Grass is one metaphor used in the Bible to describe the status of Adam’s descendants. “All people are like grass, and all their glory is like the flowers of the field; the grass withers and the flowers fall” (1 Pet 1:24). We are withering. Paul prefers the language of decay, “though our outer man is decaying, yet our inner man is being renewed day by day” (2 Cor 4:16). In Romans 7:24, he coined the phrase “body of death” to describe our corporeal experience after the fall.
The gospel, however, is good news that reaches to our bodily existence and promises that the body of death is not the end of the story. According to Paul, a body of life awaits us because of the resurrection of Christ.
In Paul’s most extensive discussion on the resurrection, he provides an important framework for thinking about the tension of death and life as it pertains to our bodies. Using the analogy of a seed’s death preceding its life, he says: “So is it with the resurrection of the dead. What is sown is perishable; what is raised is imperishable. It is sown in dishonor; it is raised in glory. It is sown in weakness; it is raised in power. It is sown a natural body; it is raised a spiritual body” (1 Cor 15:42-44). He picks up this same language later in the chapter and adds one more category to the discussion, “this mortal body must put on mortality” (1 Cor 15:53).
Throughout the entire chapter of 1 Corinthians 15, Paul provides a window into the experience of the now and not yet of our bodily existence. Note the five ways he describes the tension in which we live.[2]
| Body of Death | Body of Life |
| Perishable | Imperishable |
| Dishonor | Glory |
| Weakness | Power |
| Natural | Spiritual |
| Mortal | Immortal |
He pulls no punches, our mode of existence as we await the resurrection is painful. We are all on a continuum of decay as move toward the inevitability of death. We are perishable, meaning our bodily existence is vulnerable and incapable of avoiding death. Our body is marked by weakness, we are racked by illnesses, injuries, and tiredness, we do not have the strength to overcome death. Our body is natural, it is the inheritance we all have from Adam and bears the consequence of sin within it. Our body is mortal, we are void of the capability to live forever.[3]
Of all these descriptors, dishonor most poignantly captures the experience of the “lowly” body (Phil 3:21) as it progresses toward death.[4] Death’s insidious assault on the human body takes aim at our decency and honor. Being with my grandmother before she died reinforced this truth. She had severe dementia and lived the last years of her life in a nursing home.
In those last days, she couldn’t eat or drink, use the restroom on her own, or wipe the saliva from her mouth. She was so frail and thin, a shell of herself. This was not the grandmother I knew. She had no piano to make her music, no kitchen to cook up her amazing dishes, no library of books to do her studies, she was in an unwelcoming room confined to a hospital bed. Death robbed her of more than life, it took her honor.
I saw the same reality when my best friend in college was electrocuted in a freak boating accident. Over a two-day period, I watched him lose all of his limbs as the doctor’s attempted to save his life. He was an incredible athlete with an amazing thirst for adventure. I cried and raged as they took his arms and then his legs—death’s grasp was vicious precisely because it stole his dignity in the process of taking his life. His died a horrendous death, the dishonor made it all the more painful.
The dishonor brought on by our mortality is not confined to the death bed, it is present in every small indignity brought on from our illnesses and diseases. Paul’s plain talk about the universal experience of decay normalizes the journey and assures us that we are not alone in our pain, but that is not his primary intent.
His purpose is to speak immortality into our dissolution, glory into our dishonor, and gospel into our sorrow. The gospel promises that everyone “who believes in him will never be put to shame” (Rom 10:11). Shame and dishonor will not have the last word because death is not the end for the Christian. Paul’s exposition of death is the backdrop of his declaration on life. Resurrection is coming and with it, immortality, an imperishable existence, strength, life fully animated by the Spirit, and glory.[5] Luther says it best,
“No matter how dishonorable or worthless [our body] is at present, it will return in a form so honorable and precious that its future honor and glory will surpass the present shame and dishonor many thousand times. Every creature will be amazed over it, all the angels will sing praises and smile admiringly at it, and God himself will take delight in it.”[6]
The empty tomb changes everything, it signals the death of death and guarantees that we will dance over our graves. Paul describes Jesus as the second Adam, the man from heaven and the first fruits of the resurrection (1 Cor 15:20, 45, 47). As the champion over death, he shares that victory with us and gives us the Holy Spirit as the guarantee that we will know the same resurrected life (Rom 8:11, 2 Cor 1:21-22, Eph 1:13-14, 4:30). The death taunt on Christ’s lips will rest on ours, “O death where is your victory, O death where is your sting” (1 Cor 15:55).
