By J. Davis Creach
In the 15th chapter of 1 Corinthians, the Apostle Paul goes to great lengths to explain to his Corinthian children in Christ the importance and truth of bodily resurrection. At the time, the Corinthian church was growing in its understanding of Christian living, both in community as the body of Christ and as individuals in the new life of Christ. While Paul spends much of the letter addressing issues of pure worship and cultural etiquette, his argument culminates in a philosophically influenced theology of resurrection.
Inside this theology is not only a view of what resurrection is, but a defense of why it matters to us as Christians: for “If the dead are not raised, then Christ was not raised either. And if Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile; you are still in your sins” (1 Cor 15:16-17, NIV). Though the Corinthians believed in Christ’s sacrifice and aimed to live in Christ, they did not believe in the resurrection. Perhaps they thought it was just a superstition or a great metaphor for the way of following Jesus.
However, Paul is very clear that the resurrection of the dead is at the heart of what we believe as followers of Christ Jesus. It is through Christ’s resurrection that we are guaranteed our own! With the promise of resurrection comes the promise of unfathomable change: “the body that is sown is perishable, it is raised imperishable; it is sown in dishonor, it is raised in glory; it is sown in weakness, it is raised in power; it is sown a natural body, it is raised a spiritual body” (Cor 15: 42b-44a).
What this means, though it is outstanding language, is unclear. The Church Fathers had many ideas about what the “spiritual body” could entail, with St. Origen supposing we would all be ghost-like figures able to pass through walls like our Lord! But as we have now been centuries removed from Paul’s first letter to the Corinthian church, we have come to view the “spiritual body” as something beyond our comprehension; it is yet another mystery held within our God. There is no way to define “glory,” but it is what we are destined to become. Our physical bodies, sown in corruption and weakness, are to be transformed from glory into glory. They are to become incorruptible and strong, once symbols of death, now symbols of eternal life.
You may be thinking: what does this have to do with training? Why should resurrection influence how I work out? After all, I am still alive in this physical body! Why should I concern myself with what my spiritual body will be life after I die?
At Laudate, we believe that physical training is a spiritual discipline. Our theology of training is inherently embodied because it requires moving these physical bodies around. But while we train as a means to praise and worship God, to discern the Spirit of God and cling to the Rock of Ages, we are not merely training the physical body but the spiritual body also. We are bridging the gap between “already saved and not yet risen.” We are preparing the physical body for the spiritual body.
What does this mean? How can we prepare for something we cannot even imagine? Well, if we think of the spiritual body as a state of glory, a form that facilitates our eternal life with God and neighbor, then we can begin to germinate the seed that Christ has already planted in us and continues to water through the power of the Holy Spirit.
In other words, we can seek the power of the Spirit in our physical training to not only increase our physical health and fitness but also increase our spiritual health and fitness; we can train our hearts and minds to fix themselves on the glory of God and let that glory wash over us as we train. Though our bodies are still corruptible and perishable, we can praise God for the gift of new life in Christ that has been given to us here and now. That which was promised eternally in the resurrection. We can join the dance of sanctification with the Spirit of the living God and witness for ourselves the transformation of our whole selves in this mortal life; we can hope fully and faithfully for a life in glory with our Lord.
Of course, it is possible to train without prayer and see fantastic physical results… but at what cost? What is at stake if we allow our training to become ego-centered instead of Christ centered?
The fitness of our spirit is at stake, the fullness of our soul. I am not writing this to scare you or suggest that training without prayer and praise to God will damn or condemn you. But I am suggesting that training for vanity, pride, spite, or anger may give you a great physique or a personal best mile time, but it won’t fulfill you for very long; the ego will always want more. With ego at the helm, training becomes all about “me” and not about God. Ego convinces us that we are in control of our own destiny, that we do all the work to achieve our gifts and blessings, that we are the ones worthy of praise. We are convinced that without ego, we are nothing.
But, friends, the truth is that we are everything in Christ! Because of God’s steadfast love and unending faithfulness, we have been set free from the bondage of ego and the death of the body. We have been given the freedom to live in the reality of the resurrection today as we continue to wait and hope for the resurrection eternally. We are invited to lean on the Lord for our strength, to seek God’s will and Word through an essentially embodied faith; and it all starts with how we train.
Prepare the physical body for the spiritual body! Live in the reality of resurrection now and seek the promise of glory eternal! Train and be transformed from glory into glory! Make every movement a prayer, every rep a praise!
By Iron, through Iron, to Iron. Laudate! Amen.
“The first man was of the dust of the earth, the second man is of heaven. As was the earthly man, so are those who are of the earth; and as is the heavenly man, so are those who are of heaven. And just as we have borne the image of the earthly man, so shall we bear the image of the heavenly man.” 1 Corinthians 15:47-49.
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