Perhaps some of you is still pondering of how are we going to be resurrected. I even heard that some does not even want to be cremated so that (according to them) when Christ comes back, his body will still be complete and not just a bunch of dusts and ashes. Our sermon passage today is 1 Corinthians 15:35-49.

One time I went up to an outreach area where one of the members died. Before she died, her right leg was amputated and was buried. However, after a month, she died.

At her funeral, I saw her father carrying a plastic bag. When I asked them they say that it was was the amputated leg that was already buried. They are going to include it in her grave. When I asked them why, they answered me “so that at least she will still be complete after life.”

What was really have been said about our resurrected bodies? What will it look like?

These questions are not new. Some early Christians already asked Paul about these. Today, we will be looking at the answer of Paul.

Principles of Resurrection

Principle #1:  What have been sown is not made alive unless it dies (v.36).

Just like a seed when sown, it will grew up to have its own body and then bear fruit. The fruit bears the new seed. The fruit has to ripe or be ready to be consumed or dried before the seeds is ready to be planted again.

The seed then will join the soil and decompose. Then a new life appears in it, a new plant grows bearing some of the characteristics of the plant where it came from yet totally a whole new plant.

Principle #2:  Each kind of body is different from the other (v.39).

As Paul explained, animal flesh is one kind, human flesh is another kind, so as the the celestial and terrestial bodies. Here we see that flesh gives birth to flesh, spirit gives birth to spirit.

This is why the Bible says a totally different thing than what other books are saying. Some say that after we die, we reincarnate in the form of animal.  And while in that form we must do something good until such time that we will gain the form of man again.

Science say that we came from monkeys. Yet the Bible say, there is an animal flesh, flesh of fish, and a flesh of man and they are different from each other.

Principle #3:  Humans natural life comes first before the spiritual (v.46).

Paul now is explaining that our life is in the form of physical flesh. That flesh has to die first before the spiritual body comes. As Paul explained, we came through Adam who originated from the dust, and so that flesh has to return in the dust.

Jesus as the last Adam (Romans 5:19-21), died in the flesh, then bears the new body fitted for heaven. So will it be for us. We are to die in the flesh first, before the spiritual body comes.

Paul presented 4 sets of contrasts between our fleshly body and spiritual body in verses 42-45. There will be no more corruption (bodily deterioration and death), no more dishonor (sin), no more weakness (temptations) and no more limitations to time and space (since our body is has a limited life span).

Principle #4:  Each form of life has to live in totally different ways and environment (v.50).

Our human flesh has to live in the harshness of the world and the reality of deterioration and temptation. Our body toils and our hardship is expressed by sweat and our pains by tears. We are to face it whether we like it or not. We have to overcome the temptations being bombarded by the enemy.  We have to overcome trials.

In the life after resurrection, we will suffer no more if we are one of those who are in Christ. No more deterioration of the body and the time and space is limitless. No more trials, no more toil, no more tears and no more sweat.