It was part of the arrogance of Greek philosophy that some would mock Paul’s teaching on the issue of resurrection. They asked how it was possible, and asked sarcastically if Paul could describe what kind of body one would have after rising from the grave. The folly here is the reliance on human wisdom to assess revelation.
Can anyone explain how a seed grows into a plant? At that time in history, the study of biology only got so far as to recognize that a seed must die; it must be completely disconnected from that which gave it life. The form you see when you put it in the soil looks nothing like what springs up. God is the source of all things; what springs from a seed is whatever God determines. Each kind of seed produces something different.
We have no problem recognizing that the flesh of various animals are quite different. Just so, we should easily recognize that our mortal bodies would be different from the eternal ones. With Greek philosophical assumptions making so much of human perfectibility, Paul points out that the concept of “glory” (i.e., perfection) would be quite different for an eternal body. We can’t possibly understand how things work in the heavens in simple terms of sun, moon and stars; we won’t be able to grasp the nature of eternal bodies while still in our mortal frame.
So it is with resurrection: You cannot understand it with your fallen mind. You’ll have to wait until it happens to possess faculties capable of grasping it all. We take this on faith as a revelation from God. It will be different, so different that we cannot imagine — death becomes life, shame becomes glory, weakness becomes power, mortal becomes immortal. The one defines the other. Returning to the image of First versus Last Adam: the first came to life (quoting from Genesis 2:7), but the second gives life.
In God’s plans, it is necessary that we first endure this awful mortal life in order to rise to eternal life. We must be dust before we can be spirit. All of us will be a First Adam before we can join the Last Adam in Heaven. The whole point is the distinction and boundaries between the two. The Heavenly Kingdom will take your reservation, but it will not be yours until you die.
Granted, there will be just a few who don’t have to face death, but we all must change and shed this human form. When Christ returns, those who are still alive will be changed where they stand. That will happen when the heavenly trumpet sounds, and that’s when the dead will also be changed. Paul quotes from Isaiah 25:8 and Hosea 13:14, both mocking the power of mortality to hold us imprisoned. The Giver of Life will return and vanquish mortality. There will be no more goading and suffering.
The goad that death uses against us is how powerless we are against our sinful nature. We deserve to die. And the power of our sinful nature points to the presence of moral law in all of Creation, condemning us by a standard we are unable to meet. But God is not going to leave us like this. He has offered a triumph over sin and death through His Son, Jesus Christ.
Don’t be shaken by the doubts of human intellect. God’s promises do not fail. Face the sorrows with aplomb; keep working with overflowing excellence in the assurance that you aren’t wasting effort.
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