1 Corinthians 15:54, commentary and pictures

When this corruptible puts on incorruption and this mortal puts on immortality, death is swallowed up in victory at the last trumpet, when in a moment the dead are raised incorruptible and the living are changed. This putting on of incorruption and immortality comes not at death but at Christ's return and the resurrection morning, until which immortality is still future and death continues. The change is bodily, with vile bodies subject to disease and suffering made incorruptible, immortal and glorified like Christ's glorious body, yet without destroying personal identity. Christ secured this victory by coming forth glorified from the tomb, vanquishing Satan and the powers of darkness, and as the Life-giver holding the keys of death He will break the tomb with His voice from righteous Abel to the last saint. The resurrection changes the body but not the character, so fitness for heaven must be gained in this life, and then the redeemed come forth clothed with immortality to endless life with no pain, sorrow, or death, reunited with loved ones never again to part.

Timing of the Victory

At the last trumpet, in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, the trumpet sounds and the dead are raised incorruptible while the living are changed, this corruptible putting on incorruption and this mortal putting on immortality, and then death is swallowed up in victory. The triumph comes when Jesus is seen in the clouds of heaven, after the captivity of the faithful tried company is turned and glorious light shines upon them with health and beauty in every countenance and all weariness and marks of care gone. After the voice of God shakes the heavens and the earth with a mighty earthquake, their enemies fall like dead men unable to endure the light. The graves are opened and the saints come forth clothed with immortality, crying victory over death and the grave, and the living saints are changed in a moment from glory to glory. Together the living and the raised saints are caught up to meet their Lord in the air, sharing victory over death and the grave while rich, musical shouts of glory and victory are upon every immortal, sanctified, holy lip. For the overcomers this defeat of death is joined to the end of the conflict and entrance into the heavenly kingdom, when mortality gives way to immortality.

The change happens at Christ's return and second coming, on the resurrection morning of triumph when the sleeping saints awake to glorious immortality and to live forever with their Lord. The righteous receive immortality and incorruptibility when the dead are raised after sleeping in the grave, resuming thought where it ceased at death, with their first glad thought the triumph over death and the grave. It is fulfilled when the sleeping saints are raised clothed with immortality and the living are changed at the same time, the sleeping saints rising clothed with immortality at Christ's coming. Together the living and resurrected redeemed are caught up together to meet the Lord, overcoming death so that death does not keep them permanently. When Jesus comes the graves will open and those who sleep in Jesus will rise victorious over death and the grave to receive immortality.

Incorruption and immortality are put on not at death but at the resurrection, when the trumpet of God awakens the righteous dead to glorious immortal life. The trumpet has not yet sounded, and immortality is still future and not yet possessed; all the immortality now held is by faith in hope of putting it on at the appearing of Christ. The dead sleep unconsciously in the grave, knowing nothing and knowing no trouble, with long or short time as only a moment to them, the whole person slumbering as precious dust until the Life-giver breaks the fetters of the tomb and calls them forth from their prison-house clothed with immortal life. Awakening as from deep slumber they resume thought where it ceased at the pang of death and break out in triumph over death and the grave, making the resurrection a new and sublime event and the hope of the bereaved. This is why Scripture dwells so much on the resurrection of the body, for if souls entered eternal happiness or misery at death there would be no need for a resurrection of the moldered body, and a final judgment afterward would be confused and useless. Death will be swallowed up in victory at a future time, but until then death continues in the world and leaves orphans behind, so tender compassion and loving-kindness must continue in caring for widows and orphans and supplying fathers and mothers for the homeless. Until mortality is changed to immortality no human is infallible, but every mortal man and woman remains liable to err and cannot rightly claim unerring judgment; infallibility will come only then, and to claim it now is a false theory that unfits a man for official service where he may need to change his opinion. The church now is militant, not triumphant, its people still mortal, so they must endure burdens and discouragements and be tested and proved to the last.

The present trying, waiting, watching state is a dark night, and the coming glory is the morning with two parts, first the dawn of day and second full daylight completed by the rising of the sun. The day of rest dawns at the voice of God when His light and glory rest upon His people, then they rise from glory to glory till Christ appears for the full daylight of immortality and eternal life, when He clothes His people with immortality and gives them eternal life.

Incorruption and immortality are actually received at the appearing of Christ, and the wicked never receive it. The saints then rest in the holy city through the 1,000 years, reigning as kings and priests. Only afterward does Jesus descend on the Mount of Olives to make a plain for Paradise, the wicked dead are raised and surround the city, fire from God devours them and burns them up root and branch with Satan as the root, the same fire purifies the earth, and the feet of the wicked never desecrate the earth made new where death is ended.

