Doctrine: Implications of the Resurrection of the Dead, part 3

[0:00] Distracted, so. Okay. Well, let's pray, and we'll dive right in.

[0:14] Father, we come to you and give you praise because you're glorious and you're powerful and you're strong and mighty and good, and you have given us your word to teach us how to think, what to think, what to know, how life works, what we can expect, what we should believe, and I pray, Father, that you would help us to understand your word today, and I pray that it would encourage us and strengthen us, and I pray, Father, that from this we can use what we learn to be able to help and strengthen and encourage others, and we pray this in Christ's name. Amen.

[0:47] All right. So, very briefly, just kind of getting us into this, if you start talking about the resurrection of the dead, you get lots of interesting looks from all kinds of people.

[1:05] I can remember in the book of Acts chapter 17, Paul is in Athens, and he's seeking to reason with people out in the marketplace, and he begins to speak of the resurrection, and they're like, oh, we need you to come back tomorrow so we can hear this again.

[1:19] This is really fascinating. And he goes back the next day, and they're just super mocking of him, right? Just like, what a ridiculous idea.

[1:30] And so, the Corinthians, because of their commitment to Gnosticism, and because of their commitment to the body is bad, matter is bad, and spirit is good, they have trouble with the resurrection of the dead, and that trouble, that's kind of what has led to this whole writing.

[1:50] And Paul has already sought to prove the resurrection of the dead, but now he's going to answer some implications, or talk about some implications. Some of those implications are, okay, let's assume you're right, and there's no resurrection of the dead, then why point number one and point number two?

[2:08] But then, it's like he turns the tables and lets them talk, and they would say, well, if there is a resurrection of the dead, then what does the body look like? And the reason that they ask such a question, and he puts that question in their mouth, is because if you think the body's bad, then it would be hard for you to imagine any kind of body that would be worthwhile, right?

[2:32] So, that's the way this section is kind of structured, is with these various implications. So, let's just deal with them one at a time.

[2:43] The first two are going to go pretty quick, okay? The first two are going to go pretty quick, and I'm not going to read the whole passage in one sitting. We'll take it just as we go point by point. So, the first implication is, why are you baptized for the dead, or why are there people being baptized for the dead?

[3:00] Verse 29 of 1 Corinthians chapter 15 says this, Otherwise, what do people mean by being baptized on behalf of the dead? If the dead are not raised at all, why are people baptized on their behalf?

[3:12] Well, so, Paul is absolutely bringing forward this question, and his point is, there's an inconsistency. If you don't believe in the resurrection of the dead, then why is there baptism for the dead?

[3:28] Now, let's just deal with this. What is it that is the baptism for the dead? And here's the answer. Nobody knows. Nobody knows. Matter of fact, you look into the commentaries, and you look at the historical documents, and you try to get to the scholars, and what they've discovered, and there are over 200 theories as to what this baptism of the dead is.

[3:50] Like, is it something the Corinthians were doing? Is it something somebody else was doing? Is it something that the church as a whole did? Is it something that the church did as a whole later, and somebody just sort of interpolated and dropped that particular passage in as a scribal error?

[4:05] I mean, like, there's all kinds of theories. Here's the fact of the matter. The fact of the matter is we do not know. We are not told. And so don't try to speculate what this is. Just understand how Paul's using it.

[4:17] Paul is pointing out an inconsistency between saying that there's no resurrection of the dead and the participation of these people doing this thing.

[4:30] He doesn't condone nor condemn the action. He's just using it to point out inconsistency in behavior. And that's one of the things that we have. We do have inconsistency in our behavior.

[4:42] Whether we believe a false doctrine, and we act differently than that, right? Which you can look at an atheist. They have false doctrine. They don't believe that God exists, and yet they have inconsistencies with that.

[4:53] But even we, sometimes as Christians, we have right doctrine, but we all have inconsistencies in the way we act. We believe that God is sovereign, yet when suffering comes, we complain. That's inconsistent, right?

[5:04] Well, this is, he's just pointing out an inconsistency, and that's all he's doing. The second thing is verse 30 through 34, and it's about suffering persecution for a hope you don't have if you don't believe in the resurrection of the dead.

