Free Bible Commentary
“1 Corinthians 15:35-41”
Categories: 1 Corinthians“But someone will say, ‘How are the dead raised? And with what kind of body do they come?’ You fool! That which you sow does not come to life unless it dies; and that which you sow, you do not sow the body which is to be, but a bare grain, perhaps of wheat or of something else. But God gives it a body just as He wished, and to each of the seeds a body of its own. All flesh is not the same flesh, but there is one flesh of men, and another flesh of beasts, and another flesh of birds, and another of fish. There are also heavenly bodies and earthly bodies, but the glory of the heavenly is one, and the glory of the earthly is 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.”
---End of Scripture verses---
“How are the dead raised” (verse 35)? What seemed like an impossibility to some of the brethren in Corinth should not have been so difficult to accept and grasp. On the physical level, the way that nature works mirrors the manner in which God will accomplish the resurrection. Just like in the plant world, “that which you sow does not come to life unless it dies” first (verse 36). Just as a seed must “give up its life” in order to produce a beautiful plant, so our physical bodies must be “planted in the ground” so to speak, to give rise to our resurrected bodies. Please understand that I am using a figure of speech here, and I am not saying that God requires all physical bodies to be interred into the ground before He can “raise them up”. God will resurrect all human bodies whether they are buried in the ground or incinerated or whatever may happen to them.
“And with what kind of body do they come” (verse 35)? Well, with a “different” kind of body. Once again, just like the plant that shoots up out of the ground is much different looking than the seed from which it came, so our resurrected body will be different when God “changes” it into the form that is “just as He wished” (verse 38). “All flesh is not the same” (verse 39). If we can clearly see that God has equipped humans and animals with bodies that are appropriately suited to flourish in their differing environs (fish in the sea, birds in the air, etc.), it shouldn’t be too difficult for us to imagine that God will provide us with spiritual bodies that are perfectly equipped to dwell in a spiritual eternity.
The main thing to understand here is that the resurrection is God’s business, and we just have to believe that He has the power and the will to deliver on what He has promised. Not all analogies perfectly parallel the realities that they are used to depict, and we don’t have to understand everything there is to know about eternity. Our finite brains aren’t able to fully compute that which is infinite anyway. We just need to believe that our perfect, all-powerful, infinite God is more than capable of equipping us for our eternal dwelling place. The One who created the Universe and the Earth and all that dwells upon it can certainly take it all and change it into something much more glorious than it is.
Our job is simply to believe Him, and Love Him, and obey Him, and reverence Him, and worship Him in spirit and in truth. He will take care of everything else!
Please read 1 Corinthians 15:42-48 for tomorrow.
Please come worship God in spirit and truth with us today at the Taylorsville Road church of Christ!
3741 Taylorsville Road. 9:30 AM Bible class. 10:30 AM worship period. 5:00 PM worship period.
Have a blessed Lord’s Day!
- Louie Taylor
