1 Corinthians Chapter 15 Verse 29
• What is this baptism for the dead? It is apparently something the church in Corinth was doing and that most certainly does not make it good doctrine. This is the only place in the New Testament where this practice is mentioned. We don’t see Jesus teaching this or doing this, we don’t see this being done by any of the early Apostles and we do not have any of the books of the Bible teaching us when, why or how to do it. What we have is this practice mentioned to make a point of a contradiction. If you do not believe in the resurrection, why would you be baptizing for the dead…to what benefit?
• I just want you to know, to understand, there are laws to put into play in order to interpret scripture correctly. Theologically we call them the laws of hermeneutics. Basically, in relation to acceptable church practice, what the church does as a corporate function, according to the law hermeneutics…if it was taught by Jesus, if it was practiced in the Book of Acts and taught in the epistles, then we accept it today for general church practice. For example, Communion…taught by Jesus, practiced in the Book of Acts and taught explicitly in 1 Corinthians 11.
• So, should we be baptized for the dead? No! Not only doctrinally it should be rejected by just practically! Listen, your faith and your salvation are your responsibility. The doorway to eternal life has been opened by the pierced hands of Jesus Christ…but no one can walk through that door for you…so, if you want a pool party at church and call it “Baptism for the Dead,” fine…but it’s nothing spiritual…it’s just splashful! HA!
1 Corinthians Chapter 15 Verses 30 – 32
• I really like these statements by Paul. “Do you think I’m doing this for nothing? What? You think I’m stupid!” Killing my flesh everyday…always watching over my shoulder with barely a squad to watch my back! Standing toe to toe with men that are like wild animals in defense of eternal life…man, if there’s no resurrection then you’re calling me a fool…and that is one thing I was and now am not!
1 Corinthians Chapter 15 Verses 33 – 34
• Don’t listen to or buy into junk doctrine but rather when someone is bent on it, give them the truth and if they don’t receive it then give them the slip! Some extremely wise words here by Paul…you cannot keep company with evil lest you become evil yourself.
• What is junk doctrine? Anything that is not taught clearly in the scriptures (Romans 14:1, 2 Timothy 2:14), and anything that does not adhere to the laws of hermeneutics…and my words…anything that confuses the little ones…those early and quite impressionable in their faith…I have shipwrecked a few people over the years in their faith with something I was really excited about at the time that isn’t essential doctrine and isn’t clear in the scriptures…and that personally is a horrible place for me to be…I hate it…if it trips someone away from Jesus…I want nothing to do with it…
1 Corinthians Chapter 15 Verses 35 – 44
• Paul is essentially answering the question, “What will our resurrected body be then?” I love his answer…, “different!” HA! He starts by saying a few things that are so so very key. What you sow is not made alive unless it dies. And when you plant that seed in the soil, when it grows up, it’s not just a larger seed…it changes. And that’s the point he is making…but spiritual truth embedded here…nothing is made alive unless it dies.
• Nicodemus came to Jesus by night…perhaps the most religious man on the planet and he said to Jesus in John Chapter 3 verse 2, “Jesus, I know that you are from God…” And Jesus answered and said in verse 3, “Most assuredly, I say to you, unless one is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.” Do you understand that in being born again, implied in that statement and thought is the death of the first person? How can you be born again unless what was born first passes away?
• And so, there is a death inside of you involved in coming to a saving faith in Jesus Christ. A death to sin, a death to your first nature…that must take place in order to anyone to become a Christian, to be forgiven of their sins and to inherit eternal life. It is called “repentance.”
• Further, John 12:24-25, “Most assuredly, I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the ground and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it produces much grain. He who loves his life will lose it, and he who hates his life in this world will keep it for eternal life.” Stay on your high horse. Stay stubborn, stay unteachable, unmovable, unaffected by the truth of scripture…and you will end up alone…but if you die to that junk nature…then you produce MUCH!