[5:19] If you don't believe in the resurrection of the dead, and you're still being persecuted, you have no hope, why would you do this, right? That's his point here. Verse 30 says this, Why are we in danger every hour?

[5:31] I protest, brothers, by my pride in you, which I have in Christ Jesus our Lord. I die every day. What do I gain if, humanly speaking, I fought with beasts at Ephesus?

[5:42] If the dead are not raised, let us eat and drink, for tomorrow we die. Do not be deceived that bad company corrupts or ruins good morals. Wake up from your drunken stupor, as is right, and do not go on sinning.

[5:55] For some have no knowledge of God, and I say this to your shame. So his rhetorical question there at the beginning is really getting after, why would I risk my life preaching about something that's not true?

[6:11] That's a pretty fair question, right? But he goes on to then affirm, I do die daily. I am under all kinds of persecution. I'm under all kinds of pressure.

[6:23] I have been beaten. I have been falsely accused. I am risking life and limb to preach the gospel. And you're telling me that the resurrection of the dead is not true?

[6:35] No. No, that's not true at all. It is true. As a matter of fact, he even talks about fighting beasts, right there in Ephesus, that fighting beast. So it could be that he's looking at that in a symbolic way, because in Ephesus there were people who were opposed to Paul, and he was preaching the gospel and the resurrection of the dead, and they began to go against him, right?

[6:59] But he could also be saying this literally, because in Ephesus there was a theater that they used as a coliseum and had people go in and fight the wild beasts.

[7:10] And he's like, there's a risk that we have for preaching this gospel that includes the resurrection of the dead. And so why would we risk our life to preach something that doesn't have any bearing or hope at all?

[7:23] So if it's true, then guess what we should do? If it's true that there's no resurrection of the dead, we should just indulge, right? Eat, drink, tomorrow we die, right?

[7:36] I mean, and think about how important that is and the way Paul's speaking about that to understand what we should believe.

[7:49] We should believe in the resurrection of the dead because Paul's basically saying, if there is no resurrection of the dead, none of this is true. Just walk away from it. Now, I find that fascinating because, again, when we go back to the first part of this chapter and he says, I'm going to give to you the gospel, he doesn't say the words resurrection of the dead.

[8:12] He talks about the resurrection of Christ. So this is a doctrine that, from the way it looks on paper, seems tangential, right? But it's so much a part of the gospel that to say that you don't believe in this part of it, just walk away from it.

[8:32] There's no hope if there's no resurrection of the dead because Christ, who was 100% God and 100% man, if there's no resurrection of the dead, then you cannot have Christ being raised.

[8:44] That's how that's connected, right? And so he ends this section, verse 33 through 34, basically calling for an action. That if that's the way you are, and that's what you're thinking, then you need to stop being deceived.

[8:57] I think that's important to see. Stop being deceived. They are being deceived, and the burden of that is on them. He doesn't go around and say, stop deceiving people, but he's looking at the lay people who are listening to things they ought not listen to and telling them, stop being deceived.

[9:17] It's very important for us as we look at all theology to know that you are responsible for what you listen to in terms of teaching and preaching. And so you've got to be careful to not just let anything in because there are things out there that are not true.

[9:34] And so you have to be discerning. You've got to go in your discernment. But he tells them to wake up, right? Wake up from your drunken stupor and then stop sinning. If you look at all of those commands that he gives them, that's really a command or a call to repentance, a call to revival, a call to leave where they are and go out some other place.

[9:59] And so it's interesting that he uses this opportunity to call them to repentance because I think it's fascinating that we often think to ourselves of somebody who needs repentance as somebody who has committed some external sin, but he's calling them to repent because of false doctrine.

[10:21] Because of false doctrine. He's calling them to repent because they're believing the wrong thing. And I think that in most churches, you would find it pretty rare for someone to confront another Christian because they're believing in false doctrine.

[10:40] You know, because most people want to say, well, you know, that's what you believe or that's how you read that passage. Or, you know, well, I mean, each to his own as long as we all behave the right way.

