1 Corinthians 7:14-16
Sunday 17
Which direction does Paul push with this text? The first part of this text is arguing relentlessly for the importance of Christ’s resurrection from the dead, which means the dead are raised. What does it mean that the dead are raised? If Paul (and Matthew, Luke and John) offers the physical appearance of Jesus as proof of his resurrection, is there going to be physical resurrection of the dead for human beings? There are of course a lot of problems with that possibility. Assuming everyone’s matter can be reassembled from whatever decomposed, ashes-scattered state it ends up in, where exactly are all the resurrected humans going to go? For that matter, where is physical Jesus right now?
If for this life only we have hoped in Christ, we are of all people most to be pitied. The resurrection is in some way effective for life after this life, which means life after our death. Paul, then moves into a sort of time line explanation of what this means. It goes like this: for as all die in Adam, so all will be made alive in Christ. But before that can happen, the risen Christ goes on a rampage, destroying every ruler and every authority and power. For he must reign until he has put all his enemies under his feet. The last enemy to be destroyed is death. Christ, then puts himself under subjugation to the Father, handing over the Kingdom to him — so, God will be in all things. I understand the words, but trying to figure it out what it could actually mean, makes my head spin.
All die in Adam--did Adam cause death, bring death into the world? It seems crazy to say Adam brought death into the world, Adams story takes place in a garden—God planted a garden and then planted Adam in it. One thing I know about a garden, is that things die. There is no garden without death. Things grow, flower, seed, die and give their seeds and organic matter to the soil, so there can be new life. Can this going to seed really be the death Christ is going to destroy?
