1Corinthians 15

The issue Paul is addressing in this chapter is the physical resurrection, which is an issue we saw in yesterday’s reading in 2Corinthians 5.  This was a cultural issue for the Greeks and Romans, who saw the afterlife as one of ‘shades’, bodiless souls who populated the underworld of Hades.  They then very naturally translated that concept of a less than physical afterlife, either consciously or unconsciously, to their own understanding of the Gospel and resurrection.  Paul takes exception to that understanding of the resurrection and sets about correcting it in this chapter.

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2Corinthians 5

As aliens and strangers, we’re reminded that no matter what happens to our earthly dwelling, we have an eternal house in heaven waiting for us. This is our real dwelling, which our spirits are longing to go back to. After all, we are only here on earth as temporary visitors. We may be burdened in this earthly dwelling, but God has made us for this very purpose while guaranteeing the final outcome through His Spirit. Since we would prefer to be away from the body and at home with the Lord, we need to live by faith, not by sight. We maybe tested, but our goal is to please Him wherever we are.

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1Peter 2

Again, we run across this idea of ‘aliens and strangers’ in today’s passage in 1Peter.  Peter is writing to the churches of Asia Minor, what we know today as Turkey, who are suffering grief as the result of some type of trial (1:6).  In his greeting, he addresses them as ‘strangers in the world’ and then goes on in chapter 1 to lay the foundation for exactly why they are strangers.  Again, this foundation is of a spiritual, supernatural character.  They are ‘born again to a living hope’ (1:3 NASB) through the resurrection of Christ with an inheritance waiting for them in heaven.  He encourages them to prepare their minds for action and to fix their hope completely on the grace to be revealed to them in Christ (1:13).

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Ephesians 2

Paul is in jail as he writes this letter to the Ephesians, most probably as part of the judicial process that started in Caesarea when he appealed to Caesar in his trial before Festus, the Roman governor of Judea (Acts 25:9-12).  His audience is the church at Ephesus, one that he is very familiar with (Acts 19:8-10; 20:13-38) and most probably the churches in the surrounding area.

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Hebrews 11

The book of Hebrews is a bit of an enigma.  We don’t really know who the author is, with the argument boiling down to Paul or not Paul.  We don’t really know who the recipients actually were, other than they were Jewish converts to Christianity who were under pressure to revert back to Judaism or to Judaize the Gospel.  The one thing that is fairly certain, at least from a historical perspective, is that the book was written before 70 AD, when the Jerusalem and the Temple are destroyed by the Roman general Titus, as the author would have surely mentioned that event in his arguments presenting Christ as the full and final revelation of God’s Plan and Purpose, as a fulfilling of the Old Testament promises with Christ as the mediator of a New Testament for all believers.  This unknown author consistently refers to the Temple in the present tense, as if it was still in existence and still going through the rites and rituals expected by the Jews.

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The whole issue of the natural vs. the supernatural is an argument that goes all the way back to Plato and Aristotle.  The issue lies at the foundation of how we see the world around us.  Is this physical world all there is or is there a ‘super’ world, one beyond the natural world that we can see and feel and which influences, impacts and defines the physical world in which we live?  If this ‘super-nature’ does exist, what is our relationship to it?  Does nature rule over the supernatural or does the natural owe obedience to the supernatural?  These questions fascinate our culture and lay at the heart of the conflict that rages between faith and science.  Our answers to these questions go a very long way to defining our faith and determining just how we see who we are and what we need to be about in the world in which we live.

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