1 Corinthians 15:53-57

For this corruptible must put on incorruption.

The great change

The apostle presents this--

I. As a contrast betwixt what man now is and what he will be.

1. Twice over the apostle affirms the change from corruptible to incorruption, and from mortal to immortality; first as a matter of necessity, then as a matter of fact. Four times over, also, he uses the same word, translated “put on,” which means, to “go into,” as into a place of covering or shelter; and hence to go into one’s clothes, to attire, to array one’s self or others in garments, ornaments, or the like (2 Corinthians 5:2).

2. Death, then, is a mere “unclothing” of the man, and if there is any propriety in the analogy the “unclothing” leaves him in possession of the full integrity of his being: he has simply stripped off his garments, and for a season laid them aside. It is still competent for him to resume them, or to array himself in different attire; and on reinvestment he cannot be other than he was before. Very great may the change be betwixt the “clothing” before death and that which is “put on” at the resurrection, but the language of the apostle implies that its use and purpose in both cases are the same.

3. Then, again, the apostle informs us, twice over, that that which in the one state is corruptible and mortal, becomes in the other state incorruptible and immortal. The thing is the same in both states, but placed under different conditions. At present it is organised matter, liable to decay, injury, and dissolution; but that same organised matter will be found in a state of “incorruption” and “immortality.”

II. As a victory over death and the grave.

1. The words mean properly “unto victory”; the idea being that the process of extermination goes on like a battle that is waged until a triumphant victory is secured--that is, “aye and until” death is totally abolished. Death at the resurrection is destined to be cast, like a stone, into an abyss, so profound that it never will be brought up or appear again.

2. Death is compared to a venomous reptile which has wounded its victims and introduced into their body its deadly poison. Dissolution, it is true, does not immediately follow the implanting of the sting, but there is pain and anguish, and death ensues in due course of time. And then comes the victory of the grave, or Hades. Like a resistless conqueror, it lays hold of those whom death has prostrated, consigns the body to the house appointed for all living, and the soul to the mysterious condition of disembodied consciousness. Well may this be called a victory, for nothing can be conceived of as a more complete overthrow of human hopes and desires; but introduce the idea of resurrection and it is plain the victory passes over to the other side. The conqueror is despoiled of his triumph; and from being a victim, sin-ruined and dying man, restored to that high standard of corporeal life for which he was originally designed, is in his turn a conqueror, all the more distinguished and glorious that his triumph lasts for ever.

III. As a boon for which gratitude ought to be felt and thanks returned. Gratitude is the appropriate sequel of benefits bestowed and appreciated. But to realise to the full the emotion of gratitude of which the apostle here speaks, we must actually close with and appropriate the glorious boon. This is the office of faith. None are excluded from the offers of the gospel: all are invited to partake of its blessed privileges; and however great and precious these privileges may be, so far as the present world is concerned, the actual consummation is the resurrection of the body and a portion in the kingdom of God. When the wilderness journey was over, and the wars of the settlement in Canaan at an end, how gladsome would every household be and every heart in Israel as they sat down each one under his vine and fig-tree, and none to make them afraid! But this was only a type of far more glorious things to come, when the epoch of sorrow and death is over, and the entire company of God’s redeemed enters upon the long-promised inheritance. (J. Cochrane, M.A.)

The celestial body of a Christian after the resurrection

I. The grounds of the belief of a Christian concerning this change of a corruptible and mortal into an incorruptible ann immortal body. I appeal to all sensible men whether that God, who is the Author of motion, by which all alterations in bodies are made, who brought this goodly frame of the world out of an heap of indigested matter, who formed the body of Adam out of the dust, who has so framed nature, that a spring of vegetables should succeed their death in winter; who caused even the dry rod of Aaron to bud, and blossom, and bring forth almonds; who has given skill and power to men, by fire and other natural causes, to open and refine the grossest bodies; whether that God who hath done these great things is not able to put together the parts of an humane body which He made, contrived, and formerly joined, and to advance the frame of it from grossness to purity. To think He is not is next to no thinking at all, and it is to reproach God’s power and knowledge and wisdom. It is more than barely credible, it is certain, that God who can do all this will at last do it because He has said He will.

