The Mystery of Resurrection and Transformation Unveiled by St. Paul
THE doctrine of the resurrection was altogether unknown to the heathen world, and but imperfectly known even to the Jews themselves. The idea of bodies, once moldered into dust and scattered over the face of the earth, being ever restored, and reunited to their kindred souls, appeared so visionary, as to be wholly inadmissible and incredible. But St. Paul shews, that the resurrection of our blessed Lord was a fact established beyond the possibility of doubt; and that he had risen “as the first-fruits,” which would assuredly be followed by an universal harvesta. True it was that a great change would take place in the body, such as was necessary to fit it for its future state of existence: but still it would be the same body in reality, just as the wheat, which, when sown in the ground, first dies, and then rises substantially the same, though in a very different formb. To the question, What shall be done with those who shall be living upon the earth at the last day? He answers, That they shall undergo a change equivalent to death and resurrection: and the manner in which this shall be effected he represents as a mystery, which in former ages had been wholly unknown, but which from inspiration he was now enabled to proclaim. However death had seemed hitherto to triumph over the many successive generations that had existed upon earth, there should at last be an end of his reign, and he himself should be triumphed over by all who belong to Christ.
a ver. 20, 23. “But now is Christ risen from the dead, and become the firstfruits of them that slept.” (1 Corinthians 15:20, KJV)
“But every man in his own order: Christ the firstfruits; afterward they that are Christ’s at his coming.” (1 Corinthians 15:23, KJV)
b ver. 35–38. “But some man will say, How are the dead raised up? and with what body do they come? Thou fool, that which thou sowest is not quickened, except it die: And that which thou sowest, thou sowest not that body that shall be, but bare grain, it may chance of wheat, or of some other grain: But God giveth it a body as it hath pleased him, and to every seed his own body.” (1 Corinthians 15:35–38, KJV)
Simeon, C. (1833). Horae Homileticae: 1 and 2 Corinthians (Vol. 16). Holdsworth and Ball. (Public Domain)
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