There is one fundamental and radical difference between the Ancient Near East and the Greco-Roman culture: The former asserted that a separate spirit realm existed, whereas the latter asserted that this world is all there is. If you can get it through your head that there is an eternal realm separate and distinct from this world, then there are certain obvious logical consequences of that belief. Paul struggled against the Corinthian mental habits of their old pagan assumptions.
This passage begins with Paul restating an outline of the gospel message. This is the message that gives any church it’s whole identity. The format of the message is rather like some of the Greek mythology, a story of some key figure who experienced and/or accomplished certain things. In this case, we have Christ who died as the sacrifice for the sins of humanity. It was prophesied long before in the Hebrew Scriptures. His body was buried and on the third day He rose again, also predicted in those same Scriptures. He appeared to Peter, and then the rest of the Twelve. Later, He appeared alive to a huge crowd of some 500 followers, most of whom were still living. The implication is that you could at that moment go back and interview them as to what they witnessed personally.
Next, Jesus appeared to His brother James, and some others who had become apostles. Lastly, as if Paul had been born at the wrong time, Jesus also appeared to him after He ascended. Jesus is still alive! Paul goes on to testify of his unworthiness, and how he had to play catch up by working harder than everyone else who knew Jesus in the flesh. But this gospel message became the standard, the core of what all the other apostles preached. Would they prefer to ignore Paul? Fine, any other Christian apostle would teach the same thing. This story was still being shared as factual, historical events, wherever one might find His followers.
So, how is it that some of the church members in Corinth still insisted that humans cannot rise from the dead? Note: Because the Greek language lacks actual words for the whole concept, Paul uses common Greek terms figuratively. The word for “resurrection” actually means to rise from sitting or lying down. But he’s consistent, because he refers to believers who die as “asleep”, instead of using the Greek term associated with passing into the mythical Underworld. However, he’s quite blunt in saying that if dead bodies do not rise, then Christ is not risen and the whole gospel message is a lie.
There is no reason to continue as a church, and Paul can just go home and retire to an easy life.
But no, Christ is alive. He is the first fruit from the harvest of souls that have merely fallen asleep. Then Paul launches into symbolism playing the image of Adam off against Christ. Adam symbolizes our human fleshly existence, and Christ symbolizes our eternal spiritual destiny. Christ is then compared to an Ancient Near Eastern royal heir who went out to conquer and pacify the rebels in His Father’s realm, and will then return triumphant with the tokens of their allegiance or destruction.
Don’t miss the point here: This is a somewhat veiled reference to the rebellious angelic beings who have been leading mankind astray since the expulsion from the Garden of Eden. Once Jesus has humbled these beings through His army of followers, He will signal to His Father the completion of All Things. This, too, was prophesied, as Paul quotes Psalm 8.
This faithful Son will then surrender all things at His Father’s feet, presenting to the Father a fully united realm under His authority. The last rebel to be brought to heel will be death itself. That is, the mere fact of human mortality will be ended. We will all be revealed in our true eternal natures.
Paul reminds the Corinthians of a ritual practice they had been observing — “baptism for the dead”. It shouldn’t be a mystery. It’s another element of the Old Testament that belongs in the New. Even today, Jews recognize the sacred duty to their dead kin in preparing their bodies for burial. Of course, this makes one ritually impure, requiring a ritual washing (Hebrew mikvah, Greek baptizo) in order to restore that purity. It’s a very mystical thing in Judaism even now.
It was the same for early Christians. We still love them even if they are dead. The original doctrine in the Old Testament was that the body would be reused in the Resurrection. Christ didn’t leave His body in the grave, nor will you and I. It will be reconstituted regardless of what happens to the remains. If we honor a fellow believer who died by handling their remains with respect for a body they’ll need again, we should be willing to take a bath before coming back to church. Without a hope of resurrection, there’s no point to such honor, nor ritual bathing. We could just toss the bodies out with the garbage and be done with it.
Paul then goes on to mention how he is at risk of being killed every day. If there is no resurrection, why bother? That fracas at Ephesus, where Paul felt like a gladiator facing wild beasts? He would reap none of the glory, nor any purse for his survivors. What would be the point if there was not at least some hope of eternal life?
Paul quotes a very popular philosophy in suggesting they all should just eat, drink and be merry, because they could die at any moment and that would be the end of it. This was apparently a big thing in Corinth. Skipping across a lot of thoughts that should be obvious in this context, Paul quotes a famous Greek poet (Menander) and warns that hanging out with that kind of people would destroy any hope for moral goodness in this life.
Too many members of the Corinthian church were dragging around their old philosophical assumptions, as if God had never touched their lives. They didn’t seem to know Jehovah at all. It was not a utilitarian question of coming to church to feel good about yourself. If that’s all you got from it, stay away. We are sacrificing this life, which is worth less than nothing, in favor of an eternal existence beyond words on the other side of the grave.
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