The following is a transcription of one of my recent YouTube videos on the resurrection of 1 Corinthians 15.

Paul and the “Body of Sin” and the “Body of Death”

We have been focused over the last several videos in Paul’s statement in 1 Corinthians 15:56 – that the resurrection would be when sin – the sting of death – would be overcome.

Very simply what that means is – as I have shared with you repeatedly – if you deal with sin, you dealt with death.

Now, to demonstrate that – and, and, to drive that home – we’ve been examining Romans chapter 8. Romans chapter 8 tells us “there is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus who do not walk after the flesh but after the spirit.

Well, for Paul, condemnation was death.

I was alive once without the law, the commandment came, sin revived, and I died.

Very clearly, he had not died biologically. He had been – however – condemned by the law.

This is the condemnation. This is the life and death that is in Paul’s discussion that is in Romans chapter 8. The point of this being – that were as Paul says the resurrection would be when sin – the sting of death – would be overcome, Paul says life would be – and was taking place – as a result of being in Christ when there is no condemnation of sin.

Now, in the last video, I shared with you what Paul says in Romans chapter 8 and verse 10. If – and that if and only if – Christ is in you, the body is dead. I pointed out that tjis simply cannot be referring to biological life and death. And, any number of people responded – both privately and on YouTube and Facebook – trying to say, “Well, what Paul means here – if Christ is in you, the body is subject to death but, because of the Spirit, we have life.”

Well – first of all – that introduces biological death into the context where Paul has never mentioned biological death. That’s called eisegesis. Remember, Paul said, “I was alive, the commandment came, the sin revived, I died. Not biological death. Romans 7:24 – “Oh wretched man that I am, who shall deliver me from this body of death.” Paul wasn’t longing to be free from the biological body. Romans 8:1 – “No condemnation to those who are in Christ.”

The law of the spirit of life has made me free from the law of sin and death.

I ask you again, If, if, if, it is the case, that the law of sin and death means – you sin you die biologically, then what Paul was saying – unequivocally – that to be in Christ is to be free from the law of biological death. That is patently false. But that is the conclusion that must be drawn if one inserts biological death into the context. Paul is not saying, “Okay, well, you know, if Christ is in you you’re gonna die but, if Christ is in you, you’ll also live. While that may be a solution that has been offered multitudinous times, once again, that is not what Paul is talking about because he has never mentioned physical death in this entire discussion. And, remember – if and only if Christ is in you. And, I know that this is one of those if-and-only-if ah situations – pardon me – because he goes ahead to say, “If the spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dwell – from the dead dwells in you, he who raised Christ from the dead will also give life.”

Okay. So this is not one of those situations where he’s talking hypothetically. He is saying, “If and only if Christ dwells in you, the body is dead.” In other words – the body is not dead if Christ does not dwell.

Now, what this absolutely means is, if we are [laughs] – I tell ya, when you look closely at the traditional views of Paul’s discussion of life and death and body and resurrection, etc…, it presents all sorts of problems.

Since Paul is unequivocally, undeniably, and irrefulably – irrefutably saying, “If and only if Christ dwells in you, the body is dead – now, remember – can’t be talking about biological body – is it not the case – listen to me carefully and catch the power of this – is it not the case that, as in Adam all men die – 1 Corinthians 15:22 – is it not the case of – wherefore as by one man sin entered into the world and death through sin – Romans 5:12 – in other words – according to the traditional paradigms, it is because of Adam that we die – it is because of Adam that the biological body dies.

Okay. Has that now changed to where we now say, “Well, we don’t die biologically because of Adam – now we die biologically because of Jesus”?

Really?

Are we under the sentence of two deaths? The death of Adam – biological? And, now, the death of Christ – biological?

Folks, it makes no sense – whatsoever.

But, if we take the body here to be the body of death – of Romans 7:24 – if we take it to be the old man – of Romans 6:5 and 6 – if we take it to be the body if sin – of Romans 6:5and 6 – then that is exactly perfectly – pardon me – harmonious with Paul’s thought.

Paul is saying, “That old body is dead if Christ dwells in you.”

You’re putting the old man – the old body – away.

It is dead if Christ dwells in you but, if Christ dwells in you, you have life.

We just simply cannot overemphasize the fact that it is impossible – contextually – to insert biological death into the text – or, else you create two biological deaths – one through Adam – one through Christ.

But – more critically even than that – if you can get more critical than that – is the reality that the body and the sin and the death that Paul has been dealing with throughout is, in fact, the body of sin death. That, by being in Christ, that body was dying – and they were being raised to life. And that life can be ours today by the way. Life. Wow. Life in Christ.

Be sure to check out my YouTube channel for tons of videos– over 1300 to date!