1 Corinthians 15:35-41

Date: June 1, 2025

Title: The Resurrection Body

Passage: 1 Corinthians 15:35-41

INTRODUCTION

As we’ve already seen in this chapter, the major problem Paul was addressing had to do with the Corinthians’ denial of the general resurrection of the dead. Though they had accepted the resurrection of Christ to be an important component of their Christian faith, they failed to see how His resurrection was the guarentee of the resurrection for all believers.

And for that reason, Paul has been going through great pains to demonstrate the unbreakable connection between the resurrection of Christ and the resurrection of believers. According to Paul, you cannot have one without the other.

Now of course, we know the Corinthians thought otherwise, and the reason being, most likely was because as far as they were concerned, the idea of a bodily resurrection was an unsophisticated point of view that didn’t enjoy the support of the great philosophers of the day!

‘Now sure, we can affirm that reality for Christ—He’s the Messiah—He’s God—He’s unique, and so we won’t refuse to believe in His resurrection, even if it means having to do so ever so reluctantly; but to say that we, too, are going to be physically raised from the dead is a position that we just can’t take seriously because I mean, c’mon Paul, haven’t you been listening to what the experts are saying?’

This so often happens in the church even today. Whenever the Bible runs into conflict with the popular beliefs of modern day science, or philosophy, or the standards of the world, oftentimes you’ll find Christians either downright adopting many of those beliefs or soft-peddling what they know to be true by giving a million qualifications before they finally tell you what they… sort of believe—if you’re okay with it, that is!

And to take it a step further, sometimes they’ll even go so far as to speak down on those within the church that are holding to historic, conservative, Christian orthodoxy. They’ll label us fundamentalists, biblicists, unlearned radicals who need to be better educated.

This in effect was basically how the Corinthians approached the doctrine of the resurrection of the dead. It wasn’t just something they didn’t believe in; it was something they ridiculed. They were looking down on a belief that was part of parcel to the Christian hope. That’s why in V. 36, Paul exclaims, “you foolish person!”

‘You think you’re so smart, but you’re so wrong! You’re just wrong—you’re living in another world! Can’t you see how flat-out foolish your thinking is on this matter!?’ Look, if a pagan denies the resurrection of the dead, that’s one thing… but for a person who claims to be a follower of the resurrected Christ and yet denies the resurrection of the dead, that’s quite another! In fact, that’s utterly absurd!

It doesn’t make any sense at all! What foolishness!

This was a sharp rebuke.

Part of the reason why Paul responded to them so sharply here was because he knew that when the Corinthians were asking these questions about the resurrection, they weren’t actually asking them out of a desire to know the truth at all. These weren’t honest inquiries; they were just questions flowing out of an arrogent heart of unbelief.

And so we look at this passage, it’s important to understand that Paul’s response to them wasn’t only designed to help them understand the truth, but it was also to rebuke them for their intellectual pride.

Now, if, on the other hand, the Corinthians approached this differently… say they were sincerely struggling to understand a particular doctrinal truth and were simply asking questions to discover what exactly it is they were to believe, then Paul surely would have responded to them in a much milder tone—he would have embodied a whole lot of grace and gentleness.

But since that’s not they were doing, however, that’s why Paul decided to take them to task in a much more forthright way; he was very blunt with them, and again part of the reason for that—aside from their snobby know-it-all attitude, was because they were showing signs of wanting to be accepted by the world. They wanted to intregrate their faith with the prevailing school of thought that was held by the majority of philosophers in the Greco-Roman world.

And we know what that system of belief was… The Greek philosophers of the day outright rejected any conception of a resurrection for the body. Now, it is true that some held to the possibility of there being a postmortem existence for the soul, but to suggest that there would actually be a resurrection of dead bodies, pretty much put you in a category of persons that deserved no intellectual respect or consideration.

