What A Wonderful Promise:
Don’t just reach for the stars, take one; God has promised them to us!
I had just prepared the ground in my yard to receive seeds that I was about to plant. The instructions said to plant each seed 4 inches deep, put six inches between them, and be sure to nourish, an water them properly. All this sounded reasonable to me.
I opened the package of seed, took one out, and examined it. It wasn’t very large, and I saw nothing extra ordinary about it. I picked up the package, and looked at the picture of what this seed was supposed to produce. This small seed was to become a semi-large plant; and each plant was to produce the fruit of tomatoes.
When I planted it, I could not expect it to produce corn, or wheat, apples, or anything else; nothing but tomatoes. A verse in Genesis came to mind, everything, “After its own kind.”
We can look at nature itself, it screams of death, and resurrection. Nature goes from a beautiful fall, when the leaves begin to turn into the many wonderful colors of autum, and when the flowers begin to wilt, and die; to a cold and blustery winter scene.
Nature has its own form of death and burial. When winter comes, and the snow is deep, the seeds of each, and every plant lie dormant, waiting patiently for spring; The warmth of a Spring day, when the sun will awaken them, and the spring rains nourish them.
1 Corinthians 15:35, “Some man will say, How are the dead raised up? and with what body do they come?
I thought of that tomato seed. What body did the seed have when I planted it? and what was I to expect if I nourished, and watered properly?
Paul goes on to say in,
1 Corinthians 15:36, “That which thou sowest is not (made alive) except it die.”
I thought, “What a stunning comparison; the seed of the tomato plant has to be buried in the ground, die, and only then will it return to life, bearing its fruit.
Verse 37, “That which thou sowest (the seed,) thou sowest not that body that shall be, but mere grain it may chance of wheat (in my case, tomatoes) or of some other grain.”
What goes into the ground when we die is an earthly body, “For dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return.”
Verse 40, Paul’s writes, “There are also celestial (heavenly) bodies, and bodies terrestrial (earthly,) but the glory of the celestial is one, and the glory of the terrestrial is another.”
Everything is of its own kind, having its own glory: all this sounded reasonable to me.
Verse 41, Paul goes on to describe the sun, moon, and stars, and how each differs in glory.
Verse 42, Here is where it gets interesting. Paul makes a astonishing comparison.
“So also is the resurrection of the dead. We, “Are sown in corruption (decay) and we are raised in incorruption (immortal.)”
Ver.43, we are, “Sown in dishonor (shame, and reproach, (and) raised in glory: (we) are sown in weakness (lack of strength, sick,) and (we) are raised in power.”
Verse 44, Our bodies are, “Sown a natural body; and raised a spiritual body. There is a natural body, and there is a spiritual.”
Am I to understand that each phase of our completeness in Christ has to go through stages? We are as the first Adam who was of the earth, mortal, and destined to die. But then to be raised to eternal life as was the last Adam, Jesus Christ. Planted in the flesh, weak, and without strength, then raised in the spirit, in power, and in the glory of our Saviour?
Born in a natural body, but raised a quickening spirit. So how and when is this to happen?
1 Corinthians 15:51-52-53, “I show you a mystery.”
Let me stop here. Paul is about to reveal something that had been kept secret; something known only to God. Never had this been revealed to any O.T. prophets, or the apostles themself. But now Paul as God’s apostle to the church would reveal God’s marvelous work of resurrection.
“We shall not all sleep (die,) but we shall all be changed.”
Changed from mortal, to immortal, from corruption, to incorruption, from earthly, to heavenly!
“In a moment (this will happen) in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump:”
This is the last call of the great harvest, and gathering of the main body of believers who have washed their garments in the blood of the Lamb.
“The dead (earthly) shall be raised incorruptible, and we (the faithful) shall be changed. From corruption to incorruption, from mortal to immortality. And “Death is swallowed up in victory.”
What a wonderful promise and hope we have.
Phillip LaSpino www.seekfirstwisdom.com