5.5 Resurrection

Victory

THE TEXT OF PAUL’S FINAL HOMILY, “Resurrection: Victory,” is displayed in figure 5.5(1). N. T. Wright appropriately refers to this final paragraph as having “the sustained excitement of a celebration.”1 It can also be called “A Hymn of Victory.” Having opened the epistle with a hymn to the cross, Paul closes it with a balancing hymn to the resurrection.

THE RHETORIC

The overall structure of this final homily is artistically satisfying in its simplicity. It is composed of twelve cameos that break into three sections. In the epistle there are only five homilies that divide into three sections.2 These are:

On the Cross (1:17–2:2)
On the Lord’s Supper (11:17-33)
On the Nature of Love (13:1-13)
On the Victory of Resurrection (15:51-58)
On Finance for Mission (16:1-14)

In each of these five homilies the section in the middle is critical to the beginning and the end. In all five, if the center were missing, the first and third sections would fit together hand in glove, and the reader would not notice any omission. This can be seen as follows:

0.	^15:51Lo! I tell you a mystery.	A MYSTERY REVEALED

1.	We shall not all sleep,	NOT ALL SLEEP
	but we shall all be changed,	We—All Changed

2.	⁵²in a moment,	A MOMENT
	in the twinkling of an eye,	A Twinkling

3.	at the last trumpet.	THE TRUMPET
	For the trumpet will sound,	Will Sound

4.	and the dead will be raised imperishable,	RAISED—IMPERISHABLE
	and we shall be changed.	We—Changed

5.	⁵³For this perishable nature	PERISHABLE
	must put on the imperishable,	Imperishable

6.	and this mortal nature	MORTAL
	must put on immortality.	Immortal

7.	⁵⁴When the perishable	PERISHABLE
	puts on the imperishable,	Imperishable

8.	and the mortal	MORTAL
	puts on immortality,	Immortal

9.	then shall come to pass
	the saying that is written,	VICTORY
	“Death is swallowed up in victory.”	Death Swallowed

10.	⁵⁵“O death, where is thy victory?	DEATH
	O death, where is thy sting?”	Defeated

11.	⁵⁶The sting of death is sin,	DEATH
	and the power of sin is the law.	Power Gone

12.	⁵⁷But thanks be to God
	who gives us the victory	VICTORY
	through our Lord Jesus Christ.	Through Our Lord Jesus Christ

13.	⁵⁸Therefore, my beloved brethren, be steadfast, immovable always abounding in the work of the Lord,
	knowing that in the Lord	CONCLUDING
	your labor is not in vain.	Personal Appeal

Figure 5.5(1). A hymn of victory (1 Cor 15:51-58)

1. In the discussion of the Cross (1:17–2:2) the first section (cameos 1-3) connects smoothly with the third section (cameos 11-13). The center (cameos 4-10) contextualizes the message of the homily.

2. In the discussion of the Lord’s Supper (11:17-33) the first and third sections deal with irregularities at the celebration. In the center Paul quotes the words of institution of the Eucharist. The key to the discussion lies in the center section.

3. In the hymn to love (13:1-13) Paul begins and ends with discussions of love and the spiritual gifts. In the center, between them, he defines love. That definition is the foundation on which the chapter rests.

4. Skipping ahead to the fifth example of a homily with three sections, we will see below that in chapter 16 Paul is fundraising. He presents three good places where the churches can spend their mission money. The first option is to support the Jerusalem church, the third is to finance Timothy. In the center he politely asks for funding for himself. He knows that he is the key figure in the “outreach team.” If he can’t visit the churches and reach out to new centers, the Christian movement will be seriously restricted. So he places his own travel budget request in the center of the three petitions.

5. In the resurrection text before us (15:51-58) the center is also essential to the other two, even though it is clearly not the climax of the homily. This homily is better viewed as a rare straight-line sequence, with the climax coming at the end in the great cry of victory over death. Yet there are three distinct sections, and again, if the second section were missing the omission would not be noticeable. This is evident in figure 5.5(2).

When the end of the first section is placed beside the beginning of the third section the connection between them is easy to discern.

