Quote:
Originally Posted by OBW
Ohio,
I think that the point that Paul made was that Christ, who was life-giving, was now in a spiritual body.
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This interpretation shoehorns an apparently stubborn scripture. But let's look at it.
Paul was comparing and contrasting throughout this entire section of I Cor 15. He compared the First Adam to Christ, whom he interestingly called the "Last" Adam. He called Adam the "First" man, (which I'm sure upsets the evolutionists here) and surprisingly called Christ the "Second" man. Other contrasts can be seen: Earthy/heavenly, soulish/spiritual/ corruption/incorruption, seed/body, etc.
Paul says that Adam "became" or "was made" a living soul, and he follows with Christ, the Last Adam, "became" or "was made" [a] life-giving spirit.
I realize that you have issues with this, and struggle to explain it away, as if the plain words of Paul's statement here somehow insults the persons of the Godhead. Paul did this regularly it seems. (eg Col 2.9)
Back to your opening comment. Was the man Jesus, the promised Christ, already "life-giving" as you said? Sure, Jesus raised Lazarus, only to die at a later date, but that was his physical body, his "bios" life, and not the "zoe" life.
Was Jesus Christ, prior to His resurrection, able to give life, the eternal life? Was He really "ZOE-giving?"
If not, then as Paul says, "The Last Adam became a Zoe-giving Spirit."