pneumatikoj]. When God created Adam we are told Adam became a living soul [nephesh, which can also be used as simply a reference to life]. The same terminology is used for the breathing animals—nephesh hayah, living souls. This is not a technical reference for a person who is soulish; it is not equivalent to psuchikos. It is very easy in 1 Corinthians here to think that the natural body, psuchikos, is equivalent to the living soul, because that is the next thing Paul says. We have psuchikos versus pneumatikos here. Paul says we are going to have a spiritual body and we immediately think of something immaterial. But that is not what it means here when it is talking about being spiritual because Jesus Christ's resurrection body is a spiritual body and it is physical. It is going to be a body which is going to have as its dynamic the spirit as opposed to the body we have now that has as its dynamic more of the soul. The soul is related to this temporal earth and the spirit is going to be related to heaven.  

1 Corinthians 15:45 ^NASB "So also it is written, 'The first MAN, Adam, BECAME A LIVING SOUL.'" Paul doesn't say, "As it is written." This is not like an authoritative application of the Old Testament quote which comes right out of Genesis 2:7 – nephesh hayah, or psuche zao [yukh zaw] as it was translated into the Septuagint. "The last Adam {became} a life-giving spirit." When did that happen? Some might say Jesus Christ was a life-giving spirit from eternity past, as per Colossians 1:16, 17. But that doesn't fit resurrection; we are not necessarily talking about His eternal deity here. He became a life-giving spirit when He was incarnate because He came to give life and to give it abundantly. How does that fit into the doctrine of resurrection, which is what we are talking about here? He became a life-giving spirit at the resurrection. There is a qualitative difference in His body because He gets a new glory. There is a time shift. That is what this whole analogy is developing here. Humanity in its originally created kind is earth bound and earth oriented, and if we are going to have a relationship with God and live in eternity there has to be a new creation, 2 Corinthians 5:17 ^NASB "Therefore if anyone is in Christ, {he is} a new creature; the old things passed away; behold, new things have come." So all of this is to show that what we get with a resurrection body is the completion of that new creation when we became a new species. It is a new kind. We move from being a temporal earth kind to an eternal heavenly kind and the temporal earth kind can't have a relationship in eternity with God; it can't operate or function there.

So Paul comes along and uses this analogy: "The first MAN, Adam, BECAME A LIVING SOUL." But what becomes difficult is that phrase is referring to Adam when he was initially created before there was a fall. So whatever we say about this it can't be related to the impact of sin on Adam. He was created a certain way but his whole structure is oriented to a temporal-bound existence according to the laws of physics on the earth, and before he could have that relationship with God in eternity there had to be some sort of change. So mankind, even in the pristine environment of the garden of Eden, in God's mind there would be an eventual, ultimate change. That wasn't the final product. This is the thrust of Paul's argument here. 

1 Corinthians 15:46 ^NASB "However, the spiritual is not first, but the natural; then the spiritual." We were all born psuchikos, an unbeliever, unregenerate. We have to become spiritual, but that is only the beginning and in a sense it is like a down payment. At regeneration we become a new creature in Christ but the process isn't finished in phase two, it is finished in phase three when our body is raised in glory and we have that resurrection body.

1 Corinthians 15:47 ^NASB "The first man is from the earth, earthy; the second man is from heaven." So there are these categorical distinctions; there must be a change.

1 Corinthians 15:48 ^NASB "As is the earthy, so also are those who are earthy; and as is the heavenly, so also are those who are heavenly." Before we can be heavenly there has to be a resurrection, and that is what he is saying to the Greeks. Before we can get to the next stage there has to be an application of redemption to our physical body—resurrection.

1 Corinthians 15:49 ^NASB "Just as we have borne the image of the earthy, we will also bear the image of the heavenly." This is future tense, at resurrection.