| Resurrection NOW |
| The Resurrection is Already Beginning |
| by David A. DePra |
| The fifteenth chapter of Corinthians is commonly called the |
| "resurrection chapter" of the Bible. Most often it is considered to |
| be a description of the future resurrection at the end of the age. |
| That application is appropriate in the overall, finalized sense. But |
| the fact remains that the chapter describes the process of death |
| and resurrection in our Christian experience NOW. It has a very |
| definite application to "resurrection NOW" in Christ Jesus for |
| each and every Christian. |
| Foolish Questions |
| We begin in I Corinthians 15:35-36: |
| But someone will say, "How are the dead raised? And with what |
| kind of body do they come? You fool! That which you sow does |
| not come to life unless it dies. (I Cor. 15:35-36) |
| Paul is rehearsing what he terms to be "foolish" questions. Do |
| you see that? He says, "someone will say..." Then he gives a |
| couple of rhetorical questions: How are the dead raised? And |
| what form will their body take?" Then he replies, "You fool!" But |
| why does he consider such questions to be foolish? |
| The rest of his reply tells us. He says, "That which you sow |
| does not come to life unless it DIES." |
| DEATH is why these are foolish questions. What you "sow" |
| must first DIE. Death is not resurrection. It carries no hint as to |
| what will be raised. It is death! It is an absolute surrender into |
| the unknown. |
| This applies to the Christian life in the here and now. If we are |
| to surrender to God -- lose our lives in some specific matter |
| -- then it is futile for us to ask, "Lord, HOW are you going to |
| raise this up?" It is foolish to ask, "Lord, what FORM will this take |
| when you bring it back from the dead?" God isn't going to tell |
| us. God CANNOT tell us. |
| Why? God isn't going to tell us because if He did, then the |
| death we are to die really wouldn't BE death. Death, for a |
| Christian, is absolute surrender to God. It is absolute surrender |
| to the unknown. We cannot know how God will raise us up. We |
| cannot know what form it will take. All we know is the One to |
| whom we are surrendering. We say, "Into Your hands I commit |
| my spirit." |
| Any other questions we might ask are actually foolish. They |
| are foolish because even if God told us the specifics that we |
| would like to know we would not grasp them. We cannot grasp |
| them until we pass through the death. Before that, it is sufficient |
| that we rest in HIM. It is sufficient that we know that God will |
| raise us up and give us a form which pleases Him. |
| Faith does not know. But it trusts the One who does. |
| Consequently, we may not know HOW God will raise us up, or |
| what form our resurrection will take. But we do know the One to |
| whom we are surrendering. And it is sufficient that He knows |
| what pleases Him. God will bring us to these kinds of spiritual |
| experiences again and again. They are the normal state for a |
| Christian. |
| Sowing a Seed |
| And that which you sow, you do not sow the body WHICH IS TO |
| BE, but a bare grain, perhaps of wheat or something else. But |
| God gives it a body JUST AS HE WISHED, and to each of the |
| seeds a body of it's own. |
| Paul uses the analogy of "sowing." The word "sow" comes |
| from a root which means to "draw out; extend; to scatter." Of |
| course. That is what is done with "my seed." I cast it "away from |
| myself" -- from out of MY hand. |
| Spiritually, this is surrender. It is abandonment. It is what it |
| means to commit oneself into the hand of God without conditions |
| attached. It is what it means to want HIS will. We "cast away" |
| from ourselves that which we had held to ourselves as our own. |
| We cast it forth into the "ground" -- into God's hands for the |
| death it must die. And then we LEAVE IT ALONE. We cannot |
| know how it will be raised, or what form it will take when it is |
| raised. And God cannot tell us. No. It -- WE -- must die. |
| Now, don't think of this death as applying only to "things." |
| Sure, often we must let go of possessions, people, and |
| situations. But what God is really telling us to cast forth as a |
| seed is OURSELVES. |
| It is important to see this. We tend to be so temporal minded |
| that we think God wants us to surrender a person, possession, |
| situation, or desire. But those things can't die. They are only |
| vehicles. WE must die. We must surrender ourselves -- our |
| will, our desire, our investment IN those things. God really wants |
| US. WE must die and be raised. |
| We must cast forth OUR will, and OUR desires, and OUR |
| hopes, and OUR control over the outcome of our lives. And if we |
| will "sow these seeds," WE will die. And we will have no clue as |
| to how God can ever raise us up. We will not know to "what |
| form" we will have when He does. But God knows. And He will |
| take that aspect of our being which He is after -- which must |
| now be set free from the old creation -- and raise it up on an |
| entirely new basis. I will be raised up bearing the image of Jesus |
| Christ to a greater degree than I did before. |
| Bare Grain |
| Notice that the "seed we sow" is a BARE GRAIN. It is not yet |
| the "body which is to be." In other words, when we cast forth |
| some aspect of ourselves unto God, it holds only a POTENTIAL |
| for life. It is as a "bare grain." It holds within itself all the potential |
| for some great release in God, both in this life and for the age to |
| come. But there will be a release only if we first DIE. There is |
| never a resurrection unless there is first a death. |
| Jesus Himself said this in reference to His own death and |
