1 Corinthians 15:50

1Co_15:50-54

Flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God.

Flesh and blood cannot enter the kingdom of God

I. The general law.

1. This carries with it its own proof: for, obviously, darkness might as well become light, or death life, as that which is corrupt rise into the incorruptible. On this point St. Paul is earnest and absolute. The exception of 1Co_15:51 is only an apparent one. Those who are alive when Christ comes will nevertheless be changed (1Co_15:52).

2. Note the significance of this law. Flesh and blood is a Scripture term for the lusts and passions of our lower nature. Jewish readers would instantly apprehend its force. To them the blood was the life; and therefore it was shed in sacrifice. It was the seat of passion and desire, of all that is lawless and irregular; and therefore they were not permitted to partake of it. Their conception finds utterance to-day in such phrases as, His blood is up, or, A hot-blooded fellow. St. Paul uses the term here as the symbol of this life, these lusts, these corruptions, which cannot inherit incorruption.

3. Mark the different use of the phrases flesh and blood and flesh and bones in the New Testament. Flesh and blood cannot inherit; the incorrupt and heavenly kingdom, but flesh and bones may and do. After His resurrection Christ had flesh and bones (Luk_24:37-39); and Christians are members of His body, of His flesh and of His bones (Eph_5:30). Christs blood as the symbol of life has been shed for the redemption of the world: as the symbol of corruption, it is poured out, exhausted. Flesh and bones may still be retained even when the natural becomes a spiritual body; but the life that pulses through it is that of a higher than mortal existence.

II. The truths and hopes which underlie it.

1. The truth for which St. Paul contends is not the immortality of the soul, but the resurrection of the body. Centuries before Christ the Greeks had believed that the souls of the departed survived the pangs of death. But these souls were not themselves, they were but their shades. Elysium was as thin and unsubstantial in its avocations and joys as the poor ghosts that tenanted it. And as nature shrinks from disembodiment, the Greeks were accustomed to offer rich garments on the tombs of heroes, if so be that, being thus clothed, they might not be found naked, and a Corinthian queen is said to have appeared to her husband after death, entreating him to burn dresses for her as a covering for her disembodied spirit. We may smile at all this, but none the less we are touched by this naive childish testimony to the universal dread of disembodiment, the universal desire to be clothed upon with some vesture whether of earth or heaven. To men gazing thus sadly into the future St. Pauls strong hearty words must have been as health to the sick. So, then, they were not to become disembodied spirits, but to be clothed upon with a body more exquisitely attuned to the faculties and energies of their spiritual life!

2. In our Lords risen body we have the express type of the spiritual bodies we are to wear.

(1) The body which His disciples recognised was essentially the same although it had undergone a mysterious change. What that change was St. Paul hints in the phrase, flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God. Consequently we find that they did not instantly recognise Him when He came to them. They knew Him only as He was pleased to make Himself known. He was not bound by material laws. He is found present, no one knows from whence. He passes away, no one knows whither (Joh_20:19; Luk_24:31; Act_1:9). In the person of Christ we see the whole man--body, soul, and spirit--raised from the grave. We see all the intelligent and passionate faculties of the soul held in perfect subjection to the higher claims of the spirit. The body is not simply restored to its pristine vigour and purity, but lifted To a higher and more spiritual pitch. It is not unclothed, but clothed upon. The corruptible has put on incorruption, the mortal has put on immortality.

(2) And this is the change that must pass on us, if indeed Christ be in us, the hope of glory. Like Him we are to put on immortality and incorruption: not to break with the past, nor to lose our identity; not to be changed beyond our own recognition or that of our friends, but to be purged from the corruptible and baser elements of our nature, to be redeemed from our bondage to sense, and its laws; to be transfigured, that the spirit which Christ has quickened in us may dwell in a quick spiritual body--a body that shall not check, nor thwart, nor dull, but perfectly second and express, the untiring energies of our higher and renewed nature. As a man awaking for a moment from a mortal trance, so we may wake from the sleep of death, and say, nothing is lost, but, ah, how much gained! (S. Cox, D.D.)

The change required that we may inherit the kingdom of God

I. The kingdom intended.

1. Not the kingdom of Christ on earth.

2. But the kingdom of God in glory, which is heavenly and eternal.

II. The unfitness of man for it.

1. His nature is morally corrupt.

2. Physically it is earthly and corruptible.

III. The change necessary.

1. A new birth.

2. A resurrection. (J. Lyth, D.D.)

Corporeal transformation

Paul here speaks of a bodily transformation that is--

I. Indispensable (verse 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 (verse 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 (verse 52). The day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night, etc.

IV. Glorious (verses 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.)

The necessity of the believers resurrection arises

I. Out of the nature of the kingdom of God, which is--

1. Heavenly.

2. Spiritual.

3. Incorruptible.

4. Divine.

5. Holy.

II. Out of the imperfection of the human body, which is--

1. Earthly.

2. Sensual.

3. Corruptible.

4. Sinful.

III. Out of the purpose of God.

1. It is His good pleasure to give us the kingdom.

2. The body of flesh and blood cannot inherit it.

3. Therefore it must be subject to a marvellous change. (J. Lyth, D.D.)

Neither doth corruption inherit incorruption.--

Corruption cannot inherit incorruption

I. Corruption.

1. Implies dissolution.

2. Is on earth a natural law.

3. Overtakes man in consequence of sin.

4. Includes decay, disease, death, decomposition.

II. Incorruption.

1. Implies immortality.

2. Is the distinguishing feature of the heavenly world.

3. Results from the immediate presence and power of God.

4. Secures purity, happiness, immortal vigour, eternal life.

III. The incompatibility of the two.

1. Is obvious.

2. Hence the absolute necessity of a change not only in mans moral but physical condition.

3. To be effected in the resurrection.

4. That man may inherit eternal life. (J. Lyth, D.D.)

Behold, I shew you a mystery: we shall not all sleep, but we shall all he changed.

The mystery of the resurrection revealed

I. The great change.

1. Its nature.

(1) The resurrection of the dead.

(2) The transformation of the living.

2. When and how effected.

(1) At the last trump.

(2) In a moment.

(3) By the power of God.

3. Its absolute certainty.

II. The triumph.

1. Death swallowed up in victory.

2. Hence the exultation of the redeemed over death and the grave.

III. The means of participation in it. The victory is--

1. The free gift of grace.

2. Through Christ.

3. By the destruction of sin.

IV. The practical lesson,

1. Steadfastness.

2. Abundant toil.

3. Confident hope. (J. Lyth, D.D.)

Change

I. Our life on earth is full of change. Every hour brings changes and chances. The sun which rises to shine on happy childrens faces, bright with laughter, sets over a desolate home. Have you ever seen the famous picture of The Railway Station? That, or the reality, will show you any day what a tangle life is. There you will see youth and age, joy and sorrow, success and failure, hope and despair, going their several ways in the great journey of life.

II. But the greatest change of all is yet to come. There will be a change--

1. In our bodies. The poor, worn-out clothing of flesh which was laid in the grave to decay, will be no longer needed. As the trees are clad with new clothing in the spring-time, so will our souls be at the great spring-time of the Lords coming. As the beggar forgets his rags when wrapped in soft raiment, so shall we doubtless forget our poor bodies, or remember them only as a dream when one awaketh. Here they are constantly getting out of repair. When we are changed, we may believe it will be always well with us in body.

2. In our minds and feelings. We shall be improved by the lessons we learn, just as we see a child altered by wise and careful schooling. The man of science has a world of knowledge and beauty open to him which the unlearned does not dream of. So in the school beyond there must be a still wider world of which the cleverest men know nothing. Then our mind, no longer warped by prejudice, will understand rightly; then we shall know even as we are known. We shall see clearly what seemed so dark and perplexing before. We shall understand how some of Gods dealings with us, which appeared so strange and hard, were the best of blessings for us.