[10:51] As though our external behavior is the only thing that matters. We have kind of that negative reverse problem of the Gnostic issue, right, sometimes. And so we think that it's okay if you believe that so long as you don't do wrong things.

[11:05] But that's just not the case with Paul. Paul is going like, no, you cannot believe false doctrine. You must believe what is true. So repent of these things. Walk away from these things. Stop sinning.

[11:16] Believing in the wrong thing is a sin. Now, that's harsh if you think about it. But it's good for us to hear that because we need to say, okay, so doctrine's important.

[11:31] Yeah, yeah. Yeah, that's a big, big cultural thing. So let me pause. I hit those two pretty quick. Any thoughts or questions, anything that you want to revisit before we jump into the third one?

[11:44] Because it's like I told you, those two go fast. It's this third one that's going to take us a little bit of time. It's probably going to be to the time of two. Two.

[11:59] Which lot of things will be. Anyway, baptized, we are baptized far from death. I can't believe you. Okay. So, what does that mean?

[12:14] We are baptized. Am I reading that? Okay. So it says, otherwise, what do people mean by being baptized on behalf of the dead?

[12:26] Paul's pointing out something that was taking place. We don't know what this thing is. But there were people who were being baptized for the dead. And Paul's not telling us that we ought to think that that's a good thing.

[12:40] And he's not telling us, oh, that's evil. We don't know what he's talking about here. But this has nothing to do with what we talk about when we talk about being baptized. Right?

[12:52] We don't know. That's what I meant in the beginning when I said, I said there's like over 200 theories. Nobody knows what this is. We're not even sure. There's some theories that it's not even clear that it was these Corinthians in the church doing it, but that it was something in the culture in the town.

[13:08] And then some people were going like, you know, no, it was a small thing that happened in a particular region. Nobody knows. Nobody knows.

[13:18] So you didn't miss it. Okay. So they were like that and I went back to that. Is that what they were doing?

[13:31] So again, I know this is going to be very unsatisfying. But even as we talk about things like that, to say, okay, what does it mean that they were doing then?

[13:42] Does it mean that they were going over here and being put into the water for this person? Were they being sprinkled for this person? Was the baptism not even dealing with water?

[13:53] Could the baptism have been some sort of taking of an oath? Like there's all kinds of theories here, right? So that's the problem with this passage is that it is just super unclear.

[14:06] And this is one of these things where, you know, you ask yourself, why is the Bible more clear? Well, I mean, sometimes God allows things like this to be in just so that people can have trouble with it.

[14:18] So you didn't miss anything. It's just... I guess I'm reading it a little bit. Well, I mean, yeah. I mean, if you read it literally, it sounds like that somebody here, because this person didn't get baptized or because this person needs something, but they're dead, this person will go on their behalf and do that, however the mechanism is.

[14:42] And that seems to be the thing, but the question is, is who, where, why? But Paul is not saying, do this. He's just pointing out, this is happening, but you also believe this.

[14:56] That makes no sense. You're being inconsistent. So you need to stop, you need to stop having false doctrine. That's his ultimate goal. Okay.

[15:06] No, that's good. That's good. It's helpful. if you think that now, just wait till we get to the third point.

[15:21] Salivate. Yeah, salivate. Okay. Okay. So let's, let's jump to the third point then.

[15:33] I gotta find myself again. All right. So this is a slightly different tact that Paul's taking here. This, Paul here, is now putting words in the mouth of the Corinthians, because if they were to hear the resurrection of the dead that is true, and they might, they may, no, no, no, no, that can't be true, because what kind of body would you have if you rose from the dead?

[16:01] You can kind of see that that's an interesting question, and I've heard an atheist who asked me, he said, so you mean like we're zombies? So what does it mean that someone comes back to life, right?

[16:13] There's actually lots of different ways and thoughts that people have about someone coming back to life, and we'll talk about this as we go. So Paul's going to put that objection out there and then answer it, okay?

[16:25] So let's read verse 35 through 38 and deal with this first part where he kind of illustrates his answer. He says, but some will ask, how are the dead raised?

