Putting on Immortality is the name of our Resurrection Series for 2025. In it, we are exploring Paul’s description of the resurrection body. Our Memory and Meditation Verses for Celebrating the Resurrection over the next 6 weeks (April 20th-May 31st, 2025) are 1 Corinthians 15:35–49. The series aims to improve and guide our Christian meditation together. Today, in Putting on Immortality Part 4, we will examine 1 Corinthians 15:42–44.
Catching Up On the Series
In case you missed the first three installments in the series and would like to read them before moving on: Putting On Immortality Part 1, Part 2, Part 3
1 Corinthians 15:35-37
“How are the dead raised? With what kind of body do they come (1 Corinthians 15:35)?” These are real world questions. How can there be a future body when the one we have turns to dust shortly after death? Paul’s response is to say, “Don’t be foolish! Look around. The natural world declares God’s power to raise the dead.”
First, death and resurrection is the way of all plant life (1 Corinthians 15:35-37). Seeds must die to bring forth life. They are sown and what is sown is not the body that grows. From the beginning, they were created to reflect the future resurrection of Jesus Christ.
1 Corinthians 15:38-39
Second, God has already made differing beings with qualitatively different natures (1 Corinthians 15:38-39). Men are higher than animals. Animals are higher than birds. Birds are higher than fish. Why doubt he can take off dust and make a New Man when He has already taken dust and made the first.
1 Corinthians 15:40-41
Third, God made heavenly and earthly bodies (1 Corinthians 15:40-41). The planets and stars are not all alike. The sun, the center of our solar system shares his glory with no other. The sun’s brightness hides the Moon and Stars from view. Yet, at night is their time to shine, and when they do we find that they are not all the same either. Star differs from star in glory. Remember, a created thing possesses glory. Glory is beauty linked to created use. For example: the North Star stands out. It is brighter and more radiant than others. Why? Because it has a special place in the heavens as guiding light.
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The Analogy Drawn Together
Now that Paul has pointed outward to the natural world, he will begin drawing together his analogy:
1 Corinthians 15:42-44
“So is it with the resurrection of the dead. What is sown is perishable; what is raised is imperishable. 43 It is sown in dishonor; it is raised in glory. It is sown in weakness; it is raised in power. 44 It is sown a natural body; it is raised a spiritual body. If there is a natural body, there is also a spiritual body.”
The Spiritual Body
Sometimes it is easier to start at the end. Paul says, “If there is a natural body, there is also a spiritual body.” Today, there is much debate among men about whether there is an afterlife. Men in the past simply reasoned that because we are here, there must be a there. The Apostle John says, “In Him was life, and the life was the light of men (John 1:4).” Jesus, as the Divine Son, is the source of all created life. The abundance of life on Earth witnesses to man that there is a God, a heaven, and more beyond our short existence. “If there is a natural body, there is also a spiritual body.” If there is one, there must be the other.
The Resurrection of the Dead
“So is it with the resurrection of the dead (1 Corinthians 15:42a).” Death claims us, and we bury our bodies. Like farmers planting seeds, we place them into the Earth. However, when we sprout in the future, we will be more. We will have the same body, yet the substance of it will be qualitatively higher. “What is sown is perishable; what is raised is imperishable (1 Corinthians 15:42b).”
Sown in Dishonor, Raised in Glory
Glory will define our resurrection bodies. Paul says we are “sown in dishonor.”
Our bodies begin decaying at the moment of death. After four days in the grave, Lazarus was purifying. Martha did not want to remove the stone for the stench in John 11:39. Jesus raised him from the dead, reversing the curse. Our future bodies will be “raised in glory (1 Corinthians 15:43).”
From Weakness to Power
At our death, we sow a body that God fitted with a glory suited only for this world.“It is a natural body.” We cannot dwell in the Presence of God in it. God would consume our lowly body. It is weak. The future body will not be weak. It will be able to live eternally in God’s immediate manifest Presence. We will be “raised a spiritual body (1 Corinthians 15:44).”
God will remake our flesh and glory, fitting them especially for Heaven’s Light on the Day of Christ’s return.
Revelation 22:4-5
“They will see his face, and his name will be on their foreheads. 5 And night will be no more. They will need no light of lamp or sun, for the Lord God will be their light, and they will reign forever and ever (Revelation 22:4-5).”
Putting on Immortality Part 5
Finally, thanks for reading Putting on Immortality Part 4. Next week in Part 5 we will comment on 1 Corinthians 15:45-47 as we continue to Celebrate the Resurrection together. Until then, go in peace to love and serve the Lord!
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Additionally, if you enjoyed Putting On Immortality Part 3 you may also enjoy some of our other series’.
Christ, His Church, & Marriage (February 2025)
Forsaken For Us (March-April 2025)
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