This is a translation of the article I wrote for one of our national Christian magazines based on the text 1Corinthians 15 : 36-38; 42-58
Sometimes I suspect I'm a bit schizophrenic ! I feel like I'm living on two levels. My body lives in the present here and now, while my spirit is concentrated on the future. With age our bodies fail us and even though we can confidently proclaim that with God all is possible, we mustn't always expect the miraculous!!
We humans live in a constant paradox : we are mortal, but have the potential to be eternal. We were created to live in this world with its seasons, benefitting from all this good earth can offer us; yet, we are destined to die and to become dust again.
The good news is that God has planned better than a simple return to dust. When we accept His gift of life, we discover that it is our sinfulness which makes death so horrifying, and the Law which reveals our guiltiness. The salvation that God offers us is made possible by the wonderful victory of Jesus' ressurrection !
And it is at that point in our personal story that this double life starts. We are in this world, but no longer of this world.
Our perspective changes with our conversion. The Holy Spirit who lives in us is the guarantee that we will live in the Spirit after our physical death. And we have already started our eternal life.
We arrive in this world, naked and fragile. As the years go by we grow into adulthood, we head for work, we learn to live in relationship with others; some of us marry, others don't; some of us have children ; we all get older and with age, we get weaker again. That's life on this earth. A life which has its limits ; limits with which we learn to live. Thankfully, in this sort of double life we lead, there is the rôle played by the Holy Spirit.
"Thanks be to God ! He gives us the victory though our Lord Jesus Christ." (v.57)
The liberty we have acquired through the sacrifice of our Lord Jesus Christ means we can be fulfilled in our earthly life. At the end of this passage is a call to wholeness, to fulfilment. Let's go and make the most of our life. Let's live it up because we belong to the God who gives all life. Let's serve Him with energy and commitment because it's not for nothing that He has placed us here. We can accept ourselves as we are because "God gives [the seed] a body as He has determined, and to each kind of seed he gives its own body." (v. 38) and along with this "...stand firm. Let nothing move you. Always give yourselves fully to the work of the Lord, because you know that your labour in the Lord is not in vain." (v.58)
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