1 Corinthians 15:37 Commentary and Bible Study

What you reap, eventually, is so different from what you sow, and that's an illustration of resurrection. Now in these verses there were two things you notice. First of all, there is the language of continuity. You start with the grain, a seed, and you plant it, and that very same grain becomes the wheat plant, so there is continuity. It is in effect the same seed, the same grain, but it's greatly changed, and there are the two things. The language of continuity; the language of transformation and radical change. Keep those two things in mind for the resurrection. The new body given to us at the resurrection is in like that. It is in some respects the same body as the old. Of course we know that from the resurrection of Christ. His new body was glorious, but it was still him; it was his recognisable body. It bore his scars. Thomas could be invited to put his hand in the scars and feel and touch, and yet Christ could pass through the door. You don’t sow the thing that is going to emerge from the ground; but you sow a naked grain, a ‘bare grain’, here in our translation. The Greek is ‘naked grain’. ‘But God giveth it a body as it hath pleased him, and to every seed his own body.’ What a difference between the two! You sow something small, a plain looking seed; and from the ground there comes a beautiful plant, something that appears entirely different. That happens in nature all the time. And it teaches us something – the resurrection body will be very different from the body we now have. It will be adapted to eternity. It will be quite wonderful and remarkable. We understand there will be clear recognition – it will be our body – but it will be so altered and made so glorious. It will be rather like comparing the plant to the seed – there will be a great difference in character.