The Glory of the Resurrected Body – 1 Corinthians 15:35-49

Good morning everyone. Hope you’re well! We hope that you’re encouraged and strengthened in faith through the service today.

If you’ve been tracking with us at the Gathering, you’d be aware that we’re going through a series titled The Church: God’s Dwelling Place from 1st Corinthians. And the recurring theme we’ve seen each week is this – that the church is not a building but the redeemed people of God among whom God dwells! Isn’t that an amazing thought? That God delights to call us His dwelling Place! That God would make His home among His people!!

And the reason it’s so amazing is because we realize that we’ve not got it all together. Just like the Corinthian church, we too struggle with moral issues, relational issues and theological issues. And yet God doesn’t move out of His dwelling Place but continues to cleanse, nurture and nourish us until we become like His Son Jesus. That’s why we need letters like 1st Corinthians to remind us of this.

Today we continue on in chapter 15 where Paul spends some time describing the nature of our future resurrected body. But I’d love to pray for us before we proceed.

Pray

Imagine if an announcement of an upcoming church retreat was being made where we just generically stated that we’re planning a retreat sometime in 2025. Maybe some would get excited but I guess most others would probably wait for details before getting their hopes up.

But what if the announcement was made with specific dates and pictures of the venue, then suddenly everyone is excited. Everyone is looking forward to it. Why? Because everyone realizes that this is now a reality. It is happening. The planning teams are beginning their preparations. We’re beginning to anticipate and look forward to it.

Similarly I believe that Paul is giving us a visual picture of the future resurrection in today’s passage. He’s giving us the details and visuals to make us realize that this is a reality. This is really happening. And if it’s really happening, then we have so much to anticipate and look forward to. There is so much prep which needs to be done today.

And here’s the thing I want us to start from – I don’t believe that most of us think alot about the resurrection. I don’t think we give it a lot of mindspace. Even in churches, we only end up focusing on justification and sanctification, but rarely do we talk about glorification – what is that going to look like. By not doing that, we’re losing out on the great hope , anticipation and preparation for the life to come. And that’s what this passage is trying to change for us.

The title of today’s sermon is The Glory of the Resurrected Body and we’ll try to unpack that verse by verse.

35] But someone will ask, “How are the dead raised? With what kind of body do they come?” [36] You foolish person! What you sow does not come to life unless it dies.

Let’s try to recap the context of this passage within the Corinthian church. There were some in the church who were denying the truth of a physical, bodily resurrection. Either they held onto a belief of no life after death or only the existence of a person’s soul after death but no physical, bodily resurrection. And this major theological error was having deep, damaging effects on their lifestyle. It caused them to say things like V32 – “Let us eat and drink, for tomorrow we die.” It was leading them to live sinful lives without any boundaries because they felt there was nothing beyond the grave. And that’s why Paul had to give them this stern warning in V34

[34] Wake up from your drunken stupor, as is right, and do not go on sinning. For some have no knowledge of God. I say this to your shame.

That’s the context and that’s how we get to V35. And here Paul is quoting a question that was asked to him by the Corinthian church. (Imagine it like a Ask Pastor Paul podcast)

[35] But someone will ask, “How are the dead raised? With what kind of body do they come?”

Now if you just read this verse, it seems like an innocent, curious question but that’s not the case because of the manner in which Paul responds in V36.

[36] You foolish person! What you sow does not come to life unless it dies.

Paul wasn’t overreacting to the question but rather addressing the sneering, snarky attitude with which it was being asked. In essence the Corinthians were asking in this way – “Oh, dead are being raised? Hmm, and what kind of body will they have”?

This snarky attitude is bringing a strong reaction from Paul in V36. But he’s also trying to address it by using a farming illustration. He says that when a seed is sown into the ground, it has to die first before it germinates into a plant.

Not just that, the body of the plant is way different than the body of the seed. Look at V37-38.

