A New Body

Introduction

My paternal grandparents owned about 4 acres of land. During the growing season, they would plant all kinds of things. I can remember helping to plant corn. My grandfather had an old tractor that he would use to disc the ground and then would use it to create furrows for planting. The planting was done by hand. You would walk through the furrows and he would use some type of tool to create a hole and then drop seeds into the hole, cover the seeds with dirt, and move on to the next spot. That particular and only spring as I helped to plant the corn, it occurred to me how those seeds could become a full corn stalk. It fascinated me then. And although I have seen the time lapse videos of plants growing it is still fascinating to think that from a small seed, a plant grows that produces food to eat.

We wonder about what will happen to us when we die. We live our lives experiencing things through our senses of seeing, smelling, hearing, tasting, and touching and we wonder how things will be different after we die. We know the physical body well and we wonder what will be next. The Corinthians wondered the same thing. Paul does not give a full treatise about life after death but he does give us information that allows us to know that there is life after death. As Frank taught last week, in the first part of 1 Corinthians 15, Paul argues that the resurrection will occur because Jesus has led the way. Since God raised Jesus from the dead we can be confident that He will raise us from the dead as well. As we look at the rest of the text today, Paul will reveal that just as there is a physical body so there is a spiritual body. Again our confidence about the truth of that is based on Jesus. He is our focus each day as join together for worship. Let’s be encouraged.

The Resurrected Body

As Paul has done previously, it appears that he is trying to answer some questions that the believers in Corinth have about a specific subject. In this case, it is about the resurrection. The idea of life after death existed in Paul’s day but from different points of view. However, Paul taught a view that was challenging. There would be a resurrection. Not a continuation of the soul after death but the continuation of a body after death. It was this teaching that produced much discussion and opened up following Jesus for rejection. Paul begins this section be speaking through an anonymous person who asks for an explanation about the body after death.

Paul says that such a person who asks the question is foolish. The person isn’t thinking. The person isn’t looking around and observing how this world works. To leave God out of the process is a foolish thing to do. Paul illustrates through using seeds. Seeds go into the ground and then God brings life to that seed through a different form. The same thing will take place at the resurrection. God will take a buried body and bring it to life in a new way.

It will a different kind of flesh. It will not be physical. It will be a body that is suited for heaven. Additionally, the heavenly body will have a different glory than the glory of this world. Glory means radiance and is an important concept for Paul. The sun’s radiance is different from the moon and the stars, but each has their own radiance. The resurrected body will also have radiance but it will be different from anything that we have experienced in this world.

This results in a clear statement of exaltation and victory. The dead body is sown corruptible, dishonored, weak and natural. God raises the body incorruptible, in glory, in power, and spiritual. The resurrected body will clearly be different from the earthly body. Paul then gives one last example. It is found in a comparison between the first Adam and the second Adam or Jesus. But let’s not skip too quickly the end of verse 44. If there is a natural body then there has to be a spiritual body. If there is a first then there has to be a last. If there is a start then there is a end. If there is lesser then there has to be greater. Paul’s point is simply that an earthly body suggests that there is something else. So let’s compare the two Adams. The first Adam refers back to creation. We all share in the physical nature of the first Adam. The second Adam is Jesus. The second Adam has brought promises for the future and all who trust and follow Jesus will share in these promises.

The first Adam came first; then the second Adam.

The first Adam was physical; the second Adam is spiritual or life giving.

The first Adam came from the dust; the second Adam will come from heaven.

All share with the first Adam in being made of dust; and those who share with Christ will receive a heavenly body fit for a new home.

Application

With all of this explanation in verses 50–54 Paul gives a summary and view of how the process will take place. The earthly body cannot go into the heavenly world. So now Paul will reveal the mystery of how this will work. What he doesn’t do is give us all the details but he gives us enough to know that a change is coming. Both those who die and those who are living will be changed. It will happen quickly. The trumpet of God announcing Christ’s return will sound. The dead will be raised with a new body and those who are living will also be changed and death will no longer have its hold on us. And with a shout of victory, Paul reminds us that death does not have the last word. The victory comes through Christ.

So we remain constant. We keep our eyes raised in confidence and assurance that this is not it. This world is not our home. This physical world is not all there is. If there is a physical world, there is a spiritual world. We who know love, mercy, hate, ambition, and thankfulness know these through means other than the physical. We know that there is something more than the physical world. C.S. Lewis wrote: I think that Resurrection (whatever it exactly means) is so much profounder an idea than mere immortality. I am sure we don’t just “go on.” We really die and are really built up again.

This is what Paul teaches.

We are corruptible but the new body will be incorruptible. This body becomes the conduit through which sin is expressed. Sin begins in the mind but it finds its expression through our words and actions. God created this body for us, but the flesh is weak because of the choices we have made. It is corruptible. But the day will come when what we long for, a body that will not express sin and a heart that is set fully on God, will be ours.

This body is dishonored. It is through this body that shame comes. Some may attack us physically but in most ways we misuse our body. We use our body to engage in sin and it brings sin. But the day will come when God will give us a glorious body. It will be a body that reveals the radiance of God. It will shine with the brilliance of sinlessness and will never bring shame on our Father.

This body is weak. Because of our sin, we cover this body and we protect this body. Beauty fades. The softness of a baby’s skin becomes calloused and wrinkled. We have to work hard to preserve this body but even the great exercisers’ body eventually fails. Disease comes and ravages our body or we wear out over time and can no longer engage in life as we want. But the day will come when by the power of God we will be given a new body. It will not wear out. It will be spiritual. It will be a body intended for another world.

This body is natural. Made from dust. We can break it down into chemical elements. We are constructed in the beauty of union between husband and wife but we are made from physical elements. We are of this earth and when we die to this earth we will return. But the day is coming when we will be given a spiritual body. A body not intended for this world but a body that is intended to be with God forever and ever. It will be a body that we cannot imagine but it will be a body that has no physical elements but will be God’s eternal gift to us.

And when that day comes, there will be victory. All the waiting; all the sin; all the limitations; all the weakness will be gone. As we watch loved one die; as we experience our own death, we who belong to Christ will live with God in a new body. This is God’s promise to us. And we wait with determination. We do not exchange the present pleasure for an eternal future. We will live for God; we will love for God; we will make decisions for God; we will wait for God and then the day will come when we will get a new body and victory will be ours. Invitation.

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