Church: Reformed Baptist Church of Franconia | Text: 1 Corinthians 15 | Date: February 18, 2018 | Speaker: Fred Zaspel

Turn in your Bibles with me, if you will, to 1 Corinthians chapter 15. We’ve been looking at the Bible story of salvation. Last week we began one of the biggest topics in terms of its overarching influence on the theme of Scripture, and that is the new Adam. And we’re going to look at that theme again today. So this is “The New Adam, Part Two.”

Actually, I have a couple of more passages that I would like to look at in this regard. Last time we looked at Romans chapter five. I have a couple of more that I’d like to deal with. We have communion today, and so we may end up going with a part three next week. I actually asked my wife about that. I said, “So should I try to complete it or should I just chop it in half again? Would you rather I preach shorter or longer?” Choose your words very carefully. My wife could have been a diplomat. She said, “Honey, I don’t think anyone can determine that better than you.” But particularly because we have the communion service afterwards, I think we will content ourselves this morning with 1 Corinthians chapter 15. We’ll look back at what we’ve done so far, but then we’ll hopefully finish up next week.

1 Corinthians chapter 15—I would like you to see the verses that we’ll look at in context, so I will begin reading at verse 1:

“Now I would remind you, brothers, of the gospel I preached to you, which you received, in which you stand, and by which you are being saved, if you hold fast to the word I preached to you, unless you believed in vain. For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received, that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised the third day in accordance with the Scriptures, that he appeared to Cephas and then to the Twelve, and then he appeared to more than 500 brothers at one time, most of whom are still alive, though some have fallen asleep. And then he appeared to James, and then to all the apostles. Last of all, to me, as to one untimely born, he appeared also to me. For I am the least of the apostles, unworthy to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the church of God. But by the grace of God, I am what I am, and his grace toward me was not in vain. On the contrary, I worked harder than any of them, though it was not I, but the grace of God that was in me. Whether then it was I or they, so we preach, and you believed.”

“Now, if Christ is proclaimed as raised from the dead, how can some of you say that there is no resurrection of the dead? But if there’s no resurrection of the dead, then not even Christ has been raised. And if Christ has not been raised, then our preaching is vain and your faith is vain. We are even found to be misrepresenting God because we testified about God that he raised Christ, whom he did not raise, if it is true that the dead are not raised. For if the dead are not raised, not even Christ has been raised, and if Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile and you are still in your sins. Then those also who have fallen asleep in Christ have perished. If in this life only we have hoped in Christ, we are of all people most to be pitied. But in fact, Christ has been raised from the dead, the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep. For as by a man came death, by a man has come also the resurrection of the dead. For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ shall all be made alive. But each in his own order, Christ the firstfruits, then at his coming, those who belong to Christ. Then comes the end, for when he delivers the kingdom to God the Father, after destroying every rule and every authority and power, for he must reign until he has put all enemies under his feet. The last enemy to be destroyed is death.”

Let’s bow together for prayer. Our Father, we are grateful for this marvelous theme, which, like so many other themes that we have been seeing, directs our attention to the Lord Jesus Christ, that we may see that in Him we have an all-sufficient, wonderful Savior. We pray that you would use our time this morning to that end again, that he may be honored, that our faith may be confirmed in him. We pray in his name. Amen.

The First Adam and the New Adam

We began last time looking at the subject of the new Adam. We saw that Adam was created with high honor as the vice-regent reigning with God over the new created order. That’s the significance, in part, of Adam and Eve being created in God’s image—that they are reigning now as vice-regents over the created order that God had given them.

Of course, that reign has failed. They were commanded to rule in God’s stead and to carry out his rule over the world in a way that reflects him. Of course, Genesis chapter 3 tells us that Adam rebelled and fell into sin. And then we saw in the following chapters of Genesis, there’s this ever-increasing presence of sin that comes from Adam. And not only the ever-increasing presence of sin, but the ongoing presence of death. That we see in Genesis chapter 4; we find it as a major theme in Genesis chapter 5, where it introduces us to the successive generations after Adam, each of whom we are told again, “and he died, and he died, and he died.”

