1 Corinthians 15:42

So also is the resurrection of the dead.

Not to know, not to believe in, the resurrection of the body, that is a shame and disgrace for a Christian; but the manner of the resurrection is a secret which at best may be illustrated by analogous processes in nature. In this way Paul meets the question: How are the dead raised? With what kind of body, moreover, do they come? The lurking ideas of the impossibility and inconceivability of the resurrection of the body are both taken up; for the apostle realizes that someone might argue: The resurrection as proclaimed by the apostles is absurd; how can anyone conceive of a new body that is to rise out of a corpse that has been eaten by worms or has fallen into dust? As far as the first argument is concerned, Paul does not hesitate for a moment to charge its defender with mental stupidity, since all nature teaches that death is only a transition to further life: What thou sows is not made alive unless it die. The mystery of the resurrection is contained in every sprouting seed. The hull which serves as a covering, as a carrier for the seed-germ, will rot away and die, while the contents of the kernel, by a chemical process which only the Creator can explain, under the proper condition for germination, will rise up into new life.

To the argument that it is impossible to conceive of such a process, Paul answers with the analogy of the same picture: And what thou sows, not the body that shall be sows thou, but the naked grain, there being no difference whether it is of wheat or of one of the other grains. What we see before our eyes year after year may be impossible for us to comprehend, but it can no longer be said to be unreasonable. In placing the seed into the ground, the farmer or gardener knows that he is not planting a new body, which would but have to grow. He puts the naked, unclothed grain of any seed into the ground and does not permit himself to be deterred by the objection of some stupid person that has never seen things sprout, that his seed will merely rot in the soil. Experience has told the farmer that the grain of wheat, though in itself lifeless as a grain of sand, will yet, under the proper conditions, produce a new body. It is God that gives the sprouting seed the power and the plant its body, in accordance with His decree in creation, by which the continuance of life by this form of reproduction was determined. And He gives to each seed a body of its own. It is His miraculous working throughout, but that same power is able to return our bodies at the resurrection.

Paul now uses a second comparison to show with what form of body the dead will come: All flesh is not the same flesh, but different is that of men, different that of beasts, of four-footed animals, different the flesh of winged creatures, different that of fishes. All these creatures have flesh in their body, and yet it is not the same; there is variety not only in organization, but also in composition, as both the sense of feeling and of taste can testify. The God that exhibits such wonderful power in producing this variety will surely be able to provide a body for every person in the resurrection. Again, the apostle argues: And there are bodies heavenly and bodies terrestrial; but the glory of the heavenly bodies is one, and that of the earthly bodies another. The stars and all the heavenly bodies, by God's creation, have a glory which differs from that of the bodies in this world, though the beauty of the latter in the manifold miracles of nature can well compare with them. Finally, the heavenly bodies differ among themselves in beauty and brightness, the sun, the moon, and the stars exhibiting a variety of glory which must be recognized at once: all are glorious, but in degrees. And the same God that produced all these miracles is fully able to produce bodies for His saints at the time of the resurrection which will be altogether suited to the glory of Christ's coming kingdom. Paul therefore sums up all that he has advanced in the entire passage: So, indeed, is the resurrection of the dead. It is as reasonable as the recurring miracle of germination and new growth, and the bodies which it will make necessary can be provided by the same God that calls all the marvelous creatures before our eyes into existence. Simply because our bodies are now grossly material, it would be a mistake to conclude that they cannot, at God's command, exist, in an entirely different and far higher state.

It is sown in corruption, it is raised in incorruption;