The Pulpit Commentary — 1 Corinthians — Section 498

Of order and of good. Whato'cr we see, Whate'er we f<'el, by agency direct Or indirect., shall tend to feed and nurse Our faculties, shnll fix in calmer seats Of morn\ strength, and raise to loftier hei.,hts 0 Of love Divine, our intellectual soul." (Wordsworth.) Vers. 50-54.-Ompo_real tra":"sformation. "Now this I say, brethren, that flesh and blood cannot mhent the krngdom of God; neither doth corruption inherit incor- ruption. Behold, I show you a mystery; Vi' e shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed, in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump: for the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be chancred. For this corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on im~ortality. So ~hen this_ corrn1•tiblc shall have put on incorruption, and this mortal shall have put -0n immortality, then shall be brought to pass the saying that is written, Death is swallowed up in victory." Paul here speaks of a bodily transformation that is indis- pensable, certain, instantaneous, and glorious. I. Here is a transformation that is INDISPE!ISADLE. "This I say, brethren, that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God." Its indispensability is not for this state of thina:s, but for the state of bliss in the celestial world. "Flesh and blood" of course, means our mortal nature. "Cannot inherit the kingdom of God," the heaveniy world. He does not say why it cannot-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. He does not go into reasons, but boldly states tho_ fact that it could not be. " Flesh and blood" can no more exist yonder, than the tenants of the ocean can exist on the sun-burnt hills. 1n such corporeal transformations there is nothing extraordinary, for naturalists point us to spheres of existence where they are as regular as the laws of nature. II. Here is a transformation that is CERTAIN. "Behold, I show you a mystery." The word "mystery" here does not point to the unlrnowable, but to the hitherto unknown. What the apostle means is-I state to you as a fact that which has not hitherto been fully known, viz. that" we shall all be changed." "We shall not all sleep." Had Paul an idea either that he himself would esc:ape death, or that the resurrection-day was just at hand? If he had, he here shows himselJ; as in some other places, not infallible, but -0therwise; for he did die, and at that period the resurrection-day was far away in the abysses of the future. His words, however, clearly teach: 1. '!'hat some would be li,ing when the day dawned. "As it was in the days of Noah, so shall it be in the days of the Son of man: they ate, they drank," etc. 2. 'l'hat both those who were living in the earth and sleeping in the dust would undergo corporeal transformaLion. "We shall all be changed." III. Here is a transformation that is INSTANTANEOUS. "In a moment, in the t11·inkling of an eye," that is, in the shortest conceivable period. At a moment when the living population least expects it, the blast of the" tr~mpet" shall be ~ear_d, and the transformation be effected. "The day of the Lord will come as a thief m the night," etc. IV. Here is a transformation that is GLomous. "For this corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality." '!'he transformation is from mortality to immortality, from the dying to the undying; "death will be swallowed up in victory." "The idea," says one, "may be taken of a whirlpool or maelstrom that .absorbs all that comes near it." The sense is, he would remove or abolish death for ever from mankind. Ver. 53.-The mind exchanging the mortal for the immortal. "And this mortal must pi.:t on immortality," etc. Paul uses this language in relation to the body. ,vhat he means, I presume, is that the mortal shall be exchan_ged for the immortal. To put on "immortality" upon mortality is scarcely conceivable. But the receiving: of the immortal instead o[ the mortal is what we can appreciate, and what we may well desire. \\,'hen the apostle calls upon us elsewhere to put on the "cew man," he meallll <JII. xv. 1--58.] THB FinST EPISTLE TO THE CORINTHIANS. 507