We Will Have a Spiritual Body

Yesterday, in Paul's example of the grain of grain in 1 Corinthians 15: 35–38, we saw three facts about dying grain and producing fruit. Let us now apply these three facts taken from the analogy of a seed to the nature of the body that is to be resurrected.

1. There is direct continuity between the body that is buried and the body that is resurrected.
2. The body that is resurrected undergoes, in that process, certain definite and obvious changes. The outward form and appearance of the new, resurrected body are different from those of the original body that was buried.
3. The nature of the body that is buried determines the nature of the body that is resurrected. There will be a direct logical and causal connection between the condition of the believer in his present earthly existence and the nature of his resurrected body.

Paul gives further details about the nature of the changes that the believer’s body will undergo at resurrection.

“All flesh is not the same flesh, but there is one kind of flesh of men, another flesh of beasts, another of fish, and another of birds. There are also celestial bodies and terrestrial bodies; but the glory of the celestial is one, and the glory of the terrestrial is another. There is one glory of the sun, another glory of the moon, and another glory of the stars; for one star differs from another star in glory. So also is the resurrection of the dead. The body is sown in corruption, it is raised in incorruption. It is sown in dishonour; it is raised in glory. It is sown in weakness, it is raised in power. It is sown a natural body, it is raised a spiritual body. There is a natural body, and there is a spiritual body.” (1 Cor. 15:39-44)

To complete this picture, we should add Paul’s statement in verse 53.

“For this corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality.”

This analysis given here by Paul of the nature of the changes that the believer’s body will undergo at resurrection may be expressed in the form of a series of statements.

Paul also points out that, over and above all bodies of the order with which we are familiar here on earth, there is another and higher order of bodies, which he calls the “celestial” or “heavenly” order. Once again, this is in line with recent scientific discoveries. Science has now succeeded in putting men into space. But in order to keep them alive, it has to confine them in a capsule and surround them with the atmosphere and conditions of earth. To be truly at home any distance from the surface of the earth, man must be equipped with a body of an altogether different order from his present one. But for this he must depend upon God; he cannot do it for himself.