On a practical level, the future resurrection is intended to infuse the present suffering with hope and perseverance (1 Cor 15:14-20, 58). It also overrides the narrative of indignity by ensuring the transformation of “shame into glory” (Zeph 3:19). While the body will indeed be sown in dishonor, it will just as certainly be raised in glory.[7]
[2]James D.G. Dunn, “How Are the Dead Raised? With What Body Do They Come?: Reflections on 1 Corinthians 15,” Southwestern Journal of Theology, 45:1 (2002), 11. “The structure of the argument regarding the resurrected body is determined by a sequence of contrasting pairs. It is a sustained contrast between the inadequacy (to put it no more strongly) of one mode of existence and another. The present mode of existence is characterized by weakness, mortality, and decay (to death). The mode of resurrection existence, in contrast, will be quite otherwise.” Andy Johnson and Andrew Clinton, “Turning the World Upside down in 1 Corinthians 15: Apocalyptic Epistemology, the Resurrected Body and the New Creation,” The Evangelical Quarterly, 75:4 (2003), 299-300. Johnson and Clinton concur as they argue that Paul’s use of “antithesis” winds through his argument on the resurrection body.
[3]Thomas R. Schreiner and Nicholas Perrin, 1 Corinthians: An Introduction and Commentary, Tyndale New Testament Commentaries (Downers Grove: IVP Academic, 2018), 321-322. Schreiner walks through the meaning of the language of the first four categories. “First, the body that is sown is perishable (phthora; cf. Col. 2:22; 2 Pet. 2:12); it will die and dissolve. The body that is raised, though, is imperishable (aphtharsia; cf. 15:50, 53, 54). The word imperishable is closely associated with eternal life (Rom. 2:7; 2 Tim. 1:10; see also Dan. 12:3; Matt. 13:43). We see the same conception in 4 Maccabees 17:12 where the reward for the righteous is ‘immortality [aphtharsia] in endless life’ (nrsv). Second, the body is sown in dishonour but it is raised in glory. The body is not intrinsically evil, but it is dishonorable due to its corruptibility and weakness; however, the resurrection body will be glorious and will not suffer from frailty. We see a similar notion in Philippians 3:21: ‘[Christ], by the power that enables him to bring everything under his control, will transform our lowly bodies so that they will be like his glorious body.’ Third, the body is sown in weakness but it is raised in power. Human bodies are plagued with illness, injuries, tiredness and finally death, but in the resurrection, they will go from strength to strength. Fourth, Paul contrasts the natural body (psychikos) with a spiritual body. Elsewhere Paul contrasts the natural person (cf. esv) who is not a believer with those who are spiritual (1 Cor. 2:13–14). James criticizes wisdom which does not come ‘from above’ but is ‘earthly, natural [psychikē], demonic’ (Jas 3:15, nasb). Along the same lines, Jude speaks of those who cause divisions in the church, identifying them as ‘worldly [psychikoi], devoid of the Spirit’ (Jude 19, net). The natural body, then, is what all people possess upon entering the world as sons and daughters of Adam (Rom. 5:12–19). When new life in Christ comes for believers, they receive the Spirit, but they do not immediately receive a spiritual body. They will not be given a spiritual body until the end (cf. 15:20–28). A spiritual body does not mean an immaterial body; such a conclusion would contradict Paul’s entire discussion up to this point. What alienated some Corinthians was the idea that the resurrection body is physical. The resurrection of Christ for Paul was certainly physical. What Paul means by a spiritual body is a body empowered and animated by the Holy Spirit; the body is physical but, in contrast to one’s earthly body, it lives in a whole new realm, for now it is a body enlivened by the Holy Spirit.”
[4]John Piper, “It is Sown in Dishonor, It is Raised in Glory,” Desiring God (October 10, 2000). https://www.desiringgod.org/articles/it-is-sown-in-dishonor-it-is-raised-in-glory.“Then there is another word that Paul uses to describe the humiliating condition of death. In Philippians 3:21 he says that Christ ‘shall change our vile body, that it may be fashioned like unto his glorious body’ (KJV). The word ‘vile’ translates the Greek, tapeinoseos. Before the New Testament transformed this word into a virtue, because of Christ’s glorious ‘lowliness,’ the word had only negative connotations of ‘humiliation, debasement, defeat’ (Liddell and Scott). I recall reading a biography of Julius Schniewind, a German New Testament scholar who was born in 1883. He became deathly ill in the summer of 1948, but few knew how serious it was. Hans-Joakim Kraus was with him when he taught his last ‘lay Bible hour,’ and heard him groan as he was leaving, ‘Soma tapeinoseos! Soma tapeinoseos!’ – the phrase from Philippians 3:21, ‘Body of humiliation! Body of humiliation!’”
