"The First Adam vs. The Last Adam" (1 Corinthians 15:42–49)

December 20, 2020

"The First Adam vs. The Last Adam" (1 Corinthians 15:42–49)

Series:
Passage: 1 Corinthians 15:42–49
Service Type:

Hear now the word of the Lord in 1 Corinthians chapter 15. We will be beginning our reading in verse 35.
35 But someone will ask, “How are the dead raised? With what kind of body do they come?” 36 You foolish person! What you sow does not come to life unless it dies. 37 And what you sow is not the body that is to be, but a bare kernel, 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. 39 For not all flesh is the same, but there is one kind for humans, another for animals, another for birds, and another for fish. 40 There are heavenly bodies and earthly bodies, but the glory of the heavenly is of one kind, and the glory of the earthly is of another. 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.
42 So is it 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 natural body; it is raised a spiritual body. If there is a natural 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 natural, and then the spiritual. 47 The first man was from the earth, a man of dust; the second man is from heaven. 48 As was the man of dust, so also are those who are of the dust, and as is the man of heaven, so also are those who are of heaven. 49 Just as we have borne the image of the man of dust, we shall also bear the image of the man of heaven. 1 Corinthians 15:35-49, ESV
Well, each year around Christmas time we remind ourselves of the importance of Christ’s birth. Why did Christ have to be born? We remind ourselves that God the Son, the second person of the Trinity, very God of very God, Light of Light, from all of eternity past, he actually stepped into human history and took upon himself a human nature that is like ours in every respect, yet without sin. Also, that he was born in weakness and frailty too, as a little baby just like we were, to a human mother, the Virgin Mary.

That story alone is extraordinary and it’s right that we should celebrate it and remember it. Each year we also have to ask the question, why the story of Christ’s birth is not just about a baby. The story of Christ’s birth is also what that baby came to do and what he eventually did accomplish.

So, the first part of the answer as we think about what Christ came to do is that Christ came to live a perfect life and to die on the cross in our place for our sins, so that by dying on the cross we could be reconciled to God. Indeed, that’s a critical part of the answer. There is no gospel hope unless we can first be reconciled with God. We sing this in one of our Christmas hymns, “peace on earth and mercy mild, God and sinners reconcile.”

What the Bible talks about when it talks about this forgiveness is that that isn’t the end goal. Forgiveness is the means to an end. When the Bible talks about the importance of forgiveness, it describes it as something of a foundation that Christ had to first lay in order that everything else Christ is coming to do may be built on top of that critical essential foundation. So, forgiveness is essential, but God is actually bringing us into something even greater and even more through Christ Jesus.

So, when we think about this question of why Jesus had to come, why did he have to be born, the passage we are studying today is actually one of the clearest passages in all the Bible to answer that question. This tells us not only that we are forgiven of our sins, but also where Christ is bringing us and how Christ is going to do that. That was impossible without him coming into this world and taking upon himself a human nature like ours.

Our big idea this morning as we study is this, Christ equips us for full fellowship with God.

Paul has three points, although they’re kind of all recapitulating the same idea. The first point as we go will be a bit longer.

1. Christ Exalts Our Nature
2. Christ Endows Us with Life
3. Christ Equips Us for Full Fellowship with God
Christ Exalts Our Nature
So, let’s start with our first point that Christ exalts our nature. In verses 42-44 now we read a larger chunk of Scripture, so let’s re-read those verses in verses 42-44 to get our bearings a little bit.
42 So is it 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 natural body; it is raised a spiritual body. If there is a natural body, there is also a spiritual body. 1 Corinthians 15:42-44, ESV
So, in these three verses Paul is contrasting what is sown versus what is raised. What do you mean by this, what’s he getting at? Well Paul introduced this subject a little bit earlier in the passage we looked at last week, if you want to look back at verse 36 and let me actually start in verse 35. Paul asked,
35 But someone will ask, “How are the dead raised? With what kind of body do they come?” 36 You foolish person! What you sow does not come to life unless it dies. 1 Corinthians 15:35-36, ESV
Part of what Paul is talking about by this sowing and raising is the way that our bodies, when we die or are planted like seeds in the ground, they will grow up. When they grow up, they are raised up. We will be raised up in the resurrection to overcome the sin and the death that has plagued our bodies. Christ will raise us imperishable and all the rest of it.

