The Pulpit Commentary — 1 Corinthians — Section 526

Vers. 35-H.-The ?·esurrectivn of the body. This doctrine has presented the greatest :lifficulties to many minds. Here faith bas frequently found one of its severest tests. J. llt:T WE Ot:GIIT NOT TO DE STAGGERED DY ANY ~'A0T WHICH It; THE SUBJECT OF D1vINE REVELATION. God will assuredly justify himself and fulfil all his promises, Though we do not see how he will do so, he does. He sits higher than we do. When Ezekiel was asked," Can these bones live?" he did not reply," It is utterly preposterous and absurd," but "0 Lord God, thou knowest;" and when God asserted that they could and should, Ezekiel obediently prophesied upon and unto them (Ezek. xxxvii. 3). O_ur Lord's words should ever rin;; iu our ears," With God all things are possible" (Matt. XIX. 26). II. CoxsrnER THE IMPERFECTION OF OUR PRESENT KNOWLEDGE. How very little we know! Our knowledge is extremely superficial; we know no one thing thoroughly. Our knowledge is extensive in this sense, that we know a very little about a great many things. How ignorant we are of the nature of matter, spirit, life! How unfit to dogmatize ! yet how ever ready to do so! Like childreu, we say, "It can't be;" and we speak with infinite confid~nce because we cannot understand how it can be. The theory cannot be made up out of our superficial information. The mountain won't go into our bucket! III. THE LIMITATION OF OUR FACULTIES. Our powers are very great viewed in one aspect, very little indeed viewed in another. As long as we possess only our present faculties we shall do well to guard against the flippant use of " impo~sible." IV. How SOME DIFFICULTIES CONNECTED WITH THE RESURRECTION OF TIIE DODY MAY DE nEMOVED. ·we have two indicated in this passage. 1. Bow can the d,ad live 1 If our bodies die, are placed in the grave, dissolve, mix up with surrounding earth, is it not incredible that they should live again? "How can these things be?" '!'he apostle has a very pertinent retcrt. He directs the objector to a very familiar operation and result. Seed is sown in the ground, a living plant springs up. '!'he seeil placed in the ground apparently perishes. As placed in the earth it is seen above it no more. Much of its substance decays and unites with the ground in which it lies. And yeb there is the plant of the same nature, and called by the same name. There is here death and then life. In fact, only as the seed is sown, only as it seems utterly to perish, decompose, and be hopelessly lost-only thus is the beautiful result attained. So the death of this body may be necessary (speaking after the manner of men) to the beauty and glory of the resurrection-body. '!'hat which seems to be a difficulty may be an essential linlc in the chain-essential, that is, unless a special miracle is wrought, as may be in the case of those alive at the coming of Christ (ver. 52). '!'hey will be "changed" suddenly-we know not how, through what process. Christ's body, which saw no corruption, was evidently changed. Paul does not assert that sowing seed and its result are parallel in all points to the death and resurrection of the body. He uses it as a helpful illustration. If our experience did not cover the sowing of the seed and the upspringing of the plant, perhaps our faith woulil be as greatly tried, if we were called upon to believe in its possibility, as we are now in the case of the resurrection of the body. 2. " With what body do they come 1" One common form of this difficulty is- how is it possible for us to have at the resurrection the same particles in our body wLich we now have? Apart from the dissipation of these particles in the earth or sea, they may actually belong to the bodies of a great many di.ff"erent people! Amongst cannibals, for example. And amongst civilized people as well; for animals and plants receive in various ways 1,articlcs which once helped to constitute human bodies, and these animals and vegctaL!es being eaten, the particles in question become constituents of other human bodies. How can this apparently insuperable difficulty be met? Simply by saying tbat it is a difficulLy originated by the objector, and Las uo basis in Divin&  ou, xv. 1-58.J '!'HE FIRST EPISTLE 'l'O 'l'HE COitINTliIANS. u37