What are you wearing?
My sense of style is simply deficient. I have never retained the rules of proper
attire. I would wear white all year long. Or anything stained, ripped and
mismatched. I wear corduroy in July until my wife has to
hide it from me. If I am just running to
the grocery, who cares? And if I am just
running out to the car – rules do not apply.
Ask my neighbors. Picture Cousin
Eddie greeting neighbors in his bathrobe, slippers, trooper hat, and
boxers.
I do draw a line at the boxers, but the rest of the picture
is me.
I’ve been somewhat of a ten-year project for Janna. What I now concede is that certain attire
matches certain occasions. There are
casual, relaxed, and refined occasions. And
while attending said occasion, it is preferable that one’s attire does in fact relate
to it.
Indeed, proper attire is required.
Paul closes I Corinthians 15 with this fundamental idea
(15:35-58).[1] As Adam’s children, our natural bodies simply
cannot withstand all God has purposed for us in His manifested kingdom (15:50;
I Tim 6:16). “Flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God, nor does the
perishable put on the imperishable.”
We await a fundamental wardrobe change. We look forward to an epic makeover, one for
the ages: “this perishable body must put
on the imperishable and this mortal body must put on immortality.” Our physical bodies, corrupted by sin, are
incapable of housing the incorruptible. We are in desperate need of an
altogether different kind of wardrobe, a glorious flesh that is quite different
in its constitution and capacity.
Paul resolves the material-spiritual tension not by
dismissing bodily resurrection but by introducing a secret: Behold!
I tell you a mystery. We shall
not all sleep, but we shall all be changed. The faithful will undergo a
complete transformation. The result will
be perfection, a reveal more astounding than anything ever seen on TLC.
As the final trumpet sounds, the fullness of Christ’s
victory over death will be evident as all the redeemed of all ages “put on” the
imperishable. No longer bound by the
natural body but freed to experience the fullness of God’s intent: harmony of
both spiritual and physical existence.
As we put on our Easter best, let us reflect on our future
attire.
The grave couldn’t hold our Lord. Evil has been vanquished. God’s eternal intent secured through an empty
tomb. I Corinthians 15 bursts with hope. Let us then be steadfast,
immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that in the Lord
our labor is not in vain (58).
Grace and Peace
[1] The idea of
“proper attire” gives shape to I Corinthians 15:35-58. Those influenced by Greek thought scoffed at
the resurrection of the dead (35).
Driving an unnecessary hierarchy between the material and spiritual
realms, the Greeks had little use for material existence. Our bodies were thought to be a temporal
necessity awaiting liberation. Paul
doesn’t entirely disagree with his opponents; he only challenges their
conclusion. Indeed, the tension they
felt was accurate. Paul himself affirmed
that flesh and blood couldn’t entertain the magnitude of the spiritual realm. Yet instead of abandoning the future
resurrection Paul advances two thoughts:
- Reflection on creation demonstrates noticeable difference (37-49):
- As there are in creation different types of flesh (humans, animals, birds, and fish), our resurrected body will be of a different type (39)
- As there are in creation different levels of glory (terrestrial and celestial), our resurrected body will be of a different level (40-41)
- So it is with the resurrection of the dead: a different type of flesh with a different glory. Paul assured that we would bare the image of Christ (42-49)
- Introduction of a great mystery, we will all be changed (50-58)
- Affirming the problem – introducing the solution (50-53)
- Demonstrating the fullness of Christ’s victory (54-57)
- Exhorting continued faithfulness (58)
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