Continuing with our discussion of Paul’s conversion and today a deeper investigation of his words describing its result on him. This description continues as an example for all awakened believers to follow into shouldering the yoke of their positions in Christ as His body in the world.
We have often discussed the many aspects of the resurrection found in 1 Corinthians 15, and its possibly most enigmatic description of the two bodies: the natural first as the one subject to death, then the spiritual as uncorrupted and immortal.
1 Corinthians 15
42 So also is the resurrection of the dead. It is sown in corruption; it is raised in incorruption:
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. There is a natural body, and there is a spiritual body.
45 And so it is written, The first man Adam was made a living soul; the last Adam was made a quickening spirit.
46 Howbeit that was not first which is spiritual, but that which is natural; and afterward that which is spiritual.
47 The first man is of the earth, earthy; the second man is the LORD from heaven.
In recent posts we have discussed the LORD’s words in Luke 11:50 & 51 telling of the diligent examination that will be required of this (our) generation, and this regarding the blood of all the martyrs, “From the blood of Abel unto the blood of Zacharias which perished between the altar and the temple.”
The reason for Abel’s murder is described in 1 John 3:12 saying of Cain, “who was of that wicked one, and slew his brother. And wherefore slew he him? Because his own works were evil, and his brother’s righteous.”
This is what the LORD is referring to when He is speaking to the Pharisees, who would eventually kill him for the same reason, and do so in the pattern of all those throughout history who have martyred the righteous.
1 John 3
7 Little children, let no man deceive you: he that does righteousness is righteous, even as he is righteous.
8 He that commits sin is of the devil; for the devil sins from the beginning. For this purpose the Son of God was manifested, that he might destroy the works of the devil.
9 Whosoever is born of God doth not commit sin; for his seed remains in him: and he cannot sin, because he is born of God.
10 In this the children of God are manifest, and the children of the devil: whosoever does not righteousness is not of God, neither he that loves not his brother.
11 For this is the message that you heard from the beginning, that we should love one another.
12 Not as Cain, who was of that wicked one, and slew his brother. And wherefore slew he him? Because his own works were evil, and his brother’s righteous.
13 Marvel not, my brethren, if the world hate you.
14 We know that we have passed from death unto life, because we love the brethren. He that loves not his brother abides in death.
15 Whosoever hates his brother is a murderer: and you know that no murderer has eternal life abiding in him.
16 Hereby perceive we the love of God, because he laid down his life for us: and we ought to lay down our lives for the brethren.
17 But whoso has this world’s good, and see his brother have need, and shuts up his bowels of compassion from him, how dwells the love of God in him?
18 My little children, let us not love in word, neither in tongue; but in deed and in truth.
Endure with me for a moment longer as we look closer at Abel, the name being from the Hebrew word habel, meaning transitory or unsatisfactory, from the word habal, meaning vain in action, word, or expectation.
To understand what is being imparted here we must go to Hebrews 12 and its mention of Abel, and see the meaning and verses from the perspective of 1 John 3:16. The transitory element is explained to us through Hebrews 12 telling of correction coming as the LORD spoke it, laying down His life to save even those who were attempting to kill him, and this as what was comparatively lacking in Abel’s blood being shed.
Hebrews 12
22 But you are come unto mount Zion, and unto the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to an innumerable company of angels,
23 To the general assembly and church of the firstborn, which are written in heaven, and to God the Judge of all, and to the spirits of just men made perfect,
24 And to Jesus the mediator of the new covenant, and to the blood of sprinkling, that speaks better things than that of Abel.
25 See that you refuse not him that speaks. For if they escaped not who refused him that spoke on earth, much more shall not we escape, if we turn away from him that speaks from heaven:
26 Whose voice then shook the earth: but now he has promised, saying, Yet once more I shake not the earth only, but also heaven.
27 And this word, Yet once more, signifies the removing of those things that are shaken, as of things that are made, that those things which cannot be shaken may remain.
28 Wherefore we receiving a kingdom which cannot be moved, let us have grace, whereby we may serve God acceptably with reverence and godly fear:
29 For our God is a consuming fire.
Genesis 4:10 tells of Abel’s blood crying to the LORD from out of the ground. We later read in verses 25 & 26 of Seth (meaning appointed or substituted) replacing Abel in the LORD’s blood line, and Seth having a son named Enos. Enos means mortal, and we are told, then it was begun to call upon the LORD. In the following chapter we read in verse 3 of Adam having begot Seth in his own image and likeness. These aspects in total tell of the fallen nature being generationally perpetuating (causing mortality), and as we are told in 1 Corinthians 15:47, ending with the LORD and the resurrection. We are told prior in verse 45 of the first Adam becoming a living soul [later mortal], and the last Adam (the LORD) made a quickening (life giving) Spirit.
