“How are the dead raised?”
This has been a good winter, for oftentimes, I have looked out to see God’s gift of snow covering the ground and felt the blast of cold whenever I stepped outside the door. My gardening, Christian friends say: “This is God’s nitrogen, freely given to us.” Thank You, God, for gifting us with this necessary nutrient for our gardens.
Since Easter comes later this year (not until April), we may not turn our gardens or plant our seeds until the day when our Creator has added warmth to our ground. The Creator controls everything within our gardens, and thankfully, this year, 2025, will be a year when I can till the ground, prepare the soil, purchase and plant precious seeds, side-dress with fertilizer when the timing’s right, and then hoe to remove the weeds—in my long-awaited vegetable garden.
If you know me, then you know how my husband has lessened the size of my garden over the past years, and last year even kept me from raising one, which was a good decision since my lower back surgery came directly in line with the season of gardening.
In studying God’s Word, I continually find it amazing how God teaches us His truth using concepts that we already understand. The Holy Spirit led the apostle Paul to write his first letter to the believers in Corinth, to a people who understood the process of planting seeds. Still today, our heavenly Father uses Paul’s letter to reveal the truth of God, using something as simple as gardening, seed dying, and bursting forth to teach us His truth about His glorious resurrection.
“But someone will say,
(The 1st Letter of Paul to the Corinthians 15: 35-38 NASB)
“How are the dead raised?
And with what kind of body do they come?”
You fool!
That which you sow does not come to life unless it dies;
and that which you sow, you do not sow the body which is to be,
but a bare grain, perhaps of wheat or of something else.
But God gives it a body just as He wished,
and to each of the seeds a body of its own.”
Later this spring, after I use my tiller to turn my garden and after I have laid off the eight and a half rows across the garden, then the small seeds purchased from the neighbor, gardening center will be placed into the soil. Then I will cover each seed with the soil and walk away, leaving the Creator to do what only He can do.
- The seed must die before it can live.
- The seed must be changed before it can become new life.
- This miraculous new birth happens inside the tomb of the earth, under the soil.
- The seed cannot become a vegetable God intended it to become, until the seed dies (changes) in the place where only the Father can see.
- The LORD causes the seed to die.
- The CREATOR then causes the seed to burst forth into new life.
Consider how: underneath the soil, where we cannot see, the Creator does this amazing work.
The mystery of salvation works in the same way.
Compare this thinking to the tiny seed of the Gospel that another has planted inside us when we were lost. A believer shared the Gospel with us & the LORD caused that tiny seed to take root. Another believer came along and water the seed, and then another worked the soil of our heart. The Creator sent “His Sonshine,” allowing His Spirit to speak to our innermost being, causing the tiny seed of our soul to take an even deeper root. Then suddenly, the tiny seed of BELIEF in our innermost being burst forth—when we first believed in JESUS and accepted Him as our SAVIOR!
- From that moment, we changed & became brand new.
- Our old, perishable life suddenly became our new, imperishable life—in HIM!
- From the moment of our belief, we received new life & became a child of GOD.
“So also is the resurrection of the dead.
(The 1st Letter of Paul to the Corinthians 15: 42-44 NASB)
It is sown a perishable body,
it is raised an imperishable body;
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.
If there is a natural body, there is also a spiritual body.”
This concept is such a simple, yet glorious mystery, one that ALL CAN COME TO UNDERSTAND.
We are created to have one body: the earthly. When the Creator conceived us in our mother’s womb, He placed within each of His creation an innate desire to know and receive our promised body: the heavenly body.
- This was the same with the first man, Adam.
- This is the reason the Father sent to earth the last Adam.
“So also it is written,
(The 1st Letter of Paul to the Corinthians 15: 45-49 NASB)
“The first MAN, Adam,
BECAME A LIVING SOUL.”
The last Adam became a life-giving spirit.
However, the spiritual is not first,
but the natural; then the spiritual.
The first man is from the earth, earthy;
the second man is from heaven.
As is the earthy, so also are these who are earthy;
and as is the heavenly, so also are those who are heavenly.
Just as we have borne the image of the earthy,
we will also bear the image of the heavenly.”
- Between our inhale of breath and our exhale, we experience life.
- Between our earthy and our heavenly, we experience death.
- When we breathe, we realize how God controls everything, even our next breath.
- When we see Jesus, we realize how we are lost and in need of a Savior.
- To receive eternal life, our soul must first die, through Jesus, from our inner-sinful self, in order to be resurrected in our new spiritual life.
The mystery of salvation is so wonderfully beautiful.
To help us fully understand, the Spirit of God allowed His bond-servant Paul to end the discourse with these verses—
“Now I say this, brethren,
(The 1st Letter of Paul to the Corinthians 15: 50-52 NASB)
that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God;
nor does the perishable inherit the imperishable.
Behold, I tell you a mystery;
we will not all sleep, but we will all be changed,
in a moment,
in the twinkling of an eye,
at the last trumpet;
for the trumpet will sound,
and the dead will be raised imperishable,
and we will be changed.”
“How are the dead raised?”
We shall see when we hear the last trumpet.
“And with what kind of body do they come?”
We shall behold when we see Jesus coming in the clouds for His bride—the church.
- And who is His bride?
- And who is the church?
This is the glorious mystery of God!
Those who have been changed from the inside—out, who have been redeemed, who have been saved, through belief in the message of the Gospel.
- The death of Jesus on the cross—
- His dead body lay in the tomb for three days—
& then—
- God’s miraculous resurrection of His Son Jesus back to new life!
In the same way, this is exactly how the dead in Christ will be raised to new life.