Homily 42 — First Corinthians 15, verses 47 to 58

“The first man is from the earth, a man of dust; the second man is the Lord from heaven.” [a]

Having said that “the natural came first” and “the spiritual afterward,” he states yet another difference, speaking of “the man of dust” and “the heavenly man.” The first difference was between the present life and the life to come; this one is between the time before grace and the time after grace. And he stated it with a view to the most excellent way of life. For, as I said, he wants to keep people from a confidence in the resurrection that would make them careless of their conduct and of perfection; so from this topic too he makes them anxious again and urges them on to virtue. That is why he says, “The first man is from the earth, a man of dust; the second man is the Lord from heaven.” He calls the whole of each by the name “man,” and names the one from the better part and the other from the worse.

Verse 48: “As is the man of dust, so also are those who are of dust”: so they will perish and come to an end. “As is the heavenly man, so also are those who are heavenly”: so they will remain immortal and glorious. What then? Did not this Man die too? He died, yes, but he suffered no harm from it; on the contrary, by dying he put an end to death. Do you see how in this part of his subject too he uses death to establish the teaching of the resurrection? This is what he is saying: “Since you have, as I said before, the beginning and the head, do not doubt about the whole body.”

At the same time he builds on this his advice about the best way of living. He sets out the standards of a lofty and strict life and of a life that is not such, and he brings forward the founders of both: of the one, Christ; of the other, Adam. That is why he did not simply say “from the earth,” but “of dust” — that is, coarse, nailed down to the things of the present — and, again, said the reverse of Christ: “the Lord from heaven.”

But suppose someone says: “Then the Lord does not have a body, because he is said to be ‘from heaven.’” What has already been said is enough to stop their mouths. Still, nothing prevents us from silencing them on this ground as well. What does “the Lord from heaven” mean? Is he speaking of his nature, or of his most perfect life? It is evident to everyone, I think, that he is speaking of his life. That is why he adds, Verse 49: “As we have borne the image of the man of dust” — that is, as we have done evil — “let us also bear the image of the heavenly man” — that is, let us practice every kind of goodness. [d]

Besides this, I would like to ask you: is it of nature that the words “the man from the earth, of dust” and “the Lord from heaven” are spoken? “Yes.” What then? Was Adam only “of dust,” or did he also have another kind of substance, akin to the heavenly and bodiless beings, which Scripture calls “soul” and “spirit”? Everyone can see that he had this too. In the same way, the Lord was not only from above, although he is said to be “from heaven”; he had also taken on our flesh. No, Paul means something like this: “As we have borne the image of the man of dust” — that is, evil deeds — “let us also bear the image of the heavenly man” — the way of life that is lived in heaven. If he were speaking of nature, the matter would need no exhortation and no advice. So from this too it is evident that the expression refers to our way of life.

That is also why he brings in the saying as a piece of advice, and calls it an “image,” here again showing that he is speaking of conduct, not of nature. For we have become “of dust” because we have done evil — not because we were formed “of dust” in the beginning, but because we sinned. Sin came first, then death, and then the sentence, “Dust you are, and to dust you will return” (Genesis 3, verse 19). After that the swarm of the passions came in as well. It is not simply being born “of the earth” that makes a man “of dust” — the Lord too was of this same mass and lump — but doing earthly things; just as a man is made “heavenly” by doing things fit for heaven.

But enough. Why should I labor so hard to prove this, when the apostle himself goes on to unfold the thought for us, saying, Verse 50: “Now this I say, brothers and sisters, that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God.”

Do you see how he explains himself again and spares us the trouble? He often does this. By “flesh” he here means people’s evil deeds, as he has done elsewhere too; for example, when he says, “But you are not in the flesh,” and again, “So then those who are in the flesh cannot please God” (Romans 8, verses 8 and 9). So when he says, “Now this I say,” he means nothing other than this: “I said these things so that you may learn that evil deeds do not lead to a kingdom.” So from the resurrection he went straight on to bring in the teaching about the kingdom as well. That is why he adds, “nor does corruption inherit incorruption” — that is, wickedness will not inherit that glory and the enjoyment of the things that never decay. In many other places too he calls wickedness by this name, saying, “He who sows to the flesh will from the flesh reap corruption” (Galatians 6, verse 8). Now if he were speaking of the body and not of wrongdoing, he would not have said “corruption.” He nowhere calls the body “corruption,” since it is not corruption but a thing corruptible. That is why, when he goes on to speak of the body too, he calls it not “corruption” but “corruptible,” saying, “For this corruptible must put on incorruption.”

