And we declare to you glad tidings—that promise which was made to the fathers. God has fulfilled this for us their children, in that He has raised up Jesus. As it is also written in the second Psalm: “You are my son, today I have begotten you.” And that He raised Him from the dead, no more to return to corruption, He has spoken thus: “I will give you the sure mercies of David.” Therefore He also says in another Psalm: “You will not allow Your Holy One to see corruption.” (Acts 13:32-35)

Corruption Is The Penalty Of Sin

Billions of dollars are spent every year developing, marketing, and purchasing products that attempt to prolong youth and extend life. It is a profitable business because the reality is that nothing man can do will inhibit aging and death. These are certainties in life that no cream, medical procedure, or scientific breakthrough will change. The Egyptians tried to find eternal life and failed. All the marketing ploys of modern advertising will not give years back or turn back the time clock. Attempting to look younger is a waste of money and time. Antiaging products fly in the face of reality. Try as they might, people grow older every day, and their bodies reflect the aging process.

Before the advent of modern medical forensics, it was understood that when a death occurred, the body would not show signs of corruption until the fourth day. Often the bodies would be taken by the family, and a wake would be held to honor the dead and to mourn their passing. Before the fourth day, the body would be entombed. Any time after this and visible signs of decomposition would become apparent. This was the case, especially in the time of Jesus, as the Jews held strict compliance with burial before the fourth day. When Jesus raised Lazarus from the dead, the people were astonished because the dead man would have had an obnoxious odor. The miracle’s power was that He raised him on the fourth day, and He came forth alive without the stench of death.

The body’s corruption can be explained to the atomic level of medical science, but God explained the decay process in the Bible. When the Lord placed Adam and Eve in the garden of Eden, He commanded them to eat of every tree but the tree of knowledge of good and evil. The penalty for disobedience was death. Satan deceived Eve, and Adam also took of the fruit in disobedience to the word of God. They did not die immediately – at least physically. God had told them they would die, and He referred to the relationship between man and God. It was not until Adam and Eve were expelled from the garden and access to the tree of life denied the full penalty of their disobedience became clear. No longer able to eat of the tree of life, Adam and Eve would die. Adam lived for 930 years, and he died. He was buried somewhere, and his body began to decay. In a short time, everything that was the physical body of Adam disappeared. Abel was the first recorded death in the Bible by the hand of his brother, Cain. Abel’s body began to decompose and suffer corruption. Every person who has lived on the face of the earth has suffered the corruption of the grave—all but Jesus.

Jesus died on the cross Friday afternoon. Joseph of Arimathea and Nicodemus took the body of Jesus and placed it in a sealed and impenetrable tomb the same day. Early on the morning of the first day of the week, Jesus rose from the dead. It was not a coincidence that He rose on the third day. David wrote in Psalm 16 the Holy One would not be allowed to suffer corruption. The body corrupts physically because of the penalty of sin. It is a gruesome, horrid, and sickening process to witness the body’s physical decay. On the fourth day, the evidence of this process becomes abundantly clear, and in a short time, the putridity of decay impacts all the senses.

Jesus’ body did not experience this corruption because Jesus did not experience sin. The penalty of sin is corruption, but He did not sin, and the Father would not allow His body to experience the physical body’s corruption. God promised to raise the Holy One from the dead, and the resurrection would not endure the corruption of the flesh. Jesus was raised from the dead, no more to return to corruption. David saw corruption when he died, as do all men. Jesus did not. The resurrection happened on the third day according to the will of God to show that while the curse of sin is upon all men because all men sin, Jesus rose from the dead without corruption and sin. This was the same message preached by Peter on Pentecost to prove to the Jews that Jesus was the Holy One. Jesus was alive, but He was more than alive. He did not suffer corruption so that all who call on His name could experience the incorruptible glory of a new body in the final resurrection. Where there is no sin, there will be no corruption. Praise be to God for the promised body that fades not away, eternal in the heavens.