1 Corinthians 15:45Meaning & Commentary from the Church Fathers

Since he places the better things in hopes, he now proves that their beginning has already come. He shows that their root and source have already appeared. If the root and source are evident to all, then one must not doubt the fruits. Therefore he says, "The last Adam became a life-giving Spirit." And elsewhere: "He will give life also to your mortal bodies through His Spirit who dwells in you" (Rom 8:11). Therefore, to give life is the work of the Spirit. Then, lest someone say, "Why did the worse come first? Why was the natural fulfilled completely, and not merely in its beginning, while the spiritual is only in its beginning?" the Apostle declares that such is the order of both. "But the spiritual is not first," he says, "but the natural, and afterward the spiritual" (1 Cor 15:46). He does not say why, but is content to point to the ordinance of God. He has the experience of events as witness to the superiority of the divine economy. Through this he proves that everything that happens to us is for the better. At the same time, he gives still greater credibility to his words. If the worse has been fulfilled, then all the more must we expect the better.

He had to be able to forgive sins and make the guilty innocent. He had to be not merely alive, but life-giving. Thus He might give life and remission of sins to those who cleave to Him and belong to Him according to kind. He gives life not only to those now living, but also to those who died before Him. 4. Therefore Paul, the great trumpet of the Spirit, cries out, saying: "The first man became a living soul, but the second a life-giving Spirit." Only God is immortal, life-giving, and able to forgive sins. Therefore the new Adam had to be not only man, but also God. He had to be life itself by nature, wisdom, righteousness, love, and every other good. Thus by mercy, wisdom, and righteousness He might accomplish in the old Adam renewal and life-giving. These are the opposites of what the spiritual serpent, the first author of evil, used when he introduced death and oldness into us.

They are inseparably united with the divine, Life-giving Spirit of Christ (v. 45). Therefore to deny them is insane audacity. "Corruption does not inherit incorruption." On the basis of these words, the Stundists reject the incorruption of relics. But this incorruption is undoubted, and to reject it is to dispute against what is evident. It occurs because the body of God's holy servant, through union with the incorruptible Body of Christ and through being filled with the grace of the Holy Spirit, already changes its corruptible nature into incorruptibility. This happens even before the universal change and resurrection of human bodies (v. 51).

It could also pass through other bodies, for example, through closed doors (Lk 24:36-39). Of this body of the second Adam, in comparison with the first, it is written: "The first man Adam became a living soul, and the last Adam is a life-giving Spirit" (Gen 2:7).

They are called an “evil tree” (Mt 7:17), at whose root lies “the axe” (Mt 3:10) of eternal condemnation. They are called “flesh,” in which “the Spirit of God shall not abide” (Gen 6:3). They are “likened to the beasts without understanding” (Ps 48:13).

And where, then, is man? Have ages and millennia produced him? Have societies composed him into one whole? Have laws traced His image? Have the wise breathed into him a living soul?

If Adam’s race could feel itself with one common feeling, it would be the feeling of the helpless paralytic of Jerusalem. It would most naturally express itself in his words: “I have no man” (Jn 5:7).

But behold, at last the Man long awaited has come. He was to heal the paralytic, or better, to raise him to true life from death. That death could only be called life because it was felt. The true life surpasses the paralytic’s expectation and desire.

The second Man appeared, the Lord from heaven. He came to raise the first man, who was of the dust and was returning “to the earth from which he was taken” (Gen 3:19). He brought him to the “new and living way” of return to God, who “breathed into his face the breath of life” (Gen 2:7; cf. Acts 2:28).

The true Vine sprang forth. It was to unite with Itself the branch that had fallen away, make the withered branch green, and cultivate the wild branch. Thus it might abide in Him and “bear much fruit” (Jn 15:5).

The last Adam came to be. He alone, by His life-giving Spirit, is able to penetrate the kingdom of death, and by penetrating it, to destroy it. That kingdom was founded upon the destruction of the first Adam. He came “to recapitulate all things in Himself” (Eph 1:10), and to join the end to the beginning.

This heavenly and divine Man is presented by the Gospel to our faith and contemplation in the exalted name of the Only-begotten Son of God. He is also presented in the mysterious name of the God-man. Yet in the simple name of man He is shown for our imitation: “Behold the man!”

Thus, in every state, every action, and every moment of Jesus’ most holy life, we can see the purest images of true human perfection. Yet the divine judgments point especially to that moment when He “came out” from the judge’s house to the people, “wearing the crown of thorns and the purple robe” (Jn 19:5).

It was a great moment, and truly one requiring special indication. Otherwise, in its concentrated majesty, it might escape our dull perception.