The time when mortality is swallowed up by immortality marks the end of the need for repentance. Until then repentance must be a daily, continuous exercise, with humiliation and sorrow of soul as daily meat and drink, because people still carry imperfections and failures.

Nature of Immortal Change

The change is bodily, the second stage of redemption for those redeemed from sin in this life, when corruptible bodies are changed to incorruptible bodies and receive immortal life. It is not a moral change, for moral fitness for the next life is gained in this life, and the character a person has at death is not changed at the resurrection; the body is what is changed. When Christ comes, mortal bodies subject to disease and suffering are changed into immortal, glorified bodies, and those who have purified their souls by obeying the truth and have believed in Christ receive this change and a higher nature. The dead who sleep in Jesus awaken at the trumpet to life that will never end, a deliverance from this body of suffering by putting on a glorious immortality that is still future and is longed for while weak and afflicted, opening into an eternal morning in God's city with no night. Holy flesh is received at Christ's coming, not in this life, for while sin is forgiven now its results are not wholly removed until then, when Christ comes with a great trumpet to call the dead from their prison house and changes the vile body to be like His glorious body. The saints do not remain on earth but are taken to heaven, where Christ is admired in all them that believe and sees of the travail of His soul and is satisfied, and immortal beings break forth in the song of triumph, Worthy is the Lamb.

The resurrected person remains identical to the mortal person in organization, not by retaining the same particles of matter, for the matter of the mortal body does not enter into the immortal being. Because Christ died and was raised, believers come forth from the tomb to glorious companionship with heavenly angels, and in that change to immortality Christlikeness does not destroy personal identity but transforms saints into His glorious image. Every saint joined by family ties here will know and recognize loved ones there by their faces. When redemption comes the veil hung between mortality and immortality is rent away, the Bible is understood in a higher, broader, clearer sense, and the redeemed see His face.

Death is a sleep and the grave is a place of rest where the dead remain until the sleeping saints awake to immortality at the second coming of Christ, when the mortal puts on immortality and death is finally defeated. Some will die beforehand and wait in the grave for that awakening, while others alive at the end will be translated to heaven without seeing death, when the righteous dead are raised incorruptible and the living righteous are changed. In Christ is life, original, unborrowed, underived, and His divinity is the believer's assurance of eternal life. The raising of Lazarus is a pledge and representation of this resurrection of all the righteous dead, accomplished by the Saviour's power, for by His word and works Christ declared Himself the Author of the resurrection, and though Himself soon to die on the cross He stood with the keys of death as conqueror of the grave, asserting His right and power to give eternal life.

In the mortal state no one can endure the sight of God, as John fell as one dead when he beheld the glory of God, but when the mortal puts on immortality the redeemed will be able to endure and see Him as He is and stand before His throne. When the children of God have put on immortality they gather about the throne of God and of the Lamb to receive their reward, standing before the throne accepted in the Beloved with all sins blotted out and all transgressions borne away, and looking upon the undimmed glory of the throne. Having been partakers with Christ in His sufferings and workers together with Him in the plan of redemption, they will be partakers with Him in the joy of seeing souls saved in the kingdom to praise God through all eternity, receiving a glorious reward for work that abides.

Freed from mortality, the redeemed enter eternal life with immortal minds and bodies, able to explore creation and increase in knowledge without weariness. The faithful who have fought the good fight will receive immortal youth and vigor. Their rest will be freedom from struggling against sin and Satan, not inactivity, for heaven is a place of meaningful activity.

Christ's Triumph Over Death

Coming forth glorified from the tomb, Christ vanquished Satan and the powers of darkness, and heaven proclaimed with great joy that death is swallowed up in victory. His death ends not in defeat but in glorious eternal victory. The angels’ triumph at His resurrection points ahead to the general resurrection of the just at His second coming, when the righteous dead will rise to immortal life and death’s defeat will be complete. Christ’s resurrection is a foretaste and vivid preview of that resurrection, when all the faithful dead from righteous Abel to the last saint will come forth from their graves to glorious, immortal life.

By rising after paying humanity’s full ransom, Christ showed power to conquer death and made it possible for people to overcome Satan through Him. His rising, and His raising a multitude of captives, give evidence that those who sleep in Jesus will be raised in a final resurrection. That victory assures Satan’s eventual death and the end of his kingdom.

