Angels or Devils?
I Corinthians 15:35–49
“But someone will ask, “How are the dead raised? With what kind of body will they come?” How foolish! What you sow does not come to life unless it dies. When you sow, you do not plant the body that will be, but just a seed, perhaps of wheat or of something else. But God gives it a body as He has determined, and to each kind of seed He gives its own body. Not all flesh is the same: People have one kind of flesh, animals have another, birds another and fish another. There are also heavenly bodies and there are earthly bodies; but the splendor of the heavenly bodies is one kind, and the splendor of the earthly bodies is another. The sun has one kind of splendor, the moon another and the stars another; and star differs from star in splendor. So will it be with the resurrection of the dead. The body that is sown is perishable, it is raised imperishable; it is sown in dishonor, it is raised in glory; it is sown in weakness, it is raised in power; it is sown a natural body, it is raised a spiritual body. If there is a natural body, there is also a spiritual body. So it is written: “The first man Adam became a living being”; the last Adam, a life-giving spirit. The spiritual did not come first, but the natural, and after that the spiritual. The first man was of the dust of the earth; the second man is of heaven. As was the earthly man, so are those who are of the earth; and as is the heavenly man, so also are those who are of heaven. And just as we have borne the image of the earthly man, so shall we bear the image of the heavenly man.”
Back in Gethsemane, in the days prior to His fulfilment of the great divine exchange, the LORD said to His disciples, "Watch and pray so that you will not fall into temptation. The spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak (Matt 26:41).” I can speak for myself, that I long for the day that I no longer be conflicted with my fleshly desires against my spirit-man’s aspirations. Like the lyrics to a song that said, “The angels they burn inside for us, Are we ever, are we ever gonna learn to fly; The devils they burn inside of us, Are we ever gonna come back down?” And like the Apostle Paul, when he wrote, “I know that nothing good lives in me, that is, in my sinful nature. For I have the desire to do what is good, but I cannot carry it out. For what I do is not the good I want to do; no, the evil I do not want to do-this I keep on doing. Now if I do what I do not want to do, it is no longer I who do it, but it is sin living in me that does it. So I find this law at work: When I want to do good, evil is right there with me. For in my inner being I delight in God's law; but I see another law at work in the members of my body, waging war against the law of my mind and making me a prisoner of the law of sin at work within my members. What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body of death? Thanks be to God—through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, I myself in my mind am a slave to God's law, but in the sinful nature a slave to the law of sin. (Rom 7:18–25).” The resurrection offers me that; no longer will my body be limited to the current laws of nature, as the new heavens and the new earth arrive (Isa 65:17, Rev 21:1), I will be completely glorious like Christ. However, my hope for today as we patiently wait for Christ is the indwelling of His Holy Spirit who can lead me beside the still waters of my soul that I may lead a life that is of my higher self, not of angels burning inside, but of the Holy Spirit ablaze, may He mightily empower me and all of us. The seed has already sprouted in Christ’s resurrection in us, as He was buried and have sprang forth fully alive after three days as it is written. I’m taking the LORD’s word for it, for it was written as trustworthy and true because the Resurrected One said from the new Eden, that in the completion of the divine exchange, “Behold, I am making all things new” (Rev 21:5).
“But someone will ask, “How are the dead raised? With what kind of body will they come?” How foolish! What you sow does not come to life unless it dies. When you sow, you do not plant the body that will be, but just a seed, perhaps of wheat or of something else. But God gives it a body as He has determined, and to each kind of seed He gives its own body. Not all flesh is the same: People have one kind of flesh, animals have another, birds another and fish another. There are also heavenly bodies and there are earthly bodies; but the splendor of the heavenly bodies is one kind, and the splendor of the earthly bodies is another. The sun has one kind of splendor, the moon another and the stars another; and star differs from star in splendor. So will it be with the resurrection of the dead. The body that is sown is perishable, it is raised imperishable; it is sown in dishonor, it is raised in glory; it is sown in weakness, it is raised in power; it is sown a natural body, it is raised a spiritual body. If there is a natural body, there is also a spiritual body. So it is written: “The first man Adam became a living being”; the last Adam, a life-giving spirit. The spiritual did not come first, but the natural, and after that the spiritual. The first man was of the dust of the earth; the second man is of heaven. As was the earthly man, so are those who are of the earth; and as is the heavenly man, so also are those who are of heaven. And just as we have borne the image of the earthly man, so shall we bear the image of the heavenly man.”
Back in Gethsemane, in the days prior to His fulfilment of the great divine exchange, the LORD said to His disciples, "Watch and pray so that you will not fall into temptation. The spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak (Matt 26:41).” I can speak for myself, that I long for the day that I no longer be conflicted with my fleshly desires against my spirit-man’s aspirations. Like the lyrics to a song that said, “The angels they burn inside for us, Are we ever, are we ever gonna learn to fly; The devils they burn inside of us, Are we ever gonna come back down?” And like the Apostle Paul, when he wrote, “I know that nothing good lives in me, that is, in my sinful nature. For I have the desire to do what is good, but I cannot carry it out. For what I do is not the good I want to do; no, the evil I do not want to do-this I keep on doing. Now if I do what I do not want to do, it is no longer I who do it, but it is sin living in me that does it. So I find this law at work: When I want to do good, evil is right there with me. For in my inner being I delight in God's law; but I see another law at work in the members of my body, waging war against the law of my mind and making me a prisoner of the law of sin at work within my members. What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body of death? Thanks be to God—through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, I myself in my mind am a slave to God's law, but in the sinful nature a slave to the law of sin. (Rom 7:18–25).” The resurrection offers me that; no longer will my body be limited to the current laws of nature, as the new heavens and the new earth arrive (Isa 65:17, Rev 21:1), I will be completely glorious like Christ. However, my hope for today as we patiently wait for Christ is the indwelling of His Holy Spirit who can lead me beside the still waters of my soul that I may lead a life that is of my higher self, not of angels burning inside, but of the Holy Spirit ablaze, may He mightily empower me and all of us. The seed has already sprouted in Christ’s resurrection in us, as He was buried and have sprang forth fully alive after three days as it is written. I’m taking the LORD’s word for it, for it was written as trustworthy and true because the Resurrected One said from the new Eden, that in the completion of the divine exchange, “Behold, I am making all things new” (Rev 21:5).
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