What Kind Of Body?
1 Corinthians 15:35 But someone will ask, “How are the dead raised? What kind of body will they have when they come?” 36 You fool! What you sow does not come to life unless it dies. 37 And as for what you sow—you are not sowing the body that will be, but only a seed, perhaps of wheat or another grain. 38 But God gives it a body as he wants, and to each of the seeds its own body. 39 Not all flesh is the same flesh; there is one flesh for humans, another for animals, another for birds, and another for fish. 40 There are heavenly bodies and earthly bodies, but the splendor of the heavenly bodies is different from that of the earthly ones. 41 There is a splendor of the sun, another of the moon, and another of the stars; in fact, one star differs from another star in splendor. 42 So it is with the resurrection of the dead: Sown in corruption, raised in incorruption; 43 sown in dishonor, raised in glory; sown in weakness, raised in power; 44 sown a natural body, raised a spiritual body. If there is a natural body, there is also a spiritual body. 45 So it is written, The first man Adam became a living being; the last Adam became a life-giving spirit. 46 However, the spiritual is not first, but the natural, then the spiritual.
47 The first man was from the earth, a man of dust; the second man is from heaven. 48 Like the man of dust, so are those who are of the dust; like the man of heaven, so are those who are of heaven. 49 And just as we have borne the image of the man of dust, we will also bear the image of the man of heaven.
50 What I am saying, brothers and sisters, is this: Flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God, nor can corruption inherit incorruption.
Last Sunday I preached on 1 Cor. 15:12-20. There Paul asked the question, “Now if Christ is proclaimed as raised from the dead, how can some of you say, ‘There is no resurrection of the dead’?” He was directing this at some converts who failed to leave behind certain pagan or other beliefs that made it hard to believe in the resurrection of the dead. What Paul ends up saying to them is, “If you Gentile converts to Christianity are going to bring with you some of your assumptions from your pagan and polytheistic religion, if you are going to bring with you some aspects of your Greek philosophy, if you are going to bring with you your former materialistic belief – all of which deny that dead bodies can be resurrected – you are playing with fire. Those beliefs, if you bring them with you, those ideas, if you do not leave them behind, have consequences. You will end up denying the resurrection of Christ. You will end up believing our preaching and your faith are useless, that we are a bunch of liars, that there is no forgiveness of sin, no hope, and that Christians are pitiful fools.”
In today’s text Paul states an objection raised by these same Gentile converts to Christianity: “But someone will ask, ‘How are the dead raised? What kind of body will they have when they come?'” In other words, they are saying something like, “But Paul, we still can’t wrap our heads around this resurrection-of-dead-body thing. Our observation and experience tells us that dead bodies don’t come back to life. Our observation tells us that every single dead body is either cremated or decomposes. So how are the dead raised? What (in the world) kind of body will they have? It doesn’t make sense. It defies our observations.”
So Paul answers, and when he does so he includes a conviction that is not specifically stated but was a conviction that these Gentile converts also accepted because they were now Christians, a conviction they would not have held to prior to becoming Christians. And it is a very basic conviction, one that we take for granted, but would have been brand new to these Gentile converts. Here it is: there is “one God, the Father Almighty, Maker of heaven and earth and all things visible and invisible.”
This had been foreign to them, but now these converts had come to believe there is just one God, not many gods; and this one God is Almighty, not partially mighty; and this one God made everything thing in the universe. So starting with that conviction, that belief, Paul now says to them, “Let’s consider some other things you have observed.”
“Let’s begin with a tiny little insignificant-looking seed. By all appearances it is dead. We bury in the ground. What happens to it? Whatever comes out of the ground is at least a thousand times bigger; it can be grains of wheat, it can be the most beautiful flower, it can be a towering tree that lives for hundreds of years. How could this amazing transformation take place? You now know. There is one Almighty God, Maker of all things. That is how you explain this amazing transformation, something that also is a picture of what will happen on the last day to the dead bodies of Christians. It happens now with a seed, it will happen then with the body.”
“Let’s begin with a tiny little insignificant-looking seed. By all appearances it is dead. We bury in the ground. What happens to it? Whatever comes out of the ground is at least a thousand times bigger; it can be grains of wheat, it can be the most beautiful flower, it can be a towering tree that lives for hundreds of years. How could this amazing transformation take place? You now know. There is one Almighty God, Maker of all things. That is how you explain this amazing transformation, something that also is a picture of what will happen on the last day to the dead bodies of Christians. It happens now with a seed, it will happen then with the body.”
“Here’s another example. Take living creatures. You have the flesh of fish, of birds, or animals, and of human beings. Great diversity between them, great diversity within them, along with amazing beauty and what clearly is divine design. Who is responsible for this diversity, design, and beauty? You Gentile converts now know the answer: An Almighty God, Maker of all things.