III. The change will be very great, but we ,shall be fitted for it.

IV. The change will not make us feel lonely. In that land none are strangers. Sometimes when one is going to emigrate, I have asked him if he did not expect to feel very strange and lonely, and the answer was, Oh no, I have friends waiting for me there. And so with us.

V. Though the great change comes then, there must be a change in us now. Our most constant, prayer should be, Give me a clean heart, O Lord, and renew a right spirit within me. (H. J. W. Buxton, M.A.)

The final change

This is one in which you will be, not merely spectators, but parties concerned. It is an event the most certain. It is a solemnity that is continually drawing near. Note--

I. The union there is among the followers of the redeemer. We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed.

1. Of the number of this universal Church, some sleep. Death is often an alarming subject, and to reduce this dread we should do well to view it;as Scripture does as a departure--a going home--a sleep. Man is called to labour, and the sleep of a labouring man is sweet, whether he eat little or much. So Christians must work while it is day, etc. But then they will rest from their labours. Sleep is a state from which you may be easily awakened; and, lo! all that are in their graves shall hear Christs voice, and come forth.

2. Many will be found alive. The earths inhabitants will not be gradually consumed till none are left: the world will be full; and all the common concerns of life will be pursued with the same eagerness as before. And, as it was in the days of Noah, etc. Many of the Lords people too will be found alive; and perhaps they will be much more numerous than at any former period.

II. In what manner will this be disposed of? We shall all be changed. We are always varying now. But what a change is here from time to eternity, from earth to heaven, from the company of the wicked to the presence of the blessed God: from ignorance to knowledge; from painful infirmities to be presented faultless before the presence of His glory with exceeding joy! But the change principally refers to the body: for flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God, etc. Enoch and Elias, though they did not die, passed through a change equivalent to death. The same change which will be produced in the dead by the resurrection will be accomplished in the bodies of the living by this transformation; and of this we have the clearest assurance (verses 42-44).

III. The ease and despatch with which all this will be performed. In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye. What a view does this give us of the dominion and power of God! Think of the numbers that will be alive--all these metamorphosed in one instant. And why should it be thought a thing incredible? Is anything too hard for the Lord?

IV. The signal. At the last trump, etc. When the Lord came down on Horeb to publish the law, the voice of the trumpet waxed exceeding loud. By the sound of the trumpet the approach of kings has been announced. Judges in our country enter the place of assize preceded by the same shrill sound. And those who have witnessed the procession well know what an awe it impresses, and what sentiments it excites. Will the last trump call you to lamentation, and mourning, and woe? or will its language be, Lift up your heads with joy, for your redemption draweth nigh? Conclusion: He who will then be the Judge, is now the Saviour. He will then say to the wicked, Depart--but He does not say so now to any--His language is, Come. (W. Jay.)

For the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible.--

The trumpet shall sound

It is said when Lord Nelson was buried at St. Pauls Cathedral, all London was stirred. As the funeral procession passed on, it moved amid the sobbing of a nation. Thirty trumpeters stood at the door of the cathedral with musical instruments in hand, and when the illustrious dead arrived at the gates of St. Pauls Cathedral these thirty trumpeters blew one united blast; but the trumpets did not wake the dead. He slept right on. What thirty trumpets could not do for one man, one trumpet will do for all nations.

The trumpet of judgment

The blowing of trumpets at particular seasons was a statute for Israel. The trumpet was to be blown on the solemn feast day, to assemble the people together, to direct their march when the camp was to be moved, they were to be sounded over the burnt-offerings, and at the new moons, and when the year of jubilee arrived to proclaim liberty, also to summon the people to war. To this St. Paul alludes, when he says, If the trumpet give an uncertain sound, who shall prepare himself to the battle? All this was typical of the trumpet of the gospel which is to resound till all are warned to flee from the wrath to come (Psa_89:15). But there is another trumpet we must all hear.

I. The manner of its sound.

1. Sudden. Our Lord intimates this (Mat_24:38, etc.). The destruction of Jerusalem was a fit representation of this, it was awfully sudden. When the trumpet sounds to judgment there shall be the giddy and profane pursuing their unhallowed pleasures. In a moment! in the twinkling of an eye, the trumpet shall sound! Oh! to be found watching, waiting, praying, ready. Blessed is that servant who, when his Lord cometh, shall be found so doing.

2. Universal. It shall re-echo in heaven, reach every corner of earth, and penetrate the dark abyss of hell. Every soul shall hear it that ever lived in the world from the days of Adam to the period when the last infant shall be born, the king and the peasant, the righteous and wicked, etc. You who dislike the sound of the gospel; you who neglect the great salvation; you, formal professor, and self-righteous pharisee; you, hypocrite with the mask of religion--all must hear it.

3. Final. It is the close of all things the termination of our probation. There is a period when you shall hear of salvation, when you shall attend the sanctuary, when you shall read the Bible and surround the sacramental table for the last time.

II. The import of its accents. The Sound shall proclaim--

1. The end of time. How solemn the thought! Now we have the seasons in regular succession, times of business, recreation, devotion, etc. But soon time shall be no longer. The river of time will be emptied in the ocean of eternity. Oh! then, now seize it, and sail in the ship of the gospel, and you shall be safely conducted by the Divine Pilot till you glide safely into an ocean of bliss, that knows not the ruffle of a wave.

2. The resurrection of the dead.

3. The approach of the Judge. It shall be glorious. How unlike His first advent. The scene will be majestic beyond description. How great the designs of His coming! Not to present an atoning sacrifice, but to hold the last assize. He shall come to explain the mysteries of His providence, to display the riches of His grace, in the consummation of the happiness of His people, to vindicate His justice in the everlasting destruction of His foes.

III. The solemnity of its results.

1. The final triumphs of the righteous.

2. The eternal punishment of the wicked. (Ebenezer Temple.)

The resurrection

I. What are we to understand by the sounding of the trumpet? That this will announce our Saviours coming to judgment is frequently asserted (Mat_24:31; 1Th_4:16). As at the giving of the law, so at the judging of men according to that law, God shall cause some such sound to be uttered as shall be heard over the whole world, and summon all men to appear before His judgment-seat, and when this sounds then shall the dead be raised.

II. Who are those dead that shall be raised at the sound of this trumpet?

1. There is a threefold life: natural, the union of the soul to the body; spiritual, the union of Christ to the soul; eternal, the communion of the soul with God. Answerable to this there is a threefold death.

(1) Natural, when the soul and body are divorced from one another.

(2) Spiritual, which is the separation of the soul from Christ. Though many by grace are redeemed from this, yet all by nature are subject to it. And as all by nature are subject to it, so do most by practice still lie under it. Dead as to all sense of sin, as to all spiritual graces, as to all heavenly comforts, as to that life of faith which the children of God are quickened with.

(3) Eternal, the separation of the soul from God; and you that lie under the spiritual death of sin must either get yourselves quickened by the life of faith in Christ, or else except by eternal death to be separated from the Lord of Life.

2. Which of these shall be raised? All of them, and yet it is the naturally dead which are chiefly to be understood here.

III. How shall the dead be raised? When the trumpet shall sound by the power of the most high God, every mans body being made fit to receive its soul, the soul shall immediately be united to it, and so we, even the very self-same persons that now we are, shall be raised to answer for what we have done here.

IV. How doth it appear that the dead shall thus be raised?

1. From Scripture (Isa_26:19; Dan_12:2; Joh_5:28-29; Mat_22:31-32).

2. From reason.

(1) Christ has been raised.

(2) The soul is immortal, and it is against all reason that one essential part of man should be continued in its being, and the other should be turned to nothing.

