Yet that was not first which is spiritual, but that which is natural: afterwards that which is spiritual.
αλλ ου πρωτον το πνευματικον αλλα το ψυχικον επειτα το πνευματικον
6 Church Fathers comment on this verse
Lest someone say, "Why do we now have a natural and inferior body, while the spiritual body is still to come?" he says that the principles of both have been established in such an order. Adam comes first, and Christ afterward. Therefore what is ours always moves toward the better. Be assured that what is now corruptible and inferior in you will be transformed into what is incorruptible and better.
As for man himself, he comes from the same mass that was originally condemned as a whole. Yet God, like a potter, an image the Apostle used not foolishly but wisely, made from one and the same mass one vessel for honor and another for dishonor (cf. Rom 9:21). Yet the vessel for dishonor was made first, and afterward the vessel for honor. For in one and the same man, as I have already said, the unfit comes first. We necessarily begin from it, but we are not compelled to remain with it. Then comes the fitting, to which we pass as we make progress, and with which, once we attain it, we shall remain. The spiritual body is understood as a body so subject to the Spirit that it is fit for heavenly dwelling. All earthly frailty and corruption have been changed in it into heavenly purity and constancy.
"Flesh and blood cannot inherit the Kingdom of God." The Stundists dare to apply these words to the Flesh and Blood of Christ, in order to show their supposed insignificance and ineffectiveness. But from the preceding and following words it is clear that the Apostle here means the body "sown in corruption" (v. 42), "in humiliation and weakness" (v. 43), the "natural body" (v. 44), the body fashioned according to the image of the earthly Adam, not according to the image of the Lord from heaven (vv. 47-49). This is the flesh that does not inherit the Kingdom of God. This is why our present body must be changed (v. 51). But the Flesh and Blood of the Lord in the Mystery of the Eucharist are incorruptible and glorious.
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).
He does not say why, but is content to point to God's ordinance, as Chrysostom says. If Adam had not fallen, natural life would have been transformed into spiritual life there in Paradise. After the fall, a special and prolonged natural period was appointed, so that during it spiritual humanity might gradually be formed and appear in glory at the proper time. The natural must necessarily precede the spiritual, as the lower degree precedes the higher, according to Bishop Theophan.
The root of the distinction among natural bodies depends on their generative seed. The same law extends also to human beings. They descended from Adam, who was endowed with a living soul (cf. Gen 2:7), and therefore their present body is natural. They will receive future life from Christ, the last progenitor of life, in whom the Spirit of God always rested (cf. Is 11:2-3; 61:1; cf. Lk 1:35). Therefore, as those born from Him, they will have a spiritual body (cf. Rom 8:11). This is still more clearly revealed by the fact that Adam was created from the earth, while Jesus Christ, as the Son of God, came down from heaven. From this it is clear that, as through the first progenitor we were earthly, so through the second we are heavenly.
But we must still gradually attain this latter state, putting off the old sinful man and putting on the new through justification by Christ and sanctification by the Spirit (cf. Eph 4:22). According to one commentator's explanation, "the image of the earthly is death, and the image of the Heavenly is resurrection. In death is the image of Adam, for he was the first cause by which all others began to die. In resurrection and incorruption is the image of Christ, for He first rose, having conquered death. Through this He granted resurrection and incorruption to the whole human race."
Such, he says, was the law of the manifestation of life. The natural had to come first, and from it, by the action of God, the spiritual had to arise. Thus it pleased God to establish it. "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" (St. Chrysostom). If Adam had not fallen, naturalness would have been transformed into spirituality there in Paradise. But after the fall, a special and prolonged natural period was appointed.
During it, now by special providential actions among all nations, now by special institutions among the Jewish people, and finally by the extraordinary divine economy of salvation through the Incarnation of God the Word, spiritual humanity was gradually formed. In due time it appeared in glory. The natural must necessarily precede the spiritual, as the lower degree precedes the higher.
Passages read together with this verse.
Greek text, 11 words with lemma, transliteration and Strong’s number. Tap to expand.
THEOSIS