There are mysteries to heaven that we do not know. Paul has been talking to people who are doubting the resurrection and after-life. Now he is going to answer a question about the resurrection bodies. This becomes especially relevant when our bodies die old, mangled, decayed, or destroyed completely. What will our resurrection body be like?
“But someone will ask, “How are the dead raised? With what kind of body will they come?” How foolish! What you sow does not come to life unless it dies. When you sow, you do not plant the body that will be, but just a seed, perhaps of wheat or of something else. But God gives it a body as he has determined, and to each kind of seed he gives its own body. Not all flesh is the same: People have one kind of flesh, animals have another, birds another and fish another. There are also heavenly bodies and there are earthly bodies; but the splendor of the heavenly bodies is one kind, and the splendor of the earthly bodies is another. The sun has one kind of splendor, the moon another and the stars another; and star differs from star in splendor.
So will it be with the resurrection of the dead. The body that is sown is perishable, it is raised 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 15:35-45).
It seems from Paul’s response that this is not an inquiry of curiosity, but one more way in which they are trying to deny the resurrection of man. How can man be raised to life again?
Paul’s response is simple: We die a physical body. We raise in an imperishable new body. Just like a kernel of wheat falls to the grown and dies, it comes to life looking something different. We have earthly bodies, and we will be raised to heavenly bodies.
Paul’s description becomes even more powerful. Our bodies will be imperishable, raise in glory, raised in power, and raised a spiritual body. It is a definite upgrade to our current bodies that we have.
The kernel of wheat picture is really a good illustration. It must go to the ground and die. But out of that death comes life. And that life looks very different from the kernel of seed. Just like an apple seed falls to the ground and dies, it too, grows and becomes far more glorious than the seed. That will be us.
So Paul tells them, don’t be foolish. We will be different. Just look at nature.