(3) Justice requires that they that are co-partners in vice and virtues should be co-partners also in punishments and rewards. Though a sin would not be a sin without the soul, yet it would not be committed without the body. The body could not sin unless the soul consented; the soul would not sin so often unless the body tempted.

V. How shall they be raised incorruptible? The apostle here treats of principally the resurrection of the saints, who shall be raised incorruptible.

1. In their souls, which being wrought up into an exact conformity to the will of God, will be emptied of all corruptions, and blessed with all perfections.

2. In body. As our souls shall be void of all corruptions, so shall our bodies be of all imperfections, for these our vile bodies shall be made like unto Christs glorious body. What is sown a natural shall be raised a spiritual body; it shall not any longer be a clog to us in the performance of duties to God; but it shall be as quick, agile, and subservient as if it was advanced beyond the degree of a body, and had commenced a soul.

3. In their happiness. There shall be no crosses in their relations, no losses in their possessions, no disgrace in their honours, no fears in their preferments, no irregularities in their affections, no sorrow in their joys, no darkness in their light, not one drop of misery in the whole ocean of happiness they shall enjoy.

VI. What is meant by we shall be changed? There will be a change in--

1. Our opinions. We shall think otherwise of most things. Here we are apt to look upon sin as amiable, and grace as not desirable; but then we that once esteemed all things before God, shall look upon God as to be esteemed above all things.

2. Our conditions. A Dives in this may become a Lazarus in the other world; and a Lazarus here, a Dives there. (Bp. Beveridge.)

The Biblical Illustrator, edited by Joseph S. Exell (c. 1880s–1900s) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

1Co 15:50-52. Now this I say, brethren — This I offer to your consideration as a great and important truth, that we must first undergo an entire change; for flesh and blood — Such as we are now clothed with; cannot inherit the kingdom of God — Cannot enter that happy place which Christ hath gone to prepare for the reception of his people, (Joh 14:7,) cannot possess that kingdom which is wholly spiritual, because it affords no objects suited either to the senses or to the appetites of such a body. Neither doth corruption — This corruptible body; inherit incorruption — That incorruptible kingdom. Spirits, clothed with corruptible bodies like our present bodies, cannot enjoy objects that are incorruptible. They are not capable of enjoying the divine vision, nor of performing the exalted services, nor of relishing the pure pleasures, which constitute the glory and felicity of the kingdom of God. Behold, I show you a mystery — A truth hitherto unknown, and not yet fully revealed to any of the sons of men. We — Christians: the apostle considers them all as one in their succeeding generations; shall not die — Suffer a separation of soul and body; but we shall all — Who do not die; be changed — So that this animal body shall become spiritual; in a moment — Amazing work of omnipotence! in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump — Blown by the divine command. For the trumpet shall sound, &c. — At the giving of the law from Sinai, there was heard a great noise, like the sounding of a trumpet, exceeding loud, which sounded long, and waxed louder and louder. In like manner, at the descent of Christ from heaven, a great noise called the trump of God, (1Th 4:16,) will be made by the attending angels, as the signal for the righteous to come forth from their graves. And this noise being made at Christ’s command, it is called by himself, his voice, Joh 5:25. After the righteous are raised, the trumpet shall sound a second time; on which account it is called here the last trumpet. And while it sounds, the righteous who are alive on the earth shall be changed. And the dead shall be raised incorruptible — Though this expression be general, yet, as appears from 1Co 15:51, and indeed from the whole latter part of the chapter, it is evident it must be restricted to the dead in Christ, of whom alone the apostle is discoursing. Besides, as appears from 1Th 4:16, the wicked are not to be raised at the same time with the righteous.

Joseph Benson's Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1811–1818) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

1 Corinthians

THE DEATH OF DEATH

1Co 15:20 - 1Co 15:21; 1Co 15:50 - 1Co 15:58.

This passage begins with the triumphant ringing out of the great fact which changes all the darkness of an earthly life without a heavenly hope into a blaze of light. All the dreariness for humanity, and all the vanity for Christian faith and preaching, vanish, like ghosts at cock-crow, when the Resurrection of Jesus rises sun-like on the world’s night. It is a historical fact, established by the evidence proper for such,-namely, the credible testimony of eye-witnesses. They could attest His rising, but the knowledge of the worldwide significance of it comes, not from testimony, but from revelation. Those who saw Him risen join to declare: ‘Now is Christ risen from the dead,’ but it is a higher Voice that goes on to say, ‘and become the first-fruits of them that slept.’

That one Man risen from the grave was like the solitary sheaf of paschal first-fruits, prophesying of many more, a gathered harvest that will fill the great Husbandman’s barns. The Resurrection of Jesus is not only a prophecy, showing, as it and it alone does, that death is not the end of man, but that life persists through death and emerges from it, like a buried river coming again flashing into the light of day, but it is the source or cause of the Christian’s resurrection. The oneness of the race necessitated the diffusion through all its members of sin and of its consequence-physical death. If the fountain is poisoned, all the stream will be tainted. If men are to be redeemed from the power of the grave, there must be a new personal centre of life; and union with Him, which can only be effected by faith, is the condition of receiving life from Him, which gradually conquers the death of sin now, and will triumph over bodily death in the final resurrection. It is the resurrection of Christians that Paul is dealing with. Others are to be raised, but on a different principle, and to sadly different issues. Since Christ’s Resurrection assures us of the future waking, it changes death into ‘sleep,’ and that sleep does not mean unconsciousness any more than natural sleep does, but only rest from toil, and cessation of intercourse with the external world.

In the part of the passage, 1Co 15:50 - 1Co 15:58, the Apostle becomes, not the witness or the reasoner, as in the earlier parts of the chapter, but the revealer of a ‘mystery.’ That word, so tragically misunderstood, has here its uniform scriptural sense of truth, otherwise unknown, made known by revelation. But before he unveils the mystery, Paul states with the utmost force a difficulty which might seem to crush all hope,-namely, that corporeity, as we know it, is clearly incapable of living in such a world as that future one must be. To use modern terms, organism and environment must be adapted to each other. A fish must have the water, the creatures that flourish at the poles would not survive at the equator. A man with his gross earthly body, so thoroughly adapted to his earthly abode, would be all out of harmony with his surroundings in that higher world, and its rarified air would be too thin and pure for his lungs. Can there be any possibility of making him fit to live in a spiritual world? Apart from revelation, the dreary answer must be ‘No.’ But the ‘mystery’ answers with ‘Yes.’ The change from physical to spiritual is clearly necessary, if there is to be a blessed life hereafter.

That necessary change is assured to all Christians, whether they die or ‘remain till the coming of the Lord.’ Paul varies in his anticipations as to whether he and his contemporaries will belong to the one class or the other; but he is quite sure that in either case the indwelling Spirit of Jesus will effect on living and dead the needful change. The grand description in 1Co 15:52, like the parallel in 1Th 4:16, is modelled on the account of the theophany on Sinai. The trumpet was the signal of the Divine Presence. That last manifestation will be sudden, and its startling breaking in on daily commonplace is intensified by the reduplication: ‘In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye.’ With sudden crash that awful blare of ‘loud, uplifted angel trumpet’ will silence all other sounds, and hush the world. The stages of what follows are distinctly marked. First, the rising of the dead changed in passing through death, so as to rise in incorruptible bodies, and then the change of the bodies of the living into like incorruption. The former will not be found naked, but will be clothed with their white garments; the latter will, as it were, put on the glorious robes above the ‘muddy vesture of decay,’ or, more truly, will see the miracle of these being transfigured till they shine ‘so as no fuller on earth could white them.’ The living will witness the resurrection of the dead; the risen dead will witness the transformation of the living. Then both hosts will be united, and, through all eternity, ‘live together,’ and that ‘with Him.’ Paul evidently expects that he and the Corinthians will be in the latter class, as appears by the ‘we’ in 1Co 15:52. He, as it were, points to his own body when he says, recurring to his former thought of the necessity of harmony between organism and environment, ‘this corruptible must put on incorruption.’ Here ‘corruption’ is used in its physical application, though the ethical meaning may be in the background.

