3. The resurrection body 15:35-49

Paul next addressed the objection that the resurrection of the body is impossible because when a person dies his or her body decomposes and no one can reassemble it. The Corinthians seem to have wanted to avoid thinking that the material body was essentially good. Hellenistic dualism seems to have influenced their thinking about the human body and, therefore, the resurrection.³⁸⁴They did not, and most people do not, view very positively a resurrection that involves simply resuscitating human corpses. Paul proceeded to show that the resurrection of believers was not that but a resurrection of glorifiedbodies. Paul taught a more glorious future for believers than the present "spiritual"existence that some in Corinth lauded.

"The Corinthians are convinced that by the gift of the Spirit, and especially the manifestation of tongues, they have already entered into the spiritual, heavenly' existence that is to be. Only the body, to be sloughed off at death, lies between them and their ultimate spirituality. Thus they have denied the body in the present, and have no use for it in the future."³⁸⁵

A key word in this section of Paul's argument is "body"(Gr. soma), which occurs 10 times compared to no times in the first 34 verses.³⁸⁶

 Analogies from nature 15:35-44

The apostle proceeded to offer two sets of analogies (seeds, vv. 36-38; and types of bodies, vv. 39-41) that he then applied to the resurrection of the dead (vv. 42-44).

15:35 This objection to the resurrection has to do with the reconstruction of the body out of the same elements that it formerly possessed. Obviously it would be impossible to reassemble the same cells to reconstruct a person after he or she had been dead for some time. This is the primary problem that Paul solved in the rest of this pericope.

For example, if someone died at sea and sailors buried him, a fish might eat his body. The atoms and molecules of his body would become part of the fish. If a fisherman caught and ate the fish, its body would become part of the fisherman's body. If the fisherman died and an undertaker buried him in the ground and someone eventually sowed wheat over his grave, the fisherman's atoms and molecules would go into the wheat. A third person would eat the wheat and so on. How could the first person's body ever come together again?

15:36-38 Such an objection sounds very reasonable on the surface, but it is really foolish, and it drew a sharp rebuke from Paul. The "wise"Corinthians were "fools!"The body that God resurrects will not be the same typeof body that died even though it is the body of the same person. Paul proceeded to illustrate with a seed of grain. A new form of life springs forth from death. The body surrounding the life is different before and after death. Likewise human life exists in one form of body before death, and after death it exists in a different type of body. God does this with grain, so He can do it with humans too. This is so obvious in nature that we can understand Paul's sharp retort in verse 36.³⁸⁷

15:39-41 This passage begins and ends by stressing the differences within kinds of bodies. The second and fifth sentences stress the differences within genus while contrasting the earthly with the heavenly. The central elements state the realities of earthly and heavenly "bodies."Structurally the passage is a chiasm.³⁸⁸

ANot all fleshis the same (i.e., earthly bodies).

BExamples of different kinds of flesh: people, animals, birds, fish

CThere are heavenly and earthly kinds of bodies.

C'The splendor of heavenly bodies is of one kind and the splendor of earthly bodies is of another kind.

B'Examples of different kinds of splendor: sun, moon, stars

A'Not all stars (i.e., heavenly bodies) have the same splendor.

In verse 39 Paul used animal life to point out the different types (substance) of flesh: human, land animals, birds, and fish. This anticipates what he said later about the earthly and heavenly existence of believers. A body can be genuinely fleshly and still subsist in different forms for different environments. The fact that there are different kinds of bodies among animals should help us understand that there can also be different kinds of human bodies. Some human bodies are mortal and some are immortal. Some are corruptible and others incorruptible.

Likewise the fact that celestial bodies differ in glory (brightness) should help us realize that human bodies can also differ in glory. The glory of a perishable mortal human body is much less than that of an imperishable immortal human body. Also the differing glory of the heavenly bodies argues for differences among glorified believers.

15:42-43 The human body goes into the ground perishable, as a seed. However, God raises it imperishable, as grain. It goes into the ground in a lowly condition (in "dishonor"), but it arises with honor ("glory"). It is weak when it dies, but it is powerful when it arises.

15:44 It is natural (Gr. psychikon, soulish), belonging to the present age; but it becomes spiritual (pneumatikos, i.e., supernatural), belonging to the future age. The Corinthians had not entered into their eschatological states yet. This would come with their resurrections. Their bodieswould become spiritual, namely fitted for their future existence.

 The analogy from Scripture 15:45-49

Paul now returned to his analogy between Adam and Christ (cf. vv. 21-22) to reinforce his argument, which he had brought to a head in verse 44.

15:45 The natural body is physical, the product of Adam who received life from God (Gen. 2:7). That life resides in a body characterized as "soulish"(i.e., alive with material and immaterial components). It eventually dies. However the resurrection body is spiritual, the product of Jesus Christ, the second Adam, who gives new life. That life will inhabit a body that will never die. Paul called it spiritual because it is ready for the spiritual rather than the physical realm. Moreover it comes to us from a spirit being, Jesus Christ, rather than a physical being, Adam. One can assume full "spiritual"existence, including a spiritual body, only as Christ did, namely by resurrection.³⁸⁹

15:46 Even though God breathed life into Adam at Creation, that gift constituted Adam a natural person fitted for the present order. The breathing of new life into believers at resurrection, so to speak, will make us spiritual persons fitted for the eschaton. We have the physical body until the eschaton, not before it begins.

Paul may have included this word of clarification to refute the Platonic idea that the ideal precedes the real. Plato taught that the ultimate realities are spiritual, and physical things only represent them. This is probably a view that some in Corinth held. Paul said the physical body precedes the spiritual body, which is the ultimate body.

15:47-48 God formed Adam out of dust to live on this planet (Gen. 2:7). Jesus Christ had a heavenly origin. However, Paul seems to have meant more than this since he compared two human beings, "the first Adam"and "the last Adam."His emphasis seems to have been that the first Adam was fitted for life in this age with natural life whereas the last Adam was fitted for life in the age to come with spiritual life. God equipped both to live in the realm that they would occupy. Similarly the bodies we inherit from Adam are for earthly existence. The bodies we will receive from Christ at our resurrection will be for living in the spiritual realm. Paul was not speaking of heavenly existence as distinct from life in hell but as spiritual in contrast with earthly.

"Each race has the attributes of its Head. As a consequence of this law . . ., we who once wore the likeness of the earthly Adam shall hereafter wear that of the glorified Christ. What Adam was, made of dust to be dissolved into dust again, such are all who share his life; and what Christ is, risen and eternally glorified, such will be all those who share His life."³⁹⁰

15:49 Those born only of the first Adam, whom God equipped to live in the natural world, likewise exist in that world. However those born also of the last Adam, whom God equipped to live in the supernatural world by resurrection, also will exist in that world. Paul concluded this pericope by reminding them that their bearing the image of the heavenly Adam was still future, and it is certain.

God's intent to make man in His own image (Gen. 1:26) will finally reach fulfillment when believers eventually receive bodies that enable us to live in the spiritual sphere as He does. God's forming man out of the dust of the ground and breathing into his nostrils the breath of life was only the first step toward God's realization of His goal. His creation of resurrection bodies for us will be the second and final step.

"The problem is that the Corinthians believed that they had already assumed the heavenly existence that was to be, an existence in the Spirit that discounted earthly existence both in its physical and in its behavioral expressions. What Paul appears to be doing once again is refuting both notions. They have indeed borne--and still bear--the likeness of the man of earth. Because of that they are destined to die. But in Christ's resurrection and their being in him' they have also begun to bear the likeness of the man of heaven. The urgency is that they truly do so now as they await the consummation when they shall do so fully."³⁹¹