New Life

Corinthians 15:35-38; 42-50
New Revised Standard Version
The Resurrection Body 35 But someone will ask, “How are the dead raised? With what kind of body do they come?” 36 Fool! What you sow does not come to life unless it dies. 37 And as for what you sow, you do not sow the body that is to be, but a bare seed, perhaps of wheat or of some other grain. 38 But God gives it a body as he has chosen, and to each kind of seed its own body. 42 So it is with the resurrection of the dead. What is sown is perishable, what is raised is 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 physical body, it is raised a spiritual body. If there is a physical body, there is also a spiritual body. 45 Thus it is written, “The first man, Adam, became a living being”; the last Adam became a life-giving spirit. 46 But it is not the spiritual that is first, but the physical, and then the spiritual. 47 The first man was from the earth, a man of dust; the second man is[a] from heaven. 48 As was the man of dust, so are those who are of the dust; and as is the man of heaven, so are those who are of heaven. 49 Just as we have borne the image of the man of dust, we will[b] also bear the image of the man of heaven. 50 What I am saying, brothers and sisters,[c] is this: flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God, nor does the perishable inherit the imperishable.


This sounds like our lectionary passage from last week. Paul is still talking about what the resurrection of Jesus means for us. In verse 35 he writes about how a seed dying is part of transformation. We are all in the process of being transformed. Did you notice this passage talking about man being made from dust? This passage reminded me of Ash Wednesday that is coming up on March 2nd. This passage talks about Adam being made from dust and Jesus (the last Adam) being made from heaven. On Ash Wednesday, the pastor will put a cross of ashes on our foreheads. It reminds us of our sin, and we need to repent. We remember that we are made from dust. The cross reminds us of Christ's sacrifice for us. Verse 49 says we will also bear the image of the Jesus. What does that look like for us to be image bearers of Jesus? We will talk about it this Sunday. Let us come together and discuss some spiritual disciplines that will help God transform us.