The Apostle closes his long argument and revelation with a burst, almost a shout, of triumph. Glowing words of old prophets rush into his mind, and he breathes a new, grander meaning into them. Isaiah had sung of a time when the veil over all nations should be destroyed ‘in this mountain,’ and when death should be swallowed up for ever; and Paul grasps the words and says that the prophet’s loftiest anticipations will be fulfilled when that monster, whose insatiable maw swallows down youth, beauty, strength, wisdom, will himself be swallowed up. Hosea had prophesied of Israel’s restoration under figure of a resurrection, and Paul grasps his words and fills them with a larger meaning. He modifies them, in a manner on which we need not enlarge, to express the great Christian thought that death has conquered man but that man in Christ will conquer the conqueror. With swift change of metaphor he represents death as a serpent, armed with a poisoned sting, and that suggests to him the thought, never far away in his view of man, that death’s power to slay is derived from-or, so to say, concentrated in-sin; and that at once raises the other equally characteristic and familiar thought that law stimulates sin, since to know a thing to be forbidden creates in perverse humanity an itching to do it, and law reveals sin by setting up the ideal from which sin is the departure. But just as the tracks in Paul’s mind were well worn, by which the thought of death brought in that of sin, and that of sin drew after it that of law, so with equal closeness of established association, that of law condemnatory and slaying, brought up that of Christ the all-sufficient refuge from that gloomy triad-Death Sin, Law. Through union with Him each of us may possess His immortal risen life, in which Death, the engulfer, is himself engulfed; Death, the conqueror, is conquered utterly and for ever; Death, the serpent, has his sting drawn, and is harmless. That participation in Christ’s life is begun even here, and God ‘giveth us the victory’ now, even while we live outward lives that must end in death, and will give it perfectly in the resurrection, when ‘they cannot die any more,’ and death itself is dead.

The loftiest Christian hopes have close relation to the lowliest Christian duties, and Paul’s triumphant song ends with plain, practical, prose exhortations to steadfastness, unmovable tenacity, and abundant fruitfulness, the motive and power of which will be found in the assurance that, since there is a life beyond, all labour here, however it may fail in the eyes of men, will not be in vain, but will tell on character and therefore on condition through eternity. If our peace does not rest where we would fain see it settle, it will not be wasted, but will return to us again, like the dove to the ark, and we shall ‘self-enfold the large results of’ labour that seemed to have been thrown away.

Alexander MacLaren, Expositions of Holy Scripture (1904–1910) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

15:50 Physical bodies cannot inherit God’s Kingdom. Only a spiritual, resurrected body can experience the Kingdom in all its fullness (cp. John 4:24).

Tyndale Open Study Notes — © Tyndale Open Resources, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

1Co 15:50. Σὰρξ καὶ αἷμα, flesh and blood) An abstract phrase, [meaning man, as far as the circulation of the blood quickens his flesh.—V. g.] as φθορὰ, corruption. The one is applied to those, who live in the world, the other to the dead. Both of these must become altogether different from what they have been previously. The spirit extracted from the dregs of wine does not so much differ from them, as the glorified man from the mortal man.—βασιλείαν Θεοῦ, the kingdom of God) which is altogether spiritual, and in no respect merely animal [natural]. A great change must intervene, until man is made fit for that kingdom.—οὐ δύνανται, cannot) This is a Syllepsis[147] of number, for it denotes the multitude of those, who are flesh and blood.—οὐδὲ—κληρονομεῖ, nor—obtains by inheritance) It is not said, cannot receive by inheritance. Flesh and blood are farther distant [from the inheritance], than corruption itself; and it is evident from its very nature, that corruption cannot obtain this inheritance, although it is certainly the way to incorruptibility, 1Co 15:36. The meaning of the present may be gathered from 1Co 15:52 at the beginning.[148]

[147] See App. The sing. subject had gone before. But the plural was mentally intended.—ED.

[148] So D(Λ) corrected later, d f Hilary 91,315, and Latin MSS. in Jerome 1,810c, read παντες ἀναστησόμεθα, οὐ πάντες δὲ ἀλλαγήσομεθα.—ED.

Bengel's Gnomon of the New Testament — English translation (T&T Clark, Edinburgh, 1860) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

1Co_15:50. The discussion regarding the nature of the resurrection body is now closed with a negative axiom, which serves to confirm the φορέσομεν τ. εἰκ. τ. ἐπουρ.[88] But this (in order to add yet this general statement in confirmation of what has just been said) I assure you of. Comp. 1Co_7:29. The sense of a concession (for the spiritualistic opponents, so Usteri, Billroth, Olshausen) is imported into the context and the simple φημί. According to van Hengel, Paul writes to obviate a misapprehension; his readers were not to think that the φορέσομεν κ. τ. εἰκόνα τοῦ ἐπουρανίου consisted in the fellowship of the flesh and blood, which Christ had before and after His resurrection. But there was no occasion presented for such an opinion, since the Christian belief was assured that the heavenly Christ has a glorified body (Php_3:21). Hofmann (following Beza) refers τοῦτο to what precedes, and takes ὅτι as introducing the ground, why the apostle has uttered 1Co_15:46-49. But this ground is of a positive nature, and does not lie in the merely negative thought 1Co_15:50, but much deeper, namely, in the Scriptural (1Co_15:45) relation of the bodily condition of the earthly and of the heavenly Ada.

σὰρξ κ. αἷμα] i.e. the bodily nature which we have in this temporal life, the chief constituents of which are flesh and blood,[89] the latter as the seat of life. Τὴν θνητὴν φύσιν καλεῖ· ἀδύνατον δὲ ταύτην ἐτι θνητὴν οὖσαν τῆς ἐπτουρανίου βασιλείας τυχεῖν, Theodoret. Comp. 1Co_6:13. Σ. κ. αἷμα is just as little to be taken in the ethical sense, which σάρξ by itself elsewhere has, as is φθορά afterwards (in opposition to Chrysostom, Theophylact, al.).

οὐδέ] and not, still dependent upon ὅτι. This second half of the verse forms with the first a parallelism, in which the first clause names the concrete matters, and the second one the general class (the categories in question), to which the former belong. The φθορά, i.e. according to the context (comp. 1Co_15:42), the corruption (and to this category flesh and blood belong, which fall a prey to corruption), inherits not the incorruptibility, to the realm of which belong the relations of the Messianic kingdom, and in particular the glorified body of the sharers in the kingdom. The abstract nouns instead of τὸ φθαρτόν and τὸ ἄφθαρτον have a certain solemnity. Comp. Dissen, ad Pind. p. 476: Sublimitatem et πάθος adjuvant abstracta sic posita pro concretis. Regarding κληρονομ. of the entrance upon the Messianic possession, comp. 1Co_6:9; Gal_3:29. The present sets what is sure and certain before us as present.

[88] According to Tischendorf and Ewald, ver. 50 begins already the new section, and would thus be the introduction to it. Likewise suitable; still at 1Co_7:29 also τοῦτο δὲ φημί serves to confirm what has preceded it.

[89] It is not to the body as such that participation in the Messianic kingdom is denied, but to the present body consisting of flesh and blood. Jerome says well: alia carnis, alia corporis definitio est; omnis caro est corpus, non omne corpus est caro. In harmony with our passage we should have to read in the third article [of the Apostles Creed] resurrection of the body, instead of resurrection of the flesh. The conception glorified flesh is for the apostle a contradictio in adjecto, which cannot even be justified from his doctrine of the Lords Supper.

