1 Cor.15:42-45 – So also is the resurrection of the dead. The body is sown in corruption, it is raised in incorruption. It is sown in dishonor, it is raised in glory. It is sown in weakness, it is raised in power. It is sown a natural body, it is raised a spiritual body. There is a natural body, and there is a spiritual body. And so it is written, “The first man Adam became a living being.” The last Adam became a life-giving spirit.
The physical resurrection of man was just a doctrine to be argued about before Jesus was raised from the dead. For thousands of years, from the time of Adam, everyone came face to face with death, it was inevitable. Of course we know that death came as a result of Adam’s sin, what a different world we would have enjoyed without Adam and Eve making that horrible mistake. For thousands of years the ultimate resurrection of man was a belief for some, others thought it was just a fairy tale for the weak minded. Even at the time of Christ the two main functions of Jewish thought, the Pharisees and the Sadducees, couldn’t agree. The Pharisees believed in the future resurrection but not the Sadducees, they thought death was the end for all of us. For those with eyes to see that all changed when Christ was raised from the dead. That first Easter morning is a guarantee that death has been conquered and we will live in our new bodies forever. Here is how Augustine describes this.
“First comes in the natural body such as Adam was the first man to possess. Had he not sinned, he would never have died. Such a body we too possess, except that its nature as a result of sin has become so changed for the worse that it is now faced with inexorable death. Such a body Christ also deigned to assume for our sakes, not indeed by necessity but in virtue of his power. Afterward, however, comes the spiritual body such as that which Christ, our head, was the first to have been, but which we, his members, will have at the final resurrection of the dead.”
Today’s scripture verse carries more than an opinion about resurrection, it carries the authority of an eye witness of that first resurrection. You see Christ Himself, in His resurrected body appeared to Paul on the Damascus Road. A Pharisee called Saul went from having a belief in the future resurrection to knowing it was real, He saw the first resurrected man for himself. Since Christ, the last Adam defeated death, all that believe in Him will also defeat death through the power of God. The aging process can be brutal for all of us but we know for certain resurrection day is drawing near.