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Introduction

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 5, we will examine 1 Corinthians 15:45–47.

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 Part 4

The Skeptic’s Question

In 1 Corinthians 15:35-49, Paul answers, “How are the dead raised?” Specifically, he is answering the skeptical question, “With what type of body will they come (1 Corinthians 15:35)?” It is understandable that people would struggle with a future resurrection. After all, do you know anyone who has ever returned from the dead? Until Jesus Christ conquered death and the grave, no one had ever returned from the shadows of death.

Confidence Through Christ

Jesus’ resurrection gives us confidence in our future resurrection. If Jesus can lay down and then take up His life again, then we trust He can also resurrect our mortal bodies. What kind of body is the question?

The Seed Analogy

Paul draws from the natural world to answer the question. Seeds are bodies that are sown in the ground. What grows is what was planted, except in its new form, it is more and more fruitful. And as far as God’s capability to make bodies with qualitatively different flesh, the evidence is all around us.

Moral Instinct and Differing Flesh

When you see a dead fish, how do you feel? You probably feel next to nothing. Now, compare it to when you see a dead puppy. You see, by instinct, you know that not all creatures are “equal.” When you run into ethical vegans, you think they are kooks, don’t you? Why? Because whether or not you completely comprehend it, you know they’ve wandered into moral confusion. Fish, chickens, puppies, and people are qualitatively different. All around us are qualitatively differing creatures with differing moral values.

Glory and Usefulness

Then above us are heavenly bodies. These bodies help demonstrate the biblical concept of “differing glory.” The “glory” of any created thing is its beauty in conjunction with its use. Let me return to my previous analogy before we apply it to the heavens, as Paul does. Puppies have more glory than fish, and babies have more glory than puppies. Everything has glory; Paul uses the planets and stars because they easily demonstrate the concept of glory.

Differing Glory in the Heavens

“There is one glory of the sun, and another glory of the moon, and another glory of the stars; for star differs from star in glory (1 Corinthians 15:41).” Polaris, the North Star, guides travelers at night. However, the moon has a greater glory because travelers can travel in its light. As a hunter, I know the dawn after a moonless or stormy night is a great time to hunt deer. They could not feed at night because there was no light to forage by. Conversely, I know that it is a waste of time after a clear full moon. It’s best to sleep in and wait for the afternoon. The moon’s glory affects all of the natural world.

Three Witnesses: Down, Around, Up

When we look down, seeds die and resurrect, becoming qualitatively more than before, yet still the same. And, when we look around, we see creatures with differing flesh that ascend in quality. Finally, when we look up, there are bodies with ascending glories. Thus, we affirm what the angels cry before the Throne of God, “Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts; the whole earth is full of his glory (Isaiah 6:3)!”

Perishable to Imperishable

The resurrection will be like what we witness in the natural world. Seeds are dead. If you don’t plant them, they rot. However, if you plant them, they go from “perishable” to “imperishable,” meaning they move from death to life.
“So is it with the resurrection of the dead. What is sown is perishable; what is raised is imperishable (1 Corinthians 15:42).”

Raised in Glory

And when they rise, they have more glory and honor.
“It is sown in dishonor; it is raised in glory. It is sown in weakness; it is raised in power (1 Corinthians 15:43).”

Instinctive Honor

Which one are you more careful with? The tomato seed packet or the tomato plant? How often do you check on your seed packet versus your plant in the garden? By instinct, you know one is living and needs care, and the other is dead and needs to be buried—the tomato plant you honor—by watering, weeding, and pruning it. The seed packet is an afterthought—the kind of thing you find in a junk drawer.

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The Natural Before the Spiritual

However, the seed comes first, followed by the plant. There is a body that is less, and in death, God gives it a body He chooses (1 Corinthians 15:38), one that is more. Creation teaches us by metaphor that
“If there is a natural body, there is also a spiritual body” (1 Corinthians 15:44b).

Nature’s Symbols, Scripture’s Substance

The Scriptures, however, explain redemption to mankind. They explain the atonement and make sense of the metaphors scattered throughout the natural world. They do what nature cannot; they tell us how we can be saved.

The Two Adams

The first Adam’s failure in the garden left us in a state of sin and misery. God, who is rich in mercy, sent us another Adam, a Second Adam, a Last Adam. He sent the Divine Son to us, one who is “a Life-Giving Spirit.”
Thus, it is written, “The first man Adam became a living being”; the last Adam became a life-giving spirit.
46 But it is not the spiritual that is first but the natural, and then the spiritual.
47 The first man was from the earth, a man of dust; the second man is from heaven.

From Dust to Glory

We arrive in the New Creation by following the pattern of the Old. The Saints, born in the image of the man of dust, must die to be clothed with the glory of the Man of Heaven. Like seeds, in death, we become
“the spirits of the righteous made perfect (Hebrews 12:23)” after death. The indwelling Holy Spirit perfects the spirits of the just as they await “the resurrection of the dead and the life of the world to come (Nicene Creed).”

Ashes to Transformation

The pattern is set. All across the natural order, we see “the less” come first and then “the more.” To quote R. C. Sproul, God’s Redemption moves us from Dust to Glory. He gives a “beautiful headdress instead of ashes (Isaiah 61:3).” Therefore, it is natural bodies, a life of faith, and death first—ashes—for all but the very last of the elect. Then, “we shall all be changed, in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye (1 Corinthians 15:51b-52)” into the image of the Man of Heaven, the Resurrected Jesus Christ.

Even so, come Lord Jesus. Even so, come!

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 5 you may also enjoy some of our other series’.

Christ, His Church, & Marriage (February 2025)

Forsaken For Us (March-April 2025)