II. The consequence of this belief is very comfortable; for great and many are the advantages derived to Christians by being clothed with a celestial body. There is scarce a comparison to be admitted betwixt this earthly body and that which shall be at the ascension of Christians. They differ more than the least and dimmest star, and the brightest and greatest luminary in the firmament of heaven. The happiness derived from the change of a natural to a spiritual body consisteth in a deliverance--

1. From the grossness of the former, as it is a body of this flesh and blood.

2. From the disorderly motions of it, as it is a corruptible body.

3. From the perishing nature, decay, and fall of it, as it is both a corruptible and mortal body.

III. What shall we do that we may come at these several great advantages of living at last in an heavenly body? The way to have better bodies is to have more virtuous souls. God hath put us into this body, as into the habit of a pilgrim on earth, as probationers for a more excellent clothing. And, according to our patience, our self-denial, our keeping the body in subjection to the mind, our governing the appetites and passions of it, so shall the resurrection and ascension of it be. (Abp. Tenison.)

This mortal must put on immortality.--

The mortal immortalised

Those who take thought for immortality are divided into two schools, the sensuous and the spiritual. The one picture to themselves a heaven of physical blessedness, a glorified earth--immortality only the state of the well-developed mortal! The other class regard heaven as a state utterly unlike the mortal--where the soul shall exist in the transcendental majesty of a risen spirit rather than as a redeemed and yet veritable man in Christ Jesus. Now both of these notions are alike unphilosophic and unscriptural. The text teaches not transubstantiation, but transfiguration--a change not of an essence, but only of aspects--and gives us twofold data for solving the problem of the after state.

I. The identity of the immortal creature with the mortal. Though at death we are unquestionably to lose whatever belongs only to this rudimental life--as the chrysalis drops the exuviae in developing the wings--yet all faculties and functions essentially human are to be ours for ever.

1. Even in regard of the body is this strictly true. Whatever may be the bliss of the intermediate state yet reason and revelation alike declare it to be unnatural, and so imperfect. Death, self-considered, cannot be a benefit. It is not a step in a progress--it is an interruption, a judicial infliction, God’s curse upon sin. Indeed, how the soul can act when divested of this body we cannot understand. And therefore from the dust, as a trophy of the mediatorship, is to be reconstructed a new body like Christ’s, to be part of the redeemed and immortal man.

2. This identity is more manifestly true in regard to the mind. Even as a philosophic inquiry there appears no reason why death should work any change in our rational nature. Accepting immortality as a simple matter of faith we should expect that, as the last enemy rocked its dwelling into dust, it would emerge from the ruins with all its peculiar habits of thought, and at precisely its attained point of progress.

3. And so with the affections. There is no stranger mistake than that which regards these as the specialities of the present life. The heart is among the most indestructible elements of our being. Pure intellect, unsoftened by affection, is simply monstrous. Entering heaven with our logic intensified and our love gone, our sympathies would be fiendish. In this respect “the mortal does put on immortality.” Said our Saviour, standing by the beloved dead with the sisters of Bethany, “He shall rise again ‘your brother’ still.” Death annihilates no pure affection wherein a Christian heart rejoices. “The water of life” is no Lethe of forgetfulness. Death, then, does not destroy nor mutilate the mortal. The immortal creature will be man with a human body, a human intellect, a human heart.

II. The marvellous and all-glorious transfiguration of that nature. The word “immortality” is a simple negative. There are things for which human language can have no name. While we remain mortal, inspiration can only describe the future in negatives.

1. The body shall be the same with eye to see and tongue to speak, but as the seed is transfigured into the queenly flower, so great shall the change be. With what new senses and organs it may be furnished God hath not told us. In this very chapter Paul seems struggling under the burden of the magnificent description--“It is sown in corruption, it is raised in incorruption.” And what notion can we form of incorruptible matter? “It is sown in dishonour, it is raised in glory.” The body, a house of leprosy, with all its senses instruments of temptation, is to be reconstructed into a palace of the higher life--fashioned like Christ’s glorious body! “It is sown in weakness, it is raised in power.” This poor, imperfect instrument of the intellect, requiring constant care lest it be injured by the using, shall be changed into a mighty and imperishable engine wherewith to work out unwearied the grand ministrics of eternity! “It is sown a natural body, it is raised a spiritual body.” Its material elements, no longer controlled by material inertia, impenetrability, and attraction, but (like Christ’s raised body, which could pass closed doors and float up to the firmament) shall be the equipment of the soul when it would explore the mysteries of creation and traverse immensity in adoring contemplation.

