Cornelius a Lapide

Now this I say, brethren , that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God. (1.) Origen and Euthymius explain this as follows, that in heaven the blessed will not have a body of flesh but an etherial body. But thi^is a manifest error, and opposed to ver. 53, as we shall see. (2.) Theophylact and Ambrose say that the flesh, or the works of the THE GENERAL RESURRECTION 397 flesh, will not inherit the kingdom of God. But (i.) The natural meaning is that natural and corruptible flesh and blood, such as the earthly Adam had and such as we have in this life, will not inherit the kingdom of God. What the Apostle, in vers. 46, 47, called natural and earthly, he here calls flesh and blood. He merely wishes to point out that in heaven the body will not be as here, natural and earthly, but spiritual and heavenly, in the sense that I have explained (ver. 47). This is why he adds, “neither doth corruption,” *.*., corruptible flesh, “ inherit incorruption.” Cf. Theodoret, Theophylact, Ambrose. (2.) The Apostle leaves it to be collected from t{iese words that in heaven there will be no carnal and animal life, consisting in the use of food and generation of children, such as the Jews and Mahometans look for at the resurrection. (3.) He implies that those who are striving for the kingdom of God ought not to live after the flesh, but after the Spirit of Christ, that so they may bear the image, not of the earthly and carnal Adam, but of the heavenly and spiritual Christ ; then they will merit to reign with Christ, and to live a life of bliss in heaven. “ Flesh ”often stands for the corruption of the flesh. Cf. Augustine { Ep . 146 ad Consentium)