[5]Murray J. Harris, “Resurrection and Immortality: Eight Theses,” Themelios, 1:2 (1976), 50-51. Harris provides an important definition of biblical immortality. “In the New Testament, immortality involves not so much endless personal survival through the avoidance of physical death as participation in the eternal life of God and therefore immunity from eternal death. It is true that in itself the word ‘immortality’ simply denotes immunity from death (athanasia, 1Cor. 15:53, 54; 1 Tim. 6:16) or from decay (aphtharsia, Rom. 2:7; 1 Cor. 15:42, 50, 53, 54; Eph. 6:24; 2 Tim. 1:10). But given a New Testament context, the word should be defined positively as well as negatively, qualitatively as well as quantitatively. To be immortal is more than being immune from extinction or free from corruption. It is to share the nature of God (2 Pet. 1:4) and to enjoy fellowship with Christ (Lk. 23:43; 2 Cor. 5:8; Phil. 1:23). Deathlessness and incorruptibility result from full and immediate participation in the eternal divine life. A comparison of 2 Corinthians 5:4 with I Corinthians 15:53, 54 shows that ‘(eternal) life’ is equivalent to ‘immortality’. Note also the significant juxtaposition of these two terms in Romans 2:7 (‘to those who by patience in well-doing seek for glory and honor and immortality, he (God) will give eternal life’) and 2 Timothy 1:10 (‘…Christ Jesus, who abolished death and brought life and immortality to light through the gospel’). The Christian is destined to gain an immunity to that principle of decay and deterioration which characterizes humanity in Adam, through sharing the endless life of God.”
[6]Scott M. Manetsch, 1 Corinthians. Reformation Commentary on Scripture (Downers Grove: IVP Academic, 2017), 392, 408. Martin Luther further states, “This is why it is described as ‘sown.’ It is like the seed. That too must submit to being cast away so shamefully, to being scraped into the ground, and to having feet tread over it at the place where it will later grow again. The same process is experienced here, because it is really the work of God. He himself wants to create it anew, so that it no longer remains frail and filthy as it is now but becomes perfectly pure and precious. We know that later and at the proper time the body, weak and devoid of all strength and power though it may be when it lies in the grave, will be so strong that with one finger it will be able to carry this church, with one toe it will be able to move a tower and play with a mountain as children play with a ball. And in the twinkling of an eye, it will be able to leap to the clouds or traverse a hundred miles. For then the body will be sheer strength, as it is now sheer feebleness and weakness. Nothing that it decides to do will be impossible for it. It will be able to defeat the whole world alone. It will become so light and nimble that it will soar both down here on earth and up above in the heavens in a moment.” Calvin argues that the resurrection is the foundation for all Christian ministry and perseverance (1Cor 15:58), for it is “the singular hope that encourages believers at the outset, and afterward sustains them to persevere in the race.”
[7]David P. Scaer, “Luther’s Concept of the Resurrection in His Commentary on 1 Corinthians 15,” Concordia Theological Quarterly, 47:3 (1983), 223. Scaer quotes Luther’s grasp of the practical implications of the promised resurrected body for our lives today. “Behold, thus we must view our treasure and turn away from temporal reality which lies before our eyes and senses. We must not let death and other misfortune, distress, and misery terrify us so. Nor must we regard what the world has and can do, but balance this against what we are and have in Christ. For our confidence is built entirely on the fact that He has arisen and that we have life with Him already and are no longer in the power of death. Therefore let the world be mad and foolish, boasting of and relying on its money and goods; and let the devil rage with his poisonous darts in our conscience; and let him afflict us with all sorts of trouble — against all of this our own defiant boast shall be that Christ is our first fruits, that He has initiated the resurrection, that He has burst through the devil’s kingdom, through hell and death, that He no longer dies or sleeps but rules and reigns up above eternally, in order to rescue us, too, from this prison and death.” Brock and Swinton, Disability in the Christian Tradition, 69. In Augustine’s thought, “Because all humans will be resurrected in Christ, they will be resurrected in their true and eternal form. Affirming that the perfect human has appeared in Christ leads Augustine to deny the ascription of physical, intellectual, or volitional perfection to any human being. This is an important point because it means that, for Augustine, every human falls short of the norm. No human can claim to be complete, wholly healthy. At best, we see intimations of the perfect human spread through the best of humanity’s diverse traits. This circuitous but powerful logic underlies all his anthropological speculations.” In Romans 8, Paul describes the movement from corruptibility to incorruptibility with birthing language (Rom 8:22). Inevitably, the birthing process is painful and characterized by “groaning” (Rom 8:23). Of note, Paul describes the resurrection as the “redemption of our bodies” as the completion of our “adoption as sons”