How will our resurrection body be different from our current body?

In resurrection then, it is God who decides the character of the body; and He is at no loss as to investing this with a glory greater than as yet we have imagined. Philippians 3:21 tells us our body shall be fashioned like that of the Lord Jesus in resurrection. In this body, material barriers were no obstacle to Him; and in this He ascended up to heaven; time and space no obstacle whatever. Yet also, each individual body will have its distinct glory, just as every individual on earth today is different. Such is the marvel of the ways of our God!

As to our present body, in contrast to the Lord's body on earth, it is sown in corruption, the result of sin. But it will be raised in incorruption, the effects of sin totally done away, because the root has been fully judged at the cross. This shows a marvellous change in its condition. Secondly, its manifestation is completely changed, from that of dishonour, decrepitude, humiliation, to that of "glory," a dignity and beauty impossible to our present bodily state. And thirdly, the weakness of the vessel, coming down often in old age to utter helplessness, will give place to a "power" as yet unimagined. Christ was "crucified through weakness," having taken a place lower than angels, who "excel in strength." But He is raised by the power of God, and given in Manhood a place above angels, His bodily condition now no deterrent to the exercise of this marvellous power. Thus, the capacity of our bodies will be also wonderfully changed. And fourthly, the character of the body will be in great contrast to that of today. For as inherited from Adam it is simply "natural"; as raised it will be "a spiritual body." Not a "spirit body," as though it were merely intangible, but a true body, complete with spirit and soul (1 Th. 5:23), just as that of the Lord in resurrection, handled by His disciples, partaking of material food (Lk. 24:38-43). And yet material obstacles were no hindrance to Him: when the doors were closed. He suddenly stood in the midst of His disciples (Lk. 24:36). But being a spiritual body, no doubt this involves its being suited to spiritual conditions, as our natural body is suited to natural conditions. It may seem strange that a material body may yet have a spiritual character, able to be at home in spiritual conditions; but is this not intended to bow our hearts in wondering adoration at the greatness of the power and grace of our God?

This conducts us to the marvellous declaration of verses 42-44. The body that is sown in the grave is characterized by corruption, dishonour, weakness, soulishness, — if we may be allowed to coin that word, for the word, "natural" is more literally "soulish," something fitted for the animal soul rather than the spirit. It is raised in incorruption, glory, power, and a spiritual body rather than a soulish one. The identity is preserved, as witnessed by the words, four times repeated, "It is sown … it is raised." Nevertheless the condition in which it is found is of a different order entirely. This answers the question, "With what body do they come?"

The point raised in these verses is as to the body in which the risen saints will appear, and the Apostle shows that though there is identity preserved between the body which is buried and the body which is raised, yet in condition and character the risen body will be altogether new. As to condition, the former is marked by corruption, dishonour, and weakness; the latter by incorruption, glory, and power. As to character, the former is a natural body, the latter a spiritual body.

(Vv. 42-44). If, then, there are all these differences in bodies in the natural and material world, need we raise questions because there is a vast difference between our present bodies and the bodies we shall have in resurrection? The Apostle thus takes occasion by the folly of these reasoners to bring before us the character of the resurrection body and the resurrection state. In contrast to our present bodies, the resurrection body will be incorruptible, glorious, powerful and spiritual. Believers will not be disembodied spirits, but in resurrection they will receive spiritual bodies, little as, at present with our finite minds, we can comprehend either a spiritual existence or a spiritual body. We admit there is a natural body entirely suited to the conditions of the present life on earth. So we know believers will have a spiritual body entirely suited to heavenly conditions.

Now, in treating of this subject, the truth of which was denied by some at Corinth, the apostle dwells on three important points: first there is a resurrection of the dead (vers. 12–23); secondly, the bodies of our humiliation will share in it (vers. 35–50); thirdly, that event, namely, the resurrection of the saints who form part of the church, will be accomplished in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump. (Vers. 51-58.) With the first of these points all are concerned. Christ has been raised from the dead, so there is a resurrection of the dead. Its possibility is proved. Its certainty is established. But further, the body will be raised up; and here, writing to and of Christians, the apostle has dwelt at length on the resurrection of Christians. Their bodies, sown in corruption, will be raised in incorruption — sown in dishonour, they will be raised in glory — sown in weakness, they will be raised in power — sown natural bodies, they will be raised spiritual bodies. Great indeed is the change to which the body will be subject, the body placed in the tomb. Perfect, too, and abiding will be the condition in which it will be raised; for, sown in dishonour, it will be raised in glory, sown a natural body, it will be raised a spiritual body; and this will take place in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye. That which is sown will be raised, though a change will pass over it, so that the body will not emerge from the tomb in the same condition in which it entered it.

