Paul and Jesus

For as by a man came death, by a man has come also the resurrection of the dead. For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ shall all be made alive. But each in his own order: Christ the first fruits, then at his coming those who belong to Christ. Then comes the end, when he delivers the kingdom to God the Father after destroying every rule and every authority and power. For he must reign until he has put all his enemies under his feet. The last enemy to be destroyed is death. For [scripture says] “God has put all things in subjection under his feet.” But when it says, “all things are put in subjection,” it is plain that he is excepted who put all things in subjection under him. When all things are subjected to him, then the Son himself will also be subjected to him who put all things in subjection under him, that God may be all in all. (1 Corinthians 15:21–28)

Paul believes that God has a universal plan for all the descendants of Adam: “For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ shall all be made alive” (1 Corinthians 15:22), but he believes this process unfolds only in stages. As he says, “God was in Christ reconciling the cosmos to himself,” but in the present age, before the return of Christ, there is only a select number called to be part of the chosen ones (2 Corinthians 5:19). Accordingly, it is only the “dead in Christ” who are lifted up and glorified when Christ appears, not all the dead of all ages (1 Thessalonians 4:16). Though Paul believes in the general resurrection of all the dead, as did Jesus and the Pharisees, he never mentions it directly and only hints at it here—all shall be made alive. His entire concentration is upon the tiny initial group that he calls “the elect,” who he believes is being collected together just before the end of the age.

When Paul says “by a man came the resurrection of the dead” he refers, of course, to Christ, as the second or last Adam, who inaugurated the process of glorification for all of Adam’s descendants who are “of the dust” and thus subject to death. Based on the notion of the universality of the death that came through Adam, Paul says that the remedy of death, which is heavenly glorification, will be as universal as the fate of death. In other words all human beings will eventually be born into the God-family. Paul never mentions any idea of hell or eternal punishment in any of his letters, but he did believe that those who are chosen first can escape the wrath of God that will come with God’s judgment at the end of the age.

Paul goes on to say there is an ordered process involved that unfolds in two distinct stages. Stage one takes place at the coming of Christ, when only those “in Christ,” whether living or dead, experience their glorification, putting off the mortal and being reclothed in immortality. Elsewhere he refers to this event as the “revealing of the sons of God” (Romans 8:19). This group, the select ones God has chosen and called, whom Paul is gathering through his preaching, are compared to the “first fruits” of a harvest. This analogy is well-known in the Hebrew Bible. It involves a select portion of produce to be dedicated first to God, before the full harvest is carried out.¹⁴ This select group does appear before the judgment seat of Christ to receive commendation and rewards, and if necessary punishments, to enable it to carry out its exalted destiny:

Therefore do not pronounce judgment before the time, before the Lord comes, who will bring to light the things now hidden in darkness and will disclose the purposes of the heart. Then every one will receive his commendation from God. (1 Corinthians 4:5)

Paul warns his followers frequently of this judgment, which he calls the “judgment seat of Christ,” admonishing them to “judge themselves” now so they will not have to be judged and thus condemned along with the world: “For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, so that each one may receive good or evil, according to what he has done in the body” (2 Corinthians 5:10).