As the Life-giver who holds the keys of death and the grave and brightened the tomb’s portals, Christ will break the tomb’s fetters with His voice and bring the captives forth to glorious victory. Those who have died in Jesus will be called from death to live again, rising from righteous Abel to the last saint at God’s trumpet to go to the city of God to see the King. They awake with all pain gone to proclaim victory over death and the grave, with the finishing touch of immortality then put upon them as they go up to meet their Lord in the air and enter through the gates of the City as those that have kept the truth. Through a life of obedience every child of Adam may overcome sin and rise from the grave to the immortality Christ purchased with His blood, so the dying believer can face death without fear. His raising of Lazarus pledges this resurrection to life without pain, sorrow, or death.

Jesus of Nazareth is the Messiah of prophecy foretold by Moses and the prophets to appear as a man among men, with every specification fulfilled in His life. The divine Son of God endured the cross, despising its shame, for the purpose of redeeming a lost world, and ascended to heaven triumphant over death and the grave.

Through Christ as substitute and surety, mortal sons and daughters of Adam may lay hold on immortality and be made immortal. He came down to this world clothed in humanity and discomfited the powers of darkness in the controversy between Christ and Satan, proving that all may gain this great blessing. They become partakers of the divine nature by receiving truth through His revealed truth and the sanctification of the Holy Spirit, which enlarges the mind, fastens it upon sacred things, and works out truth in sanctified heart, soul, and character.

Sleep Until Resurrection Morning

The dead sleep unconsciously in the grave, knowing nothing and knowing no trouble, with the whole person slumbering until the Life-giver awakens them to undying life. The body rests as precious dust, and whether the time be long or short it is as only a moment to the sleeper until the trump of God sounds to raise them. When the corruptible is clothed with incorruption and the mortal with immortality, death is swallowed up in victory, and that raising gives the righteous their glorious immortal life. Those who sleep in Jesus will live again and put on immortality at the last trumpet, sealed and assured of that future life, freed from pain and death to live again in heaven. They are not already living in reward or punishment, for the putting on of immortality does not happen at death but at the awakening to come. This comforts those left behind who miss the dead, calling the grieving not to sink beneath affliction but to bear up and live to train their children for heaven while perilous times and worse trouble lie ahead.

Awakening as from deep slumber, the saints resume thought where it ceased at the pang of death. They rise with all pain gone to proclaim triumph over death and the grave, receiving incorruptibility and immortality at Christ's return. The finishing touch of immortality is then put upon them as captives brought forth when the fetters of the tomb are broken with the proclamation, I am the resurrection, and the life. They go up to meet their Lord in the air and enter through the gates of the City of God as the nations that have kept the truth, welcomed into the joy of their Lord.

Those parted by death meet no more until the trump of God calls their precious dust forth to health and immortality on the resurrection morning. The dead rest until that morning, when death is overcome in victory and they come forth immortal. Death does not keep them permanently from their loved ones, because the coming summons brings them from the grave to life.

The resurrection is essential to Christian hope, for at the resurrection mortal life is changed to immortality and death is defeated. Belief that the righteous receive their full blessedness at death obscures that hope and makes the resurrection seem unnecessary. The entire being slumbers in the grave until the Life-giver breaks the fetters of the tomb and the righteous arise and leave their prison-house clothed with immortal life, a new and sublime event and the hope of the bereaved upon which Scripture dwells so much. If souls entered eternal happiness or misery at death there would be no need for a resurrection of the moldered body, and a final judgment afterward would be confused and useless. The promise of victory over death gives reason for diligence, obedience, cheerfulness, and comfort.

Mortals do not now possess immortality in themselves; all the immortality now held is by faith in hope of putting on immortality at the appearing of Christ. Incorruption and immortality are actually received then, and the wicked never receive them. The saints rest in the holy city through the 1,000 years and reign as kings and priests, then Jesus descends on the Mount of Olives to make a plain for Paradise. The wicked dead are raised and surround the city, fire from God devours and burns them up root and branch with Satan as the root, the same fire purifies the earth, and the feet of the wicked never desecrate the earth made new where death is ended.

Character Fitted for Immortality

The change at the resurrection is a change of body, not a change of character, for the corruptible puts on incorruption and the mortal puts on immortality while the person comes up from the grave with the same character he had when he went down into it. Christ's coming does not cleanse from sin or repair defects of character, and does not change character but changes mortal bodies to immortality. God has given a lifetime to form character, and a character long forming through a lifetime, if defective in several particulars or even in one and that defect is not overcome before He comes, loses heaven. Failure through negligence or any other cause is felt through all eternity, and God will not be trifled with. Fitness for heaven must therefore be gained in this life by living a life of perfection now, loving to think and talk of Christ and finding joy in praising Him in expectation of joining the heavenly choir, giving all the powers to God and keeping the commandments, which is the washing and ironing of the character, the washing of the robes white in the blood of the Lamb, before the body is made immortal.

Putting on immortality is the finishing touch given at Christ's coming to those who follow Him earnestly and faithfully in this life, gaining salvation by obedience to the Word of God and faith in His redeeming grace. Christ guides into the higher and better life, giving present help in every time of need to cultivate the moral and intellectual powers, to study and obey Scripture, and to walk in the way of salvation that prepares for immortality. Those who expect the transformation when mortal bodies are changed and receive immortality must live and work on a higher plane, or they will not receive it. The gift is an eternal inheritance granted to those who connect with God through Jesus and develop spotless characters. This requires standing untainted by the corruption around them, with holy bodies and pure spirits under the full and perfect control of the Spirit of God influencing every action, and this work must begin at once and be carried out earnestly and with understanding. God's elect must so stand untainted amid the defilement, corruption, deformity and sin teeming around them in these last days, in a world opposed to righteousness, purity of character, and growth in grace.

All the saints must pass through the fire of affliction to have impurities removed from character in preparation for immortality, so that they are purified and not consumed. When God's chosen ones who sleep in death are changed from mortality to immortality at the great day of final retribution and reward, their thoughts, purposes, words and deeds of goodness will be made manifest and preserved through the eternal ages. Love, courtesy, amiability and self-sacrifice are never lost, and not one deed, however small or simple, is ever lost. Through the merits of Christ's imputed righteousness those deeds preserve their fragrance and endure forever, so that cherishing the attributes of Christ immortalizes goodness. Every hour is therefore to be used only for God in and through the grace of Christ instead of sowing to the flesh to reap only corruption.

When mortals are changed the great Restorer gives complete restoration to those who through no sin of their own remain always children in reason, without consciousness of sin and with deficiencies of intellect caused by hereditary injury such as a father's intemperance. Those like John and Mary who stay children in mind all their lives for such a cause will be met again by a faithful mother and will be made whole, with every mark of physical and mental degeneracy wiped away and hereditary transmitted imbecility removed by grace. With childlike submission and obedience they will receive future immortal life and an inheritance among the saints in light, while those given reason who practice disobedience and transgression will lose that future immortal life. In the great day of God all who are faithful and true will receive eternal life from the Life-giver, who with the healing touch of the divine Restorer will remove every deformity. Meanwhile their sad marks stand as a beacon of warning repeating what intemperance does.

Some experiences that are now mysterious may not be fully understood until mortal life is changed to immortality. Being made immortal is still future, and until then no human is infallible, for every mortal man and woman remains liable to err. No one can rightly claim unerring judgment or that he does not err, and anyone who claims infallibility now holds a false theory that unfits him for official service where he may need to change his opinion.

Putting on immortality concerns the future immortal life for which people are to prepare and help others prepare. Followers of Jesus Christ expect to be translated to heaven by receiving this finishing touch, and this hope belongs to those who hold Christian duties and maintain the dignity belonging to followers of Christ. They hold to the elevating duties and tests of the Word of God and refuse degrading bodily humiliations, man-made tests, and acts of voluntary humility. Their profession is to be pilgrims and strangers passing through this land, journeying to a better country, a heavenly land where all is joy and peace and happiness. Physical and mental health should help people appreciate eternal things and rightly value the redemption purchased through Christ's suffering and death. Immortality is a gift bestowed in the life to come by God who knows the heart and repays every person according his work, given to humble, teachable ones who look to God in faith and dependence, the same ones to whom God gives wisdom and understanding in this life.

Glory and Hope Beyond Death

When the dead are raised and the living are changed, mortal bodies put on immortality and death is defeated, for the sleeping saints rise with glorious immortal bodies free from disease and death in health and beauty while the living are changed in an instant. They come forth from their graves clothed with immortality and proclaim victory over death and the grave with glad shouts of victory and musical shouts of glory on every sanctified lip, the tomb's fetters broken so that life continues forever. Together the risen and the changed celebrate that victory and are caught up to meet the Lord, and death no longer separates those thus reunited.

