THE FAMILY ALTAR
April 19.
"Now this I say, brethren, that flesh and blood cannot inherit
the kingdom of God." 1 Cor. 15:50.
The question is often asked: Why must we die at all if
Christ has really abolished death? Why can He not take us to
heaven just as we are, without letting us die first? The Apostle
Paul here gives us the answer. He does not deny the resurrection
of the body, as unbelievers, who tear his words from their connec-
tion, brazenly assert. On the contrary, in this fifteenth chapter
of First Corinthians, Paul vigorously upholds and defends the
resurrection of the body, and conclusively proves that it must
take place. When he declares that flesh and blood cannot inherit
the kingdom of God, he uses the words in the same sense in which
our Lord applied them when He said to Peter (Matt. 16, 17) :
"Flesh and blood hath not revealed it unto thee, but My Father
which is in heaven." "Flesh and blood" here means our sin-
corrupted nature in the utter depravity of all its powers. We
children of Adam are so poisoned by sin that we cannot in our
present state inherit the kingdom of God, the life eternal. Sin,
evil, cannot dwell in the sight of the holy God. (Ps. 5,4.) . But
this corruptible, that is, this mortal body, can put on, can be
clothed with, incorruption and immortality, and shall do so in
the resurrection of the dead. (V. 54.) There is no doubt in Paul's
mind about that blessed fact. Hence he cries out (w. 19. 20) :
"If in this life only we have hope in Christ, we are of all men
most miserable. But now is Christ risen from the dead, and
become the first-fruits of them that slept." Through Christ's
resurrection death is now become only a sleep for us. Let us learn
to look at death in the light of Holy Scripture — as a sleep from
which we shall awake in the image of our Lord's glorified body
and in which we shall cast off forever this vile, evil, sinful nature
of ours. (Phil. 3, 21.) What a glorious, change that means!
Christ is risen, we are risen!
Shed upon us heavenly grace,
Rain, and dew, and gleams of glory
From the brightness of Thy face;
That, with hearts in heaven dwelling,
We on earth may fruitful be,
And by angel -hands be gathered,
