The Glory of the Resurrection
The Design of the Resurrection
1 Corinthians 15:20-28
 
There is a little known German writer named Erich Sauer who made this memorable quote:
 
 “The present age is Easter time. It begins with the resurrection of the Redeemer and ends with the resurrection of the redeemed, between lies the spiritual resurrection of those called into life. So we live between two Easters and in the power of the first Easter, we go to the second Easter.”
 
That’s a glorious thought, is it not?  As New Testament, church-age Christians, unlike any other people of God, we live between the resurrection of Christ and the resurrection of the redeemed.  Maybe we don’t spend enough time marveling in the privilege of what that means to us.  To that end, we are studying the 15th chapter of 1 Corinthians.  It is a tremendous chapter full of information about our resurrection as the saved of God. 
 
Now, in the Corinthian church, there were some who were denying the resurrection of the body because it was denied by the philosophers of their day.  They weren’t denying life after death or the reality of heaven or anything like that.  What gave them problems was the thought of a physical body coming back to life.  No one had ever taught about resurrection before.  It was a new doctrine brought to their attention through their professed faith in Jesus Christ, who Himself, resurrected from the dead. 
 
And that thought is key to salvation.  As we saw last week in the first eleven verses of the chapter, it is an essential part of the gospel message.  At conversion, we profess the belief that is in our heart that God raised Jesus from the dead. 
 
Then, starting in verse 12, we see the consequence of denying bodily resurrection. If dead men don’t rise, if there is no resurrection of the dead, then what happens? Then Paul lists seven consequences that result from that.   
 
If Christ is not risen, then Christ is not risen either.  He’s dead.  If Christ is not risen, gospel preaching is useless. Your faith is empty. The Apostles are liars. We’re all yet in our sins. And dead Christians are damned because they’re in their sins and Christians are, of all the people in the world, most to be pitied.
 
Then at verse 20, where we will begin today, he turns the corner to bring us back to the truth. 
 
Let’s look at it. 
 
Verses 20-28
 
What you have here is God’s redemptive plan taken to its consummation and how critical resurrection is to it. This is precisely what we were talking about as we began.  This is a description of what it means to live between the resurrection of Jesus Christ and the final resurrection of the redeemed.
 
And notice how he starts. 
 
Verse 20
He’s taken them back to their conversion and refreshed their memory concerning the gospel which they had embraced, and them talked a little bit about what it would be like if Jesus hadn’t risen, and them he makes this falt-out affirmation that Christ is alive. 
 
And I think it is Paul’s way of saying, “Christ is alive and you know it!”
 
They believed it. They had affirmed it. It cannot be denied. The resurrection is a historic fact. They believe it, but know he wants them to make the connection between Christ’s resurrection and their eventual resurrection. 
 
Everything in God’s plan demands the resurrection; not only the resurrection of Christ, but the resurrection of believers as well. The whole redemptive plan is dependent on a bodily resurrection, of Christ and of all who believe. Christ has risen and so will we rise.
 
It’s the words of Jesus, “Because I live, you will live also.”   And the idea behind the words is not only did He rise, but He continues to be alive. 
 
That distinguishes the resurrection from the raising of Jairus’s daughter and the widow’s son and Lazarus.  They were raised from the dead.  But they only lived again to die again.  They needed a resurrection.  Christ was raised never to die. That’s the foundation of the gospel.
 
 
 
Then upon that simply declaration of faith, “But now Christ is alive”, he begins to just simply unfold for us how critical resurrection is to the redemptive plan of God.
 
It breaks into three distinct parts. 
 
First of all, he talks about
 
1. The Redeemer
 
verse 20
 
Now, we may not fully understand and appreciate his use of the term “firstfruits”, but everyone listening to this letter knew exactly what Paul was talking about. 
 
“Firstfruits” were the first product of the harvest.  When the firstfruits came in, you knew the rest of the crop was on its way. The Jews were extremely familiar with that concept because of their understanding of the Old Testament law. 
 
They knew that a firstfruits offering was ordered by God back in Leviticus 23:10, “You shall bring a sheep of the firstfruits of your harvest.” This is a sign of your harvest to come. In a sense, it kind of guarantees the harvest. And the evidence of your faith in God to provide was found in bringing the firstfruits as an offering to Him. 
 
There was a great temptation to hoard it away and live in fear and wonder if the crops would continue to produce, but when you brought the only thing you had so far and gave it to God, it through you entirely into dependence upon Him.  IT was a way of saying you trusted God. 
And so it is with the resurrection of Jesus Christ.  IT’s not just saying He was the first.  It is acknowledging that He is the first of His kind in resurrection and based upon what He’s done, there is a guarantee of the full resurrection harvest to come. 
 
And in that regard, the resurrection of Jesus Christ is a sign. It is a pledge. It is a guarantee for the resurrection of all believers which is to come. And just as the rest of the harvest couldn’t be made without the firstfruits, so the final harvest, the resurrection of all believers, cannot come until the One who guarantees that resurrection has come to life.
 
