The Order of Resurrection Victory (1 Corinthians 15:23-28)

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Paul Barnett calls this ‘a short history of Death’.

  1. Christ is the firstfruits.
    • 15:23. Alfred Lord Tennyson: Behold, we know not anything. Not so. Charles Hodge: ‘the resurrection of Christ is a pledge and proof of the resurrection of his people’.
  2. Those who belong to Christ will be raised at His coming.
    • 15:23. What happens to those who are in Christ who die between the resurrection of Christ and His Second Coming? Read Luke 23:39-43. Shorter Catechism Question 37: ‘The souls of believers are at their death made perfect in holiness, and do immediately pass into glory; and their bodies, being still united to Christ, do rest in the grave till the resurrection.’
  3. God is all in all.
    • There is an order here – read 15:24-28.
      1. Those who belong to Christ will be raised in their resurrection bodies. The kingdom has come in all its fulness – Mark 1:14-15; Col.1:13. Yet we pray for in Matthew 6:10. Psalm 8:6 and Psalm 110:1.
      2. Christ will present His blood-won kingdom to the Father. John Donne writes: One short sleep past, we wake eternally, And death shall be no more, Death thou shalt die. Dan.7:13-14.
      3. At the end God shall be all in all 15:27-28; Phil.2:10-11. That which was made known in the first coming will be seen in all its fullness.