Here the same analogy is used but with a different application. A seed is sown in the earth, yet, though its identity is preserved, it comes up with a vastly different body. The acorn is buried, but the oak springs up. Every seed has what we may call its own special resurrection body in which it comes forth. The bearing of this on the point before us is plain. The dead body of that saint is laid in the grave: in the resurrection it will come up vastly different, yet with its identity preserved.

"It is sown in corruption." Such is the end of the activities of natural life. Mortality is only death deferred, the frame of man being doomed, from the first transgression, to return to dust. But the Lawgiver can make alive as well as kill.3 And since grace and truth have come by Jesus Christ, the same Spirit who, as the witness of condemnation, seemed to make man's burial his end,4 now magnifies His office as the glorifier of Jesus. Judgment has sown what mercy is to reap. What nature reluctantly submits to as inevitable, and in its willing ignorance of death's true cause is contented to accept as its appointed close, the believer is taught to contemplate as a needful, though humbling, stage in the -progress of his hope. As the husbandman sees gladly the seed vanish from his sight into the ground, because he looks for a more excellent return; so is it with the saint who commits the body of his departed fellow to the earth. When we bury our brethren, we do a willing, though solemn, sacrifice to truth. It is a sinful body, and corruption is its badge of shame. But it has been purchased in righteousness by the Lord, who now entrusts it for awhile to the safe keeping of the earth, which once was His own grave. It is sown in corruption, to be raised in incorruption. Immortality is an attribute of that life which is already our own in Christ, because of righteousness;5 but bodily incorruption is to be its outward and abiding form.

Verse 43. "It is sown in dishonour," etc. If corruption expresses the effect of a mortal condition, dishonour is a confession of its moral degradation. Our bodies are bodies of humiliation, and the grave is their hiding-place of shame. The pride of nature may refuse to own this, and princes that had gold seek vainly to maintain a shadow of their state in the desolate houses which they build for themselves;6 but the worm is their brother still, and all the efforts art may make to avert, or at least defer, the dissolution of this earthly frame, do but the more emphatically witness to the present victory of death. But if sown in dishonour, it is raised in glory. The death of a believer is the seal of his life-long confession as a sinner and a worm. His resurrection will be the consummation of his hope as a partaker, in Christ, of the righteousness of God. Glory is the natural ornament of righteousness, as dishonour is the inseparable consequence of sin. A visible conformity to Him who is the true Image and Glory of God is the end of their expectation, who now wait, as the heirs of salvation, for the Son of God from heaven.7

The body of the believer is sown in dishonour, corruption, and weakness: so all see; what do we believe? It is raised in incorruption, glory, and power — not a mere ethereal or airy body, as Chrysostom and Origen respectively said, but a body instinct with spirit life, as once with animal life from the soul, yet not a spirit, but a spiritual body, not limited by earthly conditions, but capable either of passing through a closed door, or of being felt, able to take food, though needing none, if we may judge from Him who, risen as the great Head and pattern and power, declared that a spirit has not flesh and bones, as they saw He had.

The "natural" body is thus a soul "body — a body fitted to the soul; and this is what suits one who is characteristically "a living soul." The body, for the higher capabilities of the spirit, is (apart altogether from the fall) inefficient and unequal. The old creation was but after all a step to another which was in God's mind from the beginning; and in this the "spiritual body" — the perfect vehicle and servant of the spirit — will take the place of the natural body, the body suited to the man who was (even as the beasts thus far) a living soul.

The meaning of the expression, "a spiritual body," being ascertained, we are freed from many wrong conjectures as to it. We find that it is not in contrast with a material body, but that material it still is assuredly, as the outcome, though by Divine power, of what is "sown" in the dust. But it is a body fitted now, as never before, to be the servant of the spirit, not confining it to slow acquisitions of knowledge by sense-perception of material things, nor saddling it with the infirmities of a frame constantly exhausting itself and in need of recreation and repair, but able to accompany it in the ceaseless activities of a scene where no night is, or is needed.

Philippians 3:21. We shall find when we see Christ, all the perfection of what He is. He cannot look into dead souls without giving them life. He cannot look on this body of humiliation without making it a body of glory. Your body carries in it all the seeds of corruption, and is all through life a dying body; and the more you think of Christ, the more conscious you are of the contrast between your body and that of Christ. Everything in ours to humble us, pain and weariness, and exercises of mind, all sorts of thoughts arising, and we have to put them down, but there they are. How sweet the thought that the body of glory is to be fashioned by Him, according to the mighty power whereby He subdues all things to Himself. There may be temper, or anything else, that we would not have had seen by any eye save His, but how blessed to know that He will subdue it all. He has only to speak the word, and all the beauty and magnificence of the glorified body will be given to each believer.