What happens to our bodies in the life to come? What does it mean to be resurrected? Paul answers this question with a simple contrast between our current bodies and our resurrection bodies: “It is sown a natural body, it is raised a spiritual body” (1 Corinthians 15:44, ESV). Paul’s answer is a seemingly straightforward statement, yet a moment’s reflection reveals that this is no simple answer.

What is a spiritual body? In English, especially when compared to the phrase “natural body,” the phrase seems to suggest something about the substance of the body. A spiritual body sounds ethereal, suggesting the insubstantial form of a ghost or a spirit. Is this what Paul means? As it turns out, digging into the Greek text is the best way of answering this question.

The Greek terms used in 1 Corinthians 15:44 are instructive. The natural body is a “psychikos” body while the spiritual body is a “pneumatikos” body. The first word is derived from “psyche”; this word generally means soul, life, or self. It refers more naturally to the immaterial than the material. It survives in the English language today in terms that refer to the mind, such as psychology. The second word is derived from “pneuma”; this word generally means spirit. Crucially, both words have more to do with the immaterial part of the person than the material body. This fact suggests that our initial impression from the English is misleading; Paul is not saying that the resurrection body is ghostly and less material. Indeed, one could take the passage as contrasting a “soulish” body with a “spiritual” body!

What, then, does Paul mean by these terms? I cannot offer a full argument for my reading here, but I believe that we should understand these words as describing what gives life to the person. Our current life is one marred by corruption (both moral and physical), one in which our own strength is insufficient. The life to come is marked by immortality and incorruption and made possible by the power of the Spirit. The current human life is limited by its own corruption and mortality; the life to come will be one of embodied immortality in full communion with and reliance upon the Spirit of God.

Our study of the Greek of 1 Corinthians 15 has helped to clarify the passage, but it also helps us come to a deeper understanding of both what we are promised and how we should live now. We will live as immortal, embