Resurrection

But in fact Christ has been raised from the dead, 1 Cor. xv. 20.

Christ is raised for our salvation!
For our sins he bled and died,
(Perfect, pure propitiation!
Justice he has satisfied!)
Then he rose the third-day morning
As the firstfruits of his kin
Whom he gave himself to win,
All their wretchedness unscorning.
Now by faith his life they see,
E’en the lowest— even me.

(1 Cor 15:1-9, 20)

As in Adam we must perish,
So in Christ we shall revive:
Great appearing that we cherish!
He who versus death doth strive
Will fulfill all resurrection,
Then in heav’n assume his seat,
All creation at his feet
Placed in firm, complete subjection
By the Father, in whose praise
He shall lead the saints always.

(1 Cor 15:21-28; 2 Tim 4:8; Heb 2:12-13)

Never kernel grew nor flourished
Save it fell into the ground,
Yet when God the seed hath nourished,
Lo, what fruit doth then abound!
Just as man excels creation,
As the sun all stars outshines,
So the frame our Lord designs
Passeth earthly expectation—
As we have been born of dust,
Likewise soon of heav’n we must.

(1 Cor 15:35-49; John 12:24; 1 John 3:2)

Therefore I will fear no terror,
Not another’s death, nor mine,
For I know the Mercy-Bearer
Brings consuming life divine
Unto death’s envenomed power:
Where, O grave, is victory?
Ill in us he cannot see,
Having sated Sinai’s glower.
Nothing can our souls distress,
Since the Savior deigns to bless.

(1 Cor 15:54-57; Hab 1:13)

Though against us stand betaken
Either sin, or hell, or foes,
Grace doth keep us yet unshaken
As thy gospel in us grows;
Always in thy work abounding,
Knowing labor is not vain,
Sure and steadfast we remain,
E’er in praise to thee resounding
And in patience waiting here
Till thy glory shall appear.

(1 Cor 15:57-58; James 5:7-8)

—11/4/25. From 1 Corinthians 15. To “Sollt’ ich meinem Gott nicht singen” (Johann Schop).

It's a bummer I can't get the embed to work right for the tune. You'll have to click the tune name above to hear it. I think Cyber Hymnal must be reporting the wrong filetype when I fetch it, confusing Edge into thinking there's no file in the file. Alas. I tried dark magics inline base64 data encoding, and it worked, but I had to hit Page Up 187 times to get back to the top of my screen—I am not kidding—so I know it would crash my phone. Hopefully on mobile it's not hopeless to listen in one tab and read here in another at the same time. On PC, maybe speed it up to 1.25x or 1.5x—it's kind of a slow one, and 10x5=50 lines is the same length as 12 or 13 verses of a breezier 4-line hymn.

I did find a grave brass fantasia on this tune while looking for a version to listen to on the way to work. Something about it seems so right paired with the second-to-last verse. It feels like a royal entrance for the Lord after he defeats death. (If the embed breaks, it is “Sollt ich meinem Gott nicht singen,” by Johann Schop, Christian Sprenger, Genesis Brass from the album Choralfantasien.)



There's a lot I wish I could have gotten into this hymn also. The idea that we've pinned all our hopes on the resurrection being both real and Christ's in vv. 12-18 and 29-34. The discussion on the nature of the glorified body in vv. 42-48. The mystery that we will not all sleep in vv. 50-54. I'm pretty happy with what did get in though, and I think it captures the thrust of Paul's argument in that chapter.

It was lovely to dig into this meaty chapter. I have a tendency to read too fast, so forcing myself to take it slow, to outline the argument, to meditate on each section so I could accurately restate it, was exactly the treasure I hope you'd expect. Sometimes you just end up tearing up in a Raising Cane's because of how incredible it is that God may have invented seeds just to give us an idea what the resurrection is like. (Can I prove this? No. Does Corinthians sound suspiciously similar to Paul's argument in Ephesians where he says that God created marriage so we had a picture of Christ and the church? Yes. “Is it oxen God cares about?”) I was telling my small group, we will bear as much resemblance to our glorified bodies as deer corn does to a cornfield—which is to say, the resemblance will be there! but it's nonetheless incomparable.