By the time we get to 1 Corinthians 15:35 Paul is more or less finished dealing with those who had accepted the false teaching that there is no resurrection and begins to write more specifically about this event. There are two questions posed in verse 35: how are the dead raised, and what kind of body will they have?
He begins to answer in the next verse, “How foolish! What you plant does not come to life until it dies first.” (Compare John 12:24) So, Paul is going back to basics here using the example of planting a seed. Just as a seed has to be buried and decompose in the ground before it can spring up to new life again, the body has to die and be buried before it can be resurrected.
It’s important to understand Paul’s reasoning in the next two verses (37-38). “What you plant is nothing like what will grow from it; it’s just a seed, perhaps of wheat or some other grain. But God gives it the body He has determined, and to each kind of seed He gives its own body.” In other words, there’s no comparison between the seed you put in the ground and what grows out of it. God has determined that the dead body that goes into the ground and the resurrection body that comes from it will be vastly different!
Just look at the difference between a single grain of wheat and what eventually grows from it when it is planted. The difference is obvious. There is a principle that must be understood, which is: what is resurrected is dramatically superior to what has died. And by the time we get to the end of this chapter, Paul will have made that perfectly clear.
There is one other point to be made from the last phrase of verse 38, “and to each kind of seed He gives its own body.” You can’t plant wheat and harvest corn. In the resurrection each person will have his or her own body (color, general appearance, recognizable features, etc.). There will be immense improvements in that body, as we will see. However, the disciples recognized Jesus after His resurrection because His overall appearance had not changed.
He continues, “All flesh is not the same. Men have one kind of flesh, animals have another, birds another and fish still another. There are heavenly bodies and there are earthly bodies; the beauty of heavenly bodies is one thing, and the beauty of earthly bodies is another. The sun is glorious in one way, the moon in another, the stars in yet another, as one may surpass the other in its brilliance.” (Verses 39-41) Here Paul is simply trying to illustrate the fact that there is great variety and differences in bodies – we don’t all look alike now in this present life and we won’t all look alike in eternity.
But as already mentioned, the resurrection body is going to have some great improvements. “So it will be with the resurrection of the dead. The body that is buried will decay, but the body that is resurrected will never decay. It is buried in dishonor; it is raised in honor. It is buried in weakness; it is raised in strength. It is buried a physical body; it is raised a spiritual body. Just as sure as there is a physical body, there is a spiritual body.” (Verses 42-44)
Name anything you can think of that has ever caused you physical, emotional or spiritual pain or even slight discomfort. It could be something like a grave injury, sickness or disease; or something less serious and temporary like guilt, fear, condemnation, rejection or any number of things – in the resurrection those things are all gone! It’s impossible to imagine, certainly not anything we have experienced in this life!
Yet Paul has just described a resurrection (spiritual) body that is immortal, incapable of humiliation of any sort and possessing supernatural abilities not possible in the old physical (natural) body. And just to be clear at this point, let’s not confuse the difference between a spiritual body and a natural body. The spiritual body is not immaterial or intangible; it is a real, material, flesh and bone body (more on that later).
Let’s move on. Paul is going to illustrate the difference between the natural and the spiritual by comparing the first man (Adam) with Christ. This is verse 45-49, “It is written, The first man Adam became a living soul; the last Adam (Christ) became a life-giving Spirit. And it is not the spiritual life that came first, but the physical and then the spiritual. The first man was out of the earth, made from dust; the second man is from heaven. Now those made of dust are like him who was first made of dust; and as is the man from heaven, so also are those who are of heaven. And just as we have borne the image of the man made of dust, so shall we also bear the image of the man from heaven.”
The comparison is fairly simple: there is a first Adam and a second Adam; the first was a living soul, the second a quickening Spirit; the first was natural, the second is spiritual; the first was of the earth, the second is from heaven; the first was a man, the second was both man and God and, most importantly, just as we have borne the image of the earthly, we will also bear the image of the heavenly.
And, let’s look at the word translated “image” (“likeness” in some translations). It’s from eikon, meaning, to be like or resemble and is always used to describe a physical representation. It is important to note that eikon is often used (as it is here) to describe earthly copies of the archetypal (original) things in heaven. Here Paul is saying the believer’s resurrection body will be the same as Christ’s resurrection body in every way!
So, again, here’s another opportunity to quote Philippians 3:20-21, “But our citizenship is in heaven, and from it we patiently await our Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, Who will transform the body of our humiliation to conform to the body of His glory, by exerting that power that enables Him to subject everything Himself.”
And I know we’ve already done this in past lessons when we looked at the appearances of Christ after His resurrection, but a short discussion of this bears repeating. What are some of the characteristics of this supernatural, spiritual, resurrection body? Remember Jesus’ description of His body in Luke 24:39 when He appeared to the disciples. They thought He was a ghost; but He told them to look at His hands and feet and touch Him for themselves, that He had flesh and bones. He had a material, tangible body. Yet it was not described as flesh and blood, but flesh and bones.
At a different time Jesus told Thomas to put his hand in the open wound in His side. It’s obvious Jesus was not leaving a trail of blood from the open wounds in His hands, feet and side. It’s also obvious the resurrection body is not sustained by blood supplying oxygen, fluids and nutrients to it through a heart and vascular system. And yet Jesus ate food with the disciples on several occasions after His resurrection and promised the disciples they would eat and drink at His table in His kingdom.
Another fascinating ability of this spiritual body was demonstrated when Jesus appeared to the disciples who had gathered in a room and the door was locked. Several times He showed the ability to pass through solid walls. At other times it was apparent that He also was able to travel long distances in no time at all.
When He appeared to Mary Magdalene in John 20, the grammatical structure of the Greek in verse 17 tells us during the 40 days following His resurrection when He made those appearances described in the Gospel accounts (and probably others not recorded), He was continually going back and forth from the presence of the Father to the earth and back to the Father. The differences between the natural, physical body and the resurrection, spiritual bodies are mind-boggling.
In the next lesson we will look at the time of the resurrection and examine several passages describing this and explain the relation of the rapture to the resurrection and the difference between the first resurrection and the second resurrection.