Now notice that He is the firstfruits of those who are asleep. This is Paul’s favorite way of referring to death for believers.  And if you think about it, sleep is a purley physical characteristic.
 
Body’s sleep.  Souls don’t.  Spirits don’t.  When you die, your soul doesn’t sleep, your body does. When you die, “You’re absent from the body, present with the Lord.” “Far better to depart and be with Christ,” as Paul says in 2 Corinthians and Philippians. So, to be absent from the body is to be present with the Lord, but the body sleeps.
 
And so, the guarantee is that because Christ rises, our bodies will rise as well. It is from that picture of the body sleeping that songs like the old Negro spiritual, “Great Getting’ Up Morning” came. 
 
Now that raises an interesting question.  Suppose you are a first century convert and Paul is teaching you about this new doctrine of the resurrection. 
He’s going on about the resurrection of Jesus and how He is alive.  I think a very logical question in regard to that is, “So what?  What does His resurrection have to do with me?”  And that is the question he anticipates as he writes the next verses. 
 
Verses 21-22
 
What does the resurrection of Jesus have to do with you?  Here’s his answer and it’s in a scriptural principle.
 
He uses an analogy between Adam and Christ.  Adam was the head of the natural order.  Christ is the head of the spiritual order.  And his point is that the act of one man can have an impact on others. That’s the principle. The Corinthians might be tempted to say,  “Okay, we know Christ rose from the dead, we affirm that. But how is it that His resurrection guarantees ours? How is that possible? How does that happen?”
 
Paul says, “Think about how Adam’s original sin is still affecting you.”  There is this far-reaching relationship between the sin and death of Adam and the fact that you are a sinner and will one day die. 
 
The sin of Adam catapulted the whole human race in every human that would ever be born into the reality of death. And the Jews understood that. They knew that the sins of the fathers could be visited on the children.  Their ancestors had lived that principle. 
 
We believe that also.  With everyone I lead to the Lord, we begin with the personal responsibility we have for our won sin.  That’s Romans 3:23.
 
Romans 5:8 gives us some background to that problem.  We are not only a sinner by choice, but also by nature.  And it began with Adam.
 
But listen to 1 Corinthians 15:22
 
What is true of Adam so far as sin is concerned is also true for Christ as far as salvation is concerned, and therefore the resurrection is concerned. 
 
Christ pays the penalty for our sin, conquers death on our behalf and death is overwhelmed, overpowered, as we shall see later in the chapter. Death has lost its sting...death has lost its power. And all who put their trust in Christ, all who are a part of His spiritual seed possess His resurrection life.
 
All in Adam are in Adam by natural generation and therefore, die in their sins. All who are in Christ are in Christ by spiritual regeneration and can ancticipate the resurrection. 
 
Simply put, all in Adam die. All in Christ live.
 
He is the One who guarantees our resurrection.
 
So we meet the Redeemer.
 
Now
 
2. The Redeemed
 
verse 23
 
 
Notice the phrase, “But each one in his own order.”
 
In other words, it doesn’t all take place at once. There is an order.  It’s a military term referring to a detachment of soldiers marching in sequence.  In regard to the resurrection, there is an order or a lineup or process, if you will. 
 
First is Christ.  He is the firstfruits. He comes first.
 
Then after that, those who are Christ’s at His coming.
 
Remember the quote I began with?  “We live between those two Easters, between the resurrection of Christ and our own resurrection, and in the middle are all the spiritual resurrections that occur at salvation.”
 
The Christian hope is the coming of Christ at the end of the age. Right now, the bodies stay in the graves and decay.  And believers who are with the Lord are absent from the body, present with the Lord.  They are referred to scripturally as the “spirits of just men made perfect”.
 
They’re there with the Lord.  There’s no doubt about it; just not yet in physical, glorified form. You say, “Are they wandering around, floating around, waiting for their bodies?”
 
Well I suppose from our perspective they are.  But since heaven is a place where no time exists, there’s no such concept as waiting. I can’t go beyond that.
 
But I can help you look at the phrase, “At His coming”.
 
There are several components of the coming of Christ and how it relates to our resurrection.  
 
The first is the Rapture of the church.
 
 
The rapture is a sudden, sign-less event in which those who have died as believers and those who are alive on the earth as believers will instantaneously be caught away into the clouds to meet the Lord. 
 
1 Thessalonians chapter 4:14-18
 
Now without going into all the detail, that’s what is being described in 1 Corinthians 15:23.
 
This is the first event at the coming of Christ.  It happens at a moment you really don’t know, you don’t expect. There are no signs leading up to it. He will descend from heaven and the dead in Christ will rise and then we who are alive and remain, who are also in Christ, will be caught up.
 
And then comes a period that we call the Great Tribulation.  It is described in vivid detail in Revelation 5-19.  Daniel talks about it from an Old Testament perspective.  It is a period that is described as a sequence of judgments that start out as seals and then trumpets and then bowls, telescoping these judgments that come upon the Earth. At the same time, there’s a great work of salvation and redemption going on on the earth along with the judgment.
 