Until that day the dead sleep, but when the Life-giver comes to call them forth from their prison houses they are set free from death, rising not in the poor body that went into the grave but in an immortal, glorious body clothed with immortal splendor. Then the living and the resurrected meet their loved ones again to part no more, for wives and children mourned and followed to their last home will come forth immortal, reuniting grieving believers with their loved ones and giving comfort under great loss and reason to look at unseen things. At Christ's coming death loses its sting and the grave is robbed of its claimed victory, when Christ the great Life-giver rewards His faithful ones by restoring the children taken by death as He restored the Shunammite's son.

The Life-giver will break the tomb's hold and call the dead to health and immortality and to a bright immortal life without pain, sorrow, night, or death, a hope that gives comfort and strength even in sickness and in the face of death. On that resurrection morning the victory of the sleeping saints will be glorious, Satan's triumph ending while Christ triumphs with glory and honor and crowns with immortality all who come forth from the grave. At the close of time the true Israel who love and fear God, supported in the dark valley of the shadow of death, will come forth crowned with glory, honor, and immortality to an endless life of unalloyed happiness, rejoicing in the unfading glories of the earth made new where the overcomers' conflict ends in the heavenly kingdom and the city of God.

Christ's resurrection and ascension prove the triumph of the saints over death and the grave and pledge that heaven is open to those who wash their robes of character white in the blood of the Lamb, for Jesus ascended as representative of humanity so that those reflecting His image shall behold and share His glory. When the last trump sounds He who declared Himself the resurrection and the life will raise His saints and clothe them with immortality in everlasting victory over death and the grave, and therefore He can now keep committed souls, deliver in perplexity, and give peace and rest to those who come, wear His yoke, and learn meekness. Then the dead redeemed are brought forth and the living changed from mortality to immortality and caught up together to meet the Lord, the gates of the city of God are opened, and the redeemed enter to see the King in His beauty and Jesus in glory and majesty, receive the crown of life, sit with Christ on His throne, cast every crown at His feet, and praise the Redeemer. That eternal reward is God's gift of eternal life, a crown of immortal glory to everyone overcoming world, flesh, and devil, won because Christ helps at every step with angels round about and His divine nature given by faith, so that those giving mental, moral, and physical powers to win souls have peace now with Christ within as hope of glory and hereafter dwell in His presence, behold His matchless charms, and praise Him with immortal tongue. Putting on immortality means abundant entrance as law-abiding citizens of the heavenly country, seeing the King in His beauty, dwelling with Him, and having a life running parallel with the life of Jehovah, while the rent veil between mortality and immortality lets the Bible be understood more clearly.

This assurance rests on Christ's own resurrection and gives hope beyond this life, for the triumph announced at His rising anticipates full realization at His coming when all the righteous dead rise to glorious immortal life in a renewed world without sin and sorrow. Sin's sting is removed for one who died in Christ, death cannot hold such a one, and the grave is only a temporary short sleep until the approaching resurrection morning and deliverance. That blessed immortality makes time seem short and calls to ceaseless labor for those in sin, with reason to bear toil, keep working until the Master bids lay off the armor, and care with compassion for widows, orphans, and the homeless until death is defeated, bringing comfort in bereavement and strength in sickness and affliction.

The victory completes the history between Eden and the future life, when those who overcame evil are no longer susceptible to its power. It moves from type to antitype, from rulers that die to the King eternal, from fading glories to everlasting fadeless glories, and from mortal sinners who perish to a people righteous in God and immortal forever. Then the pall of death now covering the earth from transgression of the holy, just, and good law — which ruined God's temple in man, cursed the earth, and brought enmity, decay, and darkness shrouding God's glory — is removed.

Immortality is a life running parallel with the life of Jehovah, lasting as long as God lives, gained through progress, elevation, sanctification, converse with God, and development of His moral image in man. It is an eternal inheritance of great value, honor, and glory, showing God's estimate of man as child of God, heir of God, and joint heir with Christ, a truth filling the mind with awe. The waiting saints once expected this change from mortal corruptible condition to immortality at the time they looked for Christ, but that time passed and they remained subject to the curse. Its blessed hope still belongs to all who connect with God through Jesus, receive Christ by taking God at His word, have sins washed away and refuse to cherish sin, endure to the end, and let Jesus as Chief Physician heal soul and body with the balm in Gilead under the serpent's sting, treating suffering bodies, watching for souls, hearing prayer, prolonging life, and giving endless life.