◄ What Does 1 Corinthians 15:50 Mean? ►

The Resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ, must never be divorced from God's gracious plan of redemption. Christ died to pay the price for our sin, but His Resurrection from the dead is equally staggering.

It was by His Resurrection that He broke the inescapable power of death and hell, guaranteeing eternal life to all who would believe on His name - on all who would believe that His death was the sacrifice for their sin and His resurrected life became our eternally resurrected life. However, God is an immortal, spiritual being and we are mortal, physical creatures. God is perfect, while we are imperfect.

The question is asked, how can these things be reconciled? How can the relationship of fallen, fleshly, sinful man be restored to a perfect, spiritual, holy, heavenly God? How can a fallen, physical being who is under the curse of sin, be reconciled to a holy, spiritual God Who cannot permit sin into His presence?

Although God's creative world was beautiful, it was cursed because of sin. Ever since Adam's fall, every member of the human race who comes into this world, is a sinner. We are tainted from conception and born into a physical race, via a natural birth. We are identified with Adam's fall, imputed with his sin-nature, and must face sin's terrible consequences.

Despite the sin of the first man, God determined in His heart to redeem the human race, by sending a Second Man and imputing His righteousness on all who would believe on His name for the forgiveness of their sin.

Life is in the blood, and God determined that the shed blood of a perfect, sinless, spiritual, heavenly Man, would be sufficient to pay the full price for His fallen, physical, earthly, mortal race. God, in His grace and mercy, sent His only begotten Son from heaven as the perfect sacrifice for the sin of the whole world.

Jesus shed His lifeblood on the Cross, and was resurrected with a life-giving spirit in a human body of flesh and bone. Paul systematically laid out the importance of His Resurrection - to show that flesh and blood can never, ever inherit the kingdom of God. A fallen, fleshly, perishable, mortal frame that is imputed with sin, cannot inherit a righteous, spiritual, imperishable, eternal body.

But God's wonderful plan for man's redemption was such that the price for sin is made by faith in Christ's shed blood. By grace, He identified with our sin so that we could be identified with His death. By faith in Him, Christ's heavenly, spiritual, eternal righteousness became our own heavenly, spiritual, eternal righteousness. By faith, we were made heirs of God and joint-heirs with Christ.

Although fallen, fleshly, sinful bodies could never enter the heavenly realm, it was through His glorious Resurrection that BY FAITH, we became identified with His clean, pure, immortal, imperishable, resurrected body with the certain promise that we too would receive a pure, immortal, imperishable, resurrected body, like unto His glorious body - a body of flesh and bone which would be animated by the spirit of life in Christ Jesus.

While on earth, the life of the first creation is in the blood, but at the resurrection, the life of all who believe will be imputed to us through the 'spirit of life in Christ Jesus'. No longer will our life-force be in the blood, but our life will be in the power of the eternal Spirit.

By faith in Christ, we all face physical death... but have a sure knowledge that we will rise to life immortal in a resurrected body of flesh and bone like unto Christ's body... for flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God, nor does the perishable inherit the imperishable, but thanks be to God Who gives us the victory over Satan, sin, death, and hell through our risen Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ.

Heavenly Father, thank You for Your wonderful plan of redemption and for Jesus Christ, the eternal Son, Who laid aside His heavenly glory, to come to earth and be born into the human race. Thank You that He was willing to take on the form of human flesh so that He could live a perfect life, in order to be qualified to shed His innocent blood for the sins of the world. He willingly died for me and gave His very lifeblood on my behalf so that by faith in Him, I might be identified with His death and glorious Resurrection. Thank You that by faith in Him, I have been imputed with His righteousness and have become a child of God and joint-heir with Christ. Thank You that Your amazing plan of redemption, has paved the way for me to have an inheritance in the kingdom of God and that this imperishable body, will one day take on an imperishable one. In Jesus' name, AMEN.