4.	^52cand the dead will be raised imperishable,	RAISED—IMPERISHABLE
	and we shall be changed.	We—Changed

9.	^54cThen shall come to pass
	the saying that is written,	VICTORY
	“Death is swallowed up in victory.”	Death Swallowed

Figure 5.5(2). Cameos 4 and 9 (1 Cor 15:52c, 54c)

The center section (cameos 5-8) also has unique features. Paul discusses:

(5) Perishable—imperishable + (6) Mortal—immortal

He then repeats himself with almost the same language in cameos 7-8. He could have dispensed with these last two cameos (7 and 8). Paul does not carelessly add extra verbiage. He was most likely aware of composing three sections with four cameos in each section, and he wanted to maintain a literary balance. If the first and third sections each had four cameos—then the second section should also have four. Furthermore, Paul certainly remembered the opening hymn to the cross (1:17–2:2) with its amazing balance. Should this concluding hymn on the resurrection not also be composed with artistic balance?

Finally, the two outside sections are constructed with eight cameos, each of which follows an A-B-B-A pattern. In the opening of the epistle (1:1-9) this identical rhetorical pattern of eight cameos appears. Paul may have composed the first and third sections of this “victory cry” deliberately modeling them after the beginning of the epistle and then opted to add cameos 5-8 in the center.

In the previous homily Paul told his readers about the new body that will be imperishable, raised with glory and power, filled with the Holy Spirit and fashioned after “the image of the man of heaven.” What more need be said? Paul gives an answer.

COMMENTARY

In this hymn to the resurrection it is impossible to separate rhetorical style from theological content. In the opening section [see fig. 5.5(3)], we read:

1.	⁵¹We shall not all sleep,	NOT ALL SLEEP
	but we shall all be changed,	We—All Changed

2.	⁵²in a moment,	A MOMENT
	in the twinkling of an eye,	A Twinkling

3.	at the last trumpet.	THE TRMPET
	For the trumpet will sound,	Will Sound

4.	and the dead will be raised imperishable,	RAISED—IMPERISHABLE
	and we shall be changed.	We—Changed

Figure 5.5(3). Section 1: Cameos 1-4

Who are the “we” in this first section? If Paul is thinking strictly about his own age, then he obviously anticipates the coming of the Lord and the day of resurrection during his lifetime. Some have fallen asleep, but “we” are still alive. In this case Paul is arguing that both those who have died and those still alive will experience transformation into the new resurrected state. Modern scholars who hold this view understand Paul to have changed his mind by the time he writes 2 Corinthians 5:1-10, where he does not expect to see the return of Christ in his lifetime.3

Anthony Thiselton argues convincingly that Paul is casting his glance across the ages and that “we shall not all sleep” means that whenever the day of Christ’s return arrives (sooner or later), some believers will still be alive, but it doesn’t matter because “we shall all be changed.” If “we” means all believers from the beginning to the end of history, Paul does not change his mind before he writes 2 Corinthians.4

In the last cameo of this homily (12) Paul writes “thanks be to God who gives us the victory.” In this latter case he is looking across the ages. With Thiselton, it is appropriate to see Paul taking the long view of history, both at the opening and the closing of this homily.

In cameos 2 and 3 Paul emphasizes the suddenness of that final transformation into the Spirit-constituted body. It will happen in an instant. Every believer knows that growth in becoming “conformed to the image of his Son” is a slow, halting journey that lasts a lifetime. But the final transformation at the resurrection into the new Spirit-constituted body will happen “in the twinkling of an eye.” It will be instantaneous. The trumpet image adds excitement and richness to the anticipation of that glorious moment. The first section closes with a repetition of the opening declaration that we shall be changed. The second section is displayed in figure 5.5(4).

5.	⁵³For this perishable nature	PERISHABLE
	must put on the imperishable,	Imperishable

6.	and this mortal nature	MORTAL
	must put on immortality.	Immortal

7.	⁵⁴When the perishable	PERISHABLE
	puts on the imperishable,	Imperishable

8.	and the mortal	MORTAL
	puts on immortality,	Immortal

Figure 5.5(4). Section 2: Cameos 5-8

This second section may not be the climax, but it is the foundation of the entire homily. As in 13:1-13, so here, Paul places the foundation of the hymn in the center. If the new resurrection body is not imperishable and immortal, then we have not been changed (result: cameos 1-4 are not true). Furthermore, if the new body is not imperishable and immortal, then death is not conquered (result: cameos 9-12 are not true). Paul is struggling to express the inexpressible. The transformation to the new body “in a moment” is a mystery, and he is doing his best to explain it. The old identity remains. The disciples recognized the resurrected Lord. He was the same, but different.

