Our study today is so encouraging, even thrilling, because it compares what our bodies are now to what they will be in the resurrection. Living and growing in the gospel includes understanding what our future holds.
But someone may ask, "How are the dead raised? What kind of body will they have?" Foolish person! When you sow a seed, it must die in the ground before it can live and grow. And when you sow it, it does not have the same "body" it will have later. What you sow is only a bare seed, maybe wheat or something else.
1 Corinthians 15:35-37 NCV
Question 1. According to 1 Corinthians 15:35-37 NCV, with what are our current bodies compared?
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Our current bodies have no glory; they are like shells meant to be discarded. They are useful to us while we live in them, but ruined by the fall of mankind in the garden of Eden, they are temporary and headed for death and the grave.
“But God gives it a body that he has planned for it, and God gives each kind of seed its own body. All things made of flesh are not the same: People have one kind of flesh, animals have another, birds have another, and fish have another. Also there are heavenly bodies and earthly bodies. But the beauty of the heavenly bodies is one kind, and the beauty of the earthly bodies is another. The sun has one kind of beauty, the moon has another beauty, and the stars have another. And each star is different in its beauty.”
1 Corinthians 15:36-41 NCV
Question 2. According to 1 Corinthians 15:38–41 NCV, God has planned a certain kind of body for you. In verses 40–41, one word is used five times to describe eternal bodies. What is the one repeated word used to describe the eternal body?
When Paul describes what kind of body we will have in the resurrection, he constantly uses the word "beauty," or in other translations, "glory." Our new bodies will be beautiful and glorious, meaning they will have intrinsic worth and value, as we share in the glory of God Himself.
It is the same with the dead who are raised to life. The body that is "planted" will ruin and decay, but it is raised to a life that cannot be destroyed. When the body is "planted," it is without honor, but it is raised in glory. When the body is "planted," it is weak, but when it is raised, it is powerful. The body that is "planted" is a physical body. When it is raised, it is a spiritual body.
1 Corinthians 15:42-44 NCV
Question 3. Please compare how your body is now with how it will be when it is raised from the dead, according to 1 Corinthians 15:42-44 NCV.
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Oh, friend, this is your future! Your current body will "ruin and decay" as dust returns to dust, but soon you will have a body that can never be destroyed! Since Jesus’ body was destroyed on the cross for you, your new body will be indestructible! Your current body has no honor, but when it is raised from the dead, it will be glorious and beautiful! It is weak right now, but when raised it will be powerful.
All of this has been played out before our very eyes already in the history of redemption. We saw Jesus’ body subject to weakness, wearing our sin and planted in the ground without honor. But on the third day, He was raised from the dead in power and His body was filled with glory; His glorified body can never be destroyed. And as a believer, this is your future!
“There is a physical body, and there is also a spiritual body. It is written in the Scriptures: "The first man, Adam, became a living person." But the last Adam became a spirit that gives life. The spiritual did not come first, but the physical and then the spiritual. The first man came from the dust of the earth. The second man came from heaven. People who belong to the earth are like the first man of earth. But those people who belong to heaven are like the man of heaven. Just as we were made like the man of earth, so we will also be made like the man of heaven.
1 Corinthians 15:44–49 NCV
Do you feel the joy and excitement of this passage? We intimately know the frailty of our current bodies, but one day we will discard them for our glorious eternal bodies that are fit for eternity.
One important truth taught in 1 Corinthians 15:44-49 is that God first makes the physical and then the spiritual. We can see this truth played out in the Bible itself: in the Old Testament, there are physical realities and historical stories, which represent spiritual realities taught to us clearly in the New Testament.
These are glorious truths we have seen today. Seeing that this body I have is temporary and designed for the grave, yet my future is so bright, has increased my joy and hope! When Jesus’ body was covered in my sin and put in a grave, He purchased a new body for me, one that will be glorious like His glorious body, and it can never be destroyed!
Question 4. What has the study of 1 Corinthians 15:35-49 done for your heart today? Please share.
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