And looking back at that, the Apostle Paul understands that Adam was created as something of a head, a representative head of the human race. And what happened to him in his sin brought consequences to all of humanity. So we have Adam who disobeyed, fell under sin, fell under condemnation, and fell under death. And this condemnation and death and fallenness is passed to all of humanity. We saw that in Romans chapter 5 and verse 12: “Or as by one man, sin entered into the world, and death by sin. So death passed on all men, because all sinned,” that is, in Adam. And so the consequences of Adam’s actions had effect then on all of humanity.

We saw then that the Apostle Paul picks up on that theme to show that Adam—Jesus—is the second Adam, a new Adam. So as we have the sustained contrast in Romans chapter five, we have Adam and Christ, we have disobedience and obedience, we have condemnation and justification, and we have death and we have life. The one Adam disobeyed, brought condemnation and death. The second Adam obeyed, was faithful, and brought justification and life. So that is, in Adam we are condemned and ruined, so that in the second Adam, in Jesus, we have the one who obeyed as our representative head and therefore brought justification and life.

We saw other hints of this second Adam theme in the Gospels as well. We might take time to review more of that next time. But you remember, two weeks ago even, we saw this “God’s faithful son” theme running through the Bible, which picks up, of course, on this new Adam theme as well. So we have these indications through scripture that Adam stood as a representative head of the human race. There are other indications that a new Adam is coming. And finally, that culminates in Jesus, who is the new Adam, the new son of God, the new representative head, who is faithful where Adam failed, and who, instead of bringing ruin, has brought life to those for whom he stands as representative.

The Early Church’s Understanding

We saw that this is something in the early church that was understood. Somebody asked me after the service last week—it’s a great question—”Did the early church, meaning the generation of the apostles and afterwards, did they really understand all this?” You know, we get the sense that we’re standing on the shoulders of so many centuries of thinking that we’ve got this. Did they really see all of this then?

And the indications are, yes, they did see it. We see it reflected in the text of the New Testament itself. Especially in Luke, we saw the temptation account where Jesus comes as a new Adam and goes up against the serpent and goes up against the threefold temptation. And rather than Adam failing—rather than like Adam failing—he succeeds over the tempter, and so on. And we see all of this. And then Paul, of course, in Romans 5, here in 1 Corinthians 15, we see it also in Hebrews 2 next time.

Yeah, this was part of their discussion, that they saw the big picture. And I think where they got it was—and we have to see this—that they got this from Jesus himself. Often in Jesus’ own teaching as we’ve seen, he drops these hints that are so suggestive as to how to read the Bible as in the Old Testament looking forward to him, which is the climax, the culmination of what that was anticipating. He speaks of himself as the new temple and the new sacrifice and priest and so on.

And a couple of times we find in the gospels as well, remarks that the apostles, the disciples, didn’t understand it until after the resurrection. And then they understood the scriptures, which is a very interesting comment that John makes in John chapter two. After Jesus was raised from the dead, then they understood the scriptures. Not just that they understood this particular point Jesus was making, but they understood the scriptures, that this really is laid out this way, that it is filled with anticipations of Jesus coming along.

As the illustration I’ve given, we make a movie after a great event to commemorate the fact. But God doesn’t do it that way. He stages the play ahead of time again, and again, and again, and again, so that when the big event comes, we’ll see the full-orbed significance of that great event as it was illustrated in the centuries before the coming of Christ.

And then I think one very important step in learning this kind of thing is Jesus again in Luke chapter 24. You remember the disciples on the road to Emmaus. They’re entertaining this stranger along the way, and he’s opening the scriptures for them. And the remark is made in Luke’s account that their heart was just burning within them as he opened the scriptures for them. Then they went into the house and talked, and he’s doing it some more, and he’s explaining the scriptures. And then he meets them later in the upper room with all the disciples present, and he does the same thing. He opens the scriptures, shows them all the things concerning himself in the scriptures.