But the Corinthians, wanting to be loved by the world as much as they possibly could, ended up becoming influenced by the world more than they even knew. They were by-products of their own culture. They adopted worldly ideas and than sought to incorporate those ideas into their faith without critically examining them in the light of scripture.

This had devastating consequences!

Last week, we saw how their practice was becoming way too much like the world’s.

Here we’re seeing how their doctrine was becoming way too much like the world’s.

But Paul’s not going to let them continue walking down this path without correction. He’s going to confront them head on, and deal with the issues that need to be dealt with.

In this section, there are two basic questions Paul raises in response to the Corinthians’ concerns: V. 35 - (1) How are the dead raised? (2) With what kind of body do they come?

Now, there’s a very close correlation between these two questions, even they do have a slighty different emphasis.

The first question has to do with the manner of the resurrection, and the second question has to do with the quality or form of the resurrection body.

So thinking about that first question: when you hear the Corinthians’ taunting Paul’s theology with the question: “How are the dead raised,” don’t think of their question as necessarily proving that they denied God’s ability to raise the dead.

Because when they ask the question, “how are the dead raised?” It’s not that they’re asking, “How is it possible for the dead to be raised?” In which case the obvious answer would be, God. God has the power to raise the dead.

Now even though the Corinthians’ were more inclined to look for naturalistic explanations to things, given how much of a humanistic mindset they had; nevertheless, it’s not like they weren’t full blown athiests. They believed God had the power to raise the dead, because they believed that’s exactly what happened with the resurrection of Christ.

So again, the question: “How are the dead raised” isn’t so much asking, “how is it possible for the dead to be raised?” but rather it’s asking the question, “in what manner are the dead to be raised?”

And the word “how” often bears this meaning. When we use the word “how” in a sentence or a question, we’re oftentimes using it to describe the particular way something comes about.

If I were to ask a sports team, “how did you score that goal?” One of them could easily reply - ‘by putting it in the net.’ but that’s not really what I’m asking about; I’m asking about the particular tactics, tricks, and plays that were used to get it in the net.

And I think the same type of thing is going on here with this first question. When the Corinthians’ mockingly asked Paul the question, ‘Hey Paul, how are the dead going to be raised?” They were probably expecting him to say something like, ‘oh well that’s easy: they’re going to come back to life as reanimated corpses of course, or perhaps maybe it’ll be by the reassimilation of all their dead, dusty and disintegrated body parts, but they are going to come back to life!’

You see, this was the type of thing the Corinthians’ weren’t exactly buying, but little did they know, their understanding concerning what the precise nature of a resurrection body would involve was totally inadequate.

Because the fact of the matter is, even though the dead bodies of believers eventually decompose and become part of the nutrients of the ground just like everybody else who dies, that doesn’t mean that the prospect of a new glorified body means that it’s going to be nothing more than a sort of patched-up version of our old bodies, such that there is strict continuity between this body and the one to come.

That’s not the case at all! And this, in part, was what the Corinthians’ were failing to comprehend. Their understanding of the resurrection—should there be one—was far too earthly!

They were still thinking in terms of the natural body! They were still thinking in terms of the way things already were. In other words, the reason why we don’t see much of a reason to believe in a resurrection of the dead is because it seems highly unlikely that God’s just going to raise our same old bodies, so that they can become subject to death and decay again.

I mean what’s He going to do? ‘Cause all our old particles and molecules that’s already been incorporated into other creatures to come together again to reform what’s already been lost?’ That doesn’t seem very likely Paul…’

Well, it wasn’t very likely to Paul either!

But that’s why he’s spending so much time teaching them about this matter!

It’s because the Corinthians’ had a miscontrued understanding regarding the nature of the resurrection body, which unfortunately led them to reject the doctrine wholesale.

But as Paul will soon demonstrate, one of the fundamental problems they had was due to a failure to grasp how the nature of the resurrection body was never supposed to be a mere return to the same old body.

