New Testament in a Year
29 Otherwise, what will they do, the ones being given tevilah on behalf of the dead? If the Mesim really are not raised, why indeed are they given tevilah on behalf of the Mesim?
30 Why also are we putting ourselves at risk and in danger every hour?
31 Daily I die and that is as true a fact, Achim b’Moshiach, as it is that I glory over you in Moshiach Yehoshua Adoneinu.
32 If it were a mere humanistic matter, my fighting, so to speak, with wild beasts in Ephesus (Ac 19; 2C 1:3 10), what do I gain? If there is no Techiyas HaMesim, "Let us eat and drink, KI MACHAR NAMUT "For tomorrow we die" YESHAYAH 22:13; 56:12).
33 Do not fall under a delusion. "Bad chavrusashaft (association, influence or hashpa’ah) corrupts good midos."
34 Wake up and come to your senses. Start walking in the derech tzaddikim (TEHILLIM 1:6). Stop committing averos. Some among you have no saving da’as of Hashem. I say this to your bushah (shame).
35 But someone will question, "How does this Techiyas HaMesim come about? And in the Techiyas HaMesim, with what kind of body will they come?" [YECHEZKEL 37:3]
36 Yold, what you sow is not made alive unless it dies!
37 And what is it you sow? Not the body that is to be, but something else: a bare zera (seed), efsher (perhaps) of wheat or some other grain.
38 However, Hashem chooses [another] body to give to the [“dead” and buried] seed, and to each kind of zera is given by Hashem its own body (Gn 1:11-13; 47:18-19).
39 Now basar is not all the same: Bnei Adam have one kind of basar; animals, another; birds, another; fish, another;
40 and there are gufot baShomayim (heavenly bodies), and gufot baAretz (earthly bodies), but the kavod of the heavenly is of one kind, and the kavod of the earthly of another kind.
41 There is one kavod (glory) of the shemesh (sun), and another kavod (glory) of the levanah (moon), and another kavod (glory) of the kochavim (stars), for in kavod (glory), kochav differs from kochav. [TEHILLIM 19:4-6; 8:1,3]
42 So also is the Techiyas HaMesim. That which is sown is of one kind, perishable; that which is raised up is of another kind, imperishable. [DANIEL 12:3]
43 What is sown without kavod is raised in kavod. What is sown in weakness is raised in ko’ach (power).
44 What is sown a natural body, is raised a spiritual body. If there is a natural body, there is also a spiritual one.
45 So, also, it has been written, VAY’HI HAADAM L’NEFESH CHAYYAH ("And the [first] Man became a living soul," BERESHIS 2:7); but the Adam haacharon (last Adam) became a Ruach mechayyeh (Yn 5:26).
46 But the spiritual body is not harishon, but the natural; then afterward the spiritual.
47 The Adam Harishon is AFAR MIN HA’ADAMAH ("dust from the earth, ground" BERESHIS 2:7), out of ha’aretz. The Adam HaSheini (the second Adam) is out of Shomayim. [BERESHIS 2:7; 3:19; TEHILLIM 90:3]
48 As was the Adam of dust, such also are those of the dust; as was the Adam of Shomayim, such also are those who are of Shomayim.
49 And just as we have borne the demut of the Adam MIN AFAR HA’ADAMAH ("from the dust of the earth" BERESHIS 2:7), so we will bear also the likeness of the Heavenly Adam (Man). [BERESHIS 5:3]
50 Now this I say, Achim b’Moshiach, that basar vadahm cannot inherit the Malchut Hashem, neither can the perishable inherit the imperishable (TEHILLIM 16:9-10; IYOV 19:25-26).
51 Hinei! I speak a sod (mystery) to you: we will not all sleep the sleep of the Mesim, but we will all be changed.
52 In a rega (moment), in the wink of an eye, at the last shofar blast. For the shofar will sound, the Mesim (dead ones) will be raised imperishable, and we will be changed.
53 For it is necessary for this perishable nature to put on the imperishable, and this mortal nature to put on the immortal.
54 But when this perishable nature puts on the imperishable, and this mortal, the immortal, then the dvar hanevu’ah will come to pass that stands written, "He will swallow up death forever" (YESHAYAH 25:8) in victory.
55 EHI DEVARECHA MAVET EHI KATAVECHA SHEOL? ("Where are your plagues, O Death? Where is your destruction, O Sheol?" HOSHEA 13:14)
56 Now the sting of death is chet (sin) and the ko’ach (power) of chet (sin) is chukkat haTorah [see Dt 27:26; Ga 3:1-13; Ro 7:7-13].
57 But Baruch Hashem, Who is giving us the nitzachon (victory) through Adoneinu Rebbe, Melech HaMoshiach.
58 So then, Chaverim and Achim b’Moshiach of mine, be steadfast, immovable, abounding always in the avodas kodesh of Adoneinu, have da’as that your po’al (work) is not in vain in Hashem [2Ch 15:7; Isa 65:23].
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