Flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God.
Flesh and blood cannot enter the kingdom of God
I. The general law.
1. This carries with it its own proof: for, obviously, darkness might as well become light, or death life, as that which is corrupt rise into the incorruptible. On this point St. Paul is earnest and absolute. The exception of 1 Corinthians 15:51 is only an apparent one. Those who are alive when Christ comes will nevertheless be changed (1 Corinthians 15:52).
2. Note the significance of this law. Flesh and blood is a Scripture term for the lusts and passions of our lower nature. Jewish readers would instantly apprehend its force. To them “the blood was the life”; and therefore it was shed in sacrifice. It was the seat of passion and desire, of all that is lawless and irregular; and therefore they were not permitted to partake of it. Their conception finds utterance to-day in such phrases as, “His blood is up,” or, “A hot-blooded fellow.” St. Paul uses the term here as the symbol of this life, these lusts, these corruptions, which cannot inherit incorruption.
3. Mark the different use of the phrases “flesh and blood” and “flesh and bones” in the New Testament. “Flesh and blood” cannot inherit; the incorrupt and heavenly kingdom, but “flesh and bones” may and do. After His resurrection Christ had flesh and bones (Luke 24:37-39); and Christians are “members of His body, of His flesh and of His bones” (Ephesians 5:30). Christ’s blood as the symbol of life has been shed for the redemption of the world: as the symbol of corruption, it is poured out, exhausted. “Flesh and bones” may still be retained even when the natural becomes a spiritual body; but the life that pulses through it is that of a higher than mortal existence.
II. The truths and hopes which underlie it.
1. The truth for which St. Paul contends is not the immortality of the soul, but the resurrection of the body. Centuries before Christ the Greeks had believed that the souls of the departed survived the pangs of death. But these souls were not themselves, they were but their shades. Elysium was as thin and unsubstantial in its avocations and joys as the poor ghosts that tenanted it. And as nature shrinks from disembodiment, the Greeks were accustomed to offer rich garments on the tombs of heroes, if so be that, being thus clothed, they might not be found naked, and a Corinthian queen is said to have appeared to her husband after death, entreating him to burn dresses for her as a covering for her disembodied spirit. We may smile at all this, but none the less we are touched by this naive childish testimony to the universal dread of disembodiment, the universal desire to be clothed upon with some vesture whether of earth or heaven. To men gazing thus sadly into the future St. Paul’s strong hearty words must have been as health to the sick. So, then, they were not to become disembodied spirits, but to be clothed upon with a body more exquisitely attuned to the faculties and energies of their spiritual life!
2. In our Lord’s risen body we have the express type of the spiritual bodies we are to wear.
(1) The body which His disciples recognised was essentially the same although it had undergone a mysterious change. What that change was St. Paul hints in the phrase, flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God.” Consequently we find that they did not instantly recognise Him when He came to them. They knew Him only as He was pleased to make Himself known. He was not bound by material laws. He is found present, no one knows from whence. He passes away, no one knows whither (John 20:19; Luke 24:31; Acts 1:9). In the person of Christ we see the whole man--body, soul, and spirit--raised from the grave. We see all the intelligent and passionate faculties of the soul held in perfect subjection to the higher claims of the spirit. The body is not simply restored to its pristine vigour and purity, but lifted To a higher and more spiritual pitch. It is not unclothed, but clothed upon. “The corruptible has put on incorruption, the mortal has put on immortality.”
(2) And this is the change that must pass on us, if indeed “Christ be in us, the hope of glory.” Like Him we are to put on immortality and incorruption: not to break with the past, nor to lose our identity; not to be changed beyond our own recognition or that of our friends, but to be purged from the corruptible and baser elements of our nature, to be redeemed from our bondage to sense, and its laws; to be transfigured, that the spirit which Christ has quickened in us may dwell in a quick spiritual body--a body that shall not check, nor thwart, nor dull, but perfectly second and express, the untiring energies of our higher and renewed nature. As a man awaking for a moment from a mortal trance, so we may wake from the sleep of death, and say, nothing is lost, but, ah, how much gained! (S. Cox, D.D.)
The change required that we may inherit the kingdom of God
I. The kingdom intended.
1. Not the kingdom of Christ on earth.
2. But the kingdom of God in glory, which is heavenly and eternal.
II. The unfitness of man for it.
1. His nature is morally corrupt.
2. Physically it is earthly and corruptible.
III. The change necessary.
1. A new birth.
2. A resurrection. (J. Lyth, D.D.)
Corporeal transformation
Paul here speaks of a bodily transformation that is--
I. Indispensable (verse 50). “Flesh and blood,” i.e., our mortal nature, cannot inherit the heavenly world. He does not say why--whether the state of the atmosphere, or the means of subsistence, or the force of gravitation, or the forms and means of vision, or the conditions of receiving and communicating knowledge, or the nature of the services required. “Flesh and blood” can no more exist yonder, than the tenants of the ocean can exist on the sun-burnt hills. In such corporeal transformations there is nothing extraordinary, for naturalists point us to spheres of existences where they are as regular as the laws of nature.