And you can just, I think, empathize with the remark that their hearts were burning within them. Here they thought everything was lost. Jesus has been crucified. They’re devastated. Everything they believe has been shot. And, oh no, wait. Yeah. Yeah, this was supposed to happen. He was supposed to be crucified. He took our sin. He was raised from the dead. He has entered into the age to come. He is the one who takes us with him. He has accomplished redemption. And I think their eyes are just popping at that point, looking at the scriptures as for the first time as Jesus opened it for them.

And that’s what we’ve been trying to do then in this series is trace out these themes as perhaps Jesus himself did in the upper room in Luke chapter 24. Seeing how the Old Testament scriptures stage the play ahead of time again and again and again. And then we pick up those themes in the New Testament to see exactly how it comes together in Jesus, so that the Bible really is a gospel-shaped story about Jesus. Not just a story about Jesus, but a gospel-shaped story about Jesus. And all of these themes come crashing in Jesus on his death and resurrection, and then finally culminating in his second coming.

The Essence of the Gospel in 1 Corinthians 15

Well, we see that in Romans chapter 5 in a big way with this theme of the second Adam. The first Adam who failed and the new Adam who succeeded. The first Adam who brought ruin and the second Adam who brought redemption. And we ended up last time pointing out then that the bottom line of Romans chapter 5 is that God now does not treat us according to what we deserve. He treats us according to what Jesus deserved. He was our head. He was our representative. And in him we have been blessed with every spiritual blessing.

Now we have that again in 1 Corinthians chapter 15, which we look at this morning. In the opening verses of this chapter, Paul brings up the subject of the gospel. And you will see, as he proceeds through the chapter, why he starts there. But in these opening verses, he speaks of the importance of the gospel, and then, verses 3 and following, the essence of the gospel. And the essence of the gospel is basically these two facts: Christ died for our sins, according to the scriptures, and was buried; and Christ was raised again the third day according to the scriptures and was seen of many witnesses.

Not just that Christ died, but Christ died for our sins. Not just a historical statement, although it is that, but it’s a theological statement. He died for our sins, bearing our curse and our punishment in our place, taking the condemnation of our sin. He died under the judgment of God for our sin. Second, he was raised the third day in triumph over death, having exhausted the curse for us. He has now then been raised into the life of the age to come as our representative head.

Now then, that has some entailments. Beginning in verse 12 and following, Paul deals here with some of the consequences of denying the resurrection. You know that’s where he’s going because he says, verse 12, “If Christ is proclaimed as raised from the dead, how can some of you say that there is no resurrection of the dead?”

Now there is, believe it or not, professing Christian teaching of that today. We call it full preterism—all prophecies fulfilled in the past. And one of the tenets of it is that there’s no future resurrection of the dead. And their reasoning often is that Christ was raised from the dead, and in him we have been raised from the dead into spiritual life. The resurrection has already happened. And of course, all of that is true. But what Paul argues here is that if we stop with that, we’ve stopped way too soon.

So he says, first of all, “How can you claim that there’s no resurrection of the dead?” You have already acknowledged that Christ was raised from the dead. And if Christ has been raised from the dead, there is an eschatological resurrection. Now you see the unexpressed assumption in that? Christ has been raised into the age to come. You’re denying that the resurrection of the age to come will not—you’re saying that it will not come. The gospel that you have embraced says that it already has come. So you cannot deny the resurrection. And if you deny the resurrection of Jesus, you’ve denied the gospel. If you’ve denied the gospel, verses 13 and following, there is no forgiveness of sins. Our whole preaching is futile. This Christian thing is stupid. And there’s nobody on earth as stupid as we are, and we ought to be really pitied if Jesus didn’t rise from the dead.

Christ as the Firstfruits

And now he comes to the point, finally, in verse 20: “But in fact, Christ has been raised from the dead.” And here he begins to expound on some of the larger entailments of Christ’s resurrection. And notice how he unpacks it: “But in fact, Christ has been raised from the dead,” and that is into that age to come. “Christ has been raised from the dead, the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep.”