[37] And what you sow is not the body that is to be, but a bare kernel, perhaps of wheat or of some other grain. [38] But God gives it a body as he has chosen, and to each kind of seed its own body.

When farmers grow rice or wheat in their land, they don’t sow the harvest grain. They simply sow the kernel seeds of the grain & what appears during harvest is something totally different with a different shape, size and look.

If you’ve seen an acorn seed, it’s a small seed which can be held in your hand but once it’s planted it grows into an enormous oak tree. The seed and the final tree are totally different in terms of their shape, size and look.

What’s Paul saying through this illustration is that the body in which we die is not the body in which we will be resurrected. It will be a different physical body. That’s the point he’s driving home.

[39] For not all flesh is the same, but there is one kind for humans, another for animals, another for birds, and another for fish. [40] There are heavenly bodies and earthly bodies, but the glory of the heavenly is of one kind, and the glory of the earthly is of another. [41] There is one glory of the sun, and another glory of the moon, and another glory of the stars; for star differs from star in glory.

Paul is carrying forward that same thought in these verses. In the same way God has chosen and determined a different kind of body for each of the heavenly bodies (those placed in the heavens above like sun, moon and stars) and each of the earthly bodies (humans, animals, birds, fishes, plants), God has chosen and determined a different resurrected body from our natural earthly body.

Now I don’t think it’s by coincidence that Paul talks about the glory of the heavenly bodies and the glory of earthly bodies. By saying that he’s actually taking us back to the creation story bringing to mind the wonderful works of God which was created out of nothing.

God didn’t use existing raw materials to make the universe but simply spoke and it came to be! And the same powerful God who did that is the same powerful God who promises to give us a new, glorified, physical body when Jesus Christ returns. It’s not going to be a problem for him.

Just a side note – these verses tell us that earthly bodies like ours were created with glory! In other words, there’s an intrinsic value, worth, dignity and purpose attached to each and every one of us. In fact we’re the only ones among all of creation who have the privilege of being created in the image of God. That’s something that no other created being shares.

Hence, none of us should ever feel or think or say that our lives don’t matter or doesn’t have any worth or doesn’t have any purpose. No, God has created you and I with glory. No, but what about our family who keeps saying this to us or when we say it to ourselves. No, it’s only our Maker who attaches value, worth, dignity and purpose to us because He made us. Only His word counts and He says that He created us with glory.

So coming back to this passage – one thing is clear from this. Our resurrected body is going to be way more different and glorious than our current natural body.

And in V42 to 44, he explains the stark difference between our current natural body and our future resurrected body.

[42] So is it with the resurrection of the dead. What is sown is perishable; what is raised is imperishable. [43] It is sown in dishonor; it is raised in glory. It is sown in weakness; it is raised in power. [44] It is sown a natural body; it is raised a spiritual body. If there is a natural body, there is also a spiritual body.

He’s connecting it to the farming illustration once more. V42 tells us that our natural, physical body is perishable. In other words, it will age, it will waste away, it will decay.

I was reading online that the anti aging cosmetic industry is a multi billion dollar industry that sells costly products to people promising them that it will somehow slow down the impact of aging. But the reality is that this physical body is going to waste away no matter how much money or treatment or products that you apply on it.

But he’s contrasting that with our resurrected body which will be free from decay, aging, wasting away and corruption. It will be an immortal, physical body which will be granted to us.

Not just that V43 tells us that our current body is sown in dishonor. In other words when we die, it’s a reminder of humanity’s fallen condition and shame. It was not the way God intended when He created us. God created us for life and not to experience death.

In fact that was the clear warning that was given to Adam and Eve telling them that if they ate the forbidden fruit, they would die. But despite the warning, Adam and Eve willfully decided to rebel against God and they experienced immediate spiritual death followed by eventual physical death. God wasn’t kidding when He told them that they would die. And that consequence of death – spiritual and physical has been inherited by every human being ever since. We all carry that fallen condition in our bodies and the shame associated with it.