2. If the dwelling-place be thus glorified what a transfiguration must await the spirit inhabitant! This intellect, how it sometimes towers and triumphs! What discoveries it hath made! Milton’s song! Newton’s march through the universe! Yet all this was the mortal; the doings of the cradled child with its playthings. And who shall tell us, then, of the child’s manhood?

3. But unto man’s heart rather than to his head shall be accorded the loftiest prizes of eternity! To think of that (while unchanged in all its gentle, blessed, earthly affections) putting on immortality, is the highest conception we can form of man’s kingship and priesthood in the city of God. (C. Wadsworth.)

Mortality and immortality

I. We are mortal. As a simple statement of truth, this proposition needs neither proof nor illustration. If it did, the one might be found in the churchyard, the other in the sighs of the mourner. But while we all know and acknowledge the fact of our mortality, it is strange how seldom we consider it, how little we are affected by it. Those among us who are the most devoted to pleasure are universally found to be the most regardless of death. This can be accounted for only on the supposition that they think not at all, either of mortality or immortality, that sensual pleasure is an opiate powerful enough to lull every anxiety, to preclude every solemn reflection. And yet it seems incomprehensible how any thinking being should be able to shut his eyes to the fact that he is dying. The world is full of death, from the first and feeblest efforts of life, up to its most perfect examples.

II. We are immortal; and it is from this second fact in our destinies that death derives most of its solemnity, and all its moral force. It is fearful to think that this very spirit, busied now with trifles, must continue to exist, busied with something, for ever and ever. Mere fatigue may lull the most wretched here into the repose of a little slumber; but when this mortal shall put on immortality, there shall be no opiate for ever and ever to soothe the spirit’s sorest anguish, not even a troubled dream to vary the uniformity of torture. The spirit may prey for ever on itself, but shall never be consumed--it may weep and wail for ever, without wailing itself to rest.

III. The change between the present and future conditions of man will not destroy the identity either of his person or character. There is no alchemy in death to distil charitable and holy dispositions from the gross elements of selfishness and malignity--in it there is no purgatorial fire to change our base metal into refiner’s gold. As the soul enters the troubled waters of dissolution, so must it pass out of them on the other side, bearing that very transcript of character which time and the world have written on it. Are we striving, then, day by day, incessantly, to lay the restraints of godliness on our naturally rampant corruption? Are we watching and praying to guard our hearts from temptation by all the defences of piety and devotion? (W. Stevenson.)

The mind exchanging the mortal for the immortal

Paul uses this language in relation to the body, but it may be useful to apply it to the mental and moral part of human nature. To--

I. Systems of thought. All errors of judgment are mortal and must perish. And what system of human thought is not intermixed with ideas not true? Look at systems--

1. Of philosophy. Many have already died out because of their errors; and existing systems because they are often contradictory reveal their errability, and consequently must die. The sensational, idealistic, mystic, and eclectic schools are all shifting as the clouds. It will not be always so; the true must take the place of the false in the realm of thought.

2. Of theology. How contradictory are most of them to each other and to some of the most vital things embodied in the life and teachings of Jesus. Many have died; some are dying; and all will sooner or later die. Human souls will one day have the “truth as it is in Jesus.” “Our little systems have their day. They have their day and cease to be.”

II. Elements of human character. Analyse the character of unrenewed men, and you will find moral principles that must die out if there be a God of justice and benevolence in the universe--e.g., avarice, envy, pride, malice, ambition, and selfishness. The human mind was never formed to be influenced by these. The fact that they are antagonistic to the moral constitution of the human soul, to the character of God, and to the order and well-being of all, show that they must sooner or later die. Human souls will one day put off this mortal and “put on” the immortal; “Righteousness, joy, and peace in the Holy Ghost,” etc.

III. Institutions of human life.

1. Our political institutions are mortal. Human governments are constantly dying. The unwisdom in their method of management, the unrighteousness of some of their laws, the haughtiness of those in power, and their constant fattening upon the overtaxed millions give mortality to governments. Man will one day put off these and put on the government of common sense, common justice, common benevolence. Men are craving not for the aristocratic or democratic, but for the theocratic, the reign of God, which is the reign of honesty and love.

2. Our ecclesiastical institutions are mortal. Whether they are Papal, Episcopal, Wesleyan, or Congregational, they are more or less mixed with error and must die.