Meyer — Critical and Exegetical Commentary on the New Testament — English translation by Peter Christie, edited by Frederick Crombie (T&T Clark, 1880) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

1Co 15:50-58 . § 56. VICTORY OVER DEATH. The second part of the argument of this chapter has now reached the same platform as the first ( cf. §§ 51 and 54). The Resurrection of the Body, it has been shown, is an essential part of the Divine world-plan and necessary to the fulfilment of God’s kingdom through Christ (1Co 15:20-27 ); and the transformation of the earthly into the heavenly, of the psychic into the pneumatic form of being, is involved in the present constitution of things and accords with the lines of development traceable in nature and revelation (1Co 15:36-49 ). In a word, P. holds the Christian resurrection to be grounded in the person and mission of Christ, as He is on the one hand the Son of God and mediatorial Head of His kingdom (1Co 15:24-28 ), and on the other hand the Second Adam and Firstborn of a spiritual humanity (1Co 15:22 f., 1Co 15:45-49 ). He finds the key to this great controversy, as to so many others, in the supremacy of Christ, the “one Lord, through whom are all things and we through Him” (1Co 8:6 ). It remains for him only to state the practical conclusion of this reasoning (1Co 15:50 ), to describe our anticipated transformation and victory over death (1Co 15:51-57 ), and to urge his readers in this confidence to accomplish worthily their life’s work (1Co 15:58 ).

1Co 15:50 . Τοῦτο δέ φημι , ἀδελφοί (see note, 1Co 7:29 ) introduces, with a pause, an emphatic reassertion of the ruling thought of the previous § that of the opposition between the psychic body of the First Adam and the spiritual body of the Second; manifestly the former is unfit for God’s heavenly kingdom with the latter, it is assumed (48 b ; cf. Luk 20:34 ff., 1Jn 3:2 f.), we must be clothed to enter that diviner realm: “Flesh and blood cannot inherit God’s kingdom; nor indeed doth corruption (perishableness) inherit incorruption (imperishableness)”. The second assertion explicates the first: σὰρξ κ . αἶμα = φθορά ( cf. 1Co 15:42 , and note), since decay is inherent in our bodily nature; ὁ ἔξω ἄνθρωπος διαφθείρεται (2Co 4:16 ; cf. Rom 8:10 f.). “Flesh” is the matter and “blood” the essence and life-vehicle of man’s present corporeity. Nature forbids eternal life in this earthly dress ( cf. note on 46). “Inherit” points to the kingdom as the right of the sons of God (Rom 8:17 , etc.; cf. Mat 25:34 ), but a heritage unrealised during the “bondage of corruption” (see Rom 8:21 ff.). Another, but removeable, disability of “flesh and blood” appears in Mat 16:17 .

The Expositor's Greek Testament, edited by W. Robertson Nicoll (1897–1910) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

1Co_15:50

Now this I say, brethren, that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God; neither doth corruption inherit incorruption.

This I say. These words admit of three interpretations.

1. They may be understood concessively. This I concede, brethren. I admit that flesh and blood, our bodies as now organized, cannot inherit the kingdom of God. But that is not what I teach when I preach the doctrine of the resurrection. Our bodies are to be changed.

2. The sense may be, This is what I say, the sum of what I have said is that flesh and blood, etc.

3. The words may mean, This I assert, brethren. I assure you of this fact, that flesh and blood, etc. In 1Co_7:29 the expression is used in this sense. Comp. also Rom_3:8 and 1Co_10:19.

Flesh and blood means our body as now constituted, not sinful human nature. The phrase never has this latter sense. In Heb_2:14 it is said, Inasmuch as the children are partakers of flesh and blood, he (Christ) also himself likewise took part of the same, Mat_16:17. Gal_1:16. Eph_6:12. It is indeed true, that our unsanctified nature, or unrenewed man, cannot inherit the kingdom of God. But that is not what the apostle is speaking about. He is speaking of the body and of its state after the resurrection. It is of the body as now constituted that he says, it cannot inherit the kingdom of heaven, i.e. the kingdom of Christ as it is to exist after the resurrection, Mat_8:11. Luk_13:28; 1Co_6:9.;Gal_5:21; 2Ti_4:18. The same idea is repeated in abstract terms and as a general proposition in the next clause, neither can corruption inherit incorruption. The mortal cannot be immortal; the perishable imperishable. Incorruption cannot be an attribute of corruption. Our bodies, therefore, if they are to be immortal and imperishable must be changed. And this the apostle in the next verse announces on the authority of a direct revelation, is actually to occur.

Charles Hodge — Commentary on Romans (1835), First Corinthians (1857), and Ephesians (1856) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Flesh and blood are taken here for a living body, which cannot attain to incorruption, unless it put off corruption.

The conclusion: We cannot be partakers of the glory of God, unless we put off all that gross and filthy nature of our bodies subject to corruption, that the same body may be adorned with incorruptible glory.

Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain. Text via Bolls.life.

(See on Co1 15:37; Co1 15:39). "Flesh and blood" of the same animal and corruptible nature as our present (Co1 15:44) animal-souled bodies, cannot inherit the kingdom of God. Therefore the believer acquiesces gladly in the unrepealed sentence of the holy law, which appoints the death of the present body as the necessary preliminary to the resurrection body of glory. Hence he "dies daily" to the flesh and to the world, as the necessary condition to his regeneration here and hereafter (Joh 3:6; Gal 2:20). As the being born of the flesh constitutes a child of Adam, so the being born of the Spirit constitutes a child of God.

cannot--Not merely is the change of body possible, but it is necessary. The spirit extracted from the dregs of wine does not so much differ from them, as the glorified man does from the mortal man [BENGEL] of mere animal flesh and blood (Gal 1:16). The resurrection body will be still a body though spiritual, and substantially retaining the personal identity; as is proved by Luk 24:39; Joh 20:27, compared with Phi 3:21.

the kingdom of God--which is not at all merely animal, but altogether spiritual. Corruption doth not inherit, though it is the way to, incorruption (Co1 15:36, Co1 15:52-53).

Jamieson, Fausset & Brown — Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

Verse 50. Flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom] This is a Hebrew periphrasis for man, and man in his present state of infirmity and decay. Man, in his present state, cannot inherit the kingdom of God; his nature is not suited to that place; he could not, in his present weak state, endure an exceeding great and eternal weight of glory. Therefore, it is necessary that he should die, or be changed; that he should have a celestial body suited to the celestial state. The apostle is certainly not speaking of flesh and blood in a moral sense, to signify corruption of mind and heart; but in a natural sense; as such, flesh and blood cannot inherit glory, for the reasons already assigned.

Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

(50) Now this I say.—This is the phrase with which the Apostle is wont to introduce some statement of profound significance. (See 1Co_1:12; 1Co_7:29.) The statement so introduced here is that flesh and blood, being corruption, cannot enter into the heavenly state, which is incorruption. This is still part of the answer to the question, “With what bodies do they come?” but the reply is no longer based upon any analogy. It comes now as a revelation of what he had been taught by the Spirit of God. Flesh and blood are indeed corruption. Blood is everywhere the type of this lower animal life. Blood is the life of the flesh; and so, though Jews might eat the flesh, they might not eat the blood, which is the life thereof (Gen_9:4). All offerings which typified the offering up and sacrifice of “self”—the lower sinful self—were sacrifices by shedding of blood, without which was no remission (Heb_9:22). When the supreme Sacrifice was made on Calvary the blood was shed—once for all. So when Christ showed His resurrection body to His disciples He did not say, “A spirit hath not flesh and blood, as ye see Me have;” but “A spirit hath not ‘flesh and bones,’ as ye see Me have.” The blood of Christ is never spoken of as existing after His crucifixion. That was the supreme sacrifice of Self to God. The blood—the type of the human self—was poured out for ever. It is to be noticed also that the phrase “of His flesh and of His bones” (not His “blood,” which the Eucharistic Feast would have suggested) was evidently in ordinary use, as it was interpolated in Eph_5:30.

