Please turn in your Bibles with
me to 1 Corinthians chapter 15. We've been going through this
chapter in the past few weeks, studying the resurrection of
Christ's people from the dead. That this life that we're living
now is not the end, as we said from The first message, the four
words that kind of show us the realities of this will never
change. We all have a life to live. For
some, it's shorter than others. Some, it's longer than others.
We all have a death to die. We all have a judgment to face.
And then we all have an eternity to spend. So this life, how are
we going to live this life? Well, if we have spiritual life
from the dead, which is a gift of God, of His grace, grace reigns
through righteousness unto eternal life by Jesus Christ our Lord,
we live it to the glory of God. And that's a struggle. Our life
is a struggle. It's not easy. Sometimes it's
harder than others, but it's always a struggle. And the main
reason it's a struggle is not really the outside influences,
even though they are there. We struggle against the world. Christ said, in the world you'll
have trouble, tribulation, but be of good cheer. I've overcome
the world. We struggle against the devil and his demons. They're there. Don't ever think
they're not. But Christ has conquered him,
and he has been cast down, scripture says. And so he cannot accuse
the brethren rightly. He can say, he can accuse us,
but the charges don't stink. And they don't come about in
the same way. For who shall lay anything to
the charge of God's elect? It's God that justifies. Who
can condemn us? It's Christ that died. The law
of God cannot condemn us because we have in Christ a perfect righteousness. And that's our lives. And so
we live that life to the praise of the glory of His grace. And
then we have a death to die. How are we going to die? You
either die in the flesh, die in your sins, or you die in Christ. And that's what we all desire. Whatever point in time that that
the Lord is pleased to take me from this life, I want to die
in the Lord. I want to die in Christ. I want
to die in the faith, knowing that I have a hope. And then
how are we going to face judgment? I've told you judgment does not
determine anything. The judgment declares everything.
It declares how you stand with God. Do you stand before God
in Christ, washed in his blood, clothed in his righteousness,
or are you standing there on your own, by your works? And
oh, my soul, those who stand before God in their works, you
know what he's gonna say. Depart from me, you that work
iniquity, I never knew you. But to those who stand before
God in Christ, what will he say? Enter in, ye faithful. And that's all by the grace of
God. And then an eternity to spend. Now that's what we're
gonna talk about a little bit today. You know, the deterioration
and death of our physical bodies that we are all going through
at some stage now, in some way, some degree, is the result of
sin. And that's why when we talk about
salvation, we're mainly talking about salvation from sin. Sin
is the problem. Every problem in this world,
every problem of groups and individuals, it's sin, that one little word. And it has so many facets. We can talk about sin of immorality,
breaking the law, transgressing the law, transgression. We can
talk about it that way. We can talk about coming short.
All have sinned and come short of the glory of God, which simply
means that no matter how I try to be a better person, And again,
I always say this, should I try to be a better person? Of course
I should. There's no argument there. There's
nothing in this Bible that's in a line with grace that gives
me or you leave to be worse than we are, to sin more than what
we do. Anybody who uses grace for that,
they don't know grace. Grace is Christ dying for the
sins of His people and providing righteousness for them, but grace
is also a dynamic power within the hearts of God's people that
motivates us in the power of the Spirit through the Word of
God to glorify Him and honor Him with our lives and our attitudes
and our motives and our goals. It's like we were talking about
in the book of Ecclesiastes. You know, there's nothing wrong
with us enjoying the fruits of this life and even our labors
if we enjoy them mainly to the glory of God. Because that's
who gets the glory. He that glorieth, let him glory
in the Lord. So understand that. So we come
to God through Christ and we live our lives to His glory.
And again, it's a struggle. But the main struggle is within.
Why can't I love God perfectly? You know the reason? Because
I love me too much. Why can't I love you perfectly?
Again, I love me too much. All too often, I want to assert
my rights. And then God reminds me, you
really don't have any. Not in the kingdom of God. I
mean, we have rights here in this country. We ought to assert
that. But I'm talking about in the
kingdom. In other words, what I'm saying is, I have no reason
to brag or boast to God, saying as if I've earned or deserved
any of these blessings, because I don't. It's all in Christ.
