³⁵But someone will say, “How are the dead raised? And with what kind of body do they come?” ³⁶You fool! That which you sow does not come to life unless it dies; ³⁷and 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. ³⁸But God gives it a body just as He wished, and to each of the seeds a body of its own. ³⁹All flesh is not the same flesh, but there is one flesh of men, and another flesh of beasts, and another flesh of birds, and another of fish. ⁴⁰There are also heavenly bodies and earthly bodies, but the glory of the heavenly is one, and the glory of the earthly is another. ⁴¹There is one glory of the sun, and another glory of the moon, and another glory of the stars; for star differs from star in glory.

Paul now undercuts the silly line of questioning that was really just an effort to shut down the conversation. Essentially the question is this: If believers in the resurrection can’t make detailed explanation of the details of the resurrection that satisfies all rational inquiry, then belief in the resurrection is therefore indefensible. Resurrection detractors, along with false teachers of various sorts, often resort to inflicting death by a thousand qualifications to sound doctrine, any one of which they think is conclusive. This can be an effective technique for keeping your debate opponent mired in his defense. We must not, however, fall into the trap, as J.I. Packer warns, of “conceding the … assumption that every aspect of God’s work … will be exhaustively explicable in terms of natural theology … drawn from the world of contemporary legal and political thought.”

Paul undercuts the nonsense in scathing words. Using a term Jesus directed at the Pharisees for their pretentious questioning (Luke 11:40) and used only sparingly by Paul himself (almost exclusively for the Corinthians), the apostle calls them “fools!” Recognizing there are times not worth bothering to respond to foolishness (Pr. 26:4), there are nonetheless times when a response is appropriate (Pr. 26:5). Paul uses a simple analogy taken from the world of agriculture, an illustration even a child could understand.

Our resurrection bodies, he writes, will be as different from our present bodies as the fruit of a plant differs from the seed that brought that plant forth. In rapid succession, Paul expands the illustration by pointing out that our human bodies are different from animal bodies, and terrestrial objects (bodies) are different from earthly things (bodies). So our resurrection bodies will be of a different nature than our present bodies. The resurrection detractors were so focused on their earthly experiences in the flesh, they were incapable of thinking of a resurrection body in any other terms than like an earthly body.

Lord, help me know in part that which I will truly know in full when You return.