Where In The Bible Will I Find:

The Identity Of A Resurrected Body Being Preserved?

Some of the Corinthians, like all materialists, made the resurrection a puzzling problem. They wondered how God could restore a body which returned to dust, passed thence into vegetation, and thence into bodies of other men or animals. Paul calls the man who thus puzzles himself a foolish one (I Cor. 15:35‑38), because he denies that the all‑powerful God can do with a human body that which man himself does with the bodies, that is, grains of wheat, corn, oats, etc., when he plants them in the ground. It seems that they are asking, if a man rises from the dead changed as the grain of wheat is changed, will he not have a different body, and so lose his identity?

But then man knows when he sows these seeds he does not expect it to come up a naked seed as he sowed it, but that it will die, and in its death produce another body, consisting of stalk, blade, head and other grains similar to the one sown. He knows that though the body thus produced bear small outward resemblance to the single grain planted, yet it is the product of the grains germinal life, and on examination can be absolutely demonstrated to be such.

Moreover, by doing this same thing with corn, oats, and other grain he finds that each produces a body of its own kind (Gen. 1:12), adapted by the wisdom of God to its needs. So then, as man is familiar with all this, how foolish is he to deny that God can cause the dead body to rise in a higher and nobler form, and that He can cause each man to have a resurrected body true to his individuality, so that Mr. Smith shall no more rise in the likeness of Mr. Jones than corn came up after the similitude of oats. And too, the analogy taught by nature is true in another respect; the body produced by seed is greater and more excellent than the seed that was planted (vs. 39‑54).

Paul says that not only the dead will be changed but that all bodies, dead and alive, will be changed in the "twinkling of an eye" (v. 52). Man, in his fleshly nature has no place in heaven, for corruption is antagonistic to incorruption, as light is to darkness. So, as the dead are changed by resurrection (vs. 42‑43), the living shall also be changed by transfiguration; but both shall be changed, and the change in each shall take place at the same moment, when the trumpet sounds calling all to appear before God at the judgment (I Thess. 4:16‑17).

It is foolish to question God on the resurrection, or on any other subject. We should, most of all, be prepared spiritually when our time here on earth has ended so that we will inherit that blessed home that our Lord has prepared for us in heaven.