“One more example: You observe the moon, the sun, and the stars. You not only recognize that each one has a splendor or glory, but the degree of splendor differs remarkably from one to the other. Surely your former finite and limited gods and goddesses cannot explain this. But you now know that there is one Almighty God, Maker of heaven and earth.
“Your belief, your new-found conviction in one Almighty God informs how all these amazing things, these great diversities, these incredible transformations can take place. So why in the world would you doubt or deny the resurrection of dead bodies? Does he for some reason leave behind his almighty power when it comes to raising the dead? What you need to bring with you is not your former or contrary beliefs, but your new belief in one God, the Father Almighty, Maker of heaven and earth and all things visible and invisible.”
So that’s one argument Paul is making in our text. And we need to do the same today.
Another thing he talks about here is a comparison between the “first Adam” and what he calls the “last Adam,” who is Christ. He calls the first Adam “a man of dust.” He was a man of dust in two ways. First, that was his origination. In Genesis 1 we read, “Then the Lord God formed the man out of the dust from the ground and breathed the breath of life into his nostrils, and the man became a living being.” Second, dust would be his destination, because of sin. In chapter 3 of Genesis, after the fall into sin, God says to Adam, “You will eat bread by the sweat of your brow until you return to the ground, since you were taken from it. For you are dust, and you will return to dust.” (Gen. 3:19)
Back in our text, Paul says, “we have borne the image of the man of dust.” (v. 49) The original sin, as it is often called, of Adam – that brought death to him so he would return to dust – has come to us as well. We own that sinfulness as much as he did. We inherited it, an inheritance we trace all the way back to Adam.
But then there’s “the last Adam” or “the second man,” namely Jesus Christ, the Son of God. Paul says, “the second man is from heaven” – heaven, his place of origination and destination. And then he makes this remarkable statement that is connected to our resurrection from the dead on the last day: “Just as we have borne the image of the man of dust, we will also bear the image of the man of heaven.” The “we” he is talking about here are the baptized believers in Christ. When we are baptized, we are baptized into the body of Christ (1 Cor. 12:13, 27). Our sins are all washed away, we are clothed with Christ, we are born again, we are saved, we are we are united with Christ. In fact, we are united with Christ more than we ever have been united with Adam, the man of dust. What that means, again, is “we will also bear the image of the man of heaven.” He’s talking about our resurrected body. Philippians 3 puts it this way: “we eagerly wait for a Savior from [heaven], the Lord Jesus Christ. He will transform our lowly body into the likeness of his glorious body, by the power that enables him to subject everything to himself.” (3:20-21) He will take our bodies that are supposed to be destined to dust and death, including eternal death, and transform them on the last day so they will be like the amazing and glorious body Christ.
But now I want to go back to the middle verses of our text for this is where, I think, it gets really exciting. This is where we get a better sense of the resurrected bodies we will have. After talking about the splendor of the stars, Paul says, “So it is with the resurrection of the dead: Sown in corruption, raised in incorruption; sown in dishonor, raised in glory; sown in weakness, raised in power; sown a natural body, raised a spiritual body.” (vv. 42-44) Several words are used here to describe the shocking difference between the body of dust (that we have as a result of being united with the first Adam) and the same body, except it is resurrected and transformed (as a result of being united with Christ). Corruption, incorruption – no longer able to decay or break down. Dishonor, glory – think of the difference between a slave and prince. Weakness, power – no more illness, no more weariness, we will be able to do things never imagined with our bodies. Natural, spiritual – our bodies will not be subject to earthly limitations, like Christ appearing to the disciples after his resurrection even though the doors were locked.
There are verses in the Old Testament that give us a picture of what this will entail. In Daniel 12 it says we “will shine like the stars forever and ever.” (12:3) In Isaiah 40 we are told that “they who wait for the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings like eagles; they shall run and not be weary; they shall walk and not faint.” (40:31). Martin Luther talked about it this way: the resurrected body “will be so strong that with one finger it will be able to carry this church, with one toe it will be able to move a tower and play with a mountain as children play with a ball. And in the twinkling of an eye it will be able to leap to the clouds or traverse a hundred miles.” “…it will sally forth into heaven and earth, play with the sun and moon and all the other creatures, and be delighted by this.” (LW 28:188, 189f.)
So there it is! But we must never forget why this will be. Never forget! This will come about because of what Paul wrote at the beginning and also the end of 1 Corinthians 15. The beginning:
(15:1-5)
Now, brothers, I want to remind you of the gospel I preached to you, which you received and on which you have taken your stand. By this gospel you are saved, if you hold firmly to the word I preached to you. … For what I received I passed on to you as of first importance: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures, and that he appeared…
Because of Christ and his work.
And the end:
(15:54-58)
Death has been swallowed up in victory.
Where, death, is your victory? Where, death, is your sting?
The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law. But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ!
Therefore, my dear brothers and sisters, be steadfast, immovable, always excelling in the Lord’s work…
Amen.
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