The blood, as the type of our lower nature, is familiar in all popular phraseologies, as when we say, for example, that a “man’s blood is up,” meaning that his physical nature is asserting itself. One characteristic of the resurrection body, therefore, is that it shall be bloodless.

A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

50. Now this I say, brethren] We enter here upon a new phase of the argument. The Apostle now tells us how this great result shall be accomplished. We cannot inherit eternity as we are: a change is necessary. And this change will in the end be a sudden one, but will consist rather in the modification of the external conditions of the body than in any destruction of its essential properties. See note on 1Co_15:53.

that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God] It is not the material particles of our body which endure for ever. They are subject to corruption and dissolution. It is the spiritual principle of life which abides, and like the seed, attracts to itself such material particles as shall serve it for a suitable habitation. (See notes on 1Co_15:37-38.) The early heretics mentioned above, 1Co_15:12, caught eagerly at this verse as disposing of the idea of a material resurrection. But the early Fathers of the Church shewed conclusively that it was not to be so understood. They cited St Luk_24:39 to prove that Jesus Christ had ‘flesh and bones’ after His Resurrection. And we may observe, moreover, that in St Paul’s language ‘flesh and blood’ stood for our ordinary humanity, as distinguished from everything of a spiritual nature. See Rom_8:1-10; Gal_1:16; Eph_6:12.

neither doth corruption inherit incorruption] An additional proof of what has just been stated. Our ordinary flesh and blood is by its very nature destined to corruption. It is not with such flesh and blood that we can become partakers of the incorruptible life.

The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

For this corruptible must put on incorruption,.... The apostle returns to what he had before asserted, concerning the necessity of an alteration in the qualities of bodies, in order to the enjoyment of the heavenly state; showing, that the selfsame body the saints now have, for he seems to point with his finger to his own, and which are incorruptible ones, shall and must be clothed with incorruption:

and this mortal must put on immortality; the body that now is mortal, must become immortal; it must put off its rags of mortality, and be clothed with the shining robes of immortality; and which must be done, either by first dying, and then rising from the dead; or by undergoing alive a quick and sudden change, which will at once remove all corruption and mortality; see:

"He answered and said unto me, These be they that have put off the mortal clothing, and put on the immortal, and have confessed the name of God: now are they crowned, and receive palms.'' (2 Esdras 2:45)

John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

50 Now this I say, brethren, that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God; neither doth corruption inherit incorruption.

Ver. 50. Flesh and blood] The body as it is corruptible, cannot enter heaven, but must be changed; we shall appear with him in glory. The vile body of Moses, that was hidden in the valley of Moab, was brought forth glorious in the hill of Tabor, Mat 17:3.

John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Now this I say, brethren - “I make this affirmation in regard to this whole subject. I do it as containing the substance of all that I have said. I do it in order to prevent all mistake in regard to the nature of the bodies which shall be raised up.” This affirmation is made respecting all the dead and all the living, that there must be a material and important change in regard to them before they can be prepared for heaven. Paul had proved in the previous verses that it was possible for God to give us bodies different from those which we now possess; he here affirms, in the most positive manner, that it was indispensable that we should have bodies different from what we now have.

Flesh and blood - Bodies organized as ours now are. “Flesh and blood” denotes such bodies as we have here, bodies that are fragile. weak, liable to disease, subject to pain and death. They are composed of changing particles; to be repaired and strengthened daily; they are subject to decay, and are wasted away by sickness, and of course they cannot be suited to a world where there shall be no decay and and no death.

Cannot inherit - Cannot be admitted as heir to the kingdom of God. The future world of glory is often represented as an heirship; see the note on Rom 8:17.

The kingdom of God - Heaven; appropriately called his kingdom, because he shall reign there in undivided and perfect glory forever.

Neither doth corruption ... - Neither can that which is in its nature corruptible, and liable to decay, be adapted to a world where all is incorruptible. The apostle here simply states the fact. He does not tell us why it is impossible. It may be because the mode of communication there is not by the bodily senses; it may be because such bodies as ours would not be suited to relish the pure and exalted pleasures of an incorruptible world; it may be because they would interfere with the exalted worship, the active service, and the sleepless employments of the heavenly world; it may be because such a body is constituted to derive pleasure from objects which shall not be found in heaven. It is adapted to enjoyment in eating and drinking, and the pleasures of the eye, the ear, the taste, the touch; in heaven the soul shall be awake to more elevated and pure enjoyments than these, and, of course, such bodies as we here have would impede our progress and destroy our comforts, and be ill adapted to all the employments and enjoyments of that heavenly world.

Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

Flesh and blood do not here signify sin, the unrenewed nature, (as some would have it), but our bodies, in their present natural, corruptible, frail, mortal state; so the terms signify, Eph 6:12; Heb 2:14. Flesh and blood shall inherit the kingdom of God, (else our bodies could not be glorified), but our body, as in its present state, till changed and altered as to qualities, till it be made a spiritual body, shall not inherit the kingdom of God. The latter words give a reason why

flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God; because it is corruption, that is, subject to natural corruption and putrefaction, and the heavenly state of incorruption; the bodies of believers therefore must be raised up in that state of incorruption mentioned 1Co 15:42, before they can be capable of inheriting the kingdom of God.

Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

50. Now—Rather, but. We shall attain the heavenly resurrection image, but not as unchanged flesh and blood.

This I say—As the thought really running through all the antitheses, (42-49,) furnishing the full and final answer to the question what body? and negativing the error on which that question was based, that the resurrection implies our corrupt mortal bodies in a future state.

Flesh and blood—The perishable amalgam of soul and matter which furnished the basis of the objection against the resurrection.

Cannot—Literally, are not able, as vile and putrifying, to inhabit the eternal mansions. They must be as immortal as the heavenly abodes themselves.

Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Vers. 50-58. Conclusion and exhortation.

Now this I say. This sums up my meaning. Flesh and blood. Our mortal nature and human organism; our "earthly house of this tabernacle" (2Co_5:1; Luk_20:35) Inherit incorruption. A body liable to corruption, with all its loathly accompaniments, cannot enter into the "inheritance incorruptible, and undefiled, and that fadeth not. (1Pe_1:4)

Vers. 50-54.

Corporeal transformation.

this I say, brethren, that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God; neither doth corruption inherit incorruption. Behold, I show you a mystery; We 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 changed. For this corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality. So when this corruptible shall have put on incorruption, and this mortal shall have put on 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 flint is indispensable, certain, instantaneous, and glorious.

I Here is a transformation that is INDISPENSABLE. "This I say, brethren, that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God." Its indispensability is not for this state of things, 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 heavenly 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 the 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. In 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 unknowable, 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 escape death, or that the resurrection-day was just at hand? If he had, he here shows himself, as in some other places, not infallible, but otherwise; 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. That some would be living 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. That both those who were living in the earth and sleeping in the dust would undergo corporeal transformation. "We shall all be changed.

III Here is a transformation that is INSTANTANEOUS. "In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye," that is, in the shortest conceivable period. At a moment when the living population least expects it, the blast of the "trumpet" shall be heard, and the transformation be effected. "The day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night," etc.

IV Here is a transformation that is GLORIOUS. "For this corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality." The 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 forever from mankind.

The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

But first we must be entirely changed; for such flesh and blood as we are clothed with now, cannot enter into that kingdom which is wholly spiritual: neither doth this corruptible body inherit that incorruptible kingdom.

John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.

