コリントの信徒への手紙一15:35-44 1 Corinthians 15:35-44,

自然の命の体が蒔かれて、霊の体が復活するのです。自然の命の体があるのですから、霊の体もあるわけです。

（一コリント15:44）

「自然の命の体」とは言うまでもなく、私たちがこの地上でもっている体です。死者の復活を信じない人にとっては、この地上の体がすべてです。しかし、死者の復活を信じる人にとっては、この地上の体は、「霊の体」が復活するための「種」のようなものなのです。何と意外な言葉でしょう。私たちのこの地上の体が、永遠の命の体が生じるための「種」であるとは！私たちは自分の地上の体が弱かったり、美しくなかったり、年老いていったりすることを悲しみます。もしこの地上の体がすべてであったなら、私たちは悲しむしかないでしょう。しかし、もしこの地上の体が「種」のようなものであるならば、私たちは悲しむ必要はありません。なぜなら、この地上の体から永遠の命の体が生まれるからです。

パウロは、この永遠の命の体を「霊の体」と呼びます。何と不思議な呼び方でしょう。普通、「霊」というのは「体」とは別のものだと思われています。つまり、「霊魂」というのは「肉体」とは別のものだと考えられています。しかし、地上の体が死んだ後、復活して生まれる体は「霊の体」です。地上の体とは全く異なる「朽ちない」「輝かしい」「力強い」体です。

コリント教会の中にいた死者の復活を信じない信徒たちは、自分たちは神の聖霊を受けたことによって、既にこの世を超えた新しい世界に移されていると思っておりました。そして、自分たちはこの世から超越しており、霊的に満たされ富んでいると思い込んでいました。自分たちは既に霊的に満たされているのであるから、終わりの日における体の復活などなくてよいと考えていました。しかし、パウロは、キリストの復活した体とクリスチャンが終わりの日に与えられる復活の体は「霊の体」であると言います。「霊の体」というその言い方によって、パウロはコリント教会の信徒たちの考えがまったく間違っているということを明らかにしたのです。なぜなら、もし本当に霊的に満たされている人であるならば、終わりの日に「霊の体」に復活するということを認めて信じるべきだからです。

（5月5日の説教より）

If you have ever sown a seed and grown a plant, you have probably felt that it is truly amazing how a plant sprouts from a seed and grows. In the New Testament Gospels, there is a parable called the parable of the mustard seed. That is, in Mark 4:31-32, Christ compared the kingdom of God to a “mustard seed” and said, “when sown on the ground, is the smallest of all the seeds on earth, yet when it is sown it grows up and becomes larger than all the garden plants and puts out large branches, so that the birds of the air can make nests in its shade.” There are several theories as to which plant the biblical “mustard seed” is, but if it is the black mustard, the seed is said to be about 0.5 mm but grows to reach 2.4 metres.

This parable compares the smallness of the seed with the size of the plant that grows from it. However, comparing plants and seeds shows that they differ not only in size but also in the quality of life. The life in the seed is intended to produce the plant body that arises from it, not to keep the seed itself intact. However, the plant that arises from the seed is a life that continues to work and grow, sucking up water and nutrients from its roots and photosynthesising in the sun’s rays. Of course, being terrestrial plants, they do not live forever, but the well-known ancient Jomon cedar on Yakushima Island, for example, has a trunk circumference of 16.1 metres, is 30 metres tall and is estimated to be over 3,000 years old. It is a wonder that a tree born from a small seed can grow and live for such a long time, something that cannot be predicted just by looking at the seed.

As I have preached the last week, there were believers in the Corinthian church who denied the idea of the resurrection of the dead. They thought that they had already been transferred to a new world beyond this world by having received God’s Holy Spirit. And they thought they were transcended from this world, spiritually fulfilled and rich. Not only that, but they argued that as they were already spiritually fulfilled, there was no need for a bodily resurrection on the Last Day. Moreover, it also resulted in a denial that Christ had actually risen. Such false confidence was certainly a reason for denying the resurrection of the dead, but it must also have been a reason that the resurrection of the dead was an impossibility in human experience. So in today’s Scriptures, Paul anticipates and answers the question of the Corinthian church’s believers who deny the resurrection.

