It is sown a natural body. — Here is a further and different application of the three analogies. It is not only that there is a variety of body in these illustrations, but there is also an adaptability. The “body” which a plant has when it is in the form of seed is suited to the condition in which seed is placed; the “body” which it has when grown into a plant is suited to the changed conditions in which a plant exists; the “flesh” in the “body” form of a bird is suited to its sphere of life; the “flesh” in the “body” form of a fish is suited to its condition; and so on. It is not an accidental but a purposely adapted variety. So it will be in the variety of “bodies” for Humanity. A man’s organism is sown (i.e., is born into this world) a natural body; it is raised (through and by death) a spiritual body. The body which we have here on earth is suited with a marvellous detail of adaptability to the life, physical and intellectual, amid which we are placed, and of which we form a part. It is, however, a hindrance to the spiritual man in each of us. (See 2 Corinthians 5) There will be a time for each when the body will become as perfectly adapted to the spiritual man in each as the human body here is to the natural man — no longer its hindrance, but its help. The “willing spirit” will then never be hampered and thwarted by a “weak flesh;” the body, having become spiritual itself, will be spiritually strong.
There is a natural body, and there is a spiritual body. — This emphatic assertion that there are two bodies for man — as really as seed and a blossom are two bodies yet the same plant — is introductory to the further thought introduced in the next verse.