1 Corinthians 15:50-54 Now this I say, brothers, that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God; neither does corruption inherit incorruption.… Paul here speaks of a bodily transformation that is — I. INDISPENSABLE (ver. 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 (ver. 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 (ver. 52). "The day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night," etc. IV. GLORIOUS (vers. 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.) Parallel Verses KJV: Now this I say, brethren, that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God; neither doth corruption inherit incorruption. |
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