If Then...

I Corinthians 15 cont’d:

If there is a natural body, there is also a spiritual body.  So also it is written, “The first man, Adam, became a living soul.” The last Adambecame a life-giving spirit. However, the spiritual is not first, but the natural; then the spiritual. The first man is from the earth, earthy; the second man is from heaven.  As is the earthy, so also are those who are earthy; and as is the heavenly, so also are those who are heavenly. Just as we have borne the image of the earthy, we will also bear the image of the heavenly.

I LOVE if…then statements.  I learned about them in a logic class in college.  And here’s one of them right in the bible!  If there is a natural body (well, yes there is – we are living in it!), (then) there is also a spiritual body.  That statement is not hard to believe.  We know that we have this fleshly body that we see when we look in the mirror, but we also know there’s more to us than our flesh – we have a spirit – a soul – an inner man.

I love this passage.  Adam was a living soul (flesh and blood) and the “last Adam” (Jesus) became a life-giving spirit (one that never dies.)

And we are then reminded that just as we were made into an image of a unique kind in our earthly, fleshly bodies, as we become a new creature in Christ we then are made into the image of our heavenly being.

Thank goodness that this flesh is not all there is!  As we age from one decade to the next, we visibly see changes in every part of our body as it gradually deteriorates and dies.  But because of Christ, our spirit man thrives and grows and produces fruit eternally – it never dies!

Which part of you is the most healthy?  Your flesh or your spirit!?  We spend so much time tending to the flesh part of our nature, and yet we should be spending our efforts developing our spirit man – the one that lives forever.

That’s good logic!