And so it is written, “The first man Adam became a living being.” The last Adam became a life-giving spirit. (46) However, the spiritual is not first, but the natural, and afterward the spiritual. (47) The first man was of the earth, made of dust; the second Man is the Lord from heaven. (48) As was the man of dust, so also are those who are made of dust; and as is the heavenly Man, so also are those who are heavenly. (49) And as we have borne the image of the man of dust, we shall also bear the image of the heavenly Man.

The first letter to the Corinthians was written by the apostle Paul. In our verses today he addresses the question of the resurrection of the dead – if God’s own are to be raised, in what body will they arise? Paul is answering with divine revelation – apart from this revelation we can know nothing apart from pure speculation. The descendants of Adam derive from him an earthly body like his. Just as certainly as we have a natural body, limited by time and space; a body of flesh and blood, subject to pain and decay, those who belong to Christ are to have a glorious body fashioned like His glorious body. If the one exists, so does the other.

Paul is contemplating the body at the time of death, saying that the weakness which belongs to it in life is perfected in death. It is a general law that the lower precedes the higher; the imperfect, the perfect. We are born before we are regenerated and we live before we rise. Matter was created under the forces of animal life. Adam’s work was to bring into subjection to his own spirit not only the world around him but also his own body and appetites. Adam was not created full grown in moral and spiritual life but fully equipped for conquest – but the victory was not yet won. His body was soul governed and so are ours. Our future bodies will be controlled by our spirits; the human spirit will be animated wholly by God. And some day the changes awaiting our bodies will be revealed. We are sown in corruption and will be raised in incorruption and just as we bear the likeness of the first man, we shall bear the likeness of the Man from heaven. Nothing is impossible with God and as Christians we know the future hope of the second coming of Christ when we will receive resurrected bodies – this should affect life as we live it now.

We are now limited by time which is unilinear and irreversible but we are promised a new heavens and a new earth will be formed. We can only guess and wonder on this – and again, I like to end with C.S. Lewis from his book on Miracles: “It is useful not because we can trust these fancies to give us any positive truth about the New Creation but because they teach us not to limit, in our rashness, the vigor and variety of the new crops which this old field might yet produce. We are therefore compelled to believe that nearly all we are told about the New Creation is metaphorical. But not quite all. That is just where the story of the Resurrection suddenly jerks us back like a tether. The local appearances, the eating, the touching, the claim to be corporal, must be either reality or sheer illusion.