(A) Introduction (Read the reference). See also: Article on the afterlife.

It will benefit our study of Paul's teaching on the resurrection body to refer to the one resurrection body we know something about - that of Jesus. But Christ has indeed been raised from the dead, the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep. v20. When believers are raised at Christ's second coming they will have bodies like their Lord's: And just as we have born the likeness of the earthly man, so shall we bear the likeness of the man from heaven. v49. The information the gospel writers give about Christ's resurrection body may help us to understand how we shall be on the day of his return.

Paul teaches five truths about the resurrection body:

(B) It is different.

(1) The Corinthians had a mistaken view of the resurrection.

There was a faction at Corinth who thought resurrection meant the old body was reassembled and reconstituted - brought back to life as it was - a flesh and blood body. This idea has persisted through the years and is expressed by these lines in Edward Young's poem, 'The Last Day':

Now monuments prove faithful to their trust,
And render back their long committed dust.
Now charnels rattle; scatter'd limbs, and all
The various bones, obsequious to the call,
Self-mov'd, advance; the neck perhaps to meet
The distant head; the distant legs the feet.
Dreadful to view, see thro' the dusky sky
Fragments of bodies in confusion fly,
To distant regions journeying, there to claim
Deserted members, and complete the frame.

If this is what happened at the resurrection of the body it would of course be ridiculous. Many of the atoms in our body have been part of other people's bodies. This conception of the resurrection is what that silly Bishop of Durham mistakenly attributed to Christians in the 1960's. It is thoroughly reprehensible to scoff at Christians for holding beliefs that you have falsely ascribed to them.

Paul tackled this aberration robustly. He writes: How foolish. ... When you sow, you do not plant the body that will be .... . Jesus' old body was not resuscitated at the resurrection. The grave clothes lay in their folds. His old body dematerialised, in the twinkling of an eye, to be taken up into his new body.

(2) The body we die with is not the body we are raised with.

As I have indicated above Paul makes this abundantly clear: When you sow, you do not plant the body that will be, but just a seed, perhaps of wheat or of something else. v37.

Our new resurrection bodies will be as different from our earthly bodies as the oak tree is from the acorn, the rose is from its hip or the mushroom from the spore.

(3) The resurrection body works on an entirely different principle to the earthly body.

Paul illustrates this in 3 ways:

(a) The new body is not flesh and blood even though it might appear this way. Jesus did say to his disciples: "Look at my hands and feet. It is I myself! Touch me and see; a ghost does not have flesh and bones, as you see I have. Lk24v39. However, I think we must take seriously what Paul affirmed: I declare to you, brothers, that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God.... . v50.

A flesh and blood body has to be sustained in a particular way. It needs oxygen, water, food, warmth, to sleep and to excrete. We will not have a body like this in glory. The risen Christ could eat and so too could angels. (See Lk24v41and42 and Gen18v1to15.) It is very unlikely that either need to eat to live.

(b) The new body is not subject to change and decay. We inherit from Adam, the father of the race, both a fallen nature and bodies that wear out and die. Paul wrote: We have borne the likeness of the earthly man. v48. When Christ returns in glory we shall not be given revamped earthly bodies. Paul states: Nor does the perishable inherit the imperishable. v50.

Even those alive at the Second Coming have to be changed. Listen, I tell you a mystery: we will not all sleep, but we will all be changed - in a flash, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, the dead will be raised imperishable, and we will be changed. For the perishable must clothe itself with the imperishable. v51and52.

Our old bodies work in a well defined way: birth, development, decline and death. The resurrection bodies of believers do not; they are immortal.

(c) The resurrection body is not a natural body but a spiritual body. It is sown a natural body, it is raised a spiritual body. If there is a natural body, there is also a spiritual body. v44.

We know what a natural body is! It is the one we have now. It is one on which the spirit depends. The spirit cannot exist independently of our bodies and it is very much affected by the state of the body. If our brain is diseased the spirit changes. My father in the final stages of Parkinson's disease was a different man to the one I knew before the illness struck. If bodily needs are denied the spirit soon suffers too. A man experiencing intense pain is scarcely able to think. One of our supply preachers was afflicted by kidney stone pain a fortnight ago. It so disorientated him that although he phoned 999 he could not answer the questions of the person who responded to his call.

It is not easy to understand what Paul meant by a spiritual body. Perhaps, the purged, cleansed, renewed spirit of the resurrected man controls the body. Believers receive a body with no needs that cannot be met by the spirit. There is no hunger, thirst or pain and no desire for sex or warmth in glory. Jesus implied this during his confrontation with the Sadducees over bodily resurrection: But those who are considered worthy of taking part in that age and in the resurrection from the dead will neither marry nor be given in marriage, and they can no longer die; for they are like angels. Lk20v35and36.

