Awaken to the Holiness of LIfe • 1 Corinthians 15

"But because God was so gracious, so very generous, here I am.

And I'm not about to let this grace go to waste."

(vs. 10)

"If all we get out of Christ is a little inspiration 

for a few short years, we're a pretty sorry lot. 

But the truth is that Christ has been raised up,

the first in a long legacy of those who 

are going to leave the cemeteries."

(vs. 19 - 20)

"There is a nice symmetry in this:

Death initially came by a man,

and resurrection from death came by a man.

Everybody dies in Adam;

everybody comes alive in Christ."

(vs. 21 - 22)

"It's resurrection, resurrection, always resurrection,

that undergirds  what I do and say, the way I live."

(vs. 32)

"Think straight. Awaken to the holiness of life."

(vs. 34)

"You plant a 'dead' seed; soon there is a flourishing plant.

There is no visual likeness between seed and plant.

You could never guess what a tomato would 

look like by looking at a tomato seed.

What we plant in the soil and what grows out if it

don't look anything alike. 

The dead body that we bury in the ground

and the resurrection body that comes 

from it will be dramatically different.

(vs. 36-38)

"This image of planting a dead seed and raising a live plant

is a mere sketch at best, but perhaps it will help

in approaching the mystery of the resurrection body —

but only if you keep in mind that when we're raised,

we're raised for good, alive forever!"

(vs. 42)

"I need to emphasize, friends, that our natural, 

earthy lives don't in themselves lead us by 

their very nature into the kingdom of God. 

Their very 'nature' is to die, 

so how could they 'naturally' end up 

in the Life kingdom?"

(vs. 50)

"But let me tell you something wonderful,

a mystery I'll probably never fully understand.

We're not all going to die —

but we are all going to be changed.

You hear a blast to end all blasts from a trumpet,

and in the time that you look up and blink your eyes —

it's over.

On signal from that trumpet from heaven, 

the dead will be up and out of their graves,

beyond reach of death, never to die again.

At the same moment and in the same way,

we'll all be changed. 

(vs. 51-52)

"In the resurrection scheme of things, this has to happen;

everything perishable taken off the shelves and 

replaced by the imperishable,

this mortal replaced by the immortal.

Then the saying will come true:

'Death swallowed by triumphant Life!

Who got the last word, oh, Death?

Oh, Death, who's afraid of you now?'"

(vs. 53-55)

"With all this going for us, my dear, dear friends,

stand your ground. And don't hold back.

Throw yourselves into the work of the Master,

confident that nothing you do for Him 

is a wast of time or effort."

(vs. 58)