Now that word “firstfruits” is very important. It’s critical to his argument here. You remember what the firstfruits were in the Old Testament. Remember at harvest time, there would be a sampling of the harvest that each family would bring into the priest. And this was a sampling of what this harvest is coming and also sort of a first installment, a kind of pledge of the rest of the harvest to come. They’re offering it to God, offering it to him, offering their homage to God in that respect. But it’s also a sampling of a greater harvest that is coming. The firstfruits were brought to God.

Now Paul is using that imagery. There’s another play that was staged ahead of time. That firstfruits in the Old Testament, that whole exercise of doing that with the priest in the tabernacle, was prospective of Christ who was raised from the dead, the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep in Jesus.

Now already then you see his argument, don’t you? That Jesus was just the first of a whole harvest of people who will be raised from the dead in the last day. He has gone ahead of time. We’ve talked many times here about the now and the not yet, that in Christ the age to come has been brought forward into this age. This is how it has come about. Christ has been raised into the age to come. He is just the firstfruits, but because he is raised from the dead into the age to come, and because we are united to him, he’s just the first sampling of a great harvest, a great resurrection that will come. And we will be raised from the dead surely because Christ himself, our head, has been raised.

Well, that’s the essence of Paul’s argument here. He is the firstfruits of a larger company that will come. And then notice in verses 21 to 23, he explains this in new Adam terminology or in Adam Christology. Notice he begins to explain: “For, as by one man came death” (Who’s that? Adam), “by a man also has come the resurrection of the dead. For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ shall all be made alive. But each in his own order, Christ the firstfruits,” (there we have it again), “and then at his coming, those who belong to Christ.”

You see his argument here then, that God has, in the Old Testament, staged the play ahead of time. They brought these firstfruits into the priest, showed him it was a sampling of a fuller harvest to come, and now Jesus has been raised into the age to come. His resurrection was not, for example, like the resurrection of Lazarus. Lazarus was raised to this life. It’s not recorded for us in the scriptures, but we assume he died again at some point. Jesus was not raised back into this order of living. He was raised into the age to come, glorified. And now he was the firstfruits of a full resurrection that will come after him. And here Paul tells us that will come to pass at the return of Christ.

So his point here then is that Jesus is the hinge. In his death, he has exhausted God’s curse against sin. As our representative, our corporate head, he took the sin, he exhausted the curse, the punishment, and as our representative head, he took our death, our judgment, and has exhausted the curse against sin. But he’s also our corporate head in his resurrection as well. And just as he was raised from the dead, so all of those who are joined to him will be raised from the dead as well. He’s the corporate head, and he takes us with him. It’s just that our resurrection will come in its time, in its own order, at his second coming.

I had thought at some point that we might in this series take us time, and I’d preach a sermon on this subject of the biblical theology of the resurrection—how death was entered into humanity and how it ends up finally with resurrection. It’s simply right here that that whole discussion would take place. Paul’s argument is not simply that there was death introduced into humanity, but there’s coming a resurrection in the end. It’s threaded through the death and resurrection of Jesus and those who are united to him, so that the resurrection came in Jesus, those united to Jesus will be raised from the dead, and death will finally be answered in the final resurrection because we are joined to Christ.

So, the big picture of Paul’s argument then, in 1 Corinthians 15, is: how can you say there’s no coming resurrection? One, it’s already happened in Jesus, but two, because Jesus is our representative head, he is just the firstfruits of a full resurrection that must come later.

What Kind of Body?

Now, when we get to verses 35 and following, He takes up the question of what that resurrection body will be like. So you can just hear someone asking, “Okay, we’ll be raised from the dead because Christ our head was raised ahead of us. And just as he was glorified, so we will be glorified. Well, what in the world kind of body will we have in the resurrection? Can this body like we have now be rightly fitted for life then?”

And so Paul says, no, there’s a different order of existence. And he begins to give some comparisons as well. Verse 35: “Some will ask, ‘How are the dead raised? 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.”

