The Resurrection body

I Corinthians 15:35-49

35 But someone will ask, ‘How are the dead raised? With what kind of body do they come?’ 36 Fool! What you sow does not come to life unless it dies. 37 And as for what you sow, you do not sow the body that is to be, but a bare seed, perhaps of wheat or of some other grain. 38 But God gives it a body as he has chosen, and to each kind of seed its own body. 39 Not all flesh is alike, but there is one flesh for human beings, another for animals, another for birds, and another for fish. 40 There are both heavenly bodies and earthly bodies, but the glory of the heavenly is one thing, and that of the earthly is another. 41 There is one glory of the sun, and another glory of the moon, and another glory of the stars; indeed, star differs from star in glory.

42 So it is with the resurrection of the dead. What is sown is perishable, what is raised is imperishable. 43 It is sown in dishonour, it is raised in glory. It is sown in weakness, it is raised in power. 44 It is sown a physical body, it is raised a spiritual body. If there is a physical body, there is also a spiritual body. 45 Thus it is written, ‘The first man, Adam, became a living being’; the last Adam became a life-giving spirit. 46 But it is not the spiritual that is first, but the physical, and then the spiritual. 47 The first man was from the earth, a man of dust; the second man is from heaven. 48 As was the man of dust, so are those who are of the dust; and as is the man of heaven, so are those who are of heaven. 49 Just as we have borne the image of the man of dust, we will also bear the image of the man of heaven.

Here Paul makes a defense for the resurrection of the body, a physical resurrection. He makes a clear distinction – the earthly body and the resurrection body are not the same. Just as a seed is planted in the ground and dies in order to produce a plant that is dramatically different than the seed from which it came (yes, there are seeds in the plant, but there is a lot more); in the same way the resurrection body is far more glorious than the earthly body. Both bodies are flesh (have a physical presence) – but the resurrection body is imperishable (vs. 42), is raised in glory and in power (vs. 43).

Jesus brings this hope of resurrection to the world, being the first who experienced it, “risen never to die again”. All who follow Jesus, being loyal to him, will bear the image of Jesus Christ in our resurrection bodies.    

All of this is beyond the experience of our lives on earth, we are called to take this on faith. Not just a kind of nod of the head, but to live lives that demonstrate that we believe this is true. Living a life rooted in believing in the resurrection means,

a. living into following the Jesus way, if we will eventually bear his image, then our lives should be shaped by his pattern of life;

b. it is a life lived in hope, lived in the certainty that the grief and sorrow that comes with “perishability”, “dishonour”, and “weakness” is not the final word, that the resurrection is the final word; and

c. it is a life that knows a day is coming when the kingdom of the risen Jesus Christ will finally be fully revealed and we live now as citizens of that glorious kingdom.

PRAYER:  

God of the resurrection, we rejoice that we are invited to bear the image of Jesus’ resurrection in our lives. Shape us as people who live in the hope of the resurrection in our everyday lives. In Jesus’ name we pray. Amen.