And then when I die, I want to lay my head down and die in the
faith. And think about this. But though
we age, and though we get sick, and though we die physically,
we're assured that the law cannot condemn us for our sins. As I
said, we cannot be charged. Our sins were charged to Christ.
Justice has been fully satisfied for us in the death of Christ.
Who can condemn us? It's Christ that died, yet rather
is risen again. We have a righteousness that
cannot be taken away, and in which even God himself cannot
find a flaw. Well, he can find many flaws
in me now, and in you, but not in Christ, and whose righteousness
I'm staying. We have spiritual life within,
We know that because we love the gospel, we love to hear the
preaching of the gospel. And we cannot be separated from
Christ. Who shall separate us from the
love of God in Christ? But our spirits will be separated
from our vile bodies at death, that's what happens. Our spirit,
our life, the spirit of life will be separated from this body
when I die and go to be with the Lord. And we will be raised
again unto glory with Christ forever. We saw that, look at
verse 35. When we talk about this, we'll
be raised unto glory. And it says in verse 35, but
some man will say, how are the dead raised up? Now I dealt with
this last week. And with what body do they come?
What is the answer? Well, let's go to verse 42. That's
where I want to begin today. He gives us a few ideas here,
a few truths, so that we can get some idea of what body we'll
have. And the first thing he says in
verse 42, he says, so also is the resurrection of the dead.
It is sown in corruption. And you can see that. the diseases
that bring us to death, the deterioration of the body, the corruption of
the body. Remember, the scripture says about Christ and his death
that God would not suffer his holy one to see corruption. He
arose from the dead three days later. And so he didn't see corruption. But we're gonna see corruption.
This body is gonna be corrupt. It'll go into dust. You don't
wanna go out into the graveyard and dig them up and look at them.
Unless they've been dead a long time, they're just dust. But
that's what he's talking about. It's sown in corruption. He uses
the analogy of like a farmer sowing seed. This body is sown
in corruption. But look here, it is raised in
incorruption. Now that's glorious. Whenever
we're raised from the dead, it will be in an incorruptible spiritual
body. And it's hard to imagine what
that's gonna be like. We are saved by an incorruptible
savior based upon his incorruptible blood and clothed with his incorruptible
righteousness. And that's why we need to maintain
this truth and stand firm for the truth of the impeccability
of Christ. He did not become a sinner. He
was never made a sinner. He was never corrupted with our
sins, never contaminated. And that ensures us that when
we're raised from the dead, we'll be in an incorruptible body. And we're born again by the incorruptible
seed, the word of God. And we possess an incorruptible
inheritance reserved in heaven for us. And so we ourselves,
because of our standing before God in Christ, and because of
our state of spiritual life, eternal life, we're destined
to be incorruptible. There'll be no deterioration.
There'll be no wrinkles and gray hair and all that. None of that. No diseases. So that's the first
thing he tells us about. It's incorruptible, incorruption.
We don't know what that's like, do we? We see it in Christ. But look at verse 43. It is sown
in dishonor, but it's raised in glory. Dishonor means the
contamination of sin. You know, You'll find certain
religions who'll talk about how a sinner, once he's saved, he
can attain by his efforts a sinless perfection to where he can say,
I'm perfect, I don't sin anymore. Well, you know what you can tell
him? Go home and look in a mirror. If you're not, if you have no
sin, now understand, we make the distinction. Now, legally
before God, we are not sinful because we have the righteousness
of Christ and he paid the debt for all of our sins. God will
not charge us with sin. He will not remember sin. That
means he won't bring it back up against us. But we're dying
people. And that proves that we're not
sinless. We get sick, we get old, we get tired, all of that.
And as I said, some sooner than others, but it's there and it's
common to all of us. And so this body is sown in dishonor. But when we're raised again from
the dead in the end, when Christ comes back again, what's gonna
happen? We'll be raised in corruption
and we'll be raised in glory. What does that mean? That means
we'll be raised Without that contamination that brings disgrace
and shame, we'll be raised in the image of God. The title of
this message, I'd say, is called The Image of the Heavenly. You
can see it up there. The Image of the Heavenly. That's
the image of Christ. That's what he's talking about.