[16:37] With what kind of body do they come? You foolish person, what you sow does not come to life unless it dies. And what you sow is not the body that is to be, but a bare kernel, perhaps of wheat or some other grain.

[16:54] But God gives it a body just as he's chosen and to each kind of seed its own body. Now, let's just walk through this. He's illustrating the resurrection of the body, okay?

[17:07] And the question he places in the objector's mouth is this idea of what kind of body can this be? Since they struggle with the body, they're trying to think to themselves how can the body come back to life?

[17:23] Gordon Fee in his commentary, he writes this. He says, the Corinthians believed that they had accomplished and arrived at a state of being in which they had reached perfection. Right? Remember that they thought themselves super spiritual people.

[17:37] They'd arrived at the eschaton. They thought they were most spiritual people because they're speaking in tongues and you other people aren't. The only thing left for them, he says, the final thing to happen for them is they have to shed this body and now they've reached the final destination.

[17:56] Okay? So for them to hear Paul say the body's going to be resurrected, they're kind of going like, but what?

[18:07] They're so short-circuit. That's a very good word. They're really having trouble understanding this. At least the objector that he's playing with here.

[18:17] Right? And so it's just impossible for them to think about it. He insults them. He calls them. He says, you foolish people. That is actually in the Greek the strongest way that you could call somebody a fool and it has a tone of like yelling at them.

[18:33] Okay? So he's super angry here and so from there he gets his principle in that what you sow does not come to life unless it dies.

[18:44] It's an agricultural illustration. Right? If you take a seed and you put it in the ground for another plant to come up that one has to die or it cracks apart.

[18:56] Right? It begins to fall apart and the new one comes out of it. What you don't do right? So let's just talk about corn for a second. What you don't bury in the ground is the final form.

[19:09] Right? You don't take a big stalk with a lot of ears on it dig a big hole and stick it in the ground. You take one seed and you put it in because you have the bare kernel and the final form.

[19:24] You have the bare kernel and the final form. So he's trying to help them understand what kind of body are you resurrected with? One that is a final form not the bare kernel.

[19:35] What you see is a bare kernel. What is to come is something more glorious? Right? There's this final form that's coming out. He yes okay so that's that first part.

[19:49] His last verse there verse 38 begins to make the transition to the next point and that is okay so it's a final form but what is that form?

[20:01] Like is there something about the way God has done things that every single body has a fitness to it. It's fit for a particular thing and he says in verse 39 he says not all flesh is the same but there's one kind for humans another for animals another for birds another for fish there are heavenly bodies and earthly bodies but the glory of the heavenly is of one kind and the glory of the earthly is of another there is one glory of the sun and another glory of the moon and another glory of the stars for stars from star in glory.

[20:39] Okay so he's moved from agriculture to cosmology right and what is the key to understanding those verses is verse 40.

[20:51] There are heavenly bodies and earthly bodies. Okay now here when he speaks of heavenly he's not talking about the spiritual realm where God lives he's talking about space.

[21:05] Right because he talks about the sun the moon the stars. Okay so you've got earthly and you've got heavenly. There's different bodies and you'll notice that he talks about the earthly bodies.

[21:17] These earthly bodies include different kinds of flesh. He places humans and animals and fish and birds. That would be the three spheres of earth right land water and air with humans listed there because they were created like the rest of creation.

[21:31] However they stand at the head of that creation and then he talks about in verse 40 that this has a glory to it. The body of animals has a glory to it.

[21:46] The body of the fish and of the birds and of humans have a glory to it. It is not the same as the heavenly bodies nor is it going to be the same as the spiritual body that we'll talk about later but it has a glory which means it has a worth.

[22:03] It has a value. Even though it's a bare kernel it is something that God made of value to fit right there in that place. He didn't make the birds for the ocean and he didn't make the fish for the sky and he didn't make man for the heavens.

[22:20] The sun is for the heavens. The moon is not for the ocean. Right? And so then you have the heavenly bodies. Right? And so all of these things have their own glory. They have their own value.

