Charles Ellicott Commentary 1 Corinthians 15:50

"Now this I say, brethren, that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God; neither doth corruption inherit incorruption." — 1 Corinthians 15:50 (ASV)

Now this I say.—This is the phrase with which the Apostle is accustomed to introduce some statement of profound significance. (See 1 Corinthians 1:12; 1 Corinthians 7:29.) The statement introduced here is that flesh and blood, being characterized by corruption, cannot enter into the heavenly state, which is characterized by incorruption. This is still part of the answer to the question, “With what bodies do they come?” but the reply is no longer based on any analogy.

It comes now as a revelation of what he had been taught by the Spirit of God. Flesh and blood are indeed characterized by corruption. Blood is everywhere the type of this lower animal life.

Blood is the life of the flesh; and so, though Jews might eat the flesh, they might not eat the blood, which is the life of it (Genesis 9:4).

All offerings which typified the offering up and sacrifice of “self”—the lower sinful self—were sacrifices by shedding of blood, without which was no remission (Hebrews 9:22). When the supreme Sacrifice was made on Calvary, the blood was shed—once for all.

So when Christ showed His resurrection body to His disciples, He did not say, “A spirit hath not flesh and blood, as ye see Me have;” but “A spirit hath not ‘flesh and bones,’ as ye see Me have.”

The blood of Christ is never spoken of as existing after His crucifixion. That was the supreme sacrifice of Self to God. The blood—the type of the human self—was poured out forever.

It is to be noticed also that the phrase “of His flesh and of His bones” (not His “blood,” which the Eucharistic Feast would have suggested) was evidently in ordinary use, as it was interpolated in Ephesians 5:30.

The blood, as the type of our lower nature, is familiar in all popular expressions, as when we say, for example, that a “man’s blood is up,” meaning that his physical nature is asserting itself. One characteristic of the resurrection body, therefore, is that it shall be bloodless.