Flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God

1 Corinthians 15:30-58 from the daily reading in the One Year Bible

Why are we also in danger every hour? ³¹ I affirm, brethren, by the boasting in you which I have in Christ Jesus our Lord, I die daily. ³² If from human motives I fought with wild beasts at Ephesus, what does it profit me? If the dead are not raised, let us eat and drink, for tomorrow we die. ³³ Do not be deceived: “Bad company corrupts good morals.” ³⁴ Become sober-minded as you ought, and stop sinning; for some have no knowledge of God. I speak this to your shame.

³⁵ But someone will say, “How are the dead raised? And with what kind of body do they come?” ³⁶ You fool! That which you sow does not come to life unless it dies; ³⁷ and that which you sow, you do not sow the body which is to be, but a bare grain, perhaps of wheat or of something else. ³⁸ But God gives it a body just as He wished, and to each of the seeds a body of its own. ³⁹ All flesh is not the same flesh, but there is one flesh of men, and another flesh of beasts, and another flesh of birds, and another of fish. ⁴⁰ There are also heavenly bodies and earthly bodies, but the glory of the heavenly is one, and the glory of the earthly is another. ⁴¹ There is one glory of the sun, and another glory of the moon, and another glory of the stars; for star differs from star in glory.

⁴² So also is the resurrection of the dead. It is sown a perishable body, it is raised an imperishable body; ⁴³ it is sown in dishonor, it is raised in glory; it is sown in weakness, it is raised in power; ⁴⁴ it is sown a natural body, it is raised a spiritual body. If there is a natural body, there is also a spiritual body. ⁴⁵ So also it is written, “The first man, Adam, became a living soul.” The last Adam became a life-giving spirit. ⁴⁶ However, the spiritual is not first, but the natural; then the spiritual. ⁴⁷ The first man is from the earth, earthy; the second man is from heaven. ⁴⁸ As is the earthy, so also are those who are earthy; and as is the heavenly, so also are those who are heavenly. ⁴⁹ Just as we have borne the image of the earthy, we will also bear the image of the heavenly.

⁵⁰ Now I say this, brethren, that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God; nor does the perishable inherit the imperishable. ⁵¹ Behold, I tell you a mystery; we will not all sleep, but we will all be changed, ⁵² in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet; for the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised imperishable, and we will be changed. ⁵³ For this perishable must put on the imperishable, and this mortal must put on immortality. ⁵⁴ But when this perishable will have put on the imperishable, and this mortal will have put on immortality, then will come about the saying that is written, “Death is swallowed up in victory. ⁵⁵ O death, where is your victory? O death, where is your sting?” ⁵⁶ The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law; ⁵⁷ but thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.

⁵⁸ Therefore, my beloved brethren, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that your toil is not in vain in the Lord.

In today’s text Paul says:   Now I say this, brethren, that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God       This seems to contradict the idea that:     we are children of God,  and if children, heirs also, heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ (Romans 8:16-17)       But this really is more than just semantics. It is true that as Jesus said: the kingdom of heaven is at hand, it has come upon us; literally translated the kingdom is within us. We are also, as ambassadors for Christ to preach the gospel of the kingdom, to advance the kingdom, shining its light in the darkness of the world. Yet as Paul says:   flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God. God created the heavens and the earth. He has authority over it all, but His kingdom is a spiritual kingdom. Jesus says: "God is spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth." (John 4:24)      In the same way that we must worship God in spirit, to inherit the kingdom of God we must also receive the inheritance in the spirit. All that we do, everything we have as children of God, joint heirs with Christ is based on our faith in Christ, not our own works or efforts. Ephesians 2:8-9 says:     For by grace you have been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God;  not as a result of works, so that no one may boast.    Hebrews 11:1 says:   Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.   So we are saved by something which we cannot see. It is not physical or tangible, we cannot attain it through our own efforts, through the flesh. We attain it only by the spirit. It is in the same way that we inherit the kingdom.

Paul is writing about the resurrection from the dead, the promise we have of eternal life with God. He says:      Behold, I tell you a mystery; we will not all sleep, but we will all be changed,  in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet; for the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised imperishable, and we will be changed.  For this perishable must put on the imperishable, and this mortal must put on immortality.  But when this perishable will have put on the imperishable, and this mortal will have put on immortality, then will come about the saying that is written, “Death is swallowed up in victory.  O death, where is your victory? O death, where is your sting?”  The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law;  but thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.     When we experience physical death, when our flesh, these mortal bodies, no longer continue we are changed. We are no longer subject to or limited by our natural bodies. For now though we are both physical and spiritual. Our lives and our Christian walk are a matter of balancing the physical with the spiritual.

Jesus says: “ Truly, truly, I say to you, he who believes in Me, the works that I do, he will do also; and greater works than these he will do; because I go to the Father. .. I will ask the Father, and He will give you another Helper, that He may be with you forever;  that is the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it does not see Him or know Him, but you know Him because He abides with you and will be in you.” (John 14:12,16-17)   The greater works we do, all that we have as sharers in the inheritance of God is through the Spirit. Peter could not walk on water, like Jesus, by his own physical ability, it was through his faith in Christ. We need to recognize that because we are physical, flesh, we are subject to physical laws. If we fall from a the top a building the physical law of gravity will cause us to it the ground. If we try to walk on water, we will sink. Because we are subject to natural physical laws in our physical bodies, it is important that we hear what Paul says:    Do not be deceived: “Bad company corrupts good morals.”  Become sober-minded as you ought, and stop sinning; for some have no knowledge of God.       What we do in and with our physical bodies does have consequences on our physical bodies. God’s spiritual kingdom and His spiritual laws have precedence over the physical or natural. In the spiritual, what is the consequence of sin?    the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord. (Romans 6:23)       So what we do with our physical bodies, our flesh, impacts both the physical and the spiritual.

What then is the answer for us who are caught between the physical and the spiritual? In Galatians 5, Paul says:  It was for freedom that Christ set us free; therefore keep standing firm and do not be subject again to a yoke of slavery.     What Christ has set us free from is the yoke of slavery to our physical bodies, our desires to fulfill our own lusts through sin. Paul continues in Galatians 5:      But I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not carry out the desire of the flesh. For the flesh sets its desire against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh; for these are in opposition to one another, so that you may not do the things that you please.  But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the Law.  Now the deeds of the flesh are evident, which are: immorality, impurity, sensuality,  idolatry, sorcery, enmities, strife, jealousy, outbursts of anger, disputes, dissensions, factions,  envying, drunkenness, carousing, and things like these, of which I forewarn you, just as I have forewarned you, that those who practice such things will not inherit the kingdom of God.      Again, the flesh cannot inherit the kingdom of God.        But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness,  gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law.  Now those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires.  If we live by the Spirit, let us also walk by the Spirit.

“Against such things there is no law.”    The physical laws of the natural realm are subject to the spirit. We cannot walk on water, we cannot do the works Jesus did or the greater works He calls us to in the flesh. The truth is, in the flesh we cannot even love, have joy, know peace, show patience, kindness and goodness. In our flesh we have no faithfulness, no gentleness or self-control. These all are fruits of the Spirit, not the flesh. We are both physical and spiritual.   If we live by the Spirit, let us also walk by the Spirit, that we may indeed inherit the kingdom of God, that we may be those who advance the kingdom of heaven here on earth.

Heavenly Father, Lord Jesus Christ; precious Holy Spirit I yield to You. I choose to be subject to first the spiritual, not the physical. Your kingdom come, Your will be done, on earth, here in this physical realm, as it is in heaven; may it be both in and through my life.   Amen