1 Corinthians 15:41,42 - Coke's Commentary on the Holy Bible

There is one glory of the sun, &c.— Some would connect these two verses in the following manner: There is one glory of the sun, &c.—For one star differeth from another star, 1 Corinthians 15:42. So also in glory is the resurrection of the dead. But the clause, So also is the resurrection of the dead, should rather conclude the 41st verse. As if the Apostle had said, "Another kind of glory shall appear than human nature has known in its purest state, in any beauty of form, or ornaments of dress. There shall, indeed, as I intimated but now, be differences in the degree of that glory, correspondent to the different excellencies in the characters of good men, on whom it is to pass: but all shall experience a most illustrious and happy change." It should be observed, that the resurrection of the dead here spoken of, is not the resurrection of all mankind in common, but only the resurrection of the just. This will be evident to any one who observes that St. Paul having, 1 Corinthians 15:22 declared that all men shall be made alive again, tells the Corinthians, 1 Corinthians 15:23 that it shall not be all at once, but at several distances of time. First of all, Christ rose; afterwards next in order to him the just should all be raised, which resurrection of the just is that which he treats and gives an account of to the end of this discourse and chapter; and thus does not directly come to the resurrection of the wicked, which was to be the third and last in order: so that from the 23rd verse to the end of this chapter, all that he says of the resurrection, is a description only of the resurrection of the just, though he calls it here by the general name of the resurrection of the dead. That this is the case is so evident, that there is scarcely a verse from the 4lst to the end, which does not evince it. 1st, What in this resurrection is raised, St. Paul assures us, 1 Corinthians 15:43, is raised in glory, but the wicked are not raised in glory. 2nd, He says we (speaking in the name of all that shall be then raised) shall bear the image of the heavenly Adam, 1 Corinthians 15:49 which cannot belong to the wicked. We shall all be changed, that death may be swallowed up of victory, which God giveth us through our Lord Jesus Christ, 1 Corinthians 15:51-54; 1 Corinthians 15:57 which cannot likewise belong to the damned. And therefore we and us must be understood to be spoken in the name of the dead that will be Christ's, who are to be raised apart by themselves, before the rest of mankind. 3rdly, He says, 1 Corinthians 15:52, that when the dead are raised, they who are alive shall be changed in the twinkling of an eye. Now that these dead are only the dead in Christ, who shall rise first, and shall be caught up in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, is plain from 1 Thessalonians 4:16-17. 4thly, A farther proof whereof is, 1 Corinthians 15:56-57 in that their sins being taken away, the sting whereby death kills is taken away. And hence St. Paul says, God hath given us the victory, which is the same us or we who would bear the image of the heavenly Adam, 1 Corinthians 15:49, and the same we who should all be changed, 1 Corinthians 15:51-52. All which places can therefore belong to none but those who will be Christ's, who shall be raised by themselves the second in order, before the rest of the dead. What St. Paul says in this 51st verse, is very remarkable, We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed in the twinkling of an eye. The reason he gives for it, 1 Corinthians 15:53 is, becausethis corruptible thing must put on incorruption, and this mortal thing must put on immortality. How? Why by putting off flesh and blood, by an instantaneous change, because, as he tells us, 1 Corinthians 15:50, flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God; and therefore, to fit believers for that kingdom, those saints who are alive at Christ's coming, shall be changed in the twinkling of an eye, and those thatare in their graves shall be changed likewise, and so all the whole collection of saints, all the faithful members of Christ's body, shall be put into a state of incorruptibility, immortality, and glory, 1 Corinthians 15:52. Taking the resurrection here spoken of to be the resurrection of all the dead promiscuously, St. Paul's reasoning in this place can hardly be understood. But upon a supposition that he here describes the resurrection of the just only—that resurrection which he says, 1 Corinthians 15:23, is to be the next after Christ's, and separate from the rest, nothing can be more plain, natural, and easy than St. Paul's reasoning: and it stands thus; "Men alive are flesh and blood; the dead in the graves are but the remains of corrupted flesh and blood; but flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God, neither can corruption inherit incorruption, that is to say, immortality: therefore, to make all those who will be Christ's, capable to enterinto his eternal kingdom of life—as well those of them who are then alive, as those of them who are raised from the dead, shall in the twinkling of an eye beall changed, and their corruptible shall put on incorruption, and their mortal shall put onimmortality: and thus God gives them the victory over death, through their Lord Jesus Christ." This is, in short, St. Paul's arguing here, and the account that he gives of the resurrection of the blessed. But how the wicked, who are afterwards to be restored to life, were to be raised, and what was to become of them, he here says nothing, as not being to his present purpose; which was to assure the Corinthians, by the resurrection of Christ, of a happy resurrection to all the faithful saints of God, and thereby to encourage them to continue steadfast in the faith which had such a reward. Nor is it in this place alone that St. Paul calls the resurrection of the just by the general name of the resurrection of the dead. He does the same, Philippians 3:11, where he speaks of his sufferings, and of his endeavours, if by any means he might attain unto the resurrection of the dead; wherebyhe cannot mean the resurrection of the dead in general; which, since he has declared in this very chapter, 1 Corinthians 15:22, that all men, both good and bad, shall as certainly partake of, as that they shall die, there needs no endeavours to attain to it. Our Saviour likewise speaks of the resurrection of the just in the same general terms of the resurrection, Matthew 22:30. And the resurrection from the dead, Luke 20:34-36, by which is meant only the resurrection of the just.