II. Certain (verse 51). “Mystery” here does not point to the unknowable, but to the hitherto unknown, viz., that “we shall all be changed.” “We shall not all sleep.”
1. Some will be living when the day dawns. “As in the days of Noah, so shall it be in the days of the Son of Man, they ate, they drank,” etc.
2. Both those who will be living and those who will be sleeping in the dust will undergo corporeal transformation.
III. Instantaneous (verse 52). “The day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night,” etc.
IV. Glorious (verses 53, 54). The transformation is from mortality to immortality, from the dying to the undying; “death will be swallowed up in victory.” The idea may be taken of a whirlpool or maelstrom that absorbs all that comes near it. (D. Thomas, D.D.)
The necessity of the believer’s resurrection arises
I. Out of the nature of the kingdom of God, which is--
1. Heavenly.
2. Spiritual.
3. Incorruptible.
4. Divine.
5. Holy.
II. Out of the imperfection of the human body, which is--
1. Earthly.
2. Sensual.
3. Corruptible.
4. Sinful.
III. Out of the purpose of God.
1. It is His good pleasure to give us the kingdom.
2. The body of flesh and blood cannot inherit it.
3. Therefore it must be subject to a marvellous change. (J. Lyth, D.D.)
Neither doth corruption inherit incorruption.--
Corruption cannot inherit incorruption
I. Corruption.
1. Implies dissolution.
2. Is on earth a natural law.
3. Overtakes man in consequence of sin.
4. Includes decay, disease, death, decomposition.
II. Incorruption.
1. Implies immortality.
2. Is the distinguishing feature of the heavenly world.
3. Results from the immediate presence and power of God.
4. Secures purity, happiness, immortal vigour, eternal life.
III. The incompatibility of the two.
1. Is obvious.
2. Hence the absolute necessity of a change not only in man’s moral but physical condition.
3. To be effected in the resurrection.
4. That man may inherit eternal life. (J. Lyth, D.D.)
Behold, I shew you a mystery: we shall not all sleep, but we shall all he changed.
The mystery of the resurrection revealed
I. The great change.
1. Its nature.
(1) The resurrection of the dead.
(2) The transformation of the living.
2. When and how effected.
(1) At the last trump.
(2) In a moment.
(3) By the power of God.
3. Its absolute certainty.
II. The triumph.
1. Death swallowed up in victory.
2. Hence the exultation of the redeemed over death and the grave.
III. The means of participation in it. The victory is--
1. The free gift of grace.
2. Through Christ.
3. By the destruction of sin.
IV. The practical lesson,
1. Steadfastness.
2. Abundant toil.
3. Confident hope. (J. Lyth, D.D.)
Change
I. Our life on earth is full of change. Every hour brings changes and chances. The sun which rises to shine on happy children’s faces, bright with laughter, sets over a desolate home. Have you ever seen the famous picture of “The Railway Station”? That, or the reality, will show you any day what “a tangle” life is. There you will see youth and age, joy and sorrow, success and failure, hope and despair, going their several ways in the great journey of life.
II. But the greatest change of all is yet to come. There will be a change--
1. In our bodies. The poor, worn-out clothing of flesh which was laid in the grave to decay, will be no longer needed. As the trees are clad with new clothing in the spring-time, so will our souls be at the great spring-time of the Lord’s coming. As the beggar forgets his rags when wrapped in soft raiment, so shall we doubtless forget our poor bodies, or remember them only as a dream when one awaketh. Here they are constantly getting out of repair. When we are changed, we may believe it will be always well with us in body.
2. In our minds and feelings. We shall be improved by the lessons we learn, just as we see a child altered by wise and careful schooling. The man of science has a world of knowledge and beauty open to him which the unlearned does not dream of. So in the school beyond there must be a still wider world of which the cleverest men know nothing. Then our mind, no longer warped by prejudice, will understand rightly; then “we shall know even as we are known.” We shall see clearly what seemed so dark and perplexing before. We shall understand how some of God’s dealings with us, which appeared so strange and hard, were the best of blessings for us.
