1 Corinthians 15:50-58

§ 56. VICTORY OVER DEATH. The second part of the argument of this chapter has now reached the same platform as the first (cf. §§ 51 and 54). The Resurrection of the Body, it has been shown, is an essential part of the Divine world-plan and necessary to the fulfilment of God's kingdom through Christ (1 Corinthians 15:20-27); and the transformation of the earthly into the heavenly, of the psychic into the pneumatic form of being, is involved in the present constitution of things and accords with the lines of development traceable in nature and revelation (1 Corinthians 15:36-49). In a word, P. holds the Christian resurrection to be grounded in the person and mission of Christ, as He is on the one hand the Son of God and mediatorial Head of His kingdom (1 Corinthians 15:24-28), and on the other hand the Second Adam and Firstborn of a spiritual humanity (1 Corinthians 15:22 f., 1 Corinthians 15:45-49). He finds the key to this great controversy, as to so many others, in the supremacy of Christ, the “one Lord, through whom are all things and we through Him” (1 Corinthians 8:6). It remains for him only to state the practical conclusion of this reasoning (1 Corinthians 15:50), to describe our anticipated transformation and victory over death (1 Corinthians 15:51-57), and to urge his readers in this confidence to accomplish worthily their life's work (1 Corinthians 15:58).