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Commentary

20 of 7,530
  1. 1 Corinthians 15:45
    The first man, Adam, was made into a living soul … but of all the animals it was said: “Let the earth bring forth the living creatures.” We understand, then, that the natural body is said to be like the other animals because of the dissolution and corruption of death. It is daily renewed by food, and when the bond of life is broken it is dissolved. But the spiritual body which is now with the Spirit is immortal.

    LETTER 205, TO CONSENTIUS

  2. 1 Corinthians 15:46
    First comes the clay that is only fit to be thrown away, with which we must begin but in which we need not remain. Afterward comes what is fit for us, that into which we can be gradually molded and in which, when molded, we may remain.

    City of God 15.1

  3. 1 Corinthians 15:46
    The spiritual body is understood as a body so subject to spirit that it may be suited to its celestial habitation, all earthly weakness and corruption and being changed and converted into celestial purity and stability.

    On Faith and the Creed 6.13

  4. 1 Corinthians 15:47
    First comes in the natural body such as Adam was the first man to possess. Had he not sinned, he would never have died. Such a body we too possess, except that its nature as a result of sin has become so changed for the worse that it is now faced with inexorable death. Such a body Christ also deigned to assume for our sakes, not indeed by necessity but in virtue of his power. Afterward, however, comes the spiritual body such as that which Christ, our head, was the first to have been, but which we, his members, will have at the final resurrection of the dead.

    City of God 13.23

  5. 1 Corinthians 15:48
    The Lord who was heavenly became earthly that he might make heavenly those who were earthly. From immortal he became mortal by taking the form of a servant, not by changing the nature of the Lord, that he might make immortal those who were mortal by imparting the grace of the Lord, not by retaining the offense of the servant.

    LETTER 205, TO CONSENTIUS

  6. 1 Corinthians 15:48
    If you do not like the Christian faith, say so. But you will not find another Christian faith. There is one man unto life; there is one unto death. The one is only man; the other is God and man. Through the one the world was made the enemy of God. Through the other those chosen from the world are reconciled to God. For “As in Adam all die, so in Christ all will be made alive.” Therefore even as we have borne the image of the earthly, let us also bear the image of the heavenly. Whoever tries to undermine these foundations of the Christian faith will himself be destroyed, but they will remain firm.

    AGAINST JULIAN 4

  7. 1 Corinthians 15:49
    Therefore, given that our nature sinned in paradise, we are now formed through a mortal begetting by the same divine providence, not according to heaven but according to earth—not according to the Spirit but according to the flesh. We have all become one mass of clay, a mass of sin. Since therefore we have forfeited our reward through sinning, and since, in the absence of God’s mercy, we as sinners deserve nothing other than eternal damnation, who then does the man from this mass think he is that he is able to question God and say: “Why have you made me this way?” If you want to know these things, do not be clay, but become a son of God through the mercy of him who has given to those believing in his name the power to become sons of God, although he has not so given, as you might want, to those desiring to know divine things before they believe.

    QUESTIONS 68.3

  8. 1 Corinthians 15:50
    There will then be such a common accord between flesh and Spirit—the Spirit quickening the servant flesh without any need of sustenance from it. There will be no further conflict within ourselves. And just as there will be no more external enemies to bear with, so neither shall we have to bear with ourselves as enemies within.

    Enchiridion 23.91

  9. 1 Corinthians 15:51
    The pious people will be raised as they transform the remnants of the “old man” that cling to them into the “new man.” The impious people who have kept the “old man” from the beginning to the end will be raised in order to be precipitated into the second death. Those who read diligently can make out the divisions of the ages. They have no horror of tares or chaff.

    ON TRUE RELIGION 27.50

  10. 1 Corinthians 15:52
    With the utterance of that cry and the resurrection of the dead, all comfort of human praise shall be taken away. There will be no doubt that the judgment is now present and at hand. Then there will be no time to argue about that one, or to judge of another, or to do a favor or offer support to another.

    LETTER 140, TO HONORATUS 34

  11. 1 Corinthians 15:52
    By “trumpet” he wants us to understand some very clear and prominent sign, which he elsewhere calls the voice of the archangel and the trumpet of God [1 Thess 4:16].

    LETTER 34

  12. 1 Corinthians 15:52
    It is as easy for God to raise the recently dead as those long since fallen into decay.

    LETTER 102, TO DEOGRATIAS

  13. 1 Corinthians 15:52
    The glance of our eye does not reach nearer objects more quickly and distant ones more slowly. Rather it reaches both with equal speed. Similarly when, as the apostle says, the resurrection of the dead is effected in the twinkling of the eye, it is as easy for the omnipotence of God and his awe-inspiring authority to raise the recently dead as those long since fallen into decay. To some minds, these things are hard to accept because they are outside their experience, yet the whole universe is full of wonders which seem to us hardly worth noticing or examining, not because they are easily penetrated by our reason but because we are accustomed to seeing them. But I, and those who join me and are striving to understand the “invisible things of God by the things that are made,” wonder neither more nor less at the fact that in one tiny seed all that we praise in the tree lies folded away.

    LETTER 102, TO DEOGRATIAS

  14. 1 Corinthians 15:53
    People are amazed that God, who made all things from nothing, makes a heavenly body from human flesh. When he was in the flesh, did not the Lord make wine from water? Is it anything so much more wonderful if he makes a heavenly body from human flesh?… Is he who was able to make you when you did not exist not able to make over what you once were?

    SERMONS FOR THE FEAST OF ASCENSION 264.6

  15. 1 Corinthians 15:54
    Then not only shall we not obey any enticement of sin, but there will be no such enticements of the kind we are commanded not to obey.

    LETTER 196, TO ASELLICUS

  16. 1 Corinthians 15:54
    Were our heretics capable of grasping this one truth, they would surrender their pride and become reconciled and would never again worship God anywhere but in the church.

    THE WAY OF LIFE OF THE CATHOLIC CHURCH 30.64

  17. 1 Corinthians 15:54
    There are many desires of the sick which health takes away. In just the same way as physical health undercuts those desires, so immortality does remove all other desires because immortality is our health.

    EASTER SERMON 55.8

  18. 1 Corinthians 15:54
    The apostle Paul seems to have directly pointed his finger at the flesh when he wrote: “this corruptible must put on incorruption.” When he says this, he as good as points with his finger. That which is visible can be pointed at in this way. The soul cannot be pointed at, though it can be called corruptible, because it is corrupted by moral biases.

    On Faith and the Creed 10.22

  19. 1 Corinthians 15:54
    Where is death? Seek it in Christ, for it exists no longer. It did exist, and now death is dead. O Life, O Death of death! Be of good heart, death will die in us also. What has taken place in our Head will also take place in his members. Death will die in us also. But when? At the end of the world, at the resurrection of the dead in which we believe and about which we have no doubt.… These are words given to those who triumph, that you may have something to think about, something to sing about in your heart, something to hope for in your heart, something to seek with faith and good works.

    EASTER SERMON 233.4

  20. 1 Corinthians 15:54
    Because of the necessary activities of this life, health is not to be despised until “this mortal shall put on immortality.” This is the true and perfect and unending health which is not refreshed by corruptible pleasure when it fails through earthly weakness but is maintained by heavenly strength and made young by eternal incorruptibility.

    LETTER 130, To Proba

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