"FOR AS IN ADAM ALL DIE, EVEN SO IN CHRIST SHALL ALL BE MADE ALIVE. BUT EVERY MAN IN

HIS OWN ORDER; CHRIST THE FIRSTFRUITS; AFTERWARD THEY THAT ARE CHRIST'S AT HIS

COMING. THEN COMETH THE END, WHEN HE SHALL HAVE DELIVERED UP THE KINGDOM TO GOD,

EVEN THE FATHER." -- I Cor. xv. 22-24.

In this chapter we have the answer to the question which the Apostle says "some man will ask, How are the

dead raised up?" (verse 35). And we are taught (verse 38) that the answer to all such enquiries is "the gift of

God," and "the Power of God."

When the Sadducees put their question concerning the Resurrection, Jesus said "ye do err, not knowing the

scriptures nor the power of God" (Matt. xxii. 29).

This is indeed the answer to all our questions, and the solution of all our doubts.

When Nicodemus asked "How can these things be?" The answer was "God so loved the world that he

GAVE," &c. (John iii. 9, 16). When the woman of Samaria asked "How canst Thou, being a Jew, ask drink of

me, &c."? The answer was "if thou knewest the GIFT of God... thou wouldst have asked of Him and He

would have GIVEN thee living water" (John iv. 9, 10). And so here, when one asks "how are the dead raised

up?" The answer is, "God GIVETH it a body as it hath pleased Him" (I Cor. xv. 35, 38). So that all our

enquiries are met, and all our difficulties are removed by "the word of God" and by "the power of God."

Faith in this Word and in this power can alone deal with this and all other mysteries whether they be

Incarnation, Advent, or Resurrection. When the Apostles used their reason, instead of faith in God's

Revelation, they failed to understand the plainest of Christ's prophetic statements. When St. Paul stood on

Mars' Hill and spake of "the resurrection of the dead," we read that some reasoned and "mocked," while

others "believed" and "clave unto him."

We stop not now, however, to speak of Resurrection as a fact; for all christian creeds confess it and assert

it. But, rather, we desire to learn what the Scriptures reveal concerning the Eras of Resurrection, and the

order in which that wondrous event shall take place.

In our text, first the assertion is made that as all in Adam dies, so all in Christ shall be made alive (verse 22).

This is qualified by the statement in the next verse, that it shall be all in due order, "Christ the firstfruits,

afterward they that are Christ's at His coming. Then the end, when He shall have delivered up the Kingdom

to God, even the Father."

The word translated "order" is a military expression, and means a band, rank, brigade or division of an army.

Then we are told that the head of this army is "Christ the firstfruits." For He is "the firstborn from the dead,

that in all things He might have the pre -eminence" (Col. i. 18). Christ therefore is the head, and leads the van

of this mighty army.

Then we have the next division:-- "afterward they that are Christ's at His coming." These are "the dead in

Christ" (I Thess. iv. 16).

Then "the end" -- the last great division of this army. Not at Christ's coming, but when "he shall have

delivered up the Kingdom" to the Father.

Grace has marked off these grand divisions here, and the separation thus made will continue for ever.

Now to see the force of the words "afterward" and "then" we must refer to the beginning of this very

chapter, where we have a similar construction:--"After that He was seen of above five hundred brethren at