In verse 35, Paul says, “But someone will ask, ‘How are the dead raised? With what kind of body do they come?’” The resurrection of the dead as taught in the Bible does not mean that a dead person simply comes back to life. It means that the dead will be resurrected with bodies of eternal life that will no longer die. This is something far beyond human understanding. It is therefore a natural question to ask what kind of body the dead will be resurrected in when they are resurrected. In response, however, Paul says, as if in exhortation, “You foolish person!” This is because those in the Corinthian church who were wondering how the dead would be resurrected and what kind of body they would come in were not asking the question with a sense of humility, but with a sense of “There is no way that there is such a thing. If there is, explain it to me.” And perhaps because Paul could see through that. What God does cannot be measured by human beings. If he says, “it cannot be,” he is a “foolish person” (aphrōn, Greek ἄφρων).

Christ also taught the following parable in Luke 12:16-20. A rich man puts away his grain and possessions in his storehouse and says to himself, “Soul, you have ample goods laid up for many years; relax, eat, drink, be merry.” Then God said to him, “You fool, this very night you must surrender your life; and the money you have made, who will get it now?” (REB) In the case of this parable, it is the rich man who thinks that his life will not be taken away and that “it cannot be,” that he is a “fool” (aphrōn, Greek ἄφρων). But in the case of the believers of the Corinthian church, they are “foolish persons” because they forget that God is able to do everything and think that the resurrection of the dead “cannot be.”

Having exclaimed “You foolish person!” to the believers who deny the resurrection of the dead, Paul goes on to give various examples of the wondrous works that God does in the natural world. First, in verses 36-38, he urges them to think about the seeds of plants.

What you sow does not come to life unless it dies. And what you sow is not the body that is to be, but a bare kernel, perhaps of wheat or of some other grain. But God gives it a body as he has chosen, and to each kind of seed its own body.

The sprouting of a seed and the growth of a plant is a very familiar event to many people. Of course, the believers of the Corinthian church would have known this. They must have been surprised to hear the seemingly impossible event of the resurrection of the dead explained by such a familiar event. “What you sow does not come to life unless it dies,” refers to the fact that the seed sown in the ground is itself broken, so that the plant sprouts and grows. There is continuity between the seed and the plant body, since the plant body grows through the breaking of the seed. The seed itself, however, is quite different from the plant from which it grows. As Paul says in verse 37: “And what you sow is not the body that is to be, but a bare kernel, perhaps of wheat or of some other grain,” the seed and the plant body are completely different in size and function. A seed is a small grain that is the source of the plant body, while the plant body is active through photosynthesis, produces flowers and bears fruit. A person who sows a seed without knowing what kind of seed it is will be surprised when a plant grows from it that such a plant can grow from such a small seed. This is because God makes the plant grow and gives it a body, for as Paul says in verse 38, “God gives it a body as he has chosen, and to each kind of seed its own body.” Paul is telling us that even if we think of familiar seeds and plants, there will be a mysterious work of God in them.

Paul then goes on to give examples of different kinds of bodies in verse 39. This is to illustrate that there are “heavenly bodies” and “earthly bodies” in verse 40. That is, Paul says in verse 39: “For not all flesh is the same, but there is one kind for humans, another for animals, another for birds, and another for fish,” and in verse 40: “There are heavenly bodies and earthly bodies, but the glory of the heavenly is of one kind, and the glory of the earthly is of another.” In verse 39, Paul replaces the word “body” with the word “flesh,” which makes this metaphor difficult for us moderns to understand. That is, when people say “flesh,” we are tempted to say that “flesh,” whether human, animal, bird or fish, is made of protein, isn’t it? But what Paul is probably trying to say here is rather that human, animal, bird and fish have different bodies. Human has a body that stands and walks on two legs, and the animal has a body that walks on four legs. Birds have bodies that fly in the air and fish have bodies that swim in the water. Each has a different body. In the same way, the “heavenly body” and the “earthly body” are different. The “heavenly body” is the body of the resurrected Christ in heaven, while the “earthly body” is the body we humans have here on earth. In the second half of verse 40, Paul writes that “the glory of the heavenly is of one kind, and the glory of the earthly is of another,” stating that the glory of the “heavenly body” of the resurrected Christ is different from the glory of the body we humans have here on earth. The meaning may be that the glory of the “heavenly body” is far superior to the glory of the “earthly body.” For the “earthly body” dies and decays, whereas the “heavenly body” does not die but lives forever.