III. The change will be very great, but we ,shall be fitted for it.
IV. The change will not make us feel lonely. In that land none are strangers. Sometimes when one is going to emigrate, I have asked him if he did not expect to feel very strange and lonely, and the answer was, “Oh no, I have friends waiting for me there.” And so with us.
V. Though the great change comes then, there must be a change in us now. Our most constant, prayer should be, “Give me a clean heart, O Lord, and renew a right spirit within me.” (H. J. W. Buxton, M.A.)
The final change
This is one in which you will be, not merely spectators, but parties concerned. It is an event the most certain. It is a solemnity that is continually drawing near. Note--
I. The union there is among the followers of the redeemer. “We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed.”
1. Of the number of this universal Church, some “sleep.” Death is often an alarming subject, and to reduce this dread we should do well to view it;as Scripture does as a departure--a going home--a sleep. Man is called to labour, and “the sleep of a labouring man is sweet, whether he eat little or much.” So Christians must “work while it is day,” etc. But then they will “rest from their labours.” Sleep is a state from which you may be easily awakened; and, lo!” all that are in their graves shall hear Christ’s voice, and come forth.”
2. Many will be found alive. The earth’s inhabitants will not be gradually consumed till none are left: the world will be full; and all the common concerns of life will be pursued with the same eagerness as before. And, “as it was in the days of Noah,” etc. Many of the Lord’s people too will be found alive; and perhaps they will be much more numerous than at any former period.
II. In what manner will this be disposed of? “We shall all be changed.” We are always varying now. But what a change is here from time to eternity, from earth to heaven, from the company of the wicked to the presence of the blessed God: from ignorance to knowledge; from painful infirmities to be “presented faultless before the presence of His glory with exceeding joy!” But the change principally refers to the body: “for flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God,” etc. Enoch and Elias, though they did not die, passed through a change equivalent to death. The same change which will be produced in the dead by the resurrection will be accomplished in the bodies of the living by this transformation; and of this we have the clearest assurance (verses 42-44).
III. The ease and despatch with which all this will be performed. “In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye.” What a view does this give us of the dominion and power of God! Think of the numbers that will be alive--all these metamorphosed in one instant. And “why should it be thought a thing incredible?” “Is anything too hard for the Lord?”
IV. The signal. “At the last trump,” etc. When the Lord came down on Horeb to publish the law, “the voice of the trumpet waxed exceeding loud.” By the sound of the trumpet the approach of kings has been announced. Judges in our country enter the place of assize preceded by the same shrill sound. And those who have witnessed the procession well know what an awe it impresses, and what sentiments it excites. Will the last trump call you to “lamentation, and mourning, and woe”? or will its language be, “Lift up your heads with joy, for your redemption draweth nigh”? Conclusion: He who will then be the Judge, is now the Saviour. He will then say to the wicked, “Depart”--but He does not say so now to any--His language is, “Come.” (W. Jay.)
For the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible.--
The trumpet shall sound
It is said when Lord Nelson was buried at St. Paul’s Cathedral, all London was stirred. As the funeral procession passed on, it moved amid the sobbing of a nation. Thirty trumpeters stood at the door of the cathedral with musical instruments in hand, and when the illustrious dead arrived at the gates of St. Paul’s Cathedral these thirty trumpeters blew one united blast; but the trumpets did not wake the dead. He slept right on. What thirty trumpets could not do for one man, one trumpet will do for all nations.
The trumpet of judgment
The blowing of trumpets at particular seasons was a statute for Israel. The trumpet was to be blown on the solemn feast day, to assemble the people together, to direct their march when the camp was to be moved, they were to be sounded over the burnt-offerings, and at the new moons, and when the year of jubilee arrived to proclaim liberty, also to summon the people to war. To this St. Paul alludes, when he says, “If the trumpet give an uncertain sound, who shall prepare himself to the battle?” All this was typical of the trumpet of the gospel which is to resound till all are warned to flee from the wrath to come (Psalms 89:15). But there is another trumpet we must all hear.
I. The manner of its sound.
1. Sudden. Our Lord intimates this (Matthew 24:38, etc.). The destruction of Jerusalem was a fit representation of this, it was awfully sudden. When the trumpet sounds to judgment there shall be the giddy and profane pursuing their unhallowed pleasures. In a moment! in the twinkling of an eye, the trumpet shall sound! Oh! to be found watching, waiting, praying, ready. “Blessed is that servant who, when his Lord cometh, shall be found so doing.”
2. Universal. It shall re-echo in heaven, reach every corner of earth, and penetrate the dark abyss of hell. Every soul shall hear it that ever lived in the world from the days of Adam to the period when the last infant shall be born, the king and the peasant, the righteous and wicked, etc. You who dislike the sound of the gospel; you who neglect the great salvation; you, formal professor, and self-righteous pharisee; you, hypocrite with the mask of religion--all must hear it.
