Passage: 1 Corinthians 15:35-58

The Big Idea

“How are the dead raised? What kind of body will they have?” Paul answers with a seed: what’s sown dies, and God gives it a glorious new body. Our resurrection bodies will be imperishable, glorious, powerful and spiritual, suited for heaven like Jesus’ own. At the last trumpet, the dead will rise and the living will be changed in an instant. Death will be swallowed up in victory. So be steadfast and pour your life into the Lord’s work, because none of it is in vain.

A Loaded Question (1 Corinthians 15:35-38)

Someone will ask, “How are the dead raised? What kind of body will they come with?”

Paul’s response: “You fool!”

You know when someone asks a question just to get under your skin? Like, “Have you stopped cheating on your taxes yet?” Or, “Have you gained weight? Why do you look like that?”

That’s what Paul thinks of this question. Why so harsh? Because it’s focused on the wrong thing. They were challenging the whole idea of resurrection by fixating on its philosophical difficulties:

How can God raise a dead body? It’s dead, and that’s gross. The cells don’t work anymore. What if I’m burned up or cremated?
The body is so decayed, it’s impossible to bring life back to it.
I don’t even want this body! I’m tired of it.
This body isn’t designed for heaven or eternity.

Paul answers: what you sow doesn’t come to life unless it dies. And what you sow isn’t the body that will be, but a bare seed, maybe of wheat or something else. But God gives it a body as He chooses, and to each kind of seed its own body.

What they were forgetting was resurrection power.

Your new body won’t look like this one. (Ninety-nine percent of us say amen.)
It will be a body made for heaven. We shouldn’t expect simply the same body, or just an improved version.
Each will be unique, just as our bodies are now.
“As He pleases.” God is delighted to choose your new body for you. His love for you truly has no limits.
It will fulfill every desire and need you’ve ever had.

Some mock the idea of resurrection: “A Christian’s body decays in the ground. Its atoms are taken up by grass, eaten by a cow, and the cow is eaten by another person. Whose body do those atoms belong to in the resurrection?” But God doesn’t need every original atom to make a resurrection body. A seed doesn’t contain every molecule of the plant it becomes. The God who formed Adam from dust can certainly raise a glorious body from whatever remains of us.

Spurgeon urged grieving believers: if death is only a sowing, then let’s be done with faithless, hopeless sorrow. Your family circle has been broken, but only so it can be re-formed. You’ve lost a dear friend, but only so you can find him again, and find more than you lost. They aren’t lost; they’re sown.

Different Kinds of Glory (1 Corinthians 15:39-41)

Not all flesh is the same: people, animals, birds and fish each have their own kind. There are heavenly bodies and earthly bodies, and each has its own glory. The sun has one glory, the moon another, and the stars another. Even star differs from star in glory.

Our resurrection body will match our resurrection spirit. It will be a heavenly body, able to express every part of the life our spirit can have. Suited for heaven. Suit up!
Every “body” in space is different, but beautiful and glorious.
If God made the glory of all the stars, how amazing will the body be that He’s been planning for you?

Four Contrasts (1 Corinthians 15:42-44)

So it is with the resurrection of the dead. Paul uses four contrasts between our present body and our resurrection body:

Sown perishable, raised imperishable.
Sown in dishonor, raised in glory.
Sown in weakness, raised in power.
Sown a natural body, raised a spiritual body.

Our resurrection body will be glorious!

All the dishonor will become glory.
All the weakness will become power.
All the natural will become spiritual.
Everything healed, fixed, blessed and glorified.

Dead bodies are gross. In Scripture they’re described as unclean. But this glorious new body will be just as incredible as death is grim. Some have pointed to three glimpses of that glory in Scripture: Moses’ shining face (Exodus 34:29-35), Jesus’ transfiguration (Matthew 17:2), and Stephen’s angel-like face (Acts 6:15).

Adam and Christ (1 Corinthians 15:45-49)

Scripture says the first man, Adam, became a living being (Genesis 2:7). The last Adam became a life-giving spirit.

Adam passed his life on to us. We’re all alive like him, but also sinners like him, and so spiritually dead when we’re born.
Through His death and resurrection, Jesus brings spiritual life to all who believe in Him. Born again.
Adam’s actions led to death, but Jesus’ work brings eternal life and reconciliation with God (Romans 5:17-19).
For us, this means we’re no longer defined by the sin and death that came through Adam. We’re made alive, new creations in Jesus (2 Corinthians 5:17). We have His life within us and live in His victory and grace.
The resurrection life that will one day be your glorified body is already your inner life now.