Jesus is in a condition into which the will of others has brought Him. He is in another’s garment. No action of His is visible. No word of His is heard. It is as though He is not there.

What, then, is shown to us in Him here? Precisely this: Jesus appears without will, without action, without word.

This silence He keeps amid the cries of His defender and the shouts of slanderers and blasphemers. This deep gaze, passing through human turmoil, is immersed in the judgments of God. These motionless limbs seem to rest in sufferings.

All this presents to us the image of a Man supremely patient, courageous, meek, and humble. No universal enmity conquers Him in love. Nothing shakes His peace with all. He is dispassionate, pure, and holy.

To unite these traits in one that embraces them all, He is the Man wholly and perfectly surrendered to God.

Or else, in this word, he gathers the meaning of many scriptural sayings about the coming Deliverer, as the One anointed most abundantly by the Spirit. Thus: “God, Your God, has anointed You with the oil of gladness,” a symbol of the Spirit, “beyond Your companions” (Ps 44:8). Again: “The Spirit of God shall rest upon Him, the Spirit of wisdom and understanding,” and so forth (Isa 11:2-3). Likewise: “The Spirit of the Lord is upon Me, because He has anointed Me,” and so forth (Isa 61:1).

Of His birth it was said, “The Holy Spirit shall come upon you, and the power of the Most High shall overshadow you” (Lk 1:35). At His baptism the Spirit descended upon Him in the form of a dove.

Or, as Saint Chrysostom and all our commentators say, he took this from the event itself. The Lord appeared in such a way that it was fitting to say of Him that He “became a life-giving Spirit.”

These are Saint Chrysostom’s words: “The first statement, that Adam became a living soul, is indeed written. The latter is not written. How then did the Apostle say, ‘It is written’? He inferred it from the events, as he often does. The prophets also commonly act in this way. For example, the prophet said that Jerusalem would be called ‘the truthful city’ (Zech 8:3), yet it was not called so. What then? Did the prophet speak falsely? No. He speaks of a name given through events. Likewise, Christ will be called Emmanuel (Isa 7:14), yet He was not called so. But His works give Him this name. So it is here.”

What is the Apostle’s thought in these words? He points to two periods in the existence of mankind. Their representatives are the first Adam, who is psychic, and Christ, the second Adam, who is made alive by the Spirit.

He indicates the character of both periods later. Here he only points to the representatives, as though saying: Adam became a living soul. Here you have the psychic man and the psychic body. The second Adam became a life-giving Spirit. Here you have the man made alive by the Spirit, and the spiritual body.

Consider what each means, and you will understand what the psychic body is and what the spiritual body is. You will also understand why in the age to come only a body with the latter quality is fitting, namely the spiritual body.

Photius writes in Oecumenius: “Do not waver, he says, in the faith that our present psychic bodies will then be made spiritual. We already have proofs of this. Adam had a psychic body. Christ had a spiritual body, which was the receptacle of the whole fullness of the Holy Spirit. This is shown by the dove that remained upon Him. For insofar as Jesus Christ is and is known as man, He is the dwelling place of the Spirit. Yet insofar as He is and is known as God, the Spirit remains with Him in the one divine essence.”

Saint Chrysostom says the same: “The Apostle said this so that you might know that there are already signs and pledges of both the present and the future life. Adam is the sign of the present life, and Christ of the future. Since he places the better blessings in the future, he now proves that their beginning has already come, and that their root and source have already appeared. If the root and source are evident to all, one must not doubt the fruits. Therefore he says, ‘The last Adam became a life-giving Spirit.’ Elsewhere he says, ‘He will also give life to your mortal bodies through His Spirit who dwells in us’ (Rom 8:11).”

It is very difficult to state the Apostle’s present thought with precision. Yet it is evident that, according to him, in the person of Christ the Savior mankind begins a new life, not only in soul but also in body. This appeared in Him Himself.

When the Lord Jesus Christ appeared, all men, according to the first Adam, were psychic. He was the first to become a life-giving Spirit. Through the resurrection and ascension into heaven, He became the Head of the new mankind born from Him.

The characteristic mark of this new mankind is spirituality, that it bears within itself the Spirit of God. This Spirit is the pledge of the future enlivening of the body also, which will then appear spiritualized.

Spiritual bodies are being prepared within the realm of the psychic Adam. They will appear in spiritual glory at the proper time. This psychic period must come entirely to an end.

Before, only psychic life had quality in mankind. From Christ the Savior, by the grace of the Spirit, spiritual mankind is formed out of the psychic. At His second coming psychic life will cease, and spirituality will shine forth. To everything there is its own time.