The Resurrected Body

In 1 Corinthians 15:35–39, Paul turns to a brief discourse on the resurrected body. He begins this section by positing two questions: “ ‘How are the dead raised up? And with what body do they come?’ ” (1 Cor. 15:35, NKJV). These questions are answered in 1 Corinthians 15:36–49.

Paul applies three analogies to help his readers understand what happens in the resurrection. The first analogy (1 Cor. 15:36–38) remarks that the body is like a seed that must first die (or cease to be a seed) in order to miraculously become a plant. The teaching is clear: resurrection is a miracle of God. Second, the analogy of the bodies (1 Cor. 15:39, 40) highlights that, in this world, God provided different types of bodies for animals and for humans appropriate to the current environment. Likewise, our bodies will be suitable for the new circumstances in the heavenly world. This idea is taken a step further with the third analogy of a glorious body (1 Cor. 15:40, 41), which emphasizes that the glory of the resurrected body enormously exceeds that of the body that came before, our earthly fallen ones.

This idea can also be seen through four contrasts between our earthly body here and now, and the resurrected body. The former is terrestrial, perishable, weak, and natural. In turn, the latter is heavenly, imperishable, powerful, and spiritual (1 Cor. 15:40–44). This does not mean there is no continuity between the two. Paul’s use of the Greek term sōma (“body”) for both the buried body and the resurrected body shows continuity. Conversely, the four contrasts above also show discontinuity. Our new bodies will not be the same as the decaying ones we have now (thank the Lord).

Paul does not relate the term “spiritual” to an immaterial existence. Elsewhere, he says that Jesus “will transform our lowly body to be like his glorious body” (Phil. 3:21, ESV). We will have real bodies, but they will not wear down or decay. Because all we know now is decay, sickness, and death, it’s hard to imagine life without these things, but that is what we are promised in Jesus.

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Additional Reading: Selected Quotes from Ellen G. White

The resurrection of Jesus was a sample of the final resurrection of all who sleep in Him. The risen body of the Saviour, His deportment, the accents of His speech, were all familiar to His followers. In like manner will those who sleep in Jesus rise again. We shall know our friends even as the disciples knew Jesus. Though they may have been deformed, diseased, or disfigured in this mortal life, yet in their resurrected and glorified body their individual identity will be perfectly preserved, and we shall recognize, in the face radiant with the light shining from the face of Jesus, the lineaments of those we love.
At His second coming all the precious dead shall hear His voice, and shall come forth to glorious, immortal life. The same power that raised Christ from the dead will raise His church, and glorify it with Him, above all principalities, above all powers, above every name that is named, not only in this world, but also in the world to come.
He will receive us with honor. To us will be given a crown of glory that fadeth not away.—The Faith I Live By, p. 180.

Our personal identity is preserved in the resurrection, though not the same particles of matter or material substance as went into the grave. The wondrous works of God are a mystery to man. The spirit, the character of man, is returned to God, there to be preserved. In the resurrection every man will have his own character. God in His own time will call forth the dead, giving again the breath of life, and bidding the dry bones live. The same form will come forth, but it will be free from disease and every defect. It lives again bearing the same individuality of features, so that friend will recognize friend. There is no law of God in nature which shows that God gives back the same identical particles of matter which composed the body before death. God shall give the righteous dead a body that will please Him.
Paul illustrates this subject by the kernel of grain sown in the field. The planted kernel decays, but there comes forth a new kernel. The natural substance in the grain that decays is never raised as before, but God giveth it a body as it hath pleased Him. A much finer material will compose the human body, for it is a new creation, a new birth. It is sown a natural body, it is raised a spiritual body.
He [the believer] may die, as Christ died, but the life of the Saviour is in him. His life is hid with Christ in God. “I am come that they might have life,” Jesus said, “and that they might have it more abundantly.” He carries on the great process by which believers are made one with Him in this present life, to be one with Him throughout all eternity. . . .
At the last day He will raise them as a part of Himself. . . . Christ became one with us in order that we might become one with Him in divinity.—Maranatha, p. 301.