With What Body Do They Come?

The debate over the nature of the
resurrection body continues.

Paul anticipates a question from some
who ask, How are the dead [ones]
raised and with what body do they
come? (1 Cor. 15:35)

He replies with an analogy that is
troubling for many. Foolish one, what
you sow is not made alive unless it dies.

And what you sow, you do not sow
that body that shall be, but mere
grain—perhaps wheat or some other
grain.

Two things Paul says about the
resurrection body in verses 36–37.

• It is not made alive unless it
  dies.
• It is not the same body as that
  which is sown.

With What Body Do They Come?

To consider the first, whatever the
resurrection body is, it must die in
order to be raised.

The use of the “seed analogy”
implies that like a seed, the body
must be sown when it is alive.

Farmers do not sow dead grain.
Christ spoke of this agricutural
analogy in John 12:24.

“Most assuredly, I say to you, unless
a grain of wheat falls into the ground
and dies, it remains alone; but if it
dies, it produces much grain.”

Note the order. The grain falls into
the ground, then it dies, then it
rises to produce more grain.

The second part of this analogy is
that the body that is sown is not
the body that shall be.

In other words, a seed goes into
the ground as one body and rises
in a different form. It is a newly
transformed plant.

In like manner the body is placed
where it can die, then undergoes a
transformation process, from which
it emerges as a new body.

For believers in Christ, the death of
the body is Christ determined. In
other words, “If Christ is in you, the
body is dead.” (Rom. 8;11)

That is a Christ determined death.
Further, it is clearly not physical
death. The Romans were not dead.
The church was not a cemetery.

Paul spoke of the dying and deliverance
from “this” body of death,” by Christ.
So then “death is working in us, but
life in you.” (2 Cor. 5:12).

This statement has no meaning when
applied physically. Physical death works
in all men. Here, Paul spoke of dying
to the old world of Judaism under the law.

O wretched man that I am! Who will
deliver me from this body of death? I
thank God—through Jesus Christ our
Lord!” (Rom. 7:25)

Through Christ, Old Covenant believers
died to the aeon of sin and death, in
order that they might be raised by
Christ in the aeon of life.

The aeon of death, represents the
body of Moses, a body of mortality
subject to death. (2 Cor. 3:7)

The aeon of righteousness is the new
covenant spiritual body of Christ.
(2 Cor. 3:6)

Life in the new aeon of righteousness
is gloriously expressive of God’s
removal of the Law, sin, and Hades.

O Death, where is your sting? O Hades,
where is your victory?” The sting of
death is sin, and the strenth of sin is
the law.”

But thanks be to God who gives us
the victory through our Lord Jesus
Christ. (Rom. 7:25, 26)

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