Really that’s only part of what Paul is talking about here. Certainly, this has an application for us, certainly this has to do with what will happen at our resurrection, certainly this answers that original question with what kind of body will the dead be raised. Yet in verses 42-44 Paul is actually addressing a deeper issue than what will happen to us.

What’s key to understanding this passage verses 42-44 is that Paul is not actually contrasting fallen sinful human nature and talking about the need for fallen sinful human beings who eventually die to be raised from the dead. That’s true, but he’s addressing something much bigger. He is actually addressing and comparing not only resurrected Christ against us in the current form in which we are as sinners, but he’s really addressing the resurrected Christ against Adam as he was originally created before he fell into sin. It’s the perfection of Adam’s creation against Jesus Christ at his resurrection.

Now that’s hard to see in verses 42 through 44 but let me show you where Paul makes this clear, it’s in verse 45. We’re going to peek ahead a little bit into the next section then we’ll come back to figure out what Paul is doing in verses 42 through 44. So, look at verse 45.
45 Thus it is written, “The first man Adam became a living being”; the last Adam became a life-giving spirit.
1 Corinthians 15:45, ESV
“Thus, it is written”, now the word “thus” there I want to point out that’s actually the same word that Paul used in verse 42. It means, “what I’m about to say explains everything that I just wrote”. Essentially, it’s, “thus what I just wrote in verses 42-44, let me explain to you what I’m talking about.

Now what passage is Paul quoting there, what Scripture text is he pointing us to? Well, if you have if you have a footnote like I do you can look down and actually see exactly where Paul’s quoting from, it’s Genesis 2:7.

Now remember the fall into sin does not happen until Genesis chapter 3. Genesis 2:7 is actually a verse that describes Adam originally when he was created, God breathes into him the breath of life. We read the first man Adam became a living being or a living soul. What Paul is saying is look what happened to Adam is that he was created in a certain way. That was not to actually be perpetual forever and that’s what this sowing and raising language gets at. Adam’s creation was like the sowing of a seed, it was the first form.

Remember in the previous paragraph Paul talked about how the seed is not the final form, the seed is a form, and it grows up out of the ground into a final form to be the plant perhaps of wheat or of some other grain. Well, when Adam was created, he was sown in one form, his human nature had a particular form, but when Adam is raised, he will be raised beyond that form to a different final form.

So, in verses 42-44 what is sown, this language of what is sown doesn’t refer primarily to our bodies. When we die, buried as seeds in the ground. Certainly, this would apply to that, but Paul is talking about the creation of Adam. That just as a seed when sown eventually grows up into the plant, so God intended that Adam would eventually grow into a new form of human nature.

Now this doesn’t mean that Adam was created flawed or that he was created defective and it certainly doesn’t mean that Adam was created sinful, he wasn’t. Adam was created perfectly but the issue is that Adam’s body was created to be equipped for earthly life only and not yet for heavenly life. He was equipped for earthly life, he was equipped to eat and to drink and to breathe and to sleep and to reproduce. He was equipped for earthly life, not yet for heavenly life.

Now I’m going to talk about heavenly life a lot in this sermon, so let me just explain up front that when I talk about heavenly life, I’m not talking about floating on a cloud and playing a harp. When I’m talking about heavenly life I am talking about face to face, complete full fellowship with God forever and ever. As we were originally created and certainly as we are today after we’ve been infected by sin and death, we could not bear up under the full weight of the glory of God, not even Adam in the garden. Adam had a perfect relationship with God, but he had a partial relationship with God. God intended that Adam would rise from his initially created form to a higher form in order to gain full fellowship with God in a heavenly life.

Now Adam’s already talked about this difference, the difference between earthly glory, that’s how Adam was created with earthly glory, versus heavenly glory. Look back at verse 40. Paul wrote,
40 There are heavenly bodies and earthly bodies, but the glory of the heavenly is of one kind, and the glory of the earthly is of another. 1 Corinthians 15:45, ESV
Now there Paul is talking about the heavenly bodies, like the sun, the moon, and the stars, but he’s writing all of this as an analogy. Remember in verse 42 he starts off by saying, let me tell you what I’m talking about. It’s the contrast between the earthly glory in which Adam was created, versus the heavenly glory in which we will be raised up.

So, Adam’s body then was sown perishable, even though he was created immortal. Adam’s body was sown in dishonor, even though he was created in the glorious image of God. Adam’s body was created, sown, in weakness, even though he was created in perfect strength. The reason was because Adam was given a glory, a perfect glory, but it was an earthly glory. It wasn’t the full complete perfect glory of the heavenly glory.