The spiritual didn’t come first; the natural did, then the spiritual. The first man was from the earth, made of dust. (A “dirt bag,” if you will.) The second man is from heaven. Those who are earthly are like the man of dust, and those who are heavenly are like the heavenly Man. Just as we’ve borne the image of the man of dust, we will bear the image of the heavenly Man.

Our citizenship is in heaven, and we eagerly wait for a Savior from there, the Lord Jesus Christ, who will transform our lowly bodies to be like His glorious body, by the power that enables Him to bring everything under His control (Philippians 3:20-21).

We were all like Adam.
But we’ll be even more like Jesus!

The best picture we have of a resurrection body is Jesus’ own. His resurrection body was physical; He could be touched and could eat (Luke 24:39-43). Yet it wasn’t bound by the ordinary limits of nature; He could appear and disappear (Luke 24:31, 36-37).

In the Twinkling of an Eye (1 Corinthians 15:50-53)

Flesh and blood can’t inherit the kingdom of God, and the perishable can’t inherit the imperishable. Paul tells a mystery: we won’t all sleep, but we’ll all be changed, in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet.

“Sleep” is a gentle way to describe a believer’s death. Not every Christian will die. There will be a final generation that’s transformed into resurrection bodies at Jesus’ return without ever tasting death.
Many call this the rapture: an instantaneous change, faster than the blink of an eye.

The last trumpet

What is the “last trumpet”? The Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of an archangel and the trumpet of God. The dead in Christ will rise first. Then we who are alive will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and so we’ll always be with the Lord (1 Thessalonians 4:16-17).

And when was the first trumpet? At Mount Sinai.

God told Moses that when the trumpet sounded long, the people could come near the mountain (Exodus 19:13).
On the third day, there was thunder, lightning and a thick cloud on the mountain, and a very loud trumpet blast, and everyone in the camp trembled (Exodus 19:16). (Jesus will come with the clouds, too.)
Moses brought the people out of the camp to meet with God. The mountain was covered in smoke because the Lord descended on it in fire. As the trumpet grew louder and louder, Moses spoke and God answered him. The Lord came down on the mountain and called Moses to the top, and Moses went up (Exodus 19:17-20).

At Sinai, a trumpet called God’s people out to meet Him, and Moses went up. At the last trumpet, God will call His people home: the dead will be raised imperishable, and we’ll be changed and caught up to meet the Lord.

The perishable must put on the imperishable, and the mortal must put on immortality. Suit up!

Death Swallowed Up (1 Corinthians 15:54-57)

When this happens, the saying of Scripture will come true: death is swallowed up in victory (Isaiah 25:8). Death, where is your victory? Death, where is your sting (Hosea 13:14)? 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!

A resurrection body isn’t a revived corpse. It’s a new order of life that will never die again. Death is defeated by resurrection.
Sigmund Freud famously called death a painful riddle for which no remedy has been found and probably never will be. Compare that with Paul’s triumphant shout: death is swallowed up in victory!

Spurgeon pictured the believer speaking to death: “Why should I fear you? You look like a dragon, but your sting is gone. Your teeth are broken, old lion. You can’t destroy me. You’re only a messenger sent to escort me to the golden gate, where I’ll see my Savior’s face forever.” He noted that many dying saints have said their last bed was the best they ever slept on.

Where is the sting?

For those who aren’t in Christ, death still has its sting. As Spurgeon put it, the sting of death is that we have sinned and must appear before the God we’ve offended. It isn’t just dying; it’s that after death comes judgment (Hebrews 9:27). But for those in Christ, the sting has been removed, because Jesus took it for us.

The Application (1 Corinthians 15:58)

So what’s the point of all this? Paul says: therefore, my dear brothers and sisters, be steadfast and immovable, always overflowing in the Lord’s work, because you know your labor in the Lord is not in vain.

Your life matters!

Love your spouse.
Love your kids.
Love your friends.
Love your enemies.
Give your life to love and serve everyone you meet on your journey.
And never give up.

Keep loving till they kill you. Because they can’t really kill you. And if they do… suit up.

Grace Takeaway

Your body is a seed, and God has a glorious harvest planned. At the last trumpet, death will be swallowed up in victory, and you’ll put on a body made for heaven. Since nothing done in the Lord is in vain, stand firm and pour yourself out in love.

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