[22:32] They have their own worth and God made them and put them in their places. They're fit for those. So you've got this idea one of a seed and a final form and then you have the idea of a body being made fit for where it's headed or where it is, where it abides.

[22:50] The abode of that body fits. Right? With that body. Okay. Hold those thoughts in your head. Can you do that? Okay. Let's go to the next one.

[23:01] Because here's what's going to happen to our body. Verse 42. So it is with the resurrection of the dead. What is sown is perishable.

[23:11] That's the bare kernel. What is raised is imperishable. It is sown in dishonor. It is raised in glory. It is sown in weakness.

[23:24] It is raised in power. It is sown a natural body. It is raised a spiritual body. If there is a natural body, there is also a spiritual body.

[23:39] So what's going to happen is when you take the agricultural illustration with the fitness illustration, our natural bodies is the bare kernel and it's fit for this world, but we're headed someplace else.

[23:55] So the body must be transformed from perishable to imperishable, from weak to powerful, from dishonor to glory, from natural to spiritual.

[24:07] Right? And we'll talk about what those mean, but yeah, well, let's just do it now. Perishable is the idea of decay and corruption. Right? Our bodies are perishable because they're decaying and corrupting.

[24:19] The moment that you were born, you begin to die. Right? But there's coming a day when this body will no longer, the body will be transformed in such a way as to no longer be subject to decay and corruption of any kind.

[24:34] We need that. Dishonor. Dishonor is not a bad thing. Perishable is not a bad thing. It has its glory. The natural body has its glory. This body is good.

[24:45] Even though it's corrupt and decayed, the body is good. But it's going to be changed from dishonor to glory. Dishonor, there's a passage in 2 Timothy where Paul talks about dishonor and glory, and these are not, it's not good and bad.

[25:01] Okay? It's just difference. So he says in a house there's vessels for honorable use and vessels for dishonorable use. And he says there's gold and silver and there's pottery and earthenware.

[25:14] Now, what does that mean? Gold and silver might be something that you use as a dish for food, an honorable use, or you put it out for guests when they come.

[25:25] But earthenware and pottery, that's a chamber pot. Right? Necessary, dishonorable because we don't talk about that. We hide that in the bedroom somewhere, right? But that's what he's saying is that our body in the natural state, the natural body, the perishable body, is a dishonorable use, which is not bad.

[25:46] It's just that it's different and it's going to be raised up to glory, right? It's going to now become gold and silver. It's going to become this thing of majesty and goodness.

[25:57] And he talks about weakness and power, right? Weakness and power has to do with disability and limitations and the weakness of our flesh and our inability to do things, our inability.

[26:08] You know, if God says, okay, now come to me, you're going to live forever and we still have this weak body. Like it's going like, okay, I'm tired, God. Can I have some, I need some rest.

[26:20] I've seen your glory for about two seconds and I'm overwhelmed. I need sleep. Our bodies are limited and weak, but there's coming a day when they'll be transformed to have power so that we can take in all of who God is for all eternity without that weakness and limitation, right?

[26:40] And then the most important thing, the natural body is going to be turned into a spiritual body. Now right here, the Corinthians' minds are exploding. They know that the spiritual is good and Paul is saying a spiritual soma.

[26:56] Soma is the Greek word for body. It means the material body. It is going to be a spiritual material body. It will not be ephemeral.

[27:09] ephemeral and wispy and just ghost-like. It will be corporeal. I'll be able to grab. We'll be able to shake.

[27:19] We'll be able to hug. We'll be able to run. I'll be able to punch you in the arm. You can shake my hand and do that little weird thing if you want to. You know? Like, it is a real body, but it is a spiritual body that has power and glory and imperishable.

[27:37] This answers the question, what kind of body? What kind of body is it going to come out with? Well, this kind of body. A spiritual body. Why don't you guys understand this, right?

[27:49] You know? It's like, what's going on with you? So then he gets to his final point in verses 45 through 49, and it's almost as though he's giving us the background for how he knows this and where this comes from, and he begins his discussion of Adam and Christ.