IV. Types of human greatness. Some see the highest greatness in the millionaire, some in the triumphant conqueror, some in a monarch, some in ancestry and high-sounding titles. But such types of greatness agree neither with the reason nor the conscience of humanity. Because they are false they are mortal, and they will have to be exchanged for the immortal. The time will come when men will regard Christ as the only true type of greatness. Conclusion: What a glorious change awaits humanity! St. Paul speaks of the resurrection of the body. But there is a more glorious resurrection--a resurrection of the soul from the false, the unrighteous, the impure, to the true, the right, and the holy. (D. Thomas, D.D.)

So when this corruptible shall have put on incorruption … Death is swallowed up in victory.--

Death is contemplated

I. As an enemy. Because it--

1. Interferes with human happiness.

2. Divides us from our friends, etc.

3. Separates soul and body.

II. As an enemy that must be fought.

1. All must die.

2. The struggle is often bitter and painful.

3. Must be maintained by faith, etc.

III. As an enemy that shall re utterly destroyed.

1. In the resurrection to eternal life.

2. By Jesus Christ. (J. Lyth, D.D.)

Death swallowed up

1. The death of sin in the life of grace.

2. The death of the body in the hope of life.

3. The corruption of death in incorruption. (J. Lyth, D.D.)

Death swallowed up in victory

The victory is--

I. Glorious.

1. The body rises.

2. Is clothed with immortality.

II. Is complete. There is no more sickness--pain--death.

III. Triumphant.

1. Christ celebrates the triumph of His grace.

2. Saints participate in it. (J. Lyth, D.D.)

Death swallowed up in victory

It is a dreadful sight to see an army routed and flying. But in my text is a worse discomfiture. It seems that a black giant proposed to conquer the earth. He gathered for his host all the aches and pains and maladies of the ages. He threw up barricades of grave-mound. He pitched tent of charnel-house. Some of the troops marched with slow tread, commanded by consumptions: some in double-quick, commanded by pneumonias. Some he took by long besiegement of evil habit, and some by one stroke of the battle-axe of casualty. He won all the victories in all the battle-fields. Forward, march! the conqueror of conquerors; and all the generals, presidents, and kings, drop under the feet of his war charger. But one Christmas night his antagonist was born. As most of the plagues and sicknesses and despotisms came out of the East it was appropriate that the new conqueror should come out of the same quarter. Power is given Him to awaken all the fallen of all the centuries. Fields have already been won, but the last day will see the decisive battle. When Christ shall lead forth His two brigades, the risen dead and the celestial host, the black giant will fall back, and the brigade from the riven sepulchres will take him from beneath, and the brigade of the descending immortals will take him from above, and “death shall be swallowed up in victory.” (T. De Witt Talmage, D.D.)

Victory over death

Here is--

I. A formidable enemy. Death, “the last enemy.” Death is here personified and represented as a devouring being, swallowing up all the generations of men. “Death reigned from Adam to Moses”; witness its ravages! Death is an enemy--certain, solemn, universal, and sometimes sudden. See Rachels weeping for their children.

II. A powerful conqueror. God the Saviour. Death could not be conquered but by death. Oh how costly was that victory! the Lord of life suffered and died, and ascended into heaven leading death captive and triumphing over it as our surety and representative.

III. A complete victory. “Death is swallowed up in victory,” or for ever swallowed, abolished, destroyed in victory, or into victory. Christ has secured the immortality of the body--delivered from death and the grave; an entire destruction of the empire of death (Revelation 20:14; John 11:25). After you have died you never can have the conflict again. Remember it is the last enemy; the cup of trembling shall no more be put into the hand, for “there will be no more death”; the inhabitants shall no more say they are sick; all tears shall be wiped away (Isaiah 25:8; Revelation 21:4). There shall exist nothing but eternal life. “Because I live ye shall live also.” Thus every enemy is put down. (J. Boyd.)

Triumph over death

I. What is it to triumph over death?

1. Negatively.

(1) Not to die as the brutes, without any appreciation of what death is.

(2) Not to die as sceptics who do not believe in a future state.

(3) Nor as the stoics who submit in silence to an unavoidable evil.

2. Positively it implies--

(1) An intelligent apprehension of what it is for a man to die.

(2) A scriptural and well-founded persuasion that the power of death to injure us is destroyed.

(3) A joyful assurance that to die is gain.