You see the illustration he’s giving? You put a seed into the ground, it dies, it decays, but then it sprouts to life. And what you get in the full plant is not the same as what you put in the ground. It’s a full plant. He’s just using that as an analogy. The body we plant in the ground—pardon the language—planted in the ground, is raised, but he’s saying it’s raised to a different kind of existence.

So verse 38: “God gives it a body as he chooses, and to each kind of seed its own body, for not all flesh is the same flesh. 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, the glory of the earthly is another. There’s one glory of the sun, and another glory of the moon, another glory of the stars. For stars differs from stars in glory. So it is with the resurrection of the dead. What is sown is perishable.” That’s why it was buried. It died. It’s perishable.

“What is raised is imperishable.” So the difference between the body now and the body we have in the resurrection is that that body won’t die. It is sown in dishonor; it is raised in glory. The body we have now is dishonorable—some of us it’s more dishonorable than others. But you see what it means. It dies, it decays, it gets sick. It’s dishonorable, but it will be raised in glory. It’s sown in weakness, but it will be raised in power.

So we have a perishable body, we will have an imperishable body. We have now a dishonorable body, but we will have a glorious body. We have a weak body, we will have a powerful body. And then he gives sort of a summary in verse 44: “It is sown a natural body, it is raised a spiritual body.” Now that simply means we have a body that is fitted for this natural existence, but we will be raised with a spiritual body. Not that it just doesn’t have a body, but that it’s fit for that spiritual life in the eschaton. So there’s a natural body, and there’s also a spiritual body.

Okay, all of that, and then he comes to the point in verse 45: “Thus it is written, ‘The first man, Adam, became a living being.'” That’s the terminology of verse 44, the natural body. Adam became a living being. “The last Adam,” Christ, “became a life-giving spirit.” That’s the terminology of verse 44, a spiritual body.

So we have two representative heads. We have two Adams. Adam the first gives us the body of this existence. Adam the second gives us the body of that existence. How does he do it? He himself was raised from the dead. Verse 45: he has become the life-giving spirit. He has become so associated with the spirit of God in resurrection that he now gives that spirit life, not only now, but in the resurrection. He gives us the body that is fitted for that life so that it will be a body like his. In fact, Paul says it that way in Philippians chapter 3, doesn’t he? We will have a body that is like his glorious body.

So Paul’s argument here is you cannot deny the resurrection of the dead and be Christian, because one, Christ is raised from the dead. You can’t deny the resurrection; it’s already happened. And two, because Christ has been raised from the dead, those of us who are joined to him in faith, because he is our representative head, will be raised with him at his coming. Two contrasting heads: Adam the first and Adam the second.

Now as I’ve said, all of this is designed simply to draw our attention further to Jesus. Adam the first is the one in whom we have become fallen. He is the one in whom we’ve been condemned. Adam the second is the one who obeyed in our place. He is the one who accomplished justification for us. So the consequences of Adam is ruin. The consequences of the actions of Jesus are restoration. And not only simply in terms of judicial standing, condemnation, and justification, but death and life as well. And that in its full significance, even bodily resurrection, will come because Jesus has been raised from the dead into the age to come and has taken us with him.

Now that in turn has significance with regard to what is to come. And I think I should wait till next week so we have time this morning for the communion. I should wait till next week to finish that up. If you would like to look ahead, look at Psalm 8 and then look at Hebrews chapter 2, which picks up on Psalm 8, and we’ll look at that then next week.

Let’s bow together for prayer. Our Father, we are grateful that we have someone who can stand for us. We’re thankful that you have not left us to stand on our own. We’re thankful that we have Christ as our head, our representative. We’re thankful that we have one who has accomplished all that you’ve required of us. We have in him one who has endured all the curse of sin. He is the one who has led the way for us into resurrection. We’re grateful for him, and we ask that you would encourage us with thoughts of him so that we may trust in him in a more focused and firm way as our only hope. We ask in his name. Amen.