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"So also is the resurrection of the dead.
It is sown in corruption;
It is raised in incorruption:
It is sown in dishonour;
It is raised in glory:
It is sown in weakness;
It is raised in power:
It is sown a natural body;
It is raised a spiritual body.
There is a natural body and there is a spiritual body, and so it is written:
The first man Adam
The last Adam was
made a living soul;
made a quickening spirit.
Howbeit that was not first which is spiritual, but that which is natural, and
afterward that which is spiritual.
The first man is
The second Man is
of the earth, earthy;
the Lord from heaven."
(I Cor. 15: 42-47).
Here we have the meaning which Paul attached to psuchikos `natural' in I Cor. 15: It
was that quality which belongs to man as a son of Adam, unregenerate, unsaved,
unenlightened, of the earth, earthy, mortal, corruptible, flesh and blood, the very
antithesis of `spiritual' which is the quality belonging to man as a son of God in Christ,
quickened with newness of life, saved, enlightened, destined to bear the image of the
heavenly, an heir of immortality and incorruption. To the `natural' or `soulical' man the
things of the spirit must appear `foolishness', for the world by its very wisdom knows not
God, and calls the very preaching whereby man can alone be saved `foolishness'. In all
this, we must not forget that Paul was writing to the `church' and, though he spoke of
`natural' men, he was speaking to `spiritual', his purpose being to convict the carnal
Corinthians of their sad lapse that, though they were `in Christ' and therefore `spiritual',
they had adopted the attitude of the natural man to such an extent that Paul wrote:
"And I brethren, could not speak unto you as unto spiritual, but as unto carnal, even as
unto babes in Christ" (I Cor. 3: 1).
In the natural world, a babe is a lovely thing and the Apostle must not be
misunderstood here. While the innocent prattling toddler with its dawning consciousness
is a lovely thing, a full grown man who has never developed, who is a babe in mind and
understanding and manners, is not a lovely thing. He is a being to awake our pity and it
is this lack of growth that led the Apostle to liken `babes' with `carnal' and `natural' men:
"I have fed you with milk, and not with meat: for hitherto ye were not able to bear it,
neither yet now are ye able" (I Cor. 3: 2).
Writing to the Hebrews the Apostle had used a similar figure and his own parallel
expressions will be the surest commentary:
". . . . . ye are dull of hearing. For when the time ye ought to be teachers, ye have need
that one teach you again which be the first principles of the oracles of God; and are
become such as have need of milk, and not of strong meat. For every one that useth milk
is unskillful in the word of righteousness: for he is a babe. But strong meat belongeth to
them that are of full age, even those who by reason of use have their senses exercised to
discern both good and evil" (Heb. 5: 11-14).