3. Final. It is the close of all things the termination of our probation. There is a period when you shall hear of salvation, when you shall attend the sanctuary, when you shall read the Bible and surround the sacramental table for the last time.
II. The import of its accents. The Sound shall proclaim--
1. The end of time. How solemn the thought! Now we have the seasons in regular succession, times of business, recreation, devotion, etc. But soon time shall be no longer. The river of time will be emptied in the ocean of eternity. Oh! then, now seize it, and sail in the ship of the gospel, and you shall be safely conducted by the Divine Pilot till you glide safely into an ocean of bliss, that knows not the ruffle of a wave.
2. The resurrection of the dead.
3. The approach of the Judge. It shall be glorious. How unlike His first advent. The scene will be majestic beyond description. How great the designs of His coming! Not to present an atoning sacrifice, but to hold the last assize. He shall come to explain the mysteries of His providence, to display the riches of His grace, in the consummation of the happiness of His people, to vindicate His justice in the everlasting destruction of His foes.
III. The solemnity of its results.
1. The final triumphs of the righteous.
2. The eternal punishment of the wicked. (Ebenezer Temple.)
The resurrection
I. What are we to understand by the sounding of the trumpet? That this will announce our Saviour’s coming to judgment is frequently asserted (Matthew 24:31; 1 Thessalonians 4:16). As at the giving of the law, so at the judging of men according to that law, God shall cause some such sound to be uttered as shall be heard over the whole world, and summon all men to appear before His judgment-seat, and when this sounds then shall the dead be raised.
II. Who are those dead that shall be raised at the sound of this trumpet?
1. There is a threefold life: natural, the union of the soul to the body; spiritual, the union of Christ to the soul; eternal, the communion of the soul with God. Answerable to this there is a threefold death.
(1) Natural, when the soul and body are divorced from one another.
(2) Spiritual, which is the separation of the soul from Christ. Though many by grace are redeemed from this, yet all by nature are subject to it. And as all by nature are subject to it, so do most by practice still lie under it. Dead as to all sense of sin, as to all spiritual graces, as to all heavenly comforts, as to that life of faith which the children of God are quickened with.
(3) Eternal, the separation of the soul from God; and you that lie under the spiritual death of sin must either get yourselves quickened by the life of faith in Christ, or else except by eternal death to be separated from the Lord of Life.
2. Which of these shall be raised? All of them, and yet it is the naturally dead which are chiefly to be understood here.
III. How shall the dead be raised? When the trumpet shall sound by the power of the most high God, every man’s body being made fit to receive its soul, the soul shall immediately be united to it, and so we, even the very self-same persons that now we are, shall be raised to answer for what we have done here.
IV. How doth it appear that the dead shall thus be raised?
1. From Scripture (Isaiah 26:19; Daniel 12:2; John 5:28-29; Matthew 22:31-32).
2. From reason.
(1) Christ has been raised.
(2) The soul is immortal, and it is against all reason that one essential part of man should be continued in its being, and the other should be turned to nothing.
(3) Justice requires that they that are co-partners in vice and virtues should be co-partners also in punishments and rewards. Though a sin would not be a sin without the soul, yet it would not be committed without the body. The body could not sin unless the soul consented; the soul would not sin so often unless the body tempted.
V. How shall they be raised incorruptible? The apostle here treats of principally the resurrection of the saints, who shall be raised incorruptible.
1. In their souls, which being wrought up into an exact conformity to the will of God, will be emptied of all corruptions, and blessed with all perfections.
2. In body. As our souls shall be void of all corruptions, so shall our bodies be of all imperfections, for these our vile bodies shall be made like unto Christ’s glorious body. What is sown a natural shall be raised a spiritual body; it shall not any longer be a clog to us in the performance of duties to God; but it shall be as quick, agile, and subservient as if it was advanced beyond the degree of a body, and had commenced a soul.
3. In their happiness. There shall be no crosses in their relations, no losses in their possessions, no disgrace in their honours, no fears in their preferments, no irregularities in their affections, no sorrow in their joys, no darkness in their light, not one drop of misery in the whole ocean of happiness they shall enjoy.
VI. What is meant by we shall be changed? There will be a change in--
1. Our opinions. We shall think otherwise of most things. Here we are apt to look upon sin as amiable, and grace as not desirable; but then we that once esteemed all things before God, shall look upon God as to be esteemed above all things.
2. Our conditions. A Dives in this may become a Lazarus in the other world; and a Lazarus here, a Dives there. (Bp. Beveridge.)