Will The Body Be Raised?

So, Paul’s answer first establishes that the seed of grain sown never returns, the particles perish, but a new life comes from the seed sown. Thus, it will be in the resurrection. The new body will not be composed of the actual particles that were put in the grave, but a new body will come forth. Does this not answer then the objection that it would have to be the same body?

Some say the body may be lost at sea, devoured by monsters of the deep, passed into animal bodies, and maybe back into other human bodies. Another is burned and the ashes scattered to the four winds. Or another body has gone into vegetable life. There is no need to find all the particles of a decomposed body to have a resurrection. Like seed sown, “you do not sow the body that will become,” (v. 37). Yet the growth of the seed shows there is identity under a complete change in physical conditions. So, it is an identity of character and a continuity of life in the resurrection. This is true in nature, for God gives to every seed its own body---the seed of wheat seed produces wheat, the grain of corn brings forth corn. In the buried seed there is a decomposition, yet a transformation. This transformation is a continuity. The kernel of the old body is embodied in the new, resurrected body.

Thus, every human body will retain its own identity; each man shall be himself; all that essentially belongs to the body at death will be raised to life and will constitute the resurrection-body. Only in the sense of continuity and identity, therefore, the same body that is laid in the grave shall be raised. Else the new body would be a creation, not a resurrection. A change does not destroy continuity. The ugly caterpillar is changed into a beautiful butterfly, but it is the same creature. The buried seed comes forth in a stalk, but it is the same plant, whether it be wheat or corn.

God is Good! Love you all. Kevin J.