[28:05] He says in verse 45, thus it is written, the first man, Adam, became a living being and the last Adam became a life-giving spirit. But it's not the spiritual that is first but the natural and then the spiritual, which makes sense since it's the bare kernel, right?

[28:19] The first man was from the earth, a man of dust. The second man is from heaven. As was the man of dust, so also are those who are of the dust.

[28:30] And as is the man of heaven, so also are those who are of heaven. Just as we have the image of the man of dust, we shall also bear the image of the man of heaven.

[28:42] So I put a chart together for you because I figure that might make it easier. You can see the comparisons between the two. Pretty much everything that's said of Adam is said of Christ except the one thing. And you just look at this and you can kind of see that what he's saying is that with Adam there's a connection to his offspring and with Christ there's a connection with his offspring.

[29:04] Adam is the man of dust. Adam is the man of the earth. Adam was the first man. He was the representative of all mankind. And as he was created and as he fell, so we are then made in the likeness of Adam.

[29:21] Matter of fact, in Genesis chapter 5, it talks about how Adam was made in the likeness of God, but then it talks about his son Seth was made in the likeness of Adam.

[29:32] And why is that? Because when Adam fell, that fallen nature of that body and that spirit was passed on to his children by God's command because of what theologians call, do I want to say that?

[29:51] Yes. What theologians call the federal headship of Adam? He represented all mankind at that point, and because he fell, we all fell.

[30:04] Christ also has a federal headship for all of those who are a part of his race. He's the new Adam. He's the second Adam. He's the last Adam.

[30:14] Adam, and he is going to be having his own offspring. To be in Adam, you just need to be born.

[30:25] To be in Christ, you need to be born again. Right? So what he's saying then is that the natural body comes from Adam.

[30:36] The spiritual body comes from Christ. How do we have this body that's coming? We have it because of Christ, because of the second Adam, because he is the life-giving spirit.

[30:49] He is the spiritual man, and he is the man of heaven, and we are going to have a body like his. The seed of our resurrection is in him.

[31:02] Right? That gets back to proving why this is so important, is because the seed of our resurrection is in Christ. Christ. Remember, he's called the first fruits.

[31:14] And a fruit has a seed in it. And that's his whole point. So in answering then the objection of the Corinthians and talking about what kind of body are we going to have, he gives them the principles of that what you see is the bare kernel, you don't see the final form.

[31:33] The final form is going to be something that is fit for its location, just as all other bodies are, and that location is eternity, and therefore it's going to be imperishable, glorified, powerful, spiritual.

[31:48] And it comes because of our connection with Christ. So that's really what that whole passage is saying and answering. So let me just pause there. I have some application to get into, but I just thought I would see if you have questions first.

[32:04] Yeah. And then the... Well, that...

[32:18] So here's the thing. The way that Scripture reads like in John 5, this kind of thing, the resurrection of the dead involves both the righteous and the unrighteous.

[32:31] Okay? So everyone will be resurrected. I'm going to use that language very, very loosely at this point. And those who are righteous, who are in Christ, will be resurrected to life, to glory, to transformation.

[32:44] And those who are not will be resurrected to damnation, to punishment, to judgment. So it's not really a resurrection because there's no change, right? But that's...

[32:54] But they come out of the tomb and are sent off into that. And of course, they have to be fitted for that in order for that to be for all eternity.

[33:05] Right? Other questions? So this...

[33:16] The judgment happens at the second coming after the resurrection of the dead, right? So Christ comes, resurrection of the dead, and then the judgment. And then into the final places after the resurrection.

[33:28] resurrection. Yeah. Now, which doesn't, you know, there's some complication with that because, you know, when we start talking about when, some of these things, I wonder if they're going to look the way we think of when we think of, like, how judgment's going to happen.

[33:48] Because I think in our minds, at least this is the way, as a young person, I used to think of it, that, you know, all the world is here and here's this great white throne and God's sitting on it, and one by one, a person comes up.

[34:01] Right? And you get to see everything happening in their life and you hear all these things that are being said because we're very linear in our thinking. Is that the way it's going to be?

