The Pulpit Commentary — 1 Corinthians — Section 511

questions growing out of the relations between soul and body, questions on which Greek intellect had expended its subtlest power of investigation? And would not that memorable day in Athens flash back upon him from Mars' Hill, when he confronted the philosophers with the doctrine of the resurrection, some mocking, others sayin"', "vVe will hear thee again of this matter"? However this may have been, it is cert~n that St. Paul understoo<l perfectly the objections made by Greek philosophy to the resurrec- tion, as to the "how" and "with what body "-the general and the specific bases of Greek hostility to the doctrine so near his heart. To answer the two interrogatories- " how?" and" with what body? "-is the work now in hand. St. Paul had just closed an appeal by the sharp cry of "Awake to righteousness," as if intent on arousing the Church from stupor. Now, however, he begins with "Thou fool," or rather, "Fool," expressing no harshness, but simply the want of wisdom. The analogy is stated at once: "That which thou sowest is not quickened, except it die n-reminding one of similar words spoken by the Lord Jesus (John xii. 24). The seed you sow bas to die, to pass into decay and dissolution, its component parts separated, before the germ can disengage its life and begin to sprout. Like that seed, your body dies. Like that, your body by dying enters on a condition preparatory to linng. If life thus proceeds from dissolution, the general question "how" is met by the likeness between the decay of the seed and the body. The body of the seed dies, but it bas a principle of life which springs thereby into active existence. Then, the contrast having been first presented between death and life, he advances to the second point: "With what body do they come?'' Not the old body; nothing can be clearer than that, for the destruc- tion of the former body supplies the conditions for the process of deliverance from decay, and institutes the work of quickening. And what is the issue of the new process? It is a new body, for" thou sowest ,not that body that shall be;" if thou didst, what reality would be in the sowing; what foundation for the hope of the hnsbanrl man; what work for the providential agency of nature? On the supposition of the same body in the seed-grain <lying and growing, the resemblance would be to sleep rather than death, and, consequently the analogy as here used would break down at the start. Hence the statement so essential to the parallelism: "thou sowest not" the future body, but a body for transformation. It is "bare grain" which is put into the ground. This is your work as a husbandman; but God is there to perform his part, and" God giveth it a body as it ooth pleased him.'' Admitting that God gives the new body according to his pleasure, does it follow that this act is arbitrary because it is sovereign? Is nature set aside? Are the former laws that made that seed the kind of seed it was, ovP.r- thrown under the sod? Is it death to the economy of production, or is it production for reproduction? .And he answers, God giveth" to every seed his own body." On the one hand, the continuity of nature is preserved, the particular character of the seed is not lost; an<l, on the other hand, the new growth is something unlike that which dies, for God has given it a difTcr~nt body. Similarity and contrast are both maintained. Is the identity destroyed? Nay. ls there a distinction between the body that dies aud the body that lives? Yea. Identification must not conflict with dissimilarity; dissimilarity must not antagonize identification. Seen in this light, the change is one of form. Before death, there was body living; in death, body decayed and resol Hd into its elements; after death, body reconstructed. The identity lies in the/act of body; the difference in the substance, properties, and form of body. If so, what is thero incredible in the resurrection? By analogy, it is a possible event. Nature authenti- cates a principle which may find application to the human body; and if you ask, "With what body do they come?" the reply is that it will be a new body, one of a higher form, one from him who" giveth to every seed his own body." Observe, then, the fact of the resurrection is not rested on analogy. Thl'l use of the analogical argumont hero is not for that purpose. Christ's resurrection establishes the fact of a general resurrection. But this having been assured, analogy is employed to show the consonance thereof with reason, by pointing out a correspondence between it and the germination of seed. And how beautiful as well as truthful is this use of nature I Enlightened from another source, even by the Spirit of God, St. Paul is in a position to see the God of nature as the God of the resurrection. He goes to nature and asks, "Have you anything like t/iis 1'' And she points him to the growing harvest, a few months ago " bare grain," and says, "So tltall thy dead live J" Our heavenly Father has not been content to give-us  520 THE FIRST EPISTLE TO THE CORINTHIANS. [en. xv. 1-58.