In glory, the state of eternal life without sin. We'll be impeccable. We'll be better than Adam was
in the garden, because Adam was not impeccable. He was a created
being who was liable to fall and he fell. And of course we
know all that's according to the purpose of God, to have a
people that are incorruptible, impeccable. And it's not because
of anything we've done or will do or try to do. It's not because
of any power within us. It's not because of our morality.
It's because of Christ. We stand before God, not in the
righteousness of men, not even the best of men, but we stand
before God in the righteousness of His Son. And there's no corruption
there, no possibility of corruption. So whatever this body's gonna
look like or whatever it's gonna be, there'll be no sin, there'll
be no corruption. Look back at verse 43. The next
line says, it is sown in weakness and it's raised in power. The
glorified body will be a body of strength without the infirmities
and the frailties of our current state of sinful flesh. You know
anything about weakness? Well, I do. That's why I got
a cane. That's why I'm sitting down.
Pain and weakness. I pray God heal me, but I don't
think it's going to get better. You say, well, you just don't
believe hard enough. Oh, OK. Go ahead. God may heal me, but if he heals
me and I get strong tomorrow, something else is coming down
the road eventually. Isn't that right? So, I mean, it's there. But our
glorified bodies will be strong without any weakness of the flesh. God's people will have the, I
believe it's taught, will have the power to act and think righteously. with no thought of sin. The power
now is God the Holy Spirit has given us new life, a new heart,
new desires, but now we don't have that power in perfection
without the contamination of sin, but the remaining presence
of sinful flesh keeps us from acting and thinking perfectly,
righteously, except as we look to Christ alone and see him,
his perfection. But then we'll be able to obey
Him perfectly, without any taint of sin hindering us and hindering
our obedience. Look at verse 44, here's the
next thing. It's sown a natural body. Now that natural, it always
has to do with our nature, our human nature. As we are naturally
born, you know the Bible says that the natural man receiveth
not the things of the Spirit of God. That's as we are by nature
born spiritually dead in trespasses and sin. And that's how our bodies
are sown into the ground. But now, if we've been raised
from the dead spiritually, we have a new heart, a new mind,
we have a new spirit. And so, the body is sown a natural
body. but it is raised a spiritual
body. There's a natural body and there's
a spiritual body. The glorified body will be a
spiritual body. Paul emphasizes the existence
of both the natural and the spiritual when he says this. There's a
natural, there's a spiritual. But this does not mean that glorified
believers will be ghosts or phantoms like some, or they won't be angels. You don't earn your wings. You're
not gonna do that. We really don't know a lot about
this other than what we see recorded of Christ himself in the time
that he was on earth after his resurrection. We know that he
was able to appear without opening a door. We also know that he
ate food. He ate. The idea here is that
in glory we'll be fully spiritual beings without the hindrances
and contaminations of sinful flesh. So we can get some idea. by looking to him after the resurrection. He even had the nail prints in
his hands. I had somebody ask me about that.
You know what I think it's about. I've told you I don't like to
speculate on scripture. But I think that he retained
the nail prints because that's a constant reminder of that our
whole existence in eternal glory is because of his obedience unto
death. and what he went through to accomplish that. That's my thoughts on it. But
we know he still had a glorified body. And all of this, everything
that we've said so far, falls under the truth of bearing the
image of the heavenly. Look down at verse 49. I'll come
back and get these other verses real quickly. He says, and as
we have borne the image of the earthy, that's Adam, We fell
in Adam, Romans 5.12. We fell into a state of death,
spiritual death, depravity, darkness. We bore the image of the earthy.
We shall also bear the image of the heavenly, that's Christ.
And we see that. This is the image of Christ.
This is what we call perfect conformity to Christ in every
way. And that's the goal. You know,
that's what over in In Romans 8, I think it is, let me read
that to you. He says in verse 28 of Romans
8, we know that all things work together for good to them that
love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose.
