The Grands Letter

Dear Grands,

1 Corinthians 15:38-45, “…God gives it a body just as He wished, and to each of the seeds a body of its own.
39 All flesh is not the same flesh, but there is one flesh of men, and another flesh of beasts, and another flesh of birds, and
another of fish.
40 There are also heavenly bodies and earthly bodies, but the glory of the heavenly is one, and the glory of the earthly is
another.
41 There is one glory of the sun, and another glory of the moon, and another glory of the stars; for star differs from star in
glory.
42 So also is the resurrection of the dead. It is sown a perishable body, it is raised an imperishable body;
43 it is sown in dishonor, it is raised in glory; it is sown in weakness, it is raised in power;
44 it is sown a natural body, it is raised a spiritual body. If there is a natural body, there is also a spiritual body.
45 So also it is written, “The first man, Adam, became a living soul.” The last Adam became a life-giving spirit.”

Does it surprise you that the Corinthians, and especially the Christian Corinthians should have questions about the resurrection? They were precisely the same as we: they had questions about many things. And as the LORD’s servant, Paul, answers these questions for them, he answers them for us. Did you ever bite into a seed? What you broke with your bite was the body of that seed. Despite its hardness, we might say that body is the flesh of that seed. The seed has to “die” in the ground before it can bring forth the harvest of grain.

Paul then shifts to the matter of heavenly and earthly bodies, like the sun. the moon and the stars. Each has its own glory; each differs from the other, thus, each glory differs from the glory of the other. All of this parallels the resurrection of man from the dead. The body of man is perishable; it can and does die. The human body is subject to diseases and weaknesses of all kinds; and these diseases that cause death, are in turn, caused by sin. Sin is what Paul references when he says the body of man is “sown in dishonor…sown in weakness.” But that’s not the end! The body of man is “raised in glory…raised in power!”

Paul cites his support for all of this from Genesis 2:7, “Then the LORD God formed man of dust from the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living being.” Then Paul differentiates the first man, Adam, from the “last Adam,” who is Jesus Christ. Jesus arose from the dead, and so will all mankind: the righteous, who have believed upon Jesus and His resurrection; and the unrighteous, who have not believed. The righteous will then be rewarded, and live forever with the LORD. The unrighteous will suffer for eternity under God’s just judgment because they did not trust Jesus as their LORD and Savior while here on Earth. Oh, how vitally important that we commit ourselves personally to Jesus Christ! He is the only key to eternal life.

Heartily in Christ Jesus,

(Dado III)

Gene L. Jeffries, Th.D.
Springdale, Arkansas 72764
United States of America

“We never know that Christ is all we need until He becomes all that we have.” – Corrie ten Boom