But thanks be to Christ and His wonderful sacrificial work that gives us what we don’t deserve. When we are resurrected, it will be a visible declaration of God’s restoration & approval over us.

Now this declaration is already a reality for believers when we receive Christ, but it will be put on full display at our resurrection. Like a showpiece on the wall, our resurrection will be God’s declaring to the whole world that “these are my redeemed and restored children whom I’ve redeemed through my Son’s blood and they’ve got my stamp of approval!”

V43 continues to tell us that our current body is sown in weakness. It’s one that is physically weak and frail. It constantly deals with body aches, broken bones, sicknesses, chronic illnesses and different kinds of physical ailments. What the whole season of Covid-19 taught us is that irrespective of how physically strong and healthy you think you might be, the fact is that this is a physical body which is weak.

But the amazing hope is that that won’t be the description of our resurrected body. It will be body free of frailty, aches, broken bones, chronic illnesses and all other forms of physical suffering. It will truly be a physical body with true strength and power. Just the way God intended our bodies to be.

V44 tells us that it is sown a natural body, but raised a spiritual body. Now what does that mean? It obviously still means a physical body otherwise Paul would be contradicting what he was trying to day through the whole passage.

What he means by spiritual is that it will be body which is being readied for heaven while still having a solid, physical form. We see the same in Jesus’ risen body after His resurrection.

He could be seen, heard, and touched (John 20:24–29), and He could eat (Luke 24:36–43). He could also, move through solid objects (John 20:19). He had been raised into His spiritual, glorified body. That’s the kind of spiritual body we are talking about.

And in V45-49, Paul brings this entire discussion to a close by comparing the life and body inherited from our forefather Adam and the life and body that we’ve inherited from Jesus Christ. That helps us put everything into perspective.

[45] Thus it is written, “The first man Adam became a living being”; the last Adam became a life-giving spirit.

The first man Adam was a created living being but had no capacity to give life to others. But Jesus Christ (uncreated, self-existent) is able to give life to others. The number of times Jesus is referred to as “life” itself in the Gospels.

John 14:6 ESV [6] Jesus said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.

John 10:10 ESV I came that they may have life and have it abundantly.

Jesus – the Son of God has come to be a life-giver. That’s His goal. That’s His purpose.

[46] But it is not the spiritual that is first but the natural, and then the spiritual. [47] The first man was from the earth, a man of dust; the second man is from heaven. [48] As was the man of dust, so also are those who are of the dust, and as is the man of heaven, so also are those who are of heaven. [49] Just as we have borne the image of the man of dust, we shall also bear the image of the man of heaven.

A result of us being born as a descendant of Adam is that we have all taken in his nature (spiritual and physical). We will all experience the burden of our fallen condition with sin, sickness and death. That’s the image that each of us carries with us. We’ve all got broken hearts and broken bodies.

But there’s amazing hope! We’re not just left there. God loves us so much that He sent His One and Only Son to carry on the cross our entire burden of sin, sickness and death.

He paid the price for this fallen image. And then on the third Day He rose from the dead to give us a renewed image in His likeness. That process began in our hearts on the day when we believed and that process will fully complete on the Day when He returns when our hearts and bodies will be fully renewed.

And not just renewed but replaced with a spiritual, glorious body that resembles Jesus Himself.

How amazing is that? Did any of us do anything to deserve this? No, nothing, it’s just a gift of His grace.

Church, look at the details and visual pictures of what our resurrection is going to look like. Think about it, long for it, praise God for it and let this fill your heart with so much of hope and anticipation and endurance as you wait for that day to come.

Let that hope cause you to prepare yourselves for it. Let your life decisions be aligned to this “coming soon” reality. Let your lifestyles be reflective of this resurrection reality. It is going to happen! The God who promised this doesn’t lie and has the power to make it happen exactly as He said He would in this passage.