Big Idea: Death does not have the power to hold believers in the grave. God will raise them from the dead with a new body restored and fitted for a new reality in God’s eternal kingdom.

Understanding the Text

As if to make sure no one will misunderstand and confuse his emphasis on the bodily resurrection with a notion that somehow the flesh that decays in the grave will be reinvigorated (cf. 2 Bar. 49.2; 50.2), Paul concludes his discussion on resurrection with a climactic statement on the nature of the resurrected body. Different from the body that belongs to the age of decay and death, the new body will be fit for the new age in God’s presence, where death and decay no longer exist.

Paul sets the stage for his discussion with a question about the nature of the resurrection body (15:35…