Introducing I Corinthians 15 on the General Resurrection

Introducing I Corinthians 15 on the General Resurrection Preacher: Rev. Angus Stewart Series: Belgic Confession 37 Scripture: I Corinthians 15:11-35

THE LAST JUDGMENT

… Then all men will personally appear before this great Judge, both men and women and children, that have been from the beginning of the world to the end thereof, being summoned by the voice of the archangel and by the sound of the trumpet of God. For all the dead shall be raised out of the earth, and their souls joined and united with their proper bodies in which they formerly lived. As for those who shall then be living, they shall not die as the others, but be changed in the twinkling of an eye, and from corruptible become incorruptible. Then the books (that is to say, the consciences) shall be opened, and the dead judged according to what they shall have done in this world, whether it be good or evil. Nay, all men shall give an account of every idle word they have spoken, which the world only counts amusement and jest; and then the secrets and hypocrisy of men shall be disclosed and laid open before all …

Charles Hodge on I Corinthians 15 in A Commentary on 1 & 2 Corinthians:

[1] “The Resurrection of the Dead. In treating this subject the apostle first proves the fact of Christ’s resurrection, vs. 1-11. He thence deduces, first, the possibility, and then the certainty of the resurrection of his people, vs. 12-34. He afterwards teaches the nature of the resurrection, so far as to show that the doctrine is not liable to the objections which had been brought against it, vs. 35-58″ (p. 308).

[2] “Nature of the resurrection body, vs. 35-58. Having proved the fact of the resurrection, the apostle comes to illustrate its nature, or to teach with what kind of bodies the dead are to rise. It seems that the great objection against the doctrine [of the general resurrection] in the minds of his readers rested on the assumption that our future bodies are to be of the same nature with those which we now have [cf. v. 35]; that is, natural bodies consisting of flesh and blood, and sustained by air, food and sleep. Paul says this is a foolish assumption. Our future bodies may be material and identical with our present bodies, and yet organized in a very different way” (p. 341).