[34:12] Because God is not linear. Or is it just going to go and happen? Like, does it make sense? We have to kind of spatially think about it, but I don't know that God is because God is not limited by space and time.

[34:25] You know, so how does that happen? I don't know. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Okay.

[34:37] Any other questions about this? Walk through. If not, I want to give you some applications from this. And the first one I want to tell you is an important thing, and that is your body that you have right now is important.

[34:53] The body that you have right now, the bare kernel, the natural body, the perishable, the one for dishonorable use, the one that is weak, the one that is natural, is good.

[35:10] It's a good body. We're meant to use this body for good. And so your body is important. What you do with your body, what you do to your body, what you do for your body is important.

[35:28] How we take care of our bodies or how we don't take care of our bodies, right? I mean, we all know we need to eat, but you can overeat. We all know we need to exercise, but you can overexercise.

[35:39] We all know we need sleep, but you can get too much and too little sleep, right? There's a balance in all of these things that we need to have. But beyond that, it's not just how I take care of my body, but it's then what I do with my body.

[35:51] What kinds of things will I engage in physically in this world? Will I do things that promote the glory and grace of God and that demonstrate His goodness?

[36:01] I think it's fascinating to me that one of the things He gives Adam to do in the garden is work. Tend the garden. So, like, if you're outside, you were talking about being outside this morning working in the flower beds.

[36:14] I mean, that's a pretty good picture of a good use of the body as we do things to follow our Creator using our body to make something beautiful. The point is that too often in Christian life in this kind of season of the church, we have a tendency to down play what we do with the body except that, like, okay, just don't sin with your body, and that's about all we say.

[36:46] And so, you know, fact of the matter is there's a lot of pastors. There's a lot of pastors who have abused their bodies because they don't exercise, because they don't eat right, because they don't sleep well, because all kinds of things.

[36:58] And so you see them being very unwell, having to go to the doctor a lot. And so it's like, like, like, some of that could have, not everything can be avoided. I understand that there's exceptions to these things, but you understand the big general principle here.

[37:12] You know, what's interesting is that this body is going to be the body that's saved and redeemed. Right? Romans chapter 8, verse 23, says that not only the creation, but we ourselves, who have the first fruits of the Spirit, grown inwardly, as we wait eagerly for adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies.

[37:35] There's coming a day when Christ comes back, the resurrection of the dead, that our bodies get redeemed. That's that bare kernel being transformed. And when that happens, that is also our final adoption.

[37:49] Right? We've gone through all the paperwork, and now it's the day that the judge rules your mind. When our bodies get transformed to be able to live with Him. Romans 8, 23.

[38:07] Which, just by way of illustration, shows you the trouble that our culture has with understanding anything, because most of the sexual reassignment surgery, well, I couldn't say all that together again, is dealing with trying to make yourself as you wish to make yourself.

[38:29] So, the body as is, is not important. It is what you can make of it that becomes important. So, they see the body not as a good thing, but as just a canvas to pass.

[38:40] And as God created us and made us, no, this body is a good thing, and it's going to be transformed. This helps us a little bit also by application with the doctrine of the resurrection.

[38:52] Have you ever had someone ask you or say to you or make the claim, well, you know, that's pretty much just the same thing as the Hindus believe in reincarnation, right? Yeah, you've had that said.

[39:04] I've had that said to me. Could you explain the difference between reincarnation and resurrection? resurrection? You might be thinking to yourself, I don't know that I'm ever going to have anybody ask me that question.

[39:18] But your kids and grandkids are. Right? So, help me out, somebody. Somebody says, you can do it. What's the difference? I don't think after one of the questions, you're looking at a change from physical to spiritual and reincarnation to physical by physical.

[39:35] That's right. That's right. That's the bare kernel basics right there. And that's enough. You know, it's interesting. Reincarnation is built. I'm going to go a little deeper just because it's weird.

[39:46] I think it's good for you. It's built off Hinduism and Buddhism, which deals with karma, right? So, your actions in this life are judged by karma. And depending upon what your actions are, you either go up the plane of existence or down the plane of existence and you come back as something else.

