(avg. read time: 5–10 mins.)
Naturally, Paul’s theology of resurrection also has an anthropological dimension to it, as well. Resurrection is what happens to humans, after all. Indeed, resurrection is necessary for humans to face final judgment. It was as embodied creatures that they lived, and it is as embodied creatures that they must be judged. Resurrection to everlasting life signifies the complete, total redemption of humans. Just as it is as embodied creatures that humans must be judged, so too it is as embodied creatures that humans must be saved if they are to be saved.
Human bodies are microcosms of the world they inhabit. It is in/as σῶμα that humans interact with the world, and the body has qualities apposite to the world with which humans interact. Thus, the redemption of our bodies is necessary for the redemption of creation as a whole, and implies the same. We see such ideas at work in 1 Cor 15 in the succeeding segments of vv. 36–41 and 42–49 (as well as v. 50). In order to answer what the interlocutors ask in v. 35, Paul establishes the cosmological context of the resurrection body in vv. 36–41 to make clear that God’s creative will and power exemplified in the principles of teleology (i.e., bodies are made for a purpose) and differentiation (i.e., God has made different bodies for different functions) will make a resurrection body fit for the new creation, just as the present body embodies characteristics fit for the present creation.
He further explains this point through a set of contrasts in vv. 42–44 by describing the present body in terms that can also characterize creation as a whole, which indicates that the contrasts define not only the resurrection bodies, but also the new creation they inhabit. I have already reviewed the last contrast in the previous entry, so I will look at the other three contrasts in this entry. The first term, φθορά, generally refers to destruction, ruin, corruption, decay, and so on. It is sometimes a synonym for mortality in that it relates to destructibility, corruptibility, and the decay that comes with mortality and death itself (e.g., Plato, Phil. 55a; Resp. 546a; Aristotle, Phys. 229b.13; Thucydides 2.47.3; Sophocles, Ant. 1224). It can also serve metonymically for what leads to death (i.e., corruption), hence its use in some moral contexts. The second term in the contrast, ἀφθαρσία, is the negation of the first, as signified by the alpha privative, but I translate it positively as “absolute vivification.” It generally refers to indestructibility, immunity to decay, incorruptibility (in both vital and moral senses), and it can function as a synonym for immortality/ἀθανασία, as in vv. 53–54 (cf. Aristotle, Top. 6 [145b.22–34]).
In light of the uses elsewhere in connection with God and the eschatological context here, it seems best to translate ἀφθαρσία in a more positive sense than the negative sense that the alpha privative otherwise warrants. It refers not simply to the absence of death or mortality, but to the banishment of these qualities that is the result of receiving the utter fullness of everlasting life, the type of life untouchable by death or mortality. The absolute vivification that comes with resurrection to everlasting life removes all symptoms of mortality and replaces them with the characteristics of the everlasting life of God.
Paul also uses the two terms of v. 42b to describe cosmic conditions (v. 50 [in parallelism with “kingdom of God”]; Rom 8:21; cf. 2 Pet 1:4). Bodies of the present age experience in themselves and in the world around them the characteristic principle of decay, while bodies of the new age will experience decay’s reversal in complete vivification. Indeed, Paul says that humans must be transformed in order to participate in the new creation characterized by this complete vivification (ἀφθαρσία, vv. 53–54).
The second antithesis of ἀτιμία and δόξα likewise derives from a contrast of the ages. The first term refers to dishonor, disgrace, disdain, humiliation, shame, or the deprivation of various marks of honor. This description befits humans under the domination of sin, living in denial of their proper function and glory as image-bearers of God. It is also a parallel with the term ταπείνωσις, which Paul uses only once in Phil 3:21, another text in which he references glory in the context of bodies and resurrection (cf. Rom 8:21). This contrast of ἀτιμία and δόξα is not as obviously cosmological in scope as the previous one. But the metaleptic effect of Paul’s earlier use of Ps 8 in the preceding vv. 39–41 and the rhetorically parallel vv. 26–28 affects how one should read the reference to “glory” in v. 43. As “glory” in this context references the proper place and function of humans and other bodies in creation, the contrast of “humiliation” references the current dysfunctional condition of creation in which humans—and by extension, the rest of creation—have surrendered their proper glory. Although the terms of the contrasts are not identical, the use of “glory” in reference to resurrection and new creation in Rom 8:18, 21 illustrates how the human reception of “glory,” as image-bearers of God, is essential for both their redemption and the redemption of the whole creation.