Two new components are added in this central section. For decades Lenin’s body was kept by the communist authorities somewhat imperishable and on display in Red Square. But Lenin was dead; his corpse was not immortal. On the road to Damascus, in broad daylight, Paul did not just hear a voice, he saw a person, and he knew that the visible body of that person was both imperishable and immortal. A body that is imperishable does not decay, while an immortal person never dies. This foundation was critical to Paul’s presentation, and thus he had theological (as well as literary) reasons for emphasizing it through repetition.

The second new component has to do with the language of investiture. The “perishable” must “put on the imperishable,” and the mortal must “put on immortality.” The picture is that of the investiture of a king, emperor or high official. The king has the same body, but after the investiture, with new robes, he is a new man. As with all metaphors, this picture of investiture has unsolvable problems. When all is said and done, Paul is still dealing with a mystery—regardless of how much of it he manages to reveal.

After the investiture we will be the same—and yet different.

The third section records Paul’s cry of victory [see fig. 5.5(5)].

9.	then shall come to pass
	the saying that is written,	VICTORY
	“Death is swallowed up in victory.”	Death Swallowed

10.	⁵⁵“O death, where is thy victory?	DEATH
	O death, where is thy sting?”	Defeated

11.	⁵⁶The sting of death is sin	DEATH
	and the power of sin is the law.	Power Gone

12.	⁵⁷But thanks be to God
	who gives us the victory	VICTORY
	through our Lord Jesus Christ.	Through Our Lord Jesus Christ

Figure 5.5(5). Section 3: Cameos 9-12 (1 Cor 15:54-57)

In this final section Paul quotes from Isaiah 25, which presents a vision of a great banquet that God will spread “on this mountain” (Jerusalem) for “all nations.” The vision includes:

1.	^25:8He will swallow up death for ever.
	And the Lord Yahweh will wipe away tears
	from all faces.
2.	And the reproach of his people
	he will take away from upon all the earth,
	For Yahweh has spoken.
3.	⁹It will be said on that day,
	“Lo, this is our God;
	we have waited for him
	that he might save us.
4.	This is Yahweh;
	we have waited for him;
	let us be glad and rejoice in His salvation.”

Figure 5.5(6). Death defeated (Is 25:8-9)

Jesus built on Isaiah 25:6-9 (which includes these four cameos) as he created his parable of the great banquet (Lk 14:15-24),5 and here Paul turns to the same text for his cry of victory.

To the Isaiah passage Paul adds textual content from Hosea 13:14 and fashions a taunt song. As N. T. Wright observes, “like a warrior triumphing over a fallen enemy Paul mocks the power that has now become powerless.”6

He continues with a one-line summary of his views on death, sin and the law (cameo 11). This is well summarized by Robertson and Plummer:

It was by sin that death acquired power over man, and it is because there is a law to be transgressed that sin is possible (Rom. V. 13; vii 7). Where there is no law, there may be faults, but there can be no rebellion, no conscious defiance of what authority has prescribed. But against law there may be rebellion, and rebellion merits death.7

To this we could add that for Paul the keeping of the law stimulates pride and a sense of superiority over those who fail to keep that law. Paul concludes by again taking the long view of history as he offers this ringing cry of victory.

This final homily begins with the affirmation, “Lo! I tell you a mystery.” In his hymn to the cross Paul reminded his readers that he came proclaiming “the mystery of God” (2:1) and later in the same essay he told them to look on him and his friends as stewards of the mysteries of God (4:1). As he closes, the “steward of the mysteries of God” is fulfilling his primary task by unveiling a mystery! The cross has its mysteries and so does the resurrection.

In the opening of the first essay, Paul also used the phrase our Lord Jesus Christ no less than four times, only to have it disappear from the text.8 Here at the end of his final essay Paul returns to this exact phrase (15:57), and in the process adds one final stitch joining his discussion of the cross to his reflections on the resurrection.

