Once we move into the second half of chapter 15, Paul still needs to deal with other areas surrounding the idea of resurrection. At this point, the Corinthians might have come to acknowledge that the resurrection of Jesus is true, and that because we are united to Jesus by faith, we too will one day experience our own bodily resurrection. Nevertheless, they still had a question about the nature of this resurrection body. How is it possible, a Greek would argue, that a material body can inherit an immaterial, heavenly existence? Everybody acknowledges that God is spirit and that the realm of heaven has to be a realm of spirituality, not materiality. So how can you talk about a resurrection of the body?
What Paul is essentially saying here is that while it is true that there is a genuine resurrection and that our bodies are raised, it is, nevertheless, also true that our bodies are changed, so that the bodies we have now are not the bodies that we are going to have in the resurrection. There is continuity between our earthly body and our resurrection body, but they are not the same. To prove that, Paul begins to distinguish between different kinds of bodies. He gives a number of examples. He talks about sowing the seed in the ground and how it grows up to be something quite different from what you put in the ground. Thus, the wheat comes from the seed that you plant. There is a continuity between what you put in the ground and what rises out of it. But what comes up is also different. There is a clearly recognizable change.
Paul then talks about different kinds of flesh. Human beings, animals, birds, and fish all have flesh, but they are obviously not the same kind. After this he goes a step further, and he contrasts heavenly bodies with earthly bodies. He says you acknowledge a difference there as well. Then he talks about the sun, the moon, and the stars, all of which differ from one another. His argument from all this is to ask why is it so incredible to think about a resurrection body that differs substantially from the bodies we have now?
Somebody could had said to Paul, “Yes, but we still don’t understand it. We don’t see any resurrection bodies now, and so we don’t really know what we’re talking about.” Paul would undoubtedly have said that there is much that he does not understand, either. We know there is a resurrection body because Jesus rose from the dead. We know that it was not like the body that He had before the resurrection because apparently His new one could come and go at will. He could suddenly disappear and reappear someplace else. On one occasion at least Jesus passed through a closed door. And yet, it was a physical body. Jesus offered to have Thomas touch Him and put his fingers into the holes in His hands, and thrust his hand into the wound in Christ’s side. It was a real body, yet different.
It is at that point that we see more clearly the connection with Jesus’ answer to the Sadducees in Matthew 22. They did not understand because they did not understand the Scriptures. And part of this misunderstanding is that we know so little about the power of God. We might not understand how God does it, but we know that He does do it from the pages of the Bible. Therefore, it is not an irrational thing for Christians simply to take their stand upon that and confess their lack of understanding and trust by faith that in His own time God will perform what He has promised to provide.
