1 Corinthians 15:35 - Meaning and Application

The apostle now answers a strong objection to the doctrine of the resurrection of the dead. He states it this way: “How are the dead raised? And with what kind of body do they come?” (1 Corinthians 15:35). The objection has two parts. One asks how the dead can be raised at all, as if it were impossible and beyond divine power. This kind of doubt was common among the heathen, and the Sadducees seemed to think the same way.

Paul treats that objection as foolish. He points to something they see every year, the death and renewal of grain. “What you sow does not come to life unless it dies” (1 Corinthians 15:36). Grain must first decay before it grows again. Why, then, should anyone think a dead person cannot live again by the same power that brings dead seed back to life every year? It is a foolish thing to doubt God’s power to raise the dead when we see signs of that power all around us.

Paul then turns to the second question, which is more about curiosity than disbelief. He begins by saying that the seed planted in the ground is not the same body that comes up. It is only a bare grain, such as wheat or barley. But God gives it a body as he chooses, and each seed has its own proper form. We do not understand exactly how this happens, but we can see that the seed is changed. In the same way, the dead will be raised and live again in their bodies after death.

He then shows that there is already great variety in the bodies God has made. All flesh is not the same. Human flesh is one kind, beasts another, fish another, and birds another (1 Corinthians 15:39). There is also a difference between heavenly bodies and earthly bodies, because each kind has its own fitting glory. Earthly bodies are not suited for the heavenly realm, and heavenly bodies are not suited for earthly life. Even among heavenly bodies there is variety: the sun has one glory, the moon another, and the stars another, and one star differs from another in glory (1 Corinthians 15:41).

All this prepares us to understand the resurrection. God can certainly raise the dead and fit their bodies for heaven, just as he forms different kinds of flesh and different kinds of plants from matter. So the same power that has made such variety in creation can also raise the dead. Paul’s point is clear: if God can make all these different bodies, he can also give new glory to our dead bodies.

Then Paul comes directly to the issue: “So will it be with the resurrection of the dead” (1 Corinthians 15:42). The body rises changed, like a plant growing from a seed that has decayed in the ground. It will no longer be an earthly body, but a heavenly one, and the glory of one raised body will differ from another, just as one star differs from another.

Paul gives four marks of this change. First, the body is sown in corruption, but raised in incorruption. Burial is like sowing seed in the earth. Our present bodies decay and return to dust, but the risen body will never again be subject to decay. Second, it is sown in dishonor, but raised in glory. Our present body is a low and shameful thing in death, but at the resurrection it will be honored and made like the glorious body of Christ. Third, it is sown in weakness, but raised in power. In death the body is helpless and powerless, but when raised it will be full of life, strength, and lasting vigor. Fourth, it is sown a natural body, a body fitted for this present life and its lower pleasures, but it will be raised a spiritual body.

That does not mean the body becomes spirit or stops being bodily. Paul is speaking comparatively. The risen body will still be a body, but it will be fully fitted for the life of heaven and directed by the Spirit, not by the needs of this present life.

At the resurrection, we will have bodies purified and refined to the highest degree. They will be light and agile. They will not become spirits, but they will be fit to live forever with perfected spirits. Why should it seem any less within God’s power to raise incorruptible, glorious, living, spiritual bodies from the ruins of these weak, corruptible, lifeless, animal bodies, than it was for him first to create matter out of nothing, and then from the same material to produce such a great variety of creatures in heaven and on earth? For God, all things are possible, and this cannot be impossible.

Paul explains this with a comparison between the first Adam and the second Adam. There is an animal body, and there is a spiritual body, and he compares them in several ways. We now have our natural body, the animal body we possess in this world, from the first Adam. In the same way, we expect our spiritual body from the second Adam, Christ. This fits the very different roles these two men have.

The first Adam was made a living soul, a creature like us, with the power to pass on beings like himself and to give them a nature and body like his own, but nothing higher. The second Adam, Christ, is a life-giving Spirit. He is the resurrection and the life (John 11:25). He has life in himself, and he gives life to whomever he wills (John 5:20, John 5:21). The first man came from the earth and was made of earth, so his body suited the world he lived in. But the second Adam is the Lord from heaven, the one who came down from heaven and gives life to the world (John 6:33), the one who came down from heaven and was in heaven at the same time (John 3:13), the Lord of heaven and earth. If the first Adam could pass on natural, animal bodies, cannot the second Adam make our bodies spiritual ones?

We must first have natural bodies from the first Adam before we can have spiritual bodies from the second (1 Corinthians 15:49). We must bear the image of the earthly man before we can bear the image of the heavenly man. This is the order God has established. We must have weak, frail, mortal bodies from the first Adam before we can have living, spiritual, and immortal bodies by the life-giving power of the second. We must die before we can live so that we never die again.

Yet if we belong to Christ, true believers in him, then it is just as certain that we will have spiritual bodies as it is that we now have natural ones. Right now, we are like the first Adam, earthy, and we bear his image. Then we will be like the second Adam, with bodies like his own, heavenly, and so bear his image. We are just as surely meant to bear the one image as we have already borne the other. So, just as surely as we have had natural bodies, we will have spiritual ones. Those who are dead in Christ will not only rise, but they will rise with this glorious change.

Paul sums up the reason for this change: flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God, and what is corruptible cannot inherit what is incorruptible (1 Corinthians 15:50). The natural body is flesh and blood, made up of bones, muscles, nerves, veins, arteries, and their fluids. Because of that, it is corruptible and will break down, rot, and return to dust. But nothing like that can inherit heaven, because that would mean corruption inheriting incorruption, which almost contradicts itself. The heavenly inheritance is imperishable and will never fade away (1 Peter 1:4). How could flesh and blood, which are corruptible and fading, possess it?

So the body must be changed into something that lasts forever before it can receive the heavenly inheritance. The point is this, when the saints rise again, their bodies will be greatly changed, and changed for the better. They are now corruptible flesh and blood. Then they will be incorruptible, glorious, and spiritual bodies, fitted for the heavenly world where they will live forever and receive their eternal inheritance.