Now all things, all things work together for good. That's our
eternal good. We may not see the good immediately,
Because it hurts, it's sorrowful, it's painful, all of that. But
ultimately, for God's people, sinners saved by grace, it'll
be for the glory of God and the good of His people. And so he
says in verse 29, for whom He did foreknow, He also did predestinate
to be conformed to the image of His Son. That He might be
the firstborn among many brethren. And that's what this is talking
about. that when we bear the image of the heavenly, that's
the image of Christ, we'll be like Him. And that's what 1 John
3 said. Beloved, right now we're the
children of God. Right now we're sinners saved
by grace. Right now we're righteous in God's sight by the blood of
Jesus Christ. Right now. That's not a goal
we have to reach for, or work for, or attain. It's there. It's reality. It's how God sees
us. Boy, that's comforting. Who shall
lay anything to my charge? Now, you can charge me all day,
and you'd be right. You could say, Bill, you're a
sinner. You're a sinful man. You've done wrong in a lot of
ways. Yeah. But none of those things are charged to me in the
court of God's justice, because Christ took my charges. Isn't
that something? And I have an earnest, a down
payment, you might say, within me, and that's the presence of
the Spirit of God, who has given me spiritual life, a new heart,
a new life, new spirit, born again by the Spirit, that causes
me to look unto Christ for glory. Looking unto Jesus, the author
and finisher of my faith. He's it. He's everything. and to one day be perfectly conformed
to him? Think about it. Look at verse
45. So it's written, the first man,
Adam, was made a living soul. That's Adam, you know, in the
garden, the representative of the whole human race, the whole
human family who fell into sin and death by his disobedience.
He brought the whole human race into a state of sin and death.
That's what Romans 5 teaches. And we were represented by this
first man, Adam. We must bear his image, which
is the image of fallen, sinful human nature. That's how we start
this life out. And he was made a living soul.
That describes our physical lives. Though we're born in Adam as
spiritually dead. We're spiritually dead, but we're
physically alive. And it's the way Adam was made,
a living soul. But then he says, the last Adam. was made a quickening
spirit. Who's the last Adam? That's Christ.
You know, I think in another verse or two he's called the
second Adam, but here he's called the last Adam, not the second
Adam. And I believe that's significant because there are only two Adams.
You know the word Adam means man. The first man Adam, the
representative of the whole human race, the one who sinned, And
then the last Adam, the representative of the election of grace, the
one who conquered sin and established righteousness, he was made a
quickening spirit. He didn't only receive life,
he gives life. Life from the dead, he's a quickening
spirit. The life that we have within
us as born again people is literally the resurrection life of Christ.
given to us by the Spirit of God as he makes us new. And so
he says in verse 46, howbeit that was not first which is spiritual,
but that which is natural, and afterward that which is spiritual.
Adam came first in time. Now we know that Christ and his
deity was before Adam, before time. He had no beginning, has
no end. But he's talking about Christ in his impeccable humanity
here, his glorification, And he came after Adam, and he says
in verse 47, the first man is of the earth, earthy. That means it's gonna perish. The second man, now here's where
he's called the second man, because talking about coming afterward
in time, is the Lord from heaven, and verse 48 he says, as is the
earthy, such are they also that are earthy. In other words, if
we're in a state of spiritual death, that's what we are, we're
earth dwellers. And we don't have any hope of
eternal life until we're born again by the Spirit, looking
unto Jesus. So he says, and as is the heavenly,
such as they also that are heavenly. Now that doesn't mean we become
so heavenly minded that we're no earthly good. It means that
we have the image of Christ. One day that's going to be perfected
in our glorification. So he says in verse 47, the first
man is of the earth earthy, the second man is the Lord from heaven.
In verse 48, as is the earth earthy, such are they that are
earthy. And as is the heavenly, such as they that are heavenly.
And as we have borne the image of the earth, are brought as
we are born spiritually dead and depraved, we shall also bear
the image of the heavenly. And that's the issue that Paul's
making here about the resurrected body of his people. And again,
I know, we don't know a whole lot about it. We get some idea
here. We have some beautiful language
here that causes us to kind of look forward to, you know, we
fear death. That's a natural thing. We don't
know how we're going to die. We don't know when we're going
to die. But as we look to Christ and read his word and have the
comfort of the spirit, we know that death is not the end. It's
just a passage into a glorious eternity for God's people. Think about that. That's what
Christ secured for us by his obedience unto death as our surety
and our substitute and our redeemer, okay?