1Cor 15:42-44 - Smothering the Hiss

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 dishonour; 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.


Here, then, is the denouement. Paul makes the comparison between the spiritual body of the resurrected saints and all the examples of God’s handiwork that he used in preceding verses. "So it is with the resurrection of the dead! " This is no mere opinion. Here is authority, conviction and inspiration poured out for the sake of Christ’s flock. Here is truth broadcast for the encouragement of the saints and to destroy the lies of the false teachers, and the whispering hiss of doubt planted through them by the father of lies, that murderer, the devil.

Just like seeds which perish in the earth but give rise to wonderful plants, so the fallen and perishing body of the believer is buried in the earth only to rise glorified and eternal. God is able. God has creatively and redemptively purposed it in Christ - and He is the Author of all things. The glories and the variety of His power are plainly visible in the animal kingdom and in the heavens, just as Paul reminds us in Romans Chapter 1 - and by faith the saints apprehend these things, giving glory to God.

Back to the false teachers - how foolish indeed to think that God cannot, or wills not, to do all these things when the evidence is before our very faces every day. But this is the nature of the "natural man" - the unredeemed mind, for he does not receive the things of the Spirit of God, neither can he. How foolish to believe that He will not do these things when Christ, Who is the gospel, expressly promised them to His Apostles and disciples. This was the Christ that was originally preached at Corinth. This was the Christ in whom they believed. This was the Christ whom they received, who gifted them by and with His Spirit. Foolish indeed for the false teachers to disbelieve, but more foolish still for the saints to slumber their way into heresy.

Paul will next move on to remind the Corinthians of the basis upon which all these things are accomplished, for he never loses sight of the Saviour and of the grace that has been given in Him.