The Resurrection Body (1 Corinthians 15:35-49)

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Paul imagines someone arguing with him – 15:35-36a. Acts 26:8.

  1. There are illustrations of resurrection in nature.
      1. 15:36-38; John 12:24. There is both continuity and discontinuity between the seed and the plant, the body here and the resurrection body.
      2. 15:39. If God can make different kinds of flesh here on earth, then He can make a resurrection flesh.
      3. 15:40-1; the sun, moon, and stars are not the same. Martin Luther: ‘Our Lord has written the promise of the resurrection not in books alone, but in every leaf in springtime.’ He may not have said it but he should have!
  2. The earthly body contrasted to the resurrection body.
      1. the earthly body is perishable; the resurrection body is imperishable (15:42). When Richard Baxter was dying, someone asked him how he was. He replied: ‘Almost well.’
      2. the earthly body is sown in dishonour; the resurrection body is raised in glory (15:43a; Phil.3:20-21). Chrysostom: ‘What is more unsightly than a corpse in dissolution?’
      3. it is sown in weakness; it is raised in power (15:43b).
      4. it is sown a natural body; it is raised a spiritual body (15:44) – a body animated by the Holy Spirit.
  3. Adam and Christ demonstrate this contrast.
    • 15:45-49; see Genesis 2:7; Rom.8:29. James McAuley: ‘By your kingly power, O risen Lord,/ All that Adam lost is now restored.’ Actually, in Christ we receive more than Adam lost.
    • In his Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard, Thomas Gray wrote rightly: ‘The paths of glory lead but to the grave.’ That is so true, but there is more in Christ – the grave leads to resurrection glory.