That is to say, it’s not like at the resurrection, the bodies of Christians are going to undergo a re-formation such that we continue to reflect the image of the man of dust—just as we did before, but rather, at the resurrection of the dead, the bodies of Christians will undergo a sudden transformation so that at that point, we will finally be made to reflect the glorious image of the man of heaven.

Now, this whole concept of the two man’s: a) the man of dust, b) the man of heaven, is one that Paul’s going to further develop in due course, but at this point in 1 Cor 15, he’s setting the stage for it. It’s coming. He knows it’s coming. That’s the climatic point he wants us to reach. But before he gets there, he needs to frame the argument so that we’re ready for it when it comes.

And so, in V. 35-41, then, that’s what Paul is doing! As he prepares his audience for what they can expect at the resurrection of the dead, he first makes it clear that, by no means, can death possibly be viewed as the end of bodily life; and then as a follow up to that point, he then demonstrates how the quality, and glory, and form of the new body can hardly be compared to the present body that has to pass through the portal of death.

Paul proves this point by way of analogy.

Question # 1

V. 36-38, “You foolish person! What you sow does not come to life unless it dies. And what you sow is not the body that is to be, but a bare kernel, perhaps of wheat or of some other grain. But God gives it a body as he has chosen, and to each kind of seed its own body.”

Paul is giving an illustration we can all understand.

When you plant a seed in the ground, that seed doesn’t remain a seed. It transforms into something else—something wonderful: a flower - plant - apple tree; depending upon what kind of seed it is will determine what it’s future outcome will be and to a certain extent what it will look like, but in order for life to grow and sprout forth from that seed, it first needs to die.

Death isn’t the end of that seed; it’s the beginning phase of a new life in a new form.

Now, I suppose that strictly speaking, a specialist might point out that seeds don’t die, but from our vantage point it sure seems like they do.

Once that seed goes in the ground and germination occurs, it’s rising out of the ground as something way better and way more beautiful than it was when it first went in.

And so it is with the resurrection of the body. Our present bodies are like seeds, which means contained within the shell of this body is the potential for it to grow and blossom into something much more glorious!

Now, just as there is a point of continuity between an apple tree and the apple seed from which it sprouted, so there will be a point of continuity between our present bodies and our future bodies. In other words, it really will be OUR bodies that God transforms! But they will be transformed! They will be significantly transformed!

Because although it is absolutely true there is some degree of continuity between an apple seed and an apple tree, there is also a remarkable dissimilarity between an apple tree and an apple seed. The dissimilarity is obvious! One is way better than the other! In fact, one is so much better that’s it’s hard to even compare the two.

Ralph Martin captured Paul’s thought on the resurrection well: “In the world of nature, which is God’s world, what is sown is not identical with what is grown, though it is related to it.”

That’s a good way of putting it.

The two phases our body passes through, from this life into the life to come, is in one sense related; but in another sense, they’re not going to be identical at all, which means we need to be careful not to conflate the two as if the resurrection body is only going to give us a sleight enhancement with a few extra repairs.

No, just as a seed goes into the ground, dies, and then rises out of the dust of the earth as something that’s beautiful to behold, so will it be when our present bodies experience germination through the beaming light that shines on them at the return of Christ!

At that point—at the resurrection of the dead, our present bodies will rise anew; and when they do, the extent to which they are transformed will be so thorough, so complete, and so unbelievably astounding that it will make our old existence in our old bodies seem like absolutely nothing compared to the wellness, wholeness and fullness that is experienced and enjoyed in our new, glorified bodies!

So, the difference between the two, then, will pretty much be as noticible and dramatic as night and day.

This is what we have to look forward to, church!

It’s amazing to think about!

One day, we will rise from the ashes together, and the particular way by which that will occur will be in like manner to a kernal of wheat being planted in the ground: death will not have the last word over us, because despite how small and insignificant a wee kernal may be when first sown into the ground, it will not be able to compare with what comes out of the ground when God waters it, in His perfect timing.