Genesis 4
25 And Adam knew his wife again; and she bare a son, and called his name Seth: For God, said she, has appointed me another seed instead of Abel, whom Cain slew.
26 And to Seth, to him also there was born a son; and he called his name Enos: then began men to call upon the name of the LORD.
Genesis 5
1 This is the book of the generations of Adam. In the day that God created man, in the likeness of God made he him;
2 Male and female created he them; and blessed them, and called their name Adam, in the day when they were created.
3 And Adam lived an hundred and thirty years, and begat a son in his own likeness, and after his image; and called his name Seth…
1 Corinthians 15
42 So also is the resurrection of the dead. It is sown in corruption; it is raised in incorruption:
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. There is a natural body, and there is a spiritual body.
45 And so it is written, The first man Adam was made a living soul; the last Adam was made a quickening spirit.
46 Howbeit that was not first which is spiritual, but that which is natural; and afterward that which is spiritual.
47 The first man is of the earth, earthy; the second man is the LORD from heaven.
This brings us again to Hebrews 12 and the Greek word used to tell the one who “spoke” on the earth. It is the word chrematizo, meaning to utter an oracle; from the word chrema, meaning something needed or useful. It is telling of those warning and correcting on the earth and doing so at the direction of the LORD (as His presence manifested to educate the wayward). The passage tells of those refusing what is spoken doing so to their own harm, unable to escape the self-inflicted consequences by killing the messenger and/or ignoring the message.
This is what we are told Spiritual nature knowingly faces, and doing so motivated by only pure hearted Christian love.
1 John 3
16 Hereby perceive we the love of God, because he laid down his life for us: and we ought to lay down our lives for the brethren.
17 But whoso has this world’s good, and see his brother have need, and shuts up his bowels of compassion from him, how dwells the love of God in him?
18 My little children, let us not love in word, neither in tongue; but in deed and in truth.
If we look again at Paul’s curious words earlier in 1 Corinthians 15 we read of him saying “I am what I am.” He is using this Devine language telling of his become what the LORD would have him become, in His image and likeness. The surrounding perspective illuminates the grace that created this in Paul, and he says this grace was not bestowed upon him in vain (as Abel), but he labored more abundantly than all. He then says it wasn’t him but the grace in him that labored. In the following verse he speaks of this being the preaching of those who comprehend. They become enlightened through the gift, understanding loosed to them by God’s Holy Spirit.
The Greek word translated grace here in 1 Corinthians 15:10 is charis, meaning the Divine influence upon the heart [the cognitive center of the mind], and its reflecting [God] in the life. The gift of the Holy Spirit is understanding.
1 Corinthians 15
9 For I am the least of the apostles, that am not meet to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the church of God.
10 But by the grace of God I am what I am: and his grace which was bestowed upon me was not in vain; but I labored more abundantly than they all: yet not I, but the grace of God which was with me.
11 Therefore whether it were I or they, so we preach, and so you believed.
12 Now if Christ be preached that he rose from the dead, how say some among you that there is no resurrection of the dead?
13 But if there be no resurrection of the dead, then is Christ not risen:
14 And if Christ be not risen, then is our preaching vain, and your faith is also vain.
15 Yea, and we are found false witnesses of God; because we have testified of God that he raised up Christ: whom he raised not up, if so be that the dead rise not.
16 For if the dead rise not, then is not Christ raised:
17 And if Christ be not raised, your faith is vain; you are yet in your sins.
18 Then they also which are fallen asleep in Christ are perished.
19 If in this life only we have hope in Christ, we are of all men most miserable.
20 But now is Christ risen from the dead, and become the firstfruits of them that slept.
21 For since by man came death, by man came also the resurrection of the dead.
22 For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive.
23 But every man in his own order: Christ the first-fruits; afterward they that are Christ’s at his coming.
24 Then comes the end, when he shall have delivered up the kingdom to God, even the Father; when he shall have put down all rule and all authority and power.
25 For he must reign, till he has put all enemies under his feet.
26 The last enemy that shall be destroyed is death.
Paul uses a word derived from charis in 1 Corinthians 2:12 telling of exactly what grace is. He uses charizomai, meaning to grant favor, figuratively meaning, gratuitously, in kindness, pardon or rescue. It is rendered “freely given” to tell of these things given to us by God through His Holy Spirit.
