1 Corinthians 15:45-47

1 Corinthians 15:45-47 (ESV)

[45] Thus it is written, “The first man Adam became a living being”; the last Adam became a life-giving spirit. [46] But it is not the spiritual that is first but the natural, and then the spiritual. [47] The first man was from the earth, a man of dust; the second man is from heaven.

When Paul writes “The first man Adam became a living being,” he is quoting from Genesis 2:7. God formed man from dust and breathed into him the breath (spirit) of life and man became a living being (soul). The contrast in the verses above is between soul and spirit. In Adam we became a living soul. In Christ we become a life-giving spirit. “Life-giving” is the same word used several times earlier in this chapter. For example, in 1 Corinthians 15:22 “In Christ shall all be made alive.” The words “made alive” are the same word translated “life-giving” in verse 47.

Notice the three contrasts in these verses above. First is the contrast between Adam and Christ. That contrast runs through this whole chapter. We are talking about our source of life. Adam received life from God in Genesis 2, but there is a sense in which we receive our life from fallen Adam. “In Adam all die” (1 Cor 15:22). In contrast, as believers our life is sourced in Christ who shall never die since he conquered death in the resurrection.

Second is the contrast between soul and spirit. We could spend a lot of time debating the differences. Mankind has both a soul and a spirit. It is significant in the creation account of Genesis 2 that God breaths the spirit of life into man and he becomes not just a soul, but a living soul. It was after Adam’s sin at the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil that death entered into the process. We are living, but it is a life that is dying. In contrast, the life we receive in Christ is a life of the spirit. It is the same word used by Jesus in John 3 when he was talking to Nicodemus. He said, “That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit” (Jn 3:6). That is exactly what Paul is talking about here in 1 Corinthians 15.

Third is the contrast between living and life giving. As natural humans beings we are living. Paul wrote earlier that even as we are living however, we are in the process of dying. But in Christ we are not only living, we are life-giving. We have the privilege of truly living no matter what this world throws at us. Whether we are believers in a land where we face death because of our faith, or in a world where we face the imminent threat of a pandemic, we still live. Our life goes beyond the grave, but more than that. In this life we have the gift of life to offer others. We have the Good News of life for a dying world. “We are the aroma of Christ to God among those who are being saved and among those who are perishing” (2 Cor 2:15). In these days of fear and anxiety may we, as believers who possess in Christ a life-giving spirit, truly be the fragrance of life to a broken and dying world.