The transformation of the last day and the victory over death:

v. 50. Now this I say, brethren, that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God; neither doth corruption inherit incorruption.

v. 51. Behold, I show you a mystery: We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed

v. 52. 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 changed.

v. 53. For this corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality.

v. 54. So when this corruptible shall have put on incorruption, and this mortal shall have put on immortality, then shall be brought to pass the saying that is written, Death is swallowed up in victory.

v. 55. O death, where is thy sting? O Grave, where is thy victory?

v. 56. The sting of death is sin, and the strength of sin is the Law.

v. 57. But thanks be to God, which giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.

v. 58. Therefore, my beloved brethren, be ye steadfast, unmovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, forasmuch as ye know that your labor is not in vain in the Lord.

The apostle here sets forth a final argument for the resurrection of the body. For the burial of the dead, with its picture of decay and corruption, far from shaking our faith in the reality of the resurrection, rather teaches us that the body in its present state must perish and be changed before it can inherit the glories of heaven. With great emphasis Paul writes: But this I say, brethren, that flesh and blood, the natural body as such, cannot inherit God’s kingdom; nor, indeed, does perishableness inherit imperishableness. If human beings want to become possessors of the heavenly glory, with all the bliss that is included in its enjoyment, then it is absolutely necessary that they pass through the change by which this earthly dress and this bondage of corruption is removed.

This indispensable change in the case of people still living is the object of a wonderful revelation, which Paul proceeds to communicate, calling attention, incidentally, to its importance: Lo, a mystery I tell you! He opens before their eyes one of the secrets which the Lord had made known to him. Not all shall we sleep, not all believers would be lying in the sleep of death on the last day, but we shall all be changed. Our perishable body, whether through death or not, must undergo the change by which it becomes spiritual. The change will be universal and extend to all those that are living when Judgment Day dawns. In a moment, literally, in an atom of time, in the length of time required for a wink of the eyelids, during the sounding of the last trumpet, this would take place. That will be one of the certain signs of the Lord’s advent: The final trumpet will sound, and the dead, all of them, will arise, will be raised with their bodies incorruptible. At that point of time the peculiar change in the living will also take place by which their mortal, corruptible bodies become immortal, incorruptible. This change must take place, it is a necessity according to the will of God: This perishable is bound to put on imperishableness, and this mortal is to put on immortality. Note that Paul, throughout the passage, assumes that the believers feel the certainty of the coming immortality.

What glories then shall open up before our eyes the apostle pictures in a triumphant burst of victorious shouting: When this has been accomplished, as it is certain to come about, when this perishable body has been invested with incorruption, and when this mortal body has been invested with immortality, then the word will find its fulfillment which is written Isa 25:8; Hos 13:14, which Paul quotes from the Greek text, but in the corrected form. Death has been swallowed up unto victory; the greedy, insatiable enemy has been forced to succumb, and has, in turn, been devoured; the last bulwark of the enemy has been destroyed, v. 26. In triumphant exultation the challenge rings out:

Where, O Death, is thy victory?

Where, O Death, is thy sting?

Now the sting of Death is Sin, and the strength of Sin is the Law;

But to God be thanks, who gives to us the victory

Through our Lord Jesus Christ!

Death, who, like a poisonous serpent, has used his sting to put people to death, has lost this sting. He that was accustomed to having the victory at all times, has himself been definitely conquered. For the sting of death is sin, through which it came into the world, Rom 5:12, and Jesus has borne all sin, paid all guilt, submerged all trespasses in the depths of the sea. And the strength of sin is the Law, Rom 8:2, because it promises salvation to men upon terms which they cannot fulfill, and thus makes sin abound; but Jesus has fulfilled the Law and thus removed the strength of sin. To God, therefore, the Triune God, the Author of our salvation, be thanks, who gives to us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ! A full and complete victory was gained by Christ, and its entire fullness and completeness belongs to us by virtue of our Savior’s work, which we accept by faith. As Christians we possess eternal life even now; to us, as Christians, death no longer has the bitter taste of God’s wrath. At the very graves of those that have fallen asleep in Christ we chant this great hymn of victory, knowing that death and the grave have lost their power over them that are in Christ Jesus, and that death is to believers the entrance to eternal joys.

Paul concludes the chapter by applying the wonderful teaching to the state of the Corinthian congregation, whose members may have become lax in their Christian work, due to the doubts that were afloat in their midst. Pleadingly and urgently he writes: Wherefore, my beloved brethren, be firm, show yourselves steadfast, do not let the foundation of your faith be removed; be immovable, do not let yourselves be led away by others. That is the one side of their work. But the other will follow: Abounding in the work of the Lord always, in that work which God does through you and you perform to His glory; knowing that your toil, your strenuous labor, is not empty in the Lord; it cannot remain without fruit and effect if begun in His name, carried out in His strength, and intended for His glory.

Summary.The apostle brings the historical and logical proof for the resurrection of the body, describes the nature of this resurrection, reveals the fact of the transformation of the last day, and closes with a triumphant hymn of victory.

Paul E. Kretzmann, Popular Commentary of the Bible (1921–1924) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

By flesh and blood, here, we are to understand our bodies in their present natural, corruptible, and mortal state. Such flesh and blood as ours is at present, unchanged, and unclothed with its heavenly body, cannot inherit the kingdom of God; that is, it cannot possibly enter into heaven, and bear the weight of glory which will there be put upon it.

Corruption, or nature subject to corruption, cannot inherit incorruption; that is, our corruptible bodies cannot enter into an incorruptible heaven.

Note here, Another argument produced by the apostle, to prove the necessity of the resurrection, or of raising and new-moulding the body in a spiritual condition: because our natural body, till it be made spiritual, cannot bear the presence of God in heaven; it must be fitted for that glorious place and state, before it be brought into it: by a change of qualities it must be spiritualized, purified, and immortalized, or it can never bear that weight of glory which is prepared for the saints in that glorious kingdom.

William Burkitt's Expository Notes on the New Testament (1700–1703) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

FLESH AND BLOOD ARE NOT ABLE TO INHERIT THE KINGDOM OF GOD

50. “I say this, brethren, that flesh and blood are not able to inherit the kingdom of God, neither doth corruption inherit incorruption.” While these identical bodies will inherit the kingdom of God, yet it is equally true that flesh and blood shall not inherit. Why? Because flesh and blood are the elements of mortality peculiar to probation. Then what will become of our flesh and blood, which include our bones, sinews, nerves and all the constituencies of this material organism? Here comes in the philosophy of transfiguration. The Holy Ghost omnipotently eliminates away all ponderable matter, so that the transfigured body is destitute of weight, and consequently free to follow the impulses of the immortal spirit and thus fly away to join the Heavenly consanguinity beyond the skies. In this way we get rid of flesh and blood. This took place with the translated prophets when they mounted the fiery chariot and bade the world adieu.

William B. Godbey, Commentary on the New Testament (1896–1900) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Now this I say, brethren, that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God; neither doth corruption inherit incorruption . [ 1Pe_1:4 ]

J. W. McGarvey (with Philip Y. Pendleton), Commentaries on the New Testament (The Fourfold Gospel, 1914; Acts; and the epistles) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

Connecting Statement:

Paul wants them to realize that some believers will not die physically but will still get a resurrected body through Christ's victory.

flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God. Neither does what is perishable inherit what is imperishable

Possible meanings are 1) the two sentences mean the same thing. AT: "human beings who will surely die cannot inherit the permanent kingdom of God" or 2) the second sentence finishes the thought begun by the first. AT: "weak human beings cannot inherit the kingdom of God. Neither do those who will certainly die inherit a kingdom that will last forever" (See: Parallelism)

flesh and blood

Those who inhabit a body that is doomed to die. (See: Metaphor and Metonymy)

inherit

Receiving what God has promised believers is spoken of as if it were inheriting property and wealth from a family member. (See: Metaphor)

is perishable ... is imperishable

"can rot ... cannot rot." See how these words are translated in 1 Corinthians 15:42.

we will all be changed

This can be stated as active. AT: "God will change us all" (See: Active or Passive)

translationWords

flesh

blood

inherit

kingdom of God

perish

mystery

die

unfoldingWord translationNotes — © Distant Shores Media and the Door43 World Missions Community, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Source: git.door43.org/Door43/en_tn.