1 Corinthians 2
1 And I, brethren, when I came to you, came not with excellency of speech or of wisdom, declaring unto you the testimony of God.
2 For I determined not to know any thing among you, save Jesus Christ, and him crucified.
3 And I was with you in weakness, and in fear, and in much trembling.
4 And my speech and my preaching was not with enticing words of man’s wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power:
5 That your faith should not stand in the wisdom of men, but in the power of God.
6 Howbeit we speak wisdom among them that are perfect: yet not the wisdom of this world, nor of the princes of this world, that come to naught:
7 But we speak the wisdom of God in a mystery, even the hidden wisdom, which God ordained before the world unto our glory:
8 Which none of the princes of this world knew: for had they known it, they would not have crucified the LORD of glory.
9 But as it is written, Eye has not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the things which God has prepared for them that love him.
10 But God has revealed them unto us by his Spirit: for the Spirit searches all things, yea, the deep things of God.
11 For what man knows the things of a man, save the spirit of man which is in him? even so the things of God knows no man, but the Spirit of God.
12 Now we have received, not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit which is of God; that we might know the things that are freely given to us of God.
13 Which things also we speak, not in the words which man’s wisdom teaches, but which the Holy Ghost teaches; comparing spiritual things with spiritual.
14 But the natural man receive not the things of the Spirit of God: for they are foolishness unto him: neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned.
15 But he that is spiritual judges all things, yet he himself is judged of no man.
16 For who has known the mind of the LORD, that he may instruct him? but we have the mind of Christ.
Isaiah 25
1 O LORD, you are my God; I will exalt you, I will praise your name; for you have done wonderful things; your counsels of old are faithfulness and truth.
2 For you have made of a city an heap; of a defensed city a ruin: a palace of strangers to be no city; it shall never be built.
3 Therefore shall the strong people glorify you, the city of the terrible nations shall fear you.
4 For you have been a strength to the poor, a strength to the needy in his distress, a refuge from the storm, a shadow from the heat, when the blast of the terrible ones is as a storm against the wall.
5 You shall bring down the noise of strangers, as the heat in a dry place; even the heat with the shadow of a cloud: the branch of the terrible ones shall be brought low.
6 And in this mountain shall the LORD of hosts make unto all people a feast of fat things, a feast of wines on the lees, of fat things full of marrow, of wines on the lees well refined.
7 And he will destroy in this mountain the face of the covering cast over all people, and the vail that is spread over all nations.
8 He will swallow up death in victory; and the LORD God will wipe away tears from off all faces; and the rebuke of his people shall he take away from off all the earth: for the LORD has spoken it.
9 And it shall be said in that day, Lo, this is our God; we have waited for him, and he will save us: this is the LORD; we have waited for him, we will be glad and rejoice in his salvation.
10 For in this mountain shall the hand of the LORD rest, and Moab shall be trodden down under him, even as straw is trodden down for the dunghill.
11 And he shall spread forth his hands in the midst of them, as he that swims spreads forth his hands to swim: and he shall bring down their pride together with the spoils of their hands.
12 And the fortress of the high fort of your walls shall he bring down, lay low, and bring to the ground, even to the dust.
Psalm 84
1 How amiable are your tabernacles, O LORD of hosts!
2 My soul longs, yea, even faints for the courts of the LORD: my heart and my flesh cries out for the living God.
3 Yea, the sparrow has found an house, and the swallow a nest for herself, where she may lay her young, even your altars, O LORD of hosts, my King, and my God.
4 Blessed are they that dwell in your house: they will be still [calmed] praising you. Selah.
5 Blessed is the man whose strength is in you; in whose heart are the ways of them.
6 Who passing through the valley of Baca [weeping] make it a well; the rain also fills the pools.
7 They go from strength to strength, every one of them in Zion appears before God.
8 O LORD God of hosts, hear my prayer: give ear, O God of Jacob. Selah.
9 Behold, O God our shield, and look upon the face of your anointed.
10 For a day in your courts is better than a thousand. I had rather be a doorkeeper in the house of my God, than to dwell in the tents of wickedness.
11 For the LORD God is a sun and shield: the LORD will give grace and glory: no good thing will he withheld from them that walk uprightly.
12 O LORD of hosts, blessed is the man that trusts in you.
