I Corinthians 15:50–58 Now I say this, brethren, that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God; nor does the perishable inherit the imperishable. Behold, I tell you a mystery; we shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed, in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet; for the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised imperishable, and we shall be changed. For this perishable must put on the imperishable, and this mortal must put on immortality. But when this perishable will have put on the imperishable, and this mortal will have put on immortality, then will come about the saying that is written, “Death is swallowed up in victory. O death, where is your victory? O death, where is your sting?” The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law; but thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. Therefore, my beloved brethren, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that your toil is not in vain in the Lord.
We don’t have to die naturally to attain the resurrection out of the dead. We assume that death must come first. However, Paul concluded this passage by saying, “Therefore, my beloved brethren, be steadfast and immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord; for you know that your labor is not in vain in the Lord.” Paul was doing more than implying that if you keep working, it will count for something. He was speaking about resurrection, about attaining a goal.
The people who attain resurrection life without death will be the people who are in motion. This is what this passage is implying. One obvious conclusion that might be reached is that the resurrection will take place at the last trumpet; therefore, many people have the idea that a Christian who keeps working might chalk up enough merits to attain it on a merit system. However, no one attains resurrection life on a merit system.
Most Christians reach the conclusion that the resurrection is an event which will take place at a set time, and their doctrines contain much teaching along this line. The Scriptures indicate that the day of the Lord is a certain time, and we know this is correct. However, it is not correct to read those Scriptures and push their fulfillment off into the future, for the Word also tells us that life and immortality were brought to light by Jesus Christ (II Timothy 1:10). Jesus told His disciples, “I am the resurrection and the life. He that believes in Me shall never die” (John 11:25–26). His words move the resurrection away from being an event in the future and bring it into the present as part of the perfect provision that Jesus Christ is to us.
In the bible, there are a number of accounts of people who bypassed the religious timetable. Enoch decided that he did not want to wait; and so he reached in and by faith he was translated (Hebrews 11:5). Elijah did the same thing. It was a foregone conclusion that he was leaving. He went off to the appointed place, and the chariots of fire came for him (II Kings 2:1–12). Many things happened in the Scriptures because people believed for them to happen.
Notice that Paul said, “I tell you a mystery: we shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed.” There is no doubt that the people who have died will attain a resurrection; but there also must be a certain time in the history of the world when a people come forth who do not sleep, who do not die. Instead, they will enter into a transition period.
Paul tells us that the sting of death is sin and the power of sin is the law; but all of that will be broken because God gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. There will be a people who press into life. We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed. We have to break into this because the perishable and the carnal cannot inherit the imperishable. There must be a change.
We must not fail to press in. We must do more than merely believe that since our soul is saved or restored, we will be resurrected in the sweet by-and-by; and when we come forth out of the grave, we will be perfect.
The only thing that will make us perfect then is that we will see Him as He is. It will still be a transformation by an exposure to the Lord. It will still take a revelation of God to our heart to change us. John tells us, “We know that we will be like Him, for we will see Him as He is” (I John 3:2). We must understand this. Dying is not a sanctifying process. Dying does not make us holy—it just means that we are dead. Of course, in relation to a believer, death is referred to as “sleep.” Nevertheless, there will be a people who will not sleep. They will not die. They will press into such a great revelation of Christ that they will be transformed.
To whatever extent we have a revelation of Christ; to that extent we are changed. Even if we have only a little revelation of Him, we are changed. A person can go into a church which preaches that Jesus saves, and he will be saved to the level of revelation which that church has. If a person goes to another church which believes that Jesus is the healer who came to cast out devils and heal the sick, then they will see devils cast out and the sick healed. They will come up in experience to the level of revelation of the Lord which that church has. To whatever extent we have a revelation of the Lord—whatever extent of His fullness we see—to that extent we will be changed. If we see Him totally as He is, then we will be just like Him.
Moses had a partial revelation of the Lord. In Exodus 33:17–23 we see that he pleaded with the Lord, “I pray Thee, show me Thy glory.” God actually shielded a little place in the rock where Moses stood, and Moses peered through the fingers of God. God made Himself known to that extent. In Exodus 34 we read of the meeting that Moses had with God on Mount Sinai. When he came down, the people could not look at him. Moses was not aware of it, but his face was shining like the sun. He had to put a veil over his face when he spoke with the people because they could not stand to see the glory. Eventually that glow left. In II Corinthians 3 Paul alluded to Moses’ experience and to the glory that faded, saying, “How much greater is the glory that will be permanent, that comes now when we are exposed to Christ” (verse 11).
In verse 18 Paul went on to say, “With an unveiled face we behold Him, and we are changed into the same image, from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord.” This is how the great transformation comes. To some extent we can change yourself, just as certain species of animals have become very highly developed. There are religions which teach people how to reach a high level of mental and psychic development. However, God starts where everything else leaves off. He does not want us to be just a highly developed person within a limited sphere; He wants to transform us into a new person. He will take us where we are and make us a whole new creation. The great change, the great metamorphosis that takes place within our life, comes by an exposure to God. We are changed into the same image, from glory to glory. For this reason we should constantly wait on the Lord for a revelation of Him.