50. δύναται אB. δύνανται ACDEFG.

50. τοῦτο δέ φημι. The δέ here must receive the adversative sense. ‘On the other hand, I must remind you of this.’ We enter now upon a new phase of the argument. The image of the heavenly is not merely added to, it replaces the image of the earthy. The present constituents of our natural bodies will form no part of our spiritual organization. There must be change, even (1Co 15:51) in the case of those who are not compelled to undergo death. Not that the essential principle of life which animates the body will be changed, but its relations to things external will be largely modified.

σὰρξ καὶ αἷμα … οὐ δύναται. It is not the material particles of our body which endure for ever. They are subject to corruption and dissolution. It is the spiritual principle of life which abides, and like the seed, attracts to itself such material particles as shall serve it for a suitable habitation. (See notes on 1Co 15:37-38.) The early heretics mentioned above, 1Co 15:12, caught eagerly at this verse as disposing of the idea of a material resurrection. But the early Fathers of the Church shewed conclusively that it was not to be so understood. They cited Luk 24:39 to prove that Jesus Christ had ‘flesh and bones’ after His Resurrection. And we may observe, moreover, that in St Paul’s language ‘flesh and blood’ stood for our ordinary humanity, as distinguished from everything of a spiritual nature. See Joh 6:63; Rom 8:1-10; Gal 1:16; Eph 6:12. If we read δύναται we must suppose the singular is used because σάρξ and σἷμα are so intimately connected in one being. But it is possibly a copyist’s error.

οὐδὲ ἡ φθορά. An additional proof of what has just been stated. Our ordinary flesh and blood is by its very nature destined to corruption. It is not with such flesh and blood that we can become partakers of the incorruptible life.

Cambridge Greek Testament for Schools and Colleges (Cambridge University Press, 1896; 21 vols, various authors incl. Carr, Maclear, Plummer, Farrar, Lumby, Moule, M. R. James, Simcox) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

50-54.] The necessity of the change of the animal body into the spiritual, in order to inherit God’s kingdom. The manner of that change prophetically described: and the abolition of Death in victory consequent on it.

50.] τοῦτο δέ φ., see reff. It calls attention to something to be observed, and liable to be overlooked. Not only is the change of body possible, and according to natural and spiritual analogies,—but it is necessary.

σὰρξ καὶ αἷμα] = σῶμα ψυχικόν, the present organism of the body, calculated for the wants of the animal soul. τὴν θνητὴν φύσιν καλεῖ· ἀδύνατον δὲ ταύτην ἔτι θνητὴν οὖσαν τῆς ἐπουρανίου βασιλείας τυχεῖν. Theodoret.

ἡ φθορὰ.… τὴν ἀφθαρσίαν, the abstracts, representing the impossibility of the φθαρτόν inheriting the ἄφθαρτον as one grounded in these qualities.

κληρονομεῖ, pres., sets forth the absolute impossibility in the nature of things.

Henry Alford, The Greek Testament (1849–1861) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

50-57. The two objections are now answered. How is resurrection possible after the body has been dissolved in the grave? Answer; The difficulty is the other way: resurrection would be impossible without such dissolution, for it is dissolution that frees the principle of new life. Then what kind of a body do the risen have, if the present body is not restored? Answer; A body similar to that of the Risen Lord, i.e. a body as suitable to the spiritual condition of the new life as a material body is to the present psychical condition.

But a further question may be raised. What will happen to those believers who are alive when the Lord comes? The radical translation from ψυχικόν to πνευματικόν must take place, whether through death or not. Mortal must become immortal. God will make the victory over death in all cases complete.

50. Τοῦτο δέ φημι. ‘Now this I assert’ (7:29). The assertion confirms v. 49 and prepares for v. 51: it introduces a fundamental principle which covers and decides the case. A perishable nature cannot really have possession of an imperishable Kingdom. For the Kingdom an incorruptible body wholly controlled by spirit is necessary, and this ‘flesh and blood’ cannot be. By σὰρξ καὶ αἷμα * is meant our present mortal nature, not our evil propensities, which would be σάρξ without αἶμα (Rom 8:12, Rom 8:13). The expression here refers to those who are still living, whereas ἡ φθοπά refers to those who have died. If living flesh cannot inherit, how much less dead and corrupted flesh. Our present bodies, whether living or dead, are absolutely unfitted for the Kingdom: there must be a transformation. See Briggs, The Messiah of the Apostles, pp. 116-9; and for ἀφθαρσία, J.A. Robinson on Eph 6:24. ‘Flesh and blood’ is treated as one idea and has a singular verb: comp. ἔως ἂν παρέλθῃ ὁ οὐρανὸς καὶ ἡ γῆ (Mat 5:18): ὄπου σὴς καὶ βρῶσις ἀφανίζει (6:19). Here many witnesses have δύνανται, but δύναται (א B P) is no doubt correct. See J. H. Moulton, Gr. p. 58, and comp. Exo 19:13. The construction is found in papyri.

International Critical Commentary — older volumes (1896–1929), various authors — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Vv. 50. “Now this I say, brethren, that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God; neither doth corruption inherit incorruption.”

The formula τοῦτό φημι, here is what I say, is used by the apostle to announce a decisive and final explanation, the exposition of a more profound point of view, which will put the truth previously stated in its full light; comp. 1Co 7:29. It differs from τοῦτο λέγω, which announces the repetition of the same idea in a more developed form.

Before giving the solution of the particular question, Paul lays down a general law which refers equally to the point hitherto treated and to that which is about to follow, so that the verse forms the transition between the two passages. — In this context the expression: flesh and blood, can only designate our present physical organism; flesh, in respect of its substance; blood, in respect of the life-principle which animates it; for, according to Scripture, blood is the seat of the vital principle. Irenaeus and Chrysostom took the word in its moral sense: τὰς πονηρὰς πράξεις, as if the passage were parallel to Rom 8:12-13; but the expression σάρξ καὶ αἷμα has never the meaning of σάρξ standing alone. It is from this interpretation, likewise excluded by the context, that the false reading φορέσωμεν, in 1Co 15:49, has proceeded. What the apostle means is, that it will not be by being clothed with a body of such a nature that the believer will be able to participate in the perfect state of things which is called the kingdom of God. Such a body would be a curtain which would veil from us the face of God, too weak an instrument to bear such emotions, too dull an agent to execute the works to be done in this new state. Paul has taken care not to say σῶμα, a body, because it will be with a body that believers shall take part in that kingdom.

In the second proposition, the verb in the present expresses, as Edwards says, “the nature of the thing;” it is a law which is equivalent to the οὐ δύναται, cannot, in the first proposition; only the particle οὐδέ, neither, and the subject ἡ φθορά, corruption, imply a gradation. Corruption, ἡ φθορά, denotes flesh and blood in a state of dissolution already begun. The expression therefore leads us to suppose that the first proposition refers to Christians who shall be alive at the time of the Advent, and the second to dead Christians who do not inherit, in so far as they are not raised. The idea is this: it is so impossible that the present body should participate in the life of heaven, that, whether dissolved by death or not, it must be transformed. This is precisely what is developed in the following verses.

Frédéric Louis Godet — Commentaries on Luke, John, Romans, and 1 Corinthians — English translation (T&T Clark, Edinburgh, 1870s–1890s) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.