Rasmussen Poll of 1,000 registered voters:
• 65% - Believe Jesus physically rose from the dead. (2024)
• 78% - Believe Jesus physically rose from the dead. (2011)
• Belief in the bodily resurrection is down 13 points in 13 years.
• The problem in Corinth is some in the church said there was no resurrection!
1 Corinthians 15:12 (NASB), “Now if Christ is preached, that He has been raised from the dead, how do some among you say that there is no resurrection of the dead?”
• 1 Corinthians 15 teaches that a denial of the fact of the resurrection is a denial of the faith.
• A denial of Christ’s resurrection is a denial of a believer’s own future resurrection as well.
• John Updike wrote,
• “Make no mistake: if he rose at all
It was as His body;
If the cell’s dissolution did not reverse, the molecule reknit,
The amino acids rekindle,
The Church will fall.”
1 Corinthians 15:35, “But someone will say, ‘How are the dead raised? And with what kind of body do they come?’”
• Paul answers two more questions about the resurrection in v35...
• To the first question, Paul says, “You fool.” He doesn’t believe they are thinking clearly or seriously.
• To the second question, Paul describes in broad terms the resurrected body.
I Corinthians 15:36 (NASB), “You fool! That which you sow does not come to life unless it dies; 37 and that which you sow, you do not sow the body which is to be, but a bare grain, perhaps of wheat or of something else. 38 But God gives it a body just as He wished, and to each of the seeds a body of its own.”
• The word, “body” always means something material, physical, and visible.
• Paul is emphasizing that in the resurrection we will have a physical body.
• Matthew Henry, “It is foolish to question the Almighty power of God to raise the dead, when we see it every day quickening and reviving things that are dead. The grain undergoes a great change; and so will the dead.”
I Corinthians 15:42, “So also is the resurrection of the dead. It is sown a perishable body, it is raised an imperishable body; 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. 45 So also it is written: ‘The first man, Adam, became a living person.’ The last Adam was a life-giving spirit. 46 However, the spiritual is not first, but the natural; then the spiritual. 47 The first man is from the earth, earthy; the second Man is from heaven.”
• The body sown a perishable body. The body raised is an imperishable body. Our present bodies decay and decompose. The resurrected body will be guaranteed for eternity. Our knees, our hips, our tendons, our eyes and ears, will all have an eternal life warrantee.
• The body is sown in dishonor. The resurrected body is raised in glory. Living in our present bodies is often humiliating, and embarrassing. But, the resurrected body will be glorious. There will be no shame and no comparing our bodies with others – all will be glorious. And, with glorified bodies, it will be our nature to glorify God in our bodies (something we fall short of now).
• The body is sown in weakness. The resurrected body is raised in power. Our present bodies grow weak, frail, feeble. Our bodies get sick, injured, diseased, and tired. But, the resurrected body will be powerful when it arises. It will grow from strength to strength. As we live in them, we will discover new capacities, and new abilities -- powers beyond what we can imagine.
Randy Alcorn said, “The strongest and healthiest I’ve ever felt is a faint suggestion of what I’ll be in my resurrected body on the New Earth.”
• The body is sown a natural body. The body raised is a spiritual body. Our natural bodies were made for life in this world. But, since the fall, our flesh can be more animal than spiritual. It is a battle to obey God in our fallen flesh. But, our resurrected bodies will be made for life and service in the new heaven and earth. In our new bodies, we will serve the Lord gladly, willingly, and instinctually. In our present state, the spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak. In our resurrected body, the spirit is willing and the flesh is willing.
• The word “spiritual” throws some Christians off. A spiritual body does not mean an immaterial body. A spiritual body is a physical body – empowered and dominated by the Holy Spirit.
**• KEY: Spiritual, refers to the ____(source)#1 of the body, not the ____(substance)#2 of the resurrected body. The resurrection will give us a spirit-dominated body – enlivened to serve the Lord without hindrance. **
• V 53 adds... The body is sown is mortal. The resurrected body is immortal. Our bodies will die one day. The resurrected body will never die. God will resurrect us in immortal bodies, fit to live eternally.
• Christians believe true immortality involves the whole person, body and soul. If Christ did not rise in the same physical body in which He died, then we have no real hope that we will ever attain true immortality either.
Finally, Paul contrasts the earthly and resurrected body.
• Our earthly bodies are in the image of Adam. These bodies were made for life on earth.
• Our heavenly (resurrected) bodies, will be in the image of Christ’s (the last Adam) resurrected body.
• Because Christ was resurrected, we will be resurrected in a body like His. His resurrected body is the prototype for the body to come. A body made to live forever, in the new heaven and earth.
CONCLUSION:
1. The believer’s resurrected body will be like His resurrected body.
Philippians 3:20-21, “For our citizenship is in heaven, from which we also eagerly wait for a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ; 21 who will transform the body of our lowly condition into conformity with His glorious body, by the exertion of the power that He has even to subject all things to Himself.”
2. Salvation redeems us totally -- body and soul.
Romans 8:11, “But if the Spirit of Him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, He who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through His Spirit who dwells in you... 23 waiting eagerly for our adoption as sons and daughters, the redemption of our bodies.”
3. The resurrected body will be full of health and strength.
“O how glorious and resplendent,
fragile body, shalt thou be,
when endued with so much beauty,
full of health and strong and free,
full of vigor, full of pleasure
that shall last eternally.”
Hymn: Light’s Abode, Celestial Salem