Next, having finished his advice about our way of life, he passes again to the teaching of the resurrection of the body, as he always does, weaving one subject closely into another. He goes on: [g]

Verse 51: “Look, I tell you a mystery.”

What he is about to speak of is something awe-inspiring and beyond words, something not everyone knows. This also shows how great an honor he pays them — I mean, his telling mysteries to them. But what is it?

“We will not all sleep, but we will all be changed.” He means this: “We will not all die, ‘but we will all be changed’” — even those who do not die, for they too are mortal. He is saying: “So do not be afraid because you die, as though you would not rise again. There are — yes, there are — some who will even escape this; and yet that is not enough for them for that resurrection. Even the bodies that do not die must be changed and transformed into incorruption.”

Verse 52: “In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet.” After he had said a great deal about the resurrection, he now, at the right time, points out how utterly marvelous it is as well. It is as if he said: “This is not the only wonder: that our bodies first turn to corruption and then are raised; nor that the bodies that rise again after their corruption are better than these present ones; nor that they pass into a far better state; nor that each one receives back his own body and no one receives another’s. The wonder is that things so many and so great, surpassing all human reason and imagining, are done ‘in a moment.’” That is, in an instant of time. And to show this more clearly he says, “in the twinkling of an eye” — in the time it takes to blink. Then, because he had said something great and full of astonishment — that results so many and so great should come about so quickly — he brings forward, to prove it, the trustworthiness of the one who does it, as follows: “For the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised incorruptible, and we will be changed.” He uses the word “we” not of himself but of those who are found alive at that time.

Verse 53: “For this corruptible must put on incorruption.”

So that no one, hearing that “flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God,” should suppose that our bodies do not rise again, he adds, “This corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality.” Now the body is “corruptible,” and the body is “mortal.” So the body itself remains, for it is the body that is clothed; but its mortality and corruption vanish when immortality and incorruption come upon it. So do not ask any more how it will live an endless life, now that you have heard that it becomes incorruptible.

Verse 54: “But when this corruptible has put on incorruption, and this mortal has put on immortality, then the saying that is written will come to pass: Death is swallowed up in victory.” [h]

Since he was speaking of great and hidden things, he again brings in prophecy (Hosea 13, verse 14) to confirm what he says. “Death is swallowed up in victory”: that is, utterly. Not so much as a fragment of it remains, nor any hope of its coming back, for incorruption has consumed corruption.

Verse 55: “O death, where is your sting? O grave, where is your victory?” Do you see his noble soul? Like someone offering sacrifices for a victory, he has become inspired; seeing things to come as though they were already past, he leaps up and tramples on death as it lies fallen at his feet, and he raises a shout of triumph over its head where it lies, crying out mightily, “O death, where is your sting? O grave, where is your victory?” It is gone; it has perished; it has vanished completely, and all you did before was in vain. For he did not only disarm death and conquer it; he destroyed it, and made it cease to exist altogether.

Verse 56: “Now the sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law.” Do you see that the discussion is about the death of the body? Then it is also about the resurrection of the body. For if these bodies do not rise again, how is death “swallowed up”? And not only that: how is “the law the power of sin”? That “sin” is “the sting of death” — more bitter than death, and the thing that gives death its power — is evident. But how is “the law” also its “power”? Because without the law sin was weak. It was committed, yes, but it could not condemn so completely; although the evil took place, it was not so clearly pointed out. So it was no small change that the law brought in: first it made us know sin better, and then it increased the punishment. And if, though it was meant to check sin, it only brought sin out more fearfully, that is no charge against the physician, but against the misuse of the remedy.

Even Christ’s coming made the Jews’ burden heavier; yet we must not blame it for that. Rather, while we admire it all the more, must we not hate them all the more for having been harmed by the very things that ought to have helped them? Indeed, to show that it was not the law in itself that gives sin its strength, Christ himself fulfilled all of it and was without sin.

But I want you to notice how from this topic too he confirms the resurrection. If this was the cause of death — our committing sin — and if Christ came and took sin away, and set us free from it through baptism, and together with sin put an end also to the law, in the breaking of which sin consists, why do you still doubt the resurrection? After all this, how is death to prevail? Through the law? No, it has been done away with. Through sin? No, it has been utterly destroyed.