It was “our Lord Jesus Christ” who died on the cross, and it was “our Lord Jesus Christ” who rose from the dead, the first fruits of those who sleep replacing the first Adam with the second Adam. If Paul’s readers can reflect deeply on those four words, all will be well. He is discussing the resurrected Jesus, whom he met personally, not some departed historical figure out of the past. That Jesus is Kurios (Lord) in a way that Caesar is not. Let the Greeks and the Romans take note. Jesus is also Messiah (Christ). Let the Jews take note. Finally he is our Lord, not my Lord. Together we have one Lord and one Father.

Those four words can cause all the problems discussed in this epistle to disappear. The Corinthian divisions will disappear; their community-destroying sexual irregularities will stop; their offenses to the consciences of others will come to an end; their worship wars will be over; and their denials of the resurrection will be no more. The resurrected Jesus is “our Lord Jesus Christ.”

As with the other four essays, Paul adds a final personal appeal to the end of the essay. He concluded three of the five essays with some form of the request to “imitate me” (4:16; 7:40; 11:1), and essay four concluded with a summary of the essay combined with a personal appeal (14:37-40). “Imitate me” does not fit when discussing the resurrection. Instead Paul offers a word of admonition that applies to all five essays. The text reads:

13.	⁵⁸Therefore, my beloved brethren, be steadfast, immovable
	always abounding in the work of the Lord,
	knowing that in the Lord	CONCLUDING
	your labor is not in vain.	Personal Appeal

The final personal appeal is remarkable for three reasons.

1. Paul opens this personal admonition by calling them “beloved.” He had criticized them for their divisions, their trashing of the cross, their pride in their “spirituality,” their immoral behavior, their indifference to the consciences of others, their quarrels over worship leadership, their drunkenness at the Lord’s Table, their arrogance related to the spiritual gifts, their failures to love one another, their chatting in church and their denials of the resurrection. They had failed to be “steadfast and immovable” in both their theology and their ethics. Yet, they were his beloved brothers and sisters. Paul had kind words for his readers in the opening verses of the epistle (1:4-9). At its close he pens additional kind words in the form of a pastoral admonition.

2. Paul discusses labor that is “not in vain.” In the opening of this essay on the resurrection he reminded his readers of the gospel “which you received, in which you stand, by which you are saved, if you hold it fast—unless you believed in vain” (15:1-2). In that same opening homily he affirmed “his grace toward me was not in vain” (15:10). Indeed, he worked harder than any of the apostles. A few verses later he warns his readers that if Jesus is not raised, “your faith is in vain” (15:14). As he concludes, what will he say about their deeply faulted discipleship? Does he think their faith is in vain?

The affirmation “not in vain” had two components. The first was faith in the historical fact of the resurrection of Jesus. The second was the believer’s response in obedience to the risen Lord. Paul brings both of these factors into play. “Abounding in the work of the (risen) Lord” brings sure knowledge that their labor is “not in vain” (in the same way that Paul’s labor was not in vain). He offers a word of assurance and of challenge.

3. This personal appeal is also amazing by reason of its challenge in the present. Paul had just revealed the mystery of the end of all things when death will be destroyed and “we shall be changed.” His concluding remarks could easily have reflected some form of repose. Paul could have written, “Therefore let us wait with patience as we look to the future with hope, confidence and joy anticipating these great final events.” But for Paul, the resurrection and all that it means for the future, rightly understood, empowers believers to serve the risen Lord in the present. Believers in Jesus as Lord were not part of a movement quietly awaiting its end. The gospel of the resurrection was not an escape mechanism from this life that left people passively anticipating the next. Paul was interested in the now. Final, total victory was already assured. The new age had dawned and the new creation had shown itself in the resurrection of Jesus. Paul’s efforts at establishing a church in Athens failed (as far as we know). Yet his labor “was not in vain” because it contributed to the larger goal of the coming of the kingdom of God on earth. Paul challenges his readers to engage “in the work of the Lord” in the present. As Bishop Bill Frey has said, “Hope is hearing the music of the future; faith is dancing to it today.”9

This “concluding appeal” (15:58) is yet another instance of a cameo that Paul presses into service in both directions. It looks backwards and provides a finely crafted personal appeal with which to close the fifth essay (and bring resolution to all five essays). At the same time it looks forward and creates an introduction to his concluding remarks, to which we now turn.