Then at the end of that period of time of seven years there will be another part of the resurrection. 
Revelation 20:5 speaks of another part of the resurrection that occurs at the end of the millennial reign.  Apparently people will continue to die during that period and there will be a resurrection for them as well. 
 
Now all of that is a sketchy thumbnail at best, but it is all compressed into those three little words in 1 Corinthians 15:23, “At His coming”.  And it is the plan of God for the redeemed.
 
 
Now, let’s get to the heart of his passage, which is the third point and that is
 
3. The Redemption
 
The redemption is bound up in one phrase found in
verse 24
 
The goal, the purpose, the reason, the design, the objective, the consummation of all things is what he’s talking about. 
 
Do you want to know what the purpose of creation is? What the purpose of redemption is? What the purpose is for God to tolerate everything He has tolerated through all of human history?
 
It is so that He can give to His Son a Kingdom made up of people who will love Him, and worship Him and adore Him and serve Him forever and ever in perfect joy, peace and purity. That’s the goal.
 
Christ is to receive a kingdom and it is a Kingdom of resurrection human beings, the redeemed of all the ages.
The Old Testament saints, the church, the tribulation saints and millennial saints.  They’re all raised now, they’re all in heaven. Then comes the end.
 
One of these days this old world is going to come to an end.  Peter says, “The elements melt with fervent heat”. The universe is going to implode.  It will be uncreated just as it was created.
 
It goes out of existence and in its place is a new heaven and a new earth. And that is when He hands over the Kingdom to the God and Father.
 
When? Not until “He has abolished all rule and all authority and power. He must reign until He has put all His enemies under His feet”.
 
God’s design for redemption is not complete until there is no more enemies of God and Christ in existence to tamper with His purposes. They will all be cast forever into the Lake of Fire.   They will be bound there with Satan and his angels for whom it was originally created, and they will dwell there forever, never again to impede the purposes of God.
 
Listen to the verse:  He puts to an end all rule.  That means there’s no other rule other than Himself. He is called in Revelation King of Kings, Lord of Lords.
 
He ends all other authority and power.  He destroys all Hs enemies.  That’s a very graphic picture. Kings are on elevated thrones, their enemies were below their feet. When He is sovereign over everything, when there is no other ruler, no other power, no other authority, Christ reigns and Christ reigns absolutely supremely with His saints.
 
Every enemy human, every enemy demonic, every
ruler, every authority, every source of power abolished. And He will reign. He must reign.
 
Verse 25
 
This is where history is going. And by the way, if you are a believer in the resurrection of Jesus, this is where you’re going also. 
 
And I like how the picture continues. 
 
Verses 26-27
 
Everything but God is under His dominion including death.  And the resurrection of Christ guarantees it.  And yet, when it’s all said and done, and God has presented His Son with this beautiful, redeemed, resurrected gift of a people who love him, the Son then gives it back to God, so that God may be all in all.  I can’t even begin to tell you what all that means.  
 
But I know this, far too often we are thinking about salvation in very personal terms. And while it is a personal salvation and you must accept it personally, I think it’s better to think about salvation in these vast and almost incomprehensible terms.
 
While you’re involved in it by the grace of God, it’s really not about you.  It’s about the infinite and limitless love of the Father for the Son and wanting to give to the Son a gift of His love which is a redeemed humanity that will love Him and adore Him and worship Him and praise Him and serve Him forever.
 
And the Son recognizing that all the redeemed are gifts from the Father, when He receives them all, gives them back to the Father. Everything is restored to God that He may be all in all.
 
The Son has come as a servant of God into the world to take back to God souls redeemed. He has conquered death. He has by His own resurrection provided a full resurrection for all who believe. And when all are gathered into His arms, as it were, He will take them all and present them to the Father and will Himself subject His own life to the Father.
 
And together They will reign for eternity.  God the Father and God the Son rule together. In some way they have distinct roles and even the Son gives glory to the Father. But they reign and rule together.
 
Look at Revelation 4 and 5 and you will find They are equally praised. For example, you have, “Holy, holy, holy,” verse 8 of chapter 4, “is the Lord God, the Almighty who was and who is and who is to come. Worthy are You,” verse 11, “our Lord and our God to receive glory and honor and power for You created all things and because of Your will, they existed and were created.” This is a glimpse of heavenly worship.
 
And then down in chapter 5 verse 9, it refers to Christ, “Worthy are You to take the book and break its seals for You were slain and purchased for God with Your blood men from every tribe and tongue and people and nation.” Verse 12, “Worthy is the Lamb who was slain to receive power and riches and wisdom and might and honor and glory and blessing.”
 
And then it comes together in verse 13, “Every created thing in heaven and on earth, under the earth, on the sea, all things in them, I hear saying, “To Him who sits on the throne and to the Lamb, be blessing and honor and glory and dominion forever and ever, and the four living creatures kept saying Amen, and the elders fell down and worshiped.”
 
God is all and all in the end because the Son gives back what the Father has given to Him in submission. It’s a magnificent picture of the final paradise gained and it all happens simply because of the resurrection of Christ.
 
And just think, as a blood-bought member of the redeemed family of God, you’re going to be there and be a part of it.
 
Let’s pray