Verse 57: “But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.”

He himself set up the trophy, but he has given us a share in the crowns as well. And this not as something owed, but out of pure mercy.

Verse 58: “Therefore, brothers and sisters, be steadfast, immovable.” This exhortation is right and well timed after all that went before. For nothing unsettles us so much as the thought that we are being battered for no reason and to no purpose. [l]

“Always abounding in the work of the Lord”: that is, in the pure life. And he did not say “doing what is good,” but “abounding,” so that we might do it abundantly and go beyond the limits of the contest.

“Knowing that your labor is not in vain in the Lord.”

What are you saying? Labor again? Yes, but labor followed by crowns, and crowns above the heavens. The former labor, which came when man was driven out of paradise, was the punishment for his transgressions; this labor is the ground of the rewards to come. So it cannot really be labor at all, both for this reason and because of the great help it receives from above. That is why he adds, “in the Lord.” The purpose of the former was that we should suffer punishment; the purpose of this, that we should obtain the good things to come.

So let us not sleep, my beloved. It cannot be — it cannot be — that anyone should reach the kingdom of heaven through laziness, nor those who live in luxury and softness. Indeed, it is a great thing if, by straining ourselves, “keeping the body under control,” and enduring countless labors, we are able to reach those blessings. Do you not see how vast the distance is between heaven and earth? How great a struggle lies before us? How prone to evil a human being is? How easily sin “entangles us”? How many snares lie in the way?

Why, then, do we draw on ourselves so many cares beyond those that nature brings, and give ourselves more trouble, and make our burden heavier? Is it not enough that we have to take care of our food and clothing and houses? Is it not enough to give thought to the things we need? And yet Christ draws us away even from these, saying, “Do not be anxious for your life, what you will eat, nor for your body, what you will put on” (Matthew 6, verse 25). But if we ought not to be anxious about necessary food and clothing, nor about tomorrow, then those who pile up so great a heap of rubbish and bury themselves under it — when will they be able to come up out of it? Have you not heard Paul saying, “No soldier on active service entangles himself in the affairs of this life” (Second Timothy 2, verse 4)?

But we live in luxury, eat and drink to excess, and put up with being battered for the sake of outward things, while in the things of heaven we behave like cowards. Do you not know that the promise is too high for human beings? It cannot be that someone walking on the ground should climb up to the vaults of heaven. Yet we do not even try to live like human beings; we have become worse than the animals without reason.

Do you not know before what a judgment seat we are to stand? Do you not consider that an account is demanded of us for our words and our thoughts, while we pay no attention even to our actions? “Whoever looks at a woman to lust after her,” he says, “has already committed adultery with her” (Matthew 5, verse 28). And yet people who must give an account for a mere idle look do not shrink even from lying and rotting in the sin itself. “Whoever says to his brother, ‘You fool,’ will be thrown into the fire of hell” (Matthew 5, verse 22). But we heap countless insults on our brothers and craftily plot against them. “Whoever loves someone who loves him is no better than the pagans” (Matthew 5, verses 46 and 47); but we even envy those who love us.

What leniency, then, will we find, when we have been commanded to go beyond the old lines, and yet we weave the thread of our life to an even scantier measure than theirs? What plea will rescue us? Who will stand up and help us when we are punished? There is no one. Instead, wailing and weeping and gnashing our teeth, we must be led away in torment into that darkness without a ray of light, to pains that no prayer can turn aside, to punishments that nothing can ease.

That is why I beg and implore you, and take hold of your very knees: while we have this scant provision for the journey of life, be pierced to the heart by what has been said; turn back; become better people. Then we will not, like that rich man, lament to no purpose in that world after we depart, and go on from then on in wailing that has no cure. For even if you have a father or a son or a friend or anyone at all who has boldness before God, none of them will ever rescue you when your own works have destroyed you. That is what that judgment seat is like: it judges by our actions alone, and there is no other way to be saved there.

I say these things not to grieve you or to throw you into despair, but so that we do not neglect our own goodness, fed on empty and feeble hopes and putting our trust in this person or that. For if we are lazy, there will be no righteous man, no prophet, no apostle, no one at all to stand by us. But if we have been earnest, and have enough in the plea that each one’s own works provide, we will depart with confidence and obtain the good things laid up for those who love God. May we all attain them, through the grace and mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ, with whom, to the Father, together with the Holy Spirit, be glory, power, and honor, now and always, and forever and ever. Amen.