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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.

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