The third contrast of ἀσθένεια and δύναμις focuses on weakness versus power. As the former term can also refer to “illness” or “infirmity,” it summarizes well the state of the present body as susceptible to all kinds of weakness and to various forces that lead to death. The latter term in Paul is frequently a divine attribute (Rom 1:4, 16, 20; 9:17; 15:13, 19; 1 Cor 1:18, 24; 2:4–5; 5:4; 6:14; 2 Cor 4:7; 6:7; 12:9–12; 13:4; Gal 3:5; Eph 1:19–20; 3:7, 16, 20; Phil 3:10; Col 1:11, 29; 1 Thess 1:5; 2 Thess 1:11; 2 Tim 1:7–8), much like glory and absolute vivification. As the resurrected will share God’s life and God’s glory, they will also share in God’s power that raises them and invigorates them forever. In all these various ways, the negative sides of the contrasts imply alienation from God as what afflicts the present age, whereas the positive sides of the contrasts imply union with God as what characterizes the age to come. In terms of what I have been analyzing here, Paul shows his interlocking of the foundations of resurrection belief of God’s inexorable, faithful love (here expressed in his communication of himself in giving resurrection life) and of the promises of kingdom and new creation.
To that point, this third contrast also has cosmological significance. The use of the latter term elsewhere in 1 Corinthians as a quality of the kingdom of God (4:20; 12:10, 28–29; 14:11) or as a reference to God’s resurrecting power (6:14; cf. 2 Cor 13:4; Eph 1:19–20; Phil 3:10). This point once again signifies how resurrection and the new creation are of one piece. Conversely, the former term serves adequately as a term summarizing the state of the present age from a slightly different angle than the two aforementioned negative conditions, as well as a contrast to expectations of the kingdom.
Paul further confirms this cosmologically driven anthropological contrast in v. 50. Paul makes the kingdom of God parallel to the quality of absolute/complete vivification that Paul has previously assigned to resurrection bodies and will yet assign to the transformed bodies of those who are alive at the time of Christ’s Second Coming. The fact that the body must be transformed to receive the kingdom further accentuates this connection.
This link of humans with creation is also tied to the Genesis creation narrative. It was only after God made humans in his image that he declared the world “very good,” and it is only with the redemption of human bodies that creation will be made complete. Hence, Paul’s argument in 1 Cor 15, in both vv. 20–23 and vv. 45–49, relies upon a new Genesis narrative involving one known as the Last Adam. While Adam is the progenitor of humanity by virtue of being the first man, Christ is the new progenitor of humanity by virtue of his resurrection and communication of resurrection life to others. Hence vv. 22 and 45 use the same verb to indicate that Christ’s own resurrection is the basis of the believers’ (cf. vv. 13–16, 20). Jesus’s own resurrection serves as the precedent and pattern—indeed, the paradigm—of resurrection. Paul articulates this point through his description of Christ as the Last Adam and—as v. 44b indicates—the one who literally embodies the qualities ascribed to resurrection life in vv. 42b–44a. It is by his resurrection that Jesus is established as the new progenitor of humanity, fulfilling the functions that Adam should have. But he is not simply Adam redux and those conformed to his image do not simply represent a restoration of proper human function. In both respects, Adam and Adamic humanity are surpassed. Christ surpasses Adam by being the life-giver and not simply a life-receiver, by communicating everlasting resurrection life (rather than extended mortality), by virtue of being from God’s realm of heaven, and by being on both sides of the God-human relationship. Christ’s image-bearers surpass the mold of Adamic humanity by bearing the image of the one who surpasses Adam, receiving everlasting resurrection life, and being made more completely like God by God himself in the resurrection, rather than the usurping route Adam and Eve took.
We see a similar argument play out in Rom 5:12–21, the other major text in which Paul correlates Christ and Adam. This unit and the subsequent argument illustrate a distinction between being defined by Adam and being defined by Christ. In both texts, Christ reverses the effects of Adam and brings those who receive God’s grace through him into a new dominion. In Rom 5, this is indicated particularly in reference to the “all,” since Rom 5:17–18 indicates that not all will be both condemned and justified (nor does Paul argue that all who were once condemned will be justified), but all who define themselves in relation to Adam will be condemned while all who receive God’s grace in Jesus will be justified. That is, in the language of 1 Cor 15, those who bear Christ’s image are those who will be made like him in the resurrection to everlasting life.
The ultimate goal toward which Christian life is aimed by the direction of the Holy Spirit is that we will be transformed by being fully conformed to the image of Christ in being conformed to his resurrection at his Second Coming (vv. 20–23, 42–57; cf. 1:8; 4:5; 5:5; 11:26). There is a sense in which we know where we are going, we know what awaits us in the ultimate future, because of the risen Christ. He has shown himself to us and has thus shown what God’s will for humanity in the new creation is, and that this purpose will be achieved by him raising us from the dead to everlasting life in conformity to the risen Jesus. Indeed, this is a point Paul makes elsewhere in describing God’s purpose in conforming us to the image of his Son in Rom 8:29, as well as with his description of how the Spirit transforms us in accordance with Christ in 2 Cor 3:18. The teaching outside of 1 Cor 15 where he makes this link to resurrection most explicitly is Phil 3:20–21, wherein he says that our bodies will be transformed to be conformed to the glorious body of the risen Jesus by the same power by which he subjects all things to himself. As we will explore another time, the implication of all these teachings is that those who follow Christ in the newness of life are those who will also share in his resurrection; their cruciform life will be vindicated as his was (cf. 1 Cor 13:8–13; Phil 3:10–12).