II. The way in which the power of death is destroyed.

1. It is only so far as death is a final evil, and as it separates us from God, that it is to be dreaded.

2. Therefore it is only to sinners, and on account of sin, that death is the king of terrors.

3. Sin, however, derives its power from the law, which gives sin its power to condemn.

4. What, therefore, satisfies the law destroys the power of sin, and thus deprives death of its sting.

5. Christ having satisfied the demands of the law gives us the victory over death.

III. How are we to avail ourselves of this provision for our triumph?

1. We must be clothed in the righteousness of Christ.

2. We must know that we are in Him.

3. We must be prepared to give up the treasures and pleasures of this life for heaven.

4. We must therefore live near to God and elevated above the world.

IV. The experience of God’s people.

1. Some die in doubt.

2. Some in praise.

3. Some in triumph.

It matters little, provided we are only in Christ. But it is of great moment that when death comes we shall have nothing to do but die. (C. Hedge, D.D.)

The believer’s triumph

I. Our bodies, in the present state of existence, are characterised by attributes of degradation. Our bodies bear many circumstances of dignity and grandeur. We are “fearfully and wonderfully made”; and there is that in every man which may lead us to see that he bears the image of God. But we are--

1. Corruptible.

2. Mortal. We are subject to innumerable diseases and accidents to languor and decline. We wear down by slow degrees, or are snapped asunder in a moment.

3. What is the reason that we are subject to such an allotment? The answer is, sin (Romans 5:1.). We cannot look on one grave that was not opened by sin, nor on one body that was not laid low by sin.

II. A period is ordained when our bodies are to be invested with principles of restoration. If we could look on no prospect but the tomb, then we might freely admit that human existence, with all its circumstances of joy, would yet be but misery. But by the gospel “life and immortality” are “brought to light.” Notice three things in reference to this change.

1. The agency by which it is to be effected. All those events which concern our acceptance and final salvation are committed to Christ. As He has made peace by the blood of atonement, and as He is the medium of all grace and blessing, so by Him is to be the great adjudication which shall fix our destiny. Divine must be His attributes at whose bidding all the graves shall uncharnel, and all their countless inhabitants stand before Him.

2. The attributes of which it is to consist. By connecting the attributes of incorruption and in, mortality with the resurrection, we may be furnished with two ideas respecting our future change. It is to consist--

(1) Of an entire conformation to the image of Christ (1 Corinthians 15:49).

(2) In an introduction to the perpetuity of perfect happiness. Eternal life is only another word for eternal happiness.

3. The certainty with which it is invested. “In Christ shall all be made alive.” “This corruptible must put on incorruption.”

III. The arrival of this period shall be known as one of splendid triumph. By a fine poetic figure death is set forth as a powerful foe; and all the pains, etc., which death has inflicted are to be regarded as so many victories achieved by him. But there is a counter foe; and there is a victory achieved over this formidable foe. Glorious will be that victory!

(1) A sufficient payment for all the trials of mortality.

(2) A complete and satisfactory explanation of all the dark passages in the moral government of God upon earth. When all the redeemed shall join in one loud melodious song--“Unto Him that loved us,” etc.

Conclusion: The subject furnishes--

1. A ground of substantial consolation while we contemplate the departure of our Christian friends.

2. A ground for solemn and serious examination as to our state in reference to the arrival of that solemn hour. (J. Parsons.)

The Christian’s triumph over death

I. Death may naturally be considered as an enemy.

II. True Christians shall obtain a complete victory over death.

1. The victory is in some measure obtained even in the present life. Death hath now, in effect, changed its nature, it only hurts the body, not the soul it only puts an end to those pursuits, employments, and entertainments which are suited to the body and this present world, but not to those about which holy souls are engaged, and with which they are delighted and improved. Nay, it is become, on many accounts, a benefit; as it puts an end to their temptations and conflicts, doubts and fears. A present victory is obtained by the calmness with which the saints die; and that joy unspeakable and full of glory, with which the Spirit of Christ sometimes replenishes their hearts, when the flesh is sinking into the dust.

2. The victory shall be perfected in the future world.

(1) All the faithful servants of Christ shall be raised again.

(2) Their bodies shall be transformed into the image of Christ’s body.

(3) They shall be fixed in a state of complete and everlasting happiness.

Reflections:

1. Let us contemplate the power and grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, so illustriously displayed in this triumph over death.

2. Let us reflect on the difference between good and bad men with regard to the consequences of death.

3. Lastly, let the servants of Christ be calm and resigned in the view of their own death, and when their pious friends are removed. (J. Orton.)