So, here’s the thing, if Adam had not sinned, this passage is not teaching that he would have died at some point. No, if Adam had not sinned, he would never have died, he would have never experienced true dishonor, and he would have never tasted of true weakness. But he would not have remained in the same form. The point was that Adam was created in perfect earthly glory with the intention that he would grow out of that form into a new form.

This is actually one of the clearest passages in the Bible to tell us what would have happened if Adam had been obedient to God’s word. If Adam had not sinned, he would have never died, but he would not have stayed in the same form. He would have been transformed, he would have been exalted, he would have been raised. He would have been sowed one way, raised another way, above the original form of his nature into the final form of his nature. Like a seed growing into a plant.

Again, not that he was created defectively, certainly not that he was created sinfully. He was created in one form with the intention of growing into a more mature form. Now the original form, again that that earthly glory versus the heavenly glory, that Paul talked about in verse 40, for that original form Paul uses a word in verse 44 “natural”. To describe that final form, the heavenly form, Paul uses the word “spiritual” to describe it there.

Those two words “natural” and “spiritual” are words that get at this earthly and heavenly distinction. Now these two words in verse 44 are difficult to translate, really hard to get at what it’s talking about, but essentially the word natural means equipped for earthly life. The way we know this is that that phrase, Adam became a living being or a living soul, that wasn’t applied only to human beings as it was in Genesis 2:7 which is what Paul is quoting here in verse 45. It was also applied to the animals. The animals were also called living souls, the animals were also living beings in Genesis chapter 1:24.

Now what’s the point of similarity? Animals and humans alike are both created for earthly life. Our bodies are equipped for earthly life. Now certainly human beings have a higher existence above the animals, and we’ll talk about that a little bit more later, but the point of comparison is that both of us were created for earthly life.

A spiritual body on the other hand, Paul talks about the spiritual body in verse 44, understand this does not refer to a non-physical body. We’re not talking about becoming like ghosts. When Jesus was raised from the dead that was one of the things that he labored to prove. He was showing, I’m not a ghost. Look at me, you can touch me, you can put your hands in my flesh, and in the scars in my body. I am not a ghost. He’s not a ghost, he has a physical body.

Our spiritual bodies will be physical bodies, but these bodies will be equipped for heavenly life. They will be equipped for full face to face union and communion with almighty God, in all the infinite splendor and majesty and weight of his glory forever and ever and ever. This will be as Paul talked about earlier in chapter 15, that at that point that is what it will mean for God to be all in all.

At creation God originally created Adam to be equipped for earthly life like the animals, again higher than the animals but like the animals in the sense that we were equipped for early life. But God did not intend Adam to remain in that form permanently. His body wasn’t equipped to live forever, his body was perishable. Instead, the Bible tells us that God gave Adam a probationary test.

Now I want to be clear about what I talk about with that word probationary. Sometimes we think about probation as what you do when you get out of prison. You commit a crime, you sin in some way, you go after a punishment, you go to prison. Then after that you have probation before you can sort of enter into life.

Well, it’s not like that. It’s more the probation period that you might get when you’re starting a new job. You haven’t done anything wrong, in fact they’re excited to have you in the company probably, but that probation period is where you’re given a restricted set of privileges and they want to see how well you do with the responsibilities you’re given, the privileges you’re afforded. If you do well, if you pass the test from that probation period, then you will be raised up to a higher level. You will be given more privileges and more responsibilities once you pass that probationary test.

In the garden God did this for Adam. He commanded Adam, gave Adam a simple test saying not to eat from the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil. Now this command wasn’t about what food Adam was going to eat, really it was about whether Adam would obey the word of God. Would Adam obey, would he give personal perfect and perpetual obedience to God’s word? If Adam disobeyed, he would fall from his innocence. He would enter into a state of sin and misery and he would be given over to his perishability.

On the other hand, if Adam had obeyed, then God would have rewarded Adam with everlasting life. Not in his original form, he wouldn’t have remained in seed form, he would have been transformed. He would have grown like a plant. The way we see this is in what God does after Adam sins. God says we have to stop him from reaching out now in the form that he currently is, marked by sin, and reach out and take from the Tree of Life and live forever. So, because of that Adam was expelled, kicked out of the Garden of Eden, so he couldn’t yet eat from the Tree of Life.