Paul uses a wonderful illustration to indicate that the old will not be lost altogether but taken up into the new. When you sow, you do not plant the body that will be, but just a seed, perhaps of wheat or of something else. But God gives it a body as he has determined, and to each kind of seed he gives its own body. v37and38.

A seed is a single cell. It contains DNA - the plant's code of life. It is the DNA that programs the development of an acorn into an oak tree. In all the hundreds of thousands of cells in the mighty oak the DNA of the acorn - the original cell - is preserved to give the tree its identity. It is also true of course that on the oak you will find many acorns - the acorn has not be lost either.

There are other ways to illustrate this grand truth. A great painter will make a rough sketch of a landscape. Later in the studio it is used to produce a glorious oil painting. The finished work is very different from the rough sketch but the sketch has not been lost - it is included in the painting. The same could be said of an author like Dickens who jots down ideas for a novel. The bare bones of an inspirational work of fiction bears little resemblance to the finished product. But none the less the preliminary draught is not lost - it is included in the finished work. I used to tell my school pupils when I taught R.E. that Christians are buried a hand brush and raised a Hoover. The Hoover might look very different from a hand brush but you will find a brush in the Hoover.

After our resurrection we shall be aware of our identity. Our spirits may have been purged of all the dross that impairs them now but they will be OUR spirits. They are kept safe and secure by God until the Second Coming of Jesus. I think the words of committal spoken at the burial of a Christian get it exactly right: Forasmuch as it hath pleased Almighty God to call away from this life the soul of our dear brother, we therefore commit his body to the ground, earth to earth, ashes to ashes, dust to dust, and leave his soul with God his Maker and Saviour, in sure and certain hope of the resurrection to life immortal, through our Lord Jesus Christ, who died and is risen again, and is even at the right hand of God.

We shall also be raised up with recognisable characteristics. Paul suggests this when he wrote: But God gives it a body as he has determined, and to each kind of seed he gives its own body. This was true of Jesus. There is no doubt that the disciples and other followers found it difficult to identify Jesus because he had changed. He was no longer the man of sorrows and acquainted with grief! When he prepared breakfast for the six disciples who had been fishing all night and caught nothing John recorded: None of his disciples dared ask him, "Who are you?" They knew it was the Lord. They would not have felt a need to ask, "Who are you?", if the appearance of Jesus had remained identical. Nevertheless they knew it was Jesus.

Martha knew Jesus by the tone of voice he used when he spoke her name. (See exposition on John20v10to18.) The two on the road to Emmaus recognised Jesus when he broke bread and gave thanks in his characteristic fashion. The disciples, including Thomas, knew him because of the nail prints in his hands and feet. Jesus was recognisable because the old had not been lost but taken up in the new

In the same way we will be able to recognise our nearest and dearest in glory. They will retain something of the old body. I hope I shall know my mother by her sparkling eyes and my father by the way he sings.

(D) It is superior to the old.

(1) The resurrection body is imperishable not perishable. The body that is sown is perishable, it is raised imperishable. v42.

Jesus said of the resurrected from the dead: And they can no longer die; for they are like the angels. Lk20v36. Our new bodies cannot age, fail or die. Before raising her brother, Lazarus, Jesus told Martha: "I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in me will live, even though he dies; and whoever lives and believes in me will never die." Jn11v25and26.

(2) The resurrection body is glorious not inglorious. It is sown in dishonour, it is raised in glory. v43.

The earthly body is inglorious in three ways:

(a) We can indulge it and commit the sins of gluttony, lust, drunkenness, sloth and various sorts of hedonism. Some folk spend an inordinate amount of time and money on their bodies.

(b) We fear it - the pain it causes and the humiliation it brings.

(c) As we get older our body becomes something of an embarrassment to us and we prefer to keep most of it well hidden. I realise that some middle-aged men are proud of their vast stomachs and are not averse, in warm weather, to stripping off and displaying their extended organs for all to see. The majority of us would much prefer they kept them covered!

Our resurrected bodies will be beautiful, splendid and radiant because we will bear the likeness of the man from heaven. We have a description of the exalted Christ in Rev1v12to16: His head and hair were white like wool, as white as snow, and his eyes were like blazing fire. His feet were like bronze glowing in a furnace, and his voice was like the sound of rushing waters. ..... His face was like the sun shining in all its brilliance.

(3) The resurrection body is strong not weak. It is sown in weakness, it is raised in power. v43.