| resurrection. He said that "unless a seed die it abideth alone." It |
| must die if there is to be a resurrection; a bringing forth of much |
| fruit. |
| So it is with us. When our seed is cast, the sower (us) knows |
| only that it is a "bare grain," holding a potential for life that is not |
| yet manifest or possible. He does not yet know "what it will be." |
| He CANNOT know what it will be, specifically. But when it is |
| raised, it will be exactly what God wants. For "God gives it a |
| body JUST AS HE WISHED, and to each of the seeds a body of |
| it's own." |
| Seeing God's Love |
| It can be a terrifying thing to cast ourselves completely into |
| God's hands, and to relinquish control over the outcome of our |
| lives. But while we usually think of such a surrender as an |
| extraordinary event, it really shouldn't be. Christians are |
| supposed to live in these kinds of surrenders. They are |
| supposed to be the norm for us. They are what it means to walk |
| by faith. |
| The "terrifying" aspect, of course, comes about because we |
| we don't know God. We have yet to see His unconditional, |
| agape love for us. Consequently, we feel more secure being in |
| control. But God tells us that if we are in control, we are really in |
| the most precarious position possible. Only if we surrender to |
| Him are we secure. Thus, as we walk with God, and more and |
| more surrender to Him, we will come to see His love. And the |
| "scary" part of surrendering to God will grow less and less. We |
| will grow to know and trust God more and more. As the Bible |
| says, "Perfect love casts out fear." |
| Working Out Our Salvation |
| Truly "sowing ourselves" unto death involves much more than |
| simply telling God that we WANT His will. That, of course, is very |
| good, very necessary, and certainly a first step. But that is not |
| enough. We must actually die. And if we are serious with God, |
| He'll see to it that we do. |
| But wait. WHAT dies? As indicated before. WE die. But how |
| can this be? Aren't we already dead in Christ? |
| Yes. But that is precisely why we must sow. Having died in |
| Christ, we must now go on to sow ourselves, practically and |
| experientially, into His death. This is what it means to "work out |
| our salvation with fear and trembling." We choose to surrender |
| that which is already dead in Christ, and allow His life to break |
| forth in us. |
| Doesn't that seem strange? Doesn't it seem strange that we |
| are to surrender what is ALREADY dead? Why would we need |
| to? Because we are creatures of choice. Moral creatures. Even |
| though the old creation is dead in Christ, and we are a new |
| creation, we must nevertheless choose to "put off" the old man, |
| and "put on" the new man. We must let this Truth work in us. We |
| must yield ourselves to the new life, and disgard the old. |
| This is "spiritual growth." |
| Resurrection |
| So also is the resurrection of the dead. It is sown a perishable |
| body; it is raised an imperishable body. It is sown in dishonor; it |
| is raised in glory. It is sown in weakness, it is raised in power. It is |
| sown a natural body, it is raised a spiritual body. So also it is |
| written, "The first man, Adam, became a living soul." The Last |
| Adam became a life-giving spirit." |
| Paul goes on to describe the different degrees of glory that will |
| apply to each thing that is raised up in the life of Christ. He then |
| draws a four-fold comparison between that which is SOWN and |
| that which is RAISED. He has already stated that we will NOT |
| KNOW what is going to come up, exactly, out of what we have |
| sown. But we do know what KIND OF LIFE it will be OF. It will be |
| of the life of CHRIST, Who is the resurrection and the life. |
| The four-fold comparison: |
| That which is SOWN: |
| Perishable |
| In dishonor |
| In weakness |
| Natural |
| That which is RAISED: |
| Imperishable |
| In Glory |
| In Power |
| Spiritual |
| Notice how much greater that which is raised is than that |
| which dies. Yet, ironically, what DIES is raised -- not |
| something else. In other words, God doesn't create out of the |
| blue a new thing. He takes the old thing, brings it through the |
| death of Christ, and raises it up in a restored and adjusted |
| condition. It is then under the power of the resurrection. |
| Any part of my being which has been raised in Christ can no |
| longer be touched by death -- or the things of death. It is free |
| and clear of that which is of the old creation -- free to worship |
| God, glorify God, and realize it's full potential in Him. But that is |
| only for the here and now. What we experience in Christ in the |
| here and now is only, in itself, a bare seed. All of that too, must |
| die a death. And then, when we are raised bodily, every potential |
| which we possess in Christ will be released fully. |
| How could we possibly grasp that? What would it be like, for |
| instance, to experience infinite joy -- unshackled by the |
| limitations of a physical body, or damaged emotions. What |
| would it be life to be free of all of the terrible aspects of the flesh |
| which make it so difficult to see the spritual reality of Christ? We |
| have only a glimse of what this could be like now. We see |
| through a glass darkness. But then, we shall see face to face. |
| The resurrection is the great hope for Christians. It is THE |
| theme of the New Testament. But it all starts with "sowing." What |
| we shall sow, we shall reap -- for here and now, and for all |
| eternity. We may not be able to know WHAT we will reap, or |
| what form it may take. Those are foolish questions. But we can |
| rest in the fact the God knows. And He always knows best. |