Resurrection 7 - 1 Corinthians 15:45-50

I thought more about the concept of a resurrected body being powered by our spirit and not blood. A couple of thoughts that I had was first, how extensive the vascular system is. If you prick your finger, even just a little bit, you get blood coming out, that’s how integrated blood is into our bodies. Blood or blood components fill every one of our cells. If we think about it in the context of our spirit taking the place of blood, our spirit would be fused with our body to the point that they could not be separated anymore. I’m not exactly sure how it works now with our spirit being in our body, but it seems like when we are resurrected, the physical body and the spiritual body will become completely united. It will be interesting to see how that feels.



The second thought that I had was about how this concept also highlights the importance of our spiritual progression as that is all that will matter after this life. For me, who already has spirituality as an important aspect of my life, it makes sense. But if we consider that the vast majority of people throughout human history haven’t had the chance to receive the gospel, and even more, most don’t have a concept of Jesus or Christianity or anything like that. I would imagine that for them, dying and realizing that spiritual progression based on Jesus Christ is going to be like dying and finding out that the most important aspect of all existence is a red any colony. Obviously, the gospel makes sense and the any colony does not but the reaction might be the same as if we were to find out that the whole universe was based on insect overlords or something like that. It will just be an interesting process to see how people react to the new idea of a Savior and the gospel.



In terms of the “natural body” and the “spiritual body,” Paul explains that “the first man Adam was made a living soul.” I have heard the definition of “soul” to be our spirit and our body being together. So right now, in this stage of my existence I am a living soul. But once I die, my soul will be separated from my body and won’t be back again until I am resurrected. From the scriptures we know that Adam’s body was first created but it wasn’t until God put his spirit into him that he became a “living soul.” Adam was the first man living, but Paul continues “the last Adam was made a quickening spirit.”



I had absolutely no idea what this was referring to, but the article from gospeldoctrine.com quotes Elder Bruce R. McConkie as teaching, “Christ is the Second Adam. As the first mortal man is called Adam, so the first Man to come from in resurrected immortality is also called Adam, or more specifically the Second Adam. Adam’s mortal body was natural body, Christ’s immortal one a spiritual body, meaning a body in which flesh and bones and spirit are inseparably connected.” We can see the “natural” vs. “spiritual” body concept play out here. With Adam, he had flesh and blood but was susceptible to aging, illness, mortal suffering and death. This is the natural state of existence for us. But once we die and are resurrected, we can expect to follow the Savior’s pattern and receive a body that is perfected and full of our spirit instead of mortal elements like blood.



The concept of a “natural” body first, then a “spiritual” body second doesn’t seem to be in line with what we’ve learned about the creation, that all things were created spiritually before they were created physically. The word “first’ in verse 46 is cross referenced with D&C 29:32 which says, “First spiritual, secondly temporal, which is the beginning of my work; and again, first temporal, and secondly spiritual, which is the last of my work.” If we think about it in terms of the creation, we were created spiritually before we were ever created physically, meaning that we had to grow in our spiritual state until we were ready to experience our physical state. So, like the rest of all creations, we were first made spiritually, then temporally. But like that was in the beginning with the creation, it would reason that at the end, the principles would be reversed, which means that we would journey from a “natural” state of flaws and vulnerabilities, to a state that reflects our spiritual aptitude. It’s like a 3-step process, first we are spirits only, then we are spirits and flawed bodies, then we become spirits with perfect bodies. The fact that most people don’t understand this concept is why the saying “we are not physical beings having a spiritual experience, we are spiritual beings having a physical experience,” is such a powerful statement.



Because our bodies and lives are so high maintenance, it’s difficult to focus on other things really. In one day, humans have to eat and drink water and sleep. This is an everyday priority and the effort it takes to secure these resources can be quite extensive. Then take into account safety and shelter and it’s absolutely shocking that anyone has ever been able to focus on anything other than hand to mouth, ever. I am super blessed to live in the time I do and with the resources that I have, and even *I* don’t focus on spiritual stuff as much as I should, definitely not enough to consider it a majority of my effort expended. But these are experiences that we couldn’t have had in our pre-mortal state, so it’s kind of like us trying to find a balance between spirituality and survival.



Paul continues that in this life “we have borne the image of the earthy, we shall also bear the image of the heavenly.” Again, I have no idea what he’s talking about, but the article says, “Our mortal image will be of the earth, but our resurrected image will be of heaven. But these two images will resemble each other, the mortal body being a likeness for the resurrected one. Hence, the mortal body has a spiritual component.” I think that this might be saying that our resurrected bodies will still be “us” but just in a perfected form. This I think makes sense because we know that when we die, we are still who we were in life, but just without our bodies. Likewise, I would imagine that the resurrection would consist of us receiving back our same bodies, just better.