Our present bodies impose severe limitations upon us. As we age this becomes more obvious. Years ago I used to be a good opening batsman. Last Saturday, aged 65, I went to West Mersea to play for Brockley Second Team. When at length I staggered out to bat, numb with cold, I was given some words of advice from the 14-year-old not out batsman! It didn't do me much good. The first ball shot and I just kept it out. The next ball took off and nearly dislodged my trilby. I played a rusty looking drive off the back foot to the third ball and was comprehensively yorked on the fourth. My experience reminds me of what is written of David in 2Sam21v15to17: Once again there was a battle between the Philistines and Israel. David went down with his men to fight against the Philistines, and he became exhausted. ... Then David's men swore to him, saying, "Never again will you go out with us to battle, so that the lamp of Israel will not be extinguished."

Jesus resurrection body was solid. He said to his disciples: "It is I myself! Touch me and see; a ghost does not have flesh and bones, as you see I have." Lk24v39. But it was a body that could pass through grave clothes and appear at will in a locked room. See Lk24v31. It was a body that ate food but it could also disappear at will. See Lk24v31. Jesus resurrection body was controlled by the spirit - it could be whatever the spirit wanted it to be. It is a body without physical needs.

(E) It is not beyond God's ability to create for us a new body.

It is fairly obvious that there were those at Corinth who questioned God's ability to bodily raise the dead. This sceptical group were incredulous that God could give them resurrection bodies. Paul dismisses this attitude as foolish. How foolish! v36. However, Paul is also at pains to show why it is perfectly reasonable to believe in God's competence:

(1) He has ensured that seeds of different kinds produce plants of distinctive form and substance. A seed of a particular sort has been programmed to produce a plant of a particular species. But God gives it a body as he has determined, and to each kind of seed he gives its own body. v38. We are like seeds - all different. We die. At the resurrection our bodies are both different from the one that died and also different from one another.

(2) Other living things are not all the same - man, mammals, birds and fish are all different. The God who has created a huge variety of life forms is quite capable of devising yet another one - the resurrection man.

(3) It is possible that Paul refers finally to inanimate objects. Earthly bodies like lakes, mountains, canyons, oceans, forests and deserts have their own splendour but it is not the same splendour as the moon and stars. Even the heavenly bodies - the sun, moon, stars and planets are all different. The God who can create such a diversity of earthly and heavenly objects is surely capable of producing a new model body for resurrection man.

Paul wrote in his second epistle to Corinth: Now we know that if the earthly tent we live in is destroyed, we have a building from God an eternal house in heaven, not built by human hands. 2Cor5v1. Our new body will be as different from our natural body as a well-appointed million pound house is from a tent. The heavenly architect of our new abode is God himself.

(F) It is a triumph for the Lord Jesus.

(1) Jesus makes a believer's bodily resurrection possible. Paul described Jesus as the last Adam, a life giving spirit. v45. Jesus said: For my Father's will is that everyone who looks to the Son and believes in him shall have eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day. Jn6v40. I thank God for that 'everyone'! It is Jesus that will raise the dead to life on that last day. He has the power and to him be the glory, now and forever more.

(2) At the last day we shall be like Jesus. But Christ has indeed been raised from the dead, the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep. v20. This wonderful truth is confirmed by John in his first epistle: Dear friends, now we are children of God and what we will be has not yet been made known. But we know that when he appears, we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is. 1Jn3v2. I can never comprehend in this life the nature of my new body but it is enough for me to know that I shall be like Jesus.

(3) We get the victory over death through Christ and Christ alone. Perhaps even more importantly we also get the victory over death's sting.

"Where, O death, is your victory?
Where, O death, is your sting?" v55.

The sting of death is sin. If we die in our sins the sting is having to accept the consequences of those sins.

Jesus has also broken the power of the law. The law condemns us because it clarifies what conduct is acceptable to God. It lays down what is acceptable and what is unacceptable to our Maker. We know what we should do and what we shouldn't do. So, when we break the law, having knowledge of the law, we cannot plead ignorance. We are without excuse - although we usually try hard to find one.

When I was a boy farmers did not worry too much about health and safety. Men would work in dusty conditions and spray noxious chemicals without wearing masks. A farmer challenged about this could plead ignorance. He cannot do so today! Numerous rules and regulations exist that the farmer has to comply with. If he does something that threatens the health of an employee the law condemns him.

Jesus has drawn sin's sting and broken the law's power to condemn us because he died to save us. We receive salvation as a free gift if we submit to Jesus and put our trust in his finished work at Calvary. We are saved by God's grace through faith in Christ. Every believer can shout for joy:

But thanks be to God! He gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. v56.

We should no longer fear death. In the words of the writer to the Hebrews: Since the children have flesh and blood, he too shared in their humanity so that by his death he might destroy him who holds the power of death - that is the devil - and free those who all their lives were held in slavery by the fear of death. Heb2v14and15.