In verse 41, Paul explains the difference between the glory of the “heavenly body” and the glory of the “earthly body” by means of a celestial metaphor. That is, he says: “There 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.” This would be a clear metaphor. It goes without saying that the “glory of the sun,” which shines brightly during the day, is the most intense glory, and among the celestial bodies in the night sky, the “glory of the moon” and the “glory of the stars” are different. Furthermore, Paul states that “star differs from star in glory.” This can be easily understood when we consider that there are differences in the brightness of stars, which today we call first magnitude stars and second magnitude stars, and that there are differences in the colour of the brightness of stars, such as blue stars and red stars, depending on the temperature of the star. And this universe and celestial bodies are all created by God. Just as God can create stars with different kinds of glory, this means that God can create “heavenly bodies” with different glories than “earthly bodies.”

In light of these various examples, Paul says in verses 42 and 43 as follows.

So is it with the resurrection of the dead. What is sown is perishable; what is raised is imperishable. It is sown in dishonor; it is raised in glory. It is sown in weakness; it is raised in power.

In other words, our “earthly bodies” are like the seed, “what is sown” and “perishable” and “sown in dishonor” and “in weakness.” But the “heavenly bodies” are “imperishable” and “raised in glory” and “in power.” This is because the resurrected body of Christ is imperishable, glorious and powerful. And those who believe in Christ will also be given the same imperishable, glorious and powerful body as Christ on the Last Day. And Paul concludes the passage with some truly curious words. That is, as in verse 44: “It is sown a natural body; it is raised a spiritual body. If there is a natural body, there is also a spiritual body.” “A natural body” is, needless to say, the body we have here on earth. For those who do not believe in the resurrection of the dead, this earthly body is all. But for those who believe in the resurrection of the dead, this earthly body is like “what is sown,” i.e., a seed for the resurrection of “a spiritual body.” What surprising words! This earthly body of ours is the seed from which the body of eternal life arises! We grieve when our earthly bodies are weak, unbeautiful or growing old. If this earthly body were all we had, we would have nothing to do but grieve. But if our earthly body is like a seed, then we need not grieve. For from this earthly body will come a body of eternal life.

Paul calls this body of eternal life “a spiritual body.” What a curious way to call it! Usually, “spirit” is considered to be something different from “body.” In other words, “spirit” is considered to be separate from “body.” However, the body that is born after the earthly body dies and is resurrected is “a spiritual body.” It is an imperishable, glorious and powerful body, which is completely different from the earthly body. As I mentioned earlier, the believers in the Corinthian church who did not believe in the resurrection of the dead thought that they had already been transferred to a new world beyond this world because they had received God’s Holy Spirit. They thought they had transcended the world and were spiritually fulfilled and rich. They thought that as they were already spiritually fulfilled, there was no need for a bodily resurrection on the Last Day. However, Paul says that the resurrected body of Christ and the resurrection body that Christians will be given on the Last Day is “a spiritual body.” By that phrase “spiritual body,” Paul made it clear that the thought of Corinthian believers was totally wrong. For if one is truly spiritually fulfilled, he should acknowledge and believe that he will be resurrected in “a spiritual body” on the Last Day.

Just as there is “a natural body” here on earth, so there is “a spiritual body” that will be resurrected on the Last Day! Paul affirms that this is the case. This is the Christian faith. The Shorter Catechism of our denomination, the Church of Christ in Japan, in its Question 102, teaches that Christians will be resurrected on the Last Days as follows.

At the end of my earthly life, my body will return to the earth, but my soul will be received into the bosom of God. And at the Second Coming of Christ, I shall be raised in a glorious body and live in eternal blessedness.

To be “raised to a glorious body” means to be resurrected into “a spiritual body” that is imperishable, glorious, powerful and different from “a natural body” here on earth. Let us live each day on earth with this sure hope.