WEB: 1 Corinthians 15
Resurrection accomplished. Death defeated. New Creation established.
Some in Corinth deny resurrection. Paul answers that the gospel itself is Christ died, buried, and raised according to the Scriptures — and that this resurrection is the harvest of which He is firstfruits. The argument runs inside the first-century horizon, not a later biology programme.
In Adam all die. In Christ all are made alive — each in order: Christ the firstfruits, then those who are His at His revealed presence (parousia). Then the end: hostile rule abolished. The last enemy is Death. That Death is the reign that began in Adam and gained legal teeth in the Law (1 Cor 15:56) — not heartbeat-stop. When the Law-world ends, the sting is gone. Grave and Hades are not still open.
Someone asks, “How are the dead raised? With what kind of body do they come?” Paul does not teach astronomy. He reaches back to Genesis: kinds and glories.
What is sown is not the body that will be, but a seed. Sown perishable, raised imperishable. Sown in dishonour, raised in glory. Sown a natural body (psychikos), raised a spiritual body (pneumatikos).
Then the heads: “The first man was from the earth, earthy; the second man is from heaven. As is the earthy, so are those who are earthy; and as is the heavenly, so are those who are heavenly” (1 Cor 15:47–49).
The first Adam is the terrestrial order — dust, flesh, the fading Mosaic-Adamic administration: earthly tabernacle, earthly priesthood, earthly Jerusalem, physical genealogy. The Last Adam is the celestial order — the New Creation, the Man from heaven. To be sown in dishonour and raised in glory is that old world passing (public end in AD 70) and Christ’s body standing. Believers are no longer defined by the dust-man. They bear the image of the Man from heaven.
That is why the New Jerusalem needs no sun or moon as ruling lights. The old heaven-and-earth authorities have passed. God’s people sit in heavenly places in Christ.
Sequence to keep: Genesis kinds → two glories → two Adams → image-bearing. Do not flatten “land creatures” into “Mosaic covenant.” Israel’s earthly house is the historical form of the first-Adam administration.
Flesh and blood — the perishable Adamic-Mosaic identity — does not inherit the kingdom. The trumpet, the change, the clothing with immortality: Death swallowed up. “Where, O Death, is your sting?” The sting was sin; the power of sin was the Law. Thanks be to God who has given the victory. Therefore be steadfast. Labour in the Lord is not in vain.
You are not waiting to become celestial. You bear the heavenly Man’s image now. Sheol is emptied. The last enemy is abolished because the ministry that armed it is gone.
Full CBV study: The Covenantal Resurrection.