[40:04] You eventually want to come back to the highest level, which would be a cow. And then after that, you can go into nirvana.

[40:17] Now, karma is a force, not personal. Nirvana is nothingness. So, your goal is to go from something that isn't anything to nothing.

[40:29] Right? So, it's not at all the same as the resurrection. It's also not like resuscitation.

[40:43] Resuscitation is a different kind of a thing, too, right? Now, there's lots of resuscitations in the Bible, are there not?

[40:53] Lazarus. So, it was Lazarus resurrected? He's just resuscitated.

[41:05] He's the same. Like, he had to die again. He didn't have a glorified body. That transformation is key to understanding resurrection. Right? So, there's lots of people in the Bible who were resuscitated.

[41:18] And, there's a lot of confusion out there in the Christian world. I had a friend of mine, he was a Pentecostal pastor, and he swore to me that his son resurrected a bird.

[41:33] Okay, you mean resuscitated. Which, that is still weird. But, besides that, the confusion is that we're not very precise with our language.

[41:44] Resurrection is a very specific doctrine. And so, we want to be careful when we hear people say things that, because a lot of faith healers will claim to have resurrected people, you know, brought them back to life.

[41:56] I'm pretty sure what they mean is resuscitated, but still. And if you look at the atheist who says, you mean we're going to be like zombies? I mean, you can obviously tell the difference between that kind of a belief and that thought about our belief versus the truth.

[42:12] You know? No, we don't come back as zombies. Something that's decaying and mostly dead, right? So, the resurrection is taking that which is perishable.

[42:27] Like my grandfather, right before he died, went to see him and, you know, he had a sandwich that he couldn't eat because he couldn't find his mouth, right?

[42:40] And this was a man who was a burly, strong man. I mean, when we would go out to split wood, you know, there at his house, we would get to use the splitting ball and he would just look at the wood and it would fall apart, you know?

[42:55] He was just so manly. And to watch him and his body become perishable so much, succumbing to the decay and the corruption, now with the Lord, right?

[43:07] He's not yet, right? He's just disembodied spirit. His body's not resurrected yet. That's coming one day. And when that day comes, he will then get his imperishable body back with his soul and live forever, right?

[43:25] But that's the whole thing is that as we think about this, one day when Christ comes back, the mortal will put on immortality, the perishable will put on imperishability, right?

[43:36] Dishonor goes to glory, weakness goes to power, natural goes to spiritual. This is where we're headed, right? This is where we're headed. I'll also just say real quick that this also helps us a little bit with the doctrine of creation.

[43:52] Doctrine of creation, evolutionists will talk about the idea of things being able to evolve from species to species, beings, right? But we have no example of that.

[44:05] What we have is we have in-kind type stuff, you know, where this bird turns to this bird to this bird to this bird, but we don't have birds turning into whatever, you know. As Christians, we believe in kind of a micro evolution aspect because we do see that adaption of the species for its environment that it lives in.

[44:27] But what we don't see is the macro part where we have come from some kind of primate, right? Instead, God made Adam special.

[44:37] And that's the other thing about this is that there has to be a real Adam. There has to be a real Adam as the first man without death before him because death didn't enter into the world until he fell.

[44:48] Without a first Adam, there is no second Adam. There's no second Adam. Without a first Adam, there's no second Adam.

[44:59] And if there's no second Adam, then everything about Christ is wrong. And let's just close it up and go home. The doctrine of creation is hinted at here.

[45:10] And really, the last thing I would say is that there is kind of a choice and an invitation given because we're all born in Adam and you can stay there or you can trust Christ and be in Christ born again.

[45:25] And these truths can be real for you. And so it's just a choice you have to make. All right. Thank y'all. You know, that's a great question.

[45:40] That's a great question. I don't really know the answer to that question. I mean, I would think that some of them had to have seen the error of the way. He wrote them a second letter. We have 2 Corinthians.

[45:53] So, you know, probably a persistent problem that he kept, you know, banging away at. But, you know, I think only once we get to glory will we be able to know for sure.

[46:05] So any other questions or thoughts here? what do you do what do you do what do you