1 Corinthians 15
Adam and Christ: The Two Heads of Humanity — Romans 5:12-21
Paul's clearest statement of the two representative heads is Rom 5:12-21: "as one trespass led to condemnation for all, so one act of righteousness leads to justification." Death reigned "from Adam," so that all are bound up with him. Augustine built the Western doctrine of original sin on this passage, reading the Latin in quo omnes peccaverunt as "in whom all sinned"; Trent received this, teaching that Adam's sin is transmitted to all and remedied only in Christ. Irenaeus had earlier framed Christ as the new Adam who recapitulates and heals humanity — the Eastern accent on restoration. The two heads structure the whole of redemptive history. The Adam-Christ parallel reaches back to the fall of Gen 3:17-19 and forward to the resurrection harvest of 1Cor 15:22: "as in Adam all die, so in Christ shall all be made alive." Bavinck treats this organic solidarity as the hinge of covenant theology.
Foreknown, Called, Glorified — Romans 8:28-30
Rom 8:28-30 links five acts of God: foreknew, predestined, called, justified, glorified. Each verb is aorist, including "glorified," so certain is the outcome that Paul speaks of it as already done. Augustine grounded predestination in God's prevenient grace, and Aquinas treated it as God's eternal ordering of the elect to glory, fully compatible with human freedom. Calvin read this chain as the ground of assurance, not anxiety. The traditions differ on how predestination and free cooperation fit together, yet share its comfort — that God works all things for good (8:28) — grounded in the sovereignty unfolded in Rom 9:6-18. Glorification ties this note to the resurrection hope of 1Cor 15:42-44 and to the conformity to Christ's image promised in Rom 8:29. Bavinck treats the ordo salutis as the temporal unfolding of God's eternal purpose.
The Resurrection as Vindication — 1 Corinthians 15
1Cor 15:3-8 preserves the earliest creed: "Christ died for our sins... was buried... was raised on the third day... and appeared." Paul stakes the whole faith on it: "if Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile" (15:17). Wright argues at length that only a bodily resurrection explains the rise of the church, and Athanasius saw the resurrection as the public defeat of death itself. The resurrection is the Father's vindication of the crucified Son. The Adam-Christ contrast of 15:22 ties back to Rom 5:18, and the resurrection body of 1Cor 15:42-44 anchors Christian hope for the believer's own glorification promised in Rom 8:30.
The Already and Not Yet Kingdom — Mark 1:15
Jesus' inaugural proclamation in Mark 1:14-15 — "the kingdom of God is at hand; repent and believe" — sets the tension of New Testament eschatology: the kingdom has arrived in him, yet awaits consummation. Wright frames Jesus' whole ministry as the in-breaking of God's reign and the end of exile, while Augustine's City of God distinguished the two cities now intermingled. The parables of Matt 13:31-33 picture a kingdom that grows hiddenly before its harvest. The 'already' is secured by the resurrection of 1Cor 15:20; the 'not yet' awaits the new creation of Rev 21:1. Between them the church lives by hope.
The Resurrection of the Body — 1 Corinthians 15:35-58
1Cor 15:42-44 describes the resurrection body: "sown perishable... raised imperishable... sown a natural body... raised a spiritual body." The Christian hope is not escape from the body but its glorification. Wright argues that 'spiritual body' means Spirit-animated, not immaterial, and Bavinck treats bodily resurrection as the goal of the whole ordo salutis. Augustine devoted the close of City of God to the glorified body. The pattern is set by Christ's own resurrection in 1Cor 15:20 and promised as glorification in Rom 8:30. Death is finally "swallowed up in victory" (15:54).