42 So will it be with the resurrection of the dead. The body that is sown is perishable, it is raised imperishable;
This chapter of Scripture is filled with glimpses of eternity. Paul’s words were written in order to help the Corinthian believers not fall for the deceptive words of some in their day that said the resurrection did not exist, that after death there was nothing. These same voices exist today. They do not sound exactly the same, their arguments are slightly different, but their source is the same. Paul anticipates questions from the hearers of this letter. One of them has to do with the kind of body that will inhabit eternity. He has made the point that the current limits of creation do not determine the limitless of eternity. Our bodies that are put in the ground in death are not at all like those in eternity. The first in this series of contrasting statements that give us a glimpse of eternity is this one: the body that is sown is perishable, it is raised imperishable. Fruit purchased at the supermarket or picked from a tree has a limited time when it is fresh and edible. We all have experienced that process. One day it is good, the next day it ends up in the trash can having turned bad overnight. And there is no way to reverse the process. We have learned to slow it down with refrigeration, but it will rot. This path is a one way path. But the phenomenal truth is that as humans, this process is different. Our bodies do die, but after that they are raised never to die again. And it is not simply a reversal of the process, it is a transformation of nature. Our bodies are put in the ground in death as the end of a process and they are raised in an instant changed to never follow that same process again. Eternity has different rules that govern the nature of the elements. We will be under that new set of rules and as a result, our physical body with all its current failings and weaknesses will be transformed into the body that we would have had in the Garden of Eden if sin had not entered the world. You see, heaven is a restoration of what Adam and Eve experienced in the beginning, but which they gave up for a piece of fruit, fruit that would perish.
The Arnold Journey 