• Paul says this body will die, it will be planted in the ground but God gives to each seed another form…what we have now is a terrestrial body…made for this environment and time…but there is another body…this corruption must put on incorruption, glory, power, a spiritual body…what Paul calls a celestial body…is it physical? YES! But in what way…you’ll see! HA! In the Greek here, the words used lead to this understanding…same essence, different construction…
• And notice here…Paul says by the inspiration and wisdom of God, Truth Himself…all flesh today is not the same. One kind of flesh of men, another kind of flesh of animal. No, men are not animals and members of the animal kingdom, not in God’s reality. You cannot believe that men came from animals and believe the Bible, you have to pick one or the other…
1 Corinthians Chapter 15 Verses 45 – 49
• One-part dust, one-part heaven. Stir in the perfection given to us in the blood of Jesus and pour into the pan shaped like Jesus! Boom, eternal bodies! But notice, the dust isn’t gone…we don’t become angels, we don’t get angel wings when a bell is wrung on earth…I am still me but this dust is now heavenly!! Even more heavenly than I am today! HA!
1 Corinthians Chapter 15 Verses 50 – 51
• The dust is different tho…how? The flesh is gone…this blood blackened with evil is gone…replaced, changed! No flesh moves forward into the Kingdom of God!!! To that I say YES and AMEN!! (And now, by the gift and power of the Holy Spirit dwelling in the heart of a believer, we can bring a glimpse of that heaven to earth when we walk in the Spirit!)
1 Corinthians Chapter 15 Verses 52 – 55
• What is ahead and how will the resurrection take place? The next event in the eschatological order is what known as the First Resurrection. The First Resurrection is an event that lasts quite a while (I’ll explain) and includes the rapture of the church.
• We just read, for the trumpet will sound and the dead will be raised and at that resurrection, they “put on” incorruption. Turn over to 1 Thessalonians 4:15-18 and let’s look at the rapture very briefly.
• As you’re turning there, understand that according to scripture, there are two resurrection events. Daniel speaks of this in Daniel Chapter 12:2 calling one the resurrection of everlasting life and the other the resurrection of shame and everlasting contempt. And so, there are two resurrection events and one precedes the other. Now, 1 Thessalonians 4…those that are dead in Christ, at the blast of the rapture trumpet, the gathering trumpet, the First Resurrection trumpet, the dead in Christ rise first to be joined to their spirit which is already with the Lord…
• Then those that are alive and remain are caught up into the air and at that moment, are changed…no need for resurrection there…they weren’t dead. This is what the church calls the Rapture and it is imminent. In other words, it is a signless event and nothing more is needed…everything that precedes it prophetically has occurred.
• Then comes the Great Tribulation. The times foretold as the time of Jacob’s Trouble (Jeremiah 30:7). Revelation Chapters 6-19. Then, the Millennial Reign of Christ…Revelation 20:1-6 and notice verses 5 and 6 especially…so what the Bible calls the First Resurrection, the resurrection unto life, begins with the raising of the dead in Christ, then the rapture, then as folks die in faith through the Great Tribulation and the Millennial Reign of Christ, and with that, the Kingdom of God is completed…and then the Second Resurrection, the resurrection unto shame and condemnation…Revelation 20:11-15.
• After the second and final resurrection, at that point we are bound forever…bound either to Satan and his angels and cast out into the Lake of Fire / Outer Darkness or bound to Jesus and citizens of the New Heaven and New Earth…and Paul writes to the church in Corinth that that is the victory for which we live…
1 Corinthians Chapter 15 Verses 56 – 58
• We live in the reality of death coming for us, coming for me, but I also live in the Jesus-proven reality that death is defeated. The greatest enemy, most to be feared…has lost its power and alarm because through Jesus, my sins are overwhelmed…my sinful nature is demoted and my nature now is bound to God My Creator Himself, Most High, the King of Kings, and now the Son became like me so that I could become a son myself…steadfast then? Yes. Immovable, yes…because of the hope that lies ahead!