And so it is for us!

Brothers and sisters, we will advance from glory to glory.

Indeed, as Paul makes explicit in V. 39-41, the form of our future body will far exceed in glory compared to the ones we presently now inhabit.

Question # 2

After stating in V. 38 that God has chosen to give a body each to it’s own kind, he then goes onto say, “For not all flesh is the same, but there is one kind for humans, another for animals, another for birds, and another for fish. There are heavenly bodies and earthly bodies (not speaking about human bodies, but bodily objects in the heavens) 40b, but the glory of the heavenly is of one kind, and the glory of the earthly is of another. There is one glory of the sun, and another glory of the moon, and another glory of the stars; for star differs from star in glory.”

The point Paul’s underscoring here isn’t any different than what he said before. In fact, this is the natural follow-up. Just as there is a rich diversity in the plant world, so there is an incredible amount of diversity in the world of man, animals, birds, fish, and the starry hosts. God’s in control of it all. He sovereignly chooses to display His glory in creation by supplying His creation with a luminous glory of their own, but each differs in glory.

A gaze at the sun reveals a certain celestial glory that is awe-inspiring, and yet in no way would we ever say that the heat and light shining forth from the sun and stars in any way minimizes the majestic glory of the mountains and forests around us. They have their own lustre, too, and that’s also not to mention how the animals have a glory of their own as well! Think of the lion (King of the jungle)—known for their leadership; the soothing sound of hummingbirds; the playfulness of Dolphins. There are some amazing creatures: the courage and dependability of the Great Dain!? What about the chewawa? Still trying to figure out where the glory is in that one…

The point is that God has created a world of objects and creatures, all of which reflect varying degrees of glory and grandeur, and given that this is what the Lord God Almighty has done, then it logically follows that if God can, and indeed has, sovereignly clothed all of these things with an assigned degree of glory, then will He not also be able to radically transform the bodies of human beings and clothe them with a superlative glory at resurrection of the dead? As Simon Kistemaker has rightly said, “To ask the question is to answer it.”

Of course He can! And that He will. And so, once again, Paul’s contention stands.

Firstly, it stands because, death, is no hindrance to the resurrection of the body; but than secondly, and flowing out of that frst truth: death is actually the means through which God will cause our old bodies to take on a new form for all eternity.

Thius is the wonder of the resurrection of the dead.

There’s quite a bit of mystery surrounding it.

The Bible tells us enough to hold us in suspense.

CONCLUSION

But you might be wondering what the nature of this body will look like, and what we’ll be able to do.

Simon Kistemaker,

“Christians believe that their bodies will be raised from the dead when Jesus returns. They know that Scripture tells them that their own bodies will be transformed and glorified; they will not receive completely different bodies.

Yet questions concerning the resurrection are numerous and varied. Here are a few: Will an elderly person whose body was ravaged by an incurable disease be raised as a youth? Will an infant who died because of accident or ailment be like an adult? Will we not only recognize our loved ones but also know the saints of other eras? Will there be a continual tie with family members? We are unable to answer these questions and wisely refrain from speculation. Where the Scriptures are silent we also are silent.

The Scriptures reveal that Jesus’ disciples recognized him and saw the scars in his hands and side (John 20:27). Further, Jesus taught that at the resurrection marriage will cease, for everyone will be like the angels in heaven (Matt. 22:30).

At the transformation the characteristic features of an individual will be evident. To illustrate, an infant shows certain features that remain the same throughout his or her life. As distinct changes take place throughout childhood, adolescence, adulthood, and old age, these features display continuity. The glorification of our bodies, however, provides a new dimension that marks a measure of discontinuity. Both the resurrection of the body and the immortality of the soul prove the continued extension of our human existence. We have the assurance in Jesus Christ whose resurrection is the deposit that guarantees the resurrection of all his followers.”