What Adam was supposed to do he failed to do, but if he had obeyed God would have raised him up. He was sown one way, he would be raised another. God would have raised him up to that kind of life, to imperishability, to glory, into power. God would have given Adam at that point the spiritual body that we’re talking about, that Christ now possesses. He would have given Adam a spiritual body fitted not just for earthly life, but for heavenly life and full fellowship with God forever. We, as his descendants, would have received that body instead of the lowly and sinful body that we received after the image of Adam.

So, this transition, again what I want to show you is that this transition was always God’s intention. To transform from the seed form of humanity, from that original creation of Adam, all the way up to a higher form of having spiritual bodies. If there is a natural body, verse 44, there is also a spiritual body, one leads to the other.

The problem of course is Adam’s sin. He didn’t exalt himself, and in fact he reduced himself, he plunged the whole human race into death, dishonor, and weakness because of his sin. So, what we need then is for someone else to raise us up to the final spiritual heavenly form of our nature. This is why Christ had to be born. Christ came into this world to raise us from our original humanity up to the higher form of the spiritual bodies that he himself now possesses by his resurrection.

Christ came to exalt our nature, to lift it up, to raise it up. It was sown one way, Christ came to raise it up to another. How does Christ do this? Well, this leads us to our second section that Christ does this by endowing us with life.
Christ Endows Us with Life
So, our second section in verses 45 is that Christ endows us with life. Look at verses 45 and 46.
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 natural, and then the spiritual.
1 Corinthians 15:45-46, ESV
So here Paul is clarifying, as we talked earlier, that his comparison and contrast is between Adam and Christ, between the forms of their bodies, one equipped for earthly life and one equipped for heavenly life. So, when Paul calls Christ a spirit or spiritual, he’s not denying that Christ’s physical or he’s not denying the existence of Christ’s physical body. He’s not saying that well natural is physical, but spiritual is non-physical. Again, the natural is in the sense of earthly the spiritual is in the sense of heaven. One is equipped for life on earth and the other is equipped for face-to-face fellowship with God forever. The natural came first though and the spiritual came second.

In verse 46 Paul says you can’t have the spiritual first, that’s not what comes first, There’s a progression to this. God created Adam, not defectively, but in a seed form with a natural body in order that he might grow up into his final form, the spiritual form. What we need to see here, the way that Paul is presenting us with the promises of the gospel, is that when he talks about the last Adam Christ in verse 45, he doesn’t say that Christ was merely a life possessing spirit. It isn’t that Jesus Christ was raised for himself alone to have this new life for himself and to hoard it to himself. He became a life-giving spirit to endow or to give others life too. Christ endows us with life. How do we attain what Adam failed to attain? It’s because Christ gives it to us.
Christ Equips Us for Full Fellowship with God
In this final section, in verses 47 through 49, we see that Christ equips us for full fellowship with God. Though we were one way made after the image of Adam, the gospel promises that we will be, for all those who trust in Christ, made into another image, the image of Christ. Look at verse 47, as we go into our third section.
47 The first man was from the earth, a man of dust; the second man is from heaven. 1 Corinthians 15:47, ESV
Now these almost sound like the way they’re translated here to talk about origin that Adam came from the earth whereas Christ came from heaven. There are a lot of people who look at it that way. I think a better case can be made based on how this is written that Paul is still talking about that quality. The earthly man was made for earthly life, the man of dust was made for living in the dust, whereas the heavenly man is fitted for the quality of heavenly life. Not on a cloud playing a harp, but the heavenly life where we have full face-to-face fellowship with God forever. We are already equipped for earthly living.

It’s important to understand that when we talk about our natural bodies, those aren’t bad bodies, those are good bodies that are well equipped for earthly living. We are equipped to breathe and to eat and to sleep, but what Paul is saying is that transition is that we need to be equipped for living forever with God in the world to come. This is what Christ came to do for us.

Look at verses 48-49,
48 As was the man of dust, so also are those who are of the dust, and as is the man of heaven, so also are those who are of heaven. 49 Just as we have borne the image of the man of dust, we shall also bear the image of the man of heaven. 1 Corinthians 15:48-49, ESV
Christ came to equip us for a full fellowship with God. Christ came as the life-giving spirit, at his resurrection, to give us this life so that we can be equipped for face-to-face communion with God forever. We will still have physical bodies and we will in fact not live in the clouds but on the earth, on the new heavens and a new earth. When we do so, I love the way the Westminster Larger catechism question 90 puts this, when that happens, when we’re transformed from the natural to the spiritual, from the earthly bodies to the heavenly bodies, when we are remade after the image of the man of heaven, then we will be filled with “inconceivable joys, we will be made perfectly holy and happy, both in body and soul, we will be in the company of innumerable saints, and holy angels but especially in the immediate vision and fruition of God the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ and of the Holy Spirit to all eternity. And this is the perfect and full communion which the members of the invisible church shall enjoy with Christ in glory at the resurrection and day of judgment.”

That is our hope that Christ will equip us for full fellowship with God for the immediate vision and fruition of God the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ and of the Holy Spirit to all eternity.
Application
But let’s consider now what we should do with this text. Today we’ve seen all the way from the very beginning of the Bible, all the way to the very end of time, just summarized in a few short verses here. What about between those two times? What should we do living our lives today?

1. Well our first application is this, consider that you were created not only for an earthly life but for a heavenly life. You were created not only for life on the earth, but you were created for a heavenly life of full fellowship with God, face to face forever.

Now see here’s the thing, the Bible says that we were indeed created for earthly life and that’s a good thing. In fact, the Bible says that we were created like the animals in many respects. Not only are human beings created as living beings, living souls, but animals as well, Genesis 1:21-24.

So, when God created the world, he equipped all his creatures, animals and humans alike, for earthly life. He gave us lungs equipped to breathe earthly air, he gave us stomachs equipped to eat earthly food, he gave us bodies that are refreshed by earthly sleep. The natural is good. It’s good for us to have these bodies.

But the Bible teaches that human beings are unlike animals in two important respects. First, human beings alone were created in the image of God. We weren’t just created natural, we were created to reflect God’s glory in a way that no other animal is. Second, human beings were created not only for earthly life, here’s what I want us to consider, but also ultimately for heavenly life, verse 44. It is sown a natural body, that’s how we were created, it will be raised a spiritual body, like Christ’s own spiritual body.

So, I want us to think about and evaluate what we hear from the world. What is the good news, as the world would put it, what is the earthly gospel? Well, the earthly gospel, the gospel of this world is not that we can live a higher life, but if you really think about what the earthly gospel proclaims it is that we can live like the animals. The worldly gospel, the earthly gospel doesn’t call us to a higher level of living, it actually calls us down to live like a beast of the field. The highest hope this world can offer is that if we could just give up ourselves and just live like the beasts.

So, the world teaches that it is survival of the fittest, so you need to do whatever it takes to get ahead. You need, like the beasts, to find your pack, to become the alpha, to defend your territory, how animals live you should live. However, you want to live, pursue whatever you want to pursue, sleep with whomever you want to sleep with, do whatever your natural instincts drive you to do. Live like the beasts of the field, that’s the highest gospel that an earthly gospel can provide.

But you are more than an animal. Your life has transcendent meaning, significance, and value. You were created after the image of God himself. So, yes God equipped you to live in this world, but he wants you to live in this world as you were looking for the next world. He wants you to live a natural life that is guided by the fact that you will one day be raised up to live a heavenly life in full fellowship and communion with God.

The fact that we are equipped for earthly life is actually part of the ongoing problem that we have, because this world has such an allure to us, because it just so easily appeals directly to our natural faculties. Now those natural faculties are good, but they are twisted by sin so that to us nothing feels more natural than living a natural earthly life now.

So, to some extent this is good. Your biological instincts should tell you when to eat, when to drink, and when to sleep. Yet it means that the spiritual faculties are something that don’t come naturally, in fact we need God’s grace to be lifted above this world, above the sun to the Lord Jesus Christ who came into this world to transform us. We need spiritual instincts to teach us how we should live in this world if we are going to be living one day in another.

These spiritual faculties, these spiritual instincts cut against what feels natural. It is only God’s Spirit, speaking through God’s word, who can guide us spiritually, to teach us how to love, how to worship, how to live, and even how to die.

Where then do you take your cues for living in this world? Do you just let your natural instincts carry you wherever they will, or is all of your bodily life guided and shaped and uplifted to the heavenly life that we are called to live by faith in Jesus Christ? Consider that you were created not only for an earthly life, but for a heavenly life.

2. Here’s a second application, believe in Jesus Christ who has conquered death. At Christmas we remember that the Son of God took upon himself a lowly body like ours. When Jesus was born his humanity was like Adam’s original humanity at his creation, before Adam fell into sin. So, he was capable of dying, he was perishable, but Jesus Christ was not guilty and liable to the curse of death. He wouldn’t have died if he hadn’t been put to death. He was perishable but he had to be put to death in order to die.

He was without honor. Christ came into this world having veiled the glory of his divine nature and he was born in weakness, suffering under all the frailties of a human nature. Christ took upon himself a natural body that was equipped for earthly life and again that’s good. Natural bodies equipped for earthly life is good, but it’s only the seed form.

So, as we sing in our Christmas hymn this is one of the reasons, we praise God, “mild he lays his glory by, born that man no more may die.” We celebrate this about Christ, but why did he do this? Why did Jesus have to be born?

Well Jesus did this in order to succeed where Adam failed. To elevate, to exalt, to raise our nature from what we were sown as. What we were originally created to be versus what we are raised up to be in the full form of our human nature, what God always intended. You see if Adam had obeyed, and he had the ability to obey, but if he had obeyed Adam would have been raised to the final fullest mature form of human nature.

God created him able to obey, he turned against that. If Adam had been successful, he would not have stayed in that seed form, he would have been raised imperishable. He would have been raised in glory, he would have been raised in power, he would have been raised to a spiritual body. Adam would have been fitted for heavenly life and not only would he have received a spiritual body, but all of us descended from Adam would too.

Tragically, of course, Adam chose to disobey God so that our bodies fell into death rather than being raised up to life. Christ however came to give personal, perfect, and perpetual obedience to his Father in Heaven, even to the point of death on the cross. Where Adam failed his probationary test, Christ succeeded. So, when Christ was raised from the dead he was exalted from the lowly natural earthly human body, the seed form in which he was born, into a glorified spiritual heavenly body in order that he might raise us up, so that we might have that higher life too.

Again, we sing about this very idea at Christmas that he’s, “light of life to all he brings, risen with healing in his wings.” Christ came to bring life and healing today. Jesus Christ is no longer perishable, he declares in Revelation 1:18,
18 and the living one. I died, and behold I am alive forevermore, and I have the keys of Death and Hades.

Revelation 1:18, ESV
No longer can Christ die, no longer is Christ without honor, or will he ever be without honor. In Philippians 2:10-11 we read,
10 so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, 11 and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.
Philippians 2:10-11,ESV
Therefore, because Christ humbled himself in obedience all the way to death on a cross, therefore God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father. No longer is he perishable, no longer is he in dishonor, no longer does he live in weakness. Revelation 5:12 says that those around the throne cannot help but to sing,
12 saying with a loud voice,
“Worthy is the Lamb who was slain,
to receive power and wealth and wisdom and might
and honor and glory and blessing!”

Revelation 5:12, ESV
Jesus Christ is the mighty king. He is alive and he lives forever more, and he is reigning at his Father’s right hand now. One day king Jesus will return and when he comes again, he will sweep away in judgment the enemies who have so far resisted his reign. But today the gospel is that the king who is about to return at any moment, the king offers a peace treaty.

“Joyful all ye nations rise, join the triumph of the skies”, is the invitation he offers. A peace treaty that for all those who turn from their sin and turn to Jesus Christ in faith. Trusting in him to not only to forgive you of your sins, to raise you up from Adam’s sin, but also to lift you up in resurrection life on the last day. If your faith is in Christ to do that, then Christ personally assures you the king makes a treaty with you, promising forgiveness and newness of life now.

A heavenly quality to our inner man, even as our outer man is wasting away all the time.

Then finally he promises you resurrection on the last day, to be raised up into spiritual bodies. Jesus Christ was, “born to raise the sons of earth, born to give them second birth. Hark the herald angels sing, glory to the newborn king.”

Brothers and sisters, as we think about Christ being born and why he was born during this Christmas season, let us keep in mind the ultimate goal. Not just to be a baby as important as that was. Not just to live a perfect life, as critical as that was. Not just to die for our sins on the cross, as essential as that is for our salvation. Not just to be rise so that he personally possessed a spiritual body, but to become the life-giving Spirit who gives light and life to all those who turn to him in faith.

Let’s pray. Our Heavenly Father, we pray that you would give us Christ. We pray that you would lift us up in Christ, to know and love the Lord Jesus Christ, so that on the last day we would be raised up with him to resurrection life. We pray this in Christ’s name. Amen.

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