This teaching is not a doctrine. If we want to argue over it, argue over a revelation of the Lord. The issue is not resurrection life or change. The issue is whether or not a person can be exposed to God. Can we approach God? Can we come close to Him? Can we have a revelation? As we contemplate Him, not just to know Him mentally, but to experience Him, we change. To the extent that we experience Him, to that extent we change. We are changed “into the same image, from glory to glory.”
It is not willpower that changes us; it is worship power. Along with all of the intercession and focus of faith that the Lord requires, we must come closer to Him until we actually practice His presence continually. As we enter into deeper worship we will experience the transformation that is to take place. The great changes we seek will take place because of a deepening of our worship—because of a focus upon the Lord is what lifts the veil and helps us to see Him.
This is not God’s responsibility. He has given the promise and the procedure. James 4:8 tells us, “Draw nigh to God, and He will draw nigh to you.” Through the prophet Jeremiah the Lord promised, “In the day that you seek for me with your whole heart, you will find me” (Jeremiah 29:13). We must press in. That is what Paul meant when he said, Therefore, my beloved brethren, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that your toil is not in vain in the Lord. I Corinthians 15:58. The people who are in motion and pressing in are the ones who arrive at their destination.
It is fun for a child to go to a park where he can climb on abandoned train engines, buses, or cars and pretend to drive; but when that child becomes a teenager, they no longer wants to pretend. They want a car of their own. That attitude is exactly what ought to be within the desire for maturity. The further we go, the more efficient in motion we want to be—to reach the Lord, to work with Him, to be His. We want to be steadfast, immovable, and always abounding. We want to break through.
When the Jews were persecuting Jesus because He healed a man on the Sabbath, Jesus replied, “My Father worketh hitherto, and so do I” (John 5:17, KJV). Jesus was tuned in to something that we can tune in to also.
Jesus did not spend most of His time alone waiting on the Father. Instead, He often communed with God while He was in motion. God wants to bring the same revelation to us. He wants to commune with us while we are in action. Waiting on the Lord is essential to our walk with God, but we must learn how to tune in and draw from the Lord while we are moving. It is when we are in motion that we learn how to minister to God’s people. When we are in motion we will learn things that we can never learn just from quiet meditation before the Lord, although this is very important. When we are steadfast, immovable, and abounding in the work of the Lord, our revelation and growth are accelerated immediately. Jesus said the same thing, “My Father works unceasingly, and so do I” (Weymouth’s translation). He was emphasizing an important truth. There was a continuous motion with the Father and with the Son.
The Gospel of Mark brings out this same truth. Over and over we read how Jesus did something “straightway,” how something happened “immediately.” There was constant efficiency and action. We must take the step into this truth. The Kingdom of God will not come forth upon the earth until we learn that there are ways that we can plow through our inertia and move on in God.
This generation will feel the impact of the people who are truly pressing into God. In this day our revelation of the Lord and our experiences in God are not contingent upon meditation or contemplation as in the past. It is doubtful whether any significant revelations have recently come out of the monasteries, the convents, or the retreats, like in the past. Instead, God is speaking a Word to His people in the middle of the corruption of this age, where they have to work and sweat to walk with Him.
We need to learn to become efficient in our labor for the Lord, as well as in our intercession. We need to learn to draw upon Him. We cannot draw back from anything that God sets before us to do. There seems to be little or no distinction between the worshipers and the workers or between warfare and worship. They are all the same. It is the warring priesthood of God that is coming forth, who worship and labor abundantly in the Lord. We need to go after the will of God with all of our heart. Everything we do, in word or deed, let it all be done in the name of the Lord and unto the Lord (Colossians 3:17). Then we will be surprised at the depth of our revelation. We may ask the Lord a dozen questions during the course of the day and not have time to stop and listen for the answers; but the next day we will know all of those answers. The people in motion, those who are steadfast, immovable, and always abounding in the work of the Lord, will be the ones who break through the limitations and the barriers.
I Corinthians 15:53–54 tells us that this mortal must put on immortality. It is a matter of appropriation. The illusion of death that we labor under is simply that—an illusion which comes because we have not fully appropriated the provision of life. We can appropriate the fullness of resurrection life. We can reach into God through worship, through work, through intercession, through everything we do. God has called us to reach into Him and to put on immortality, to be clothed with that dwelling which we have from on high (II Corinthians 5:1). This is why Paul continually spoke of pressing in, of attaining to the out-resurrection from the dead (Philippians 3:11). He knew that it was simply a matter of appropriating the provision of life. We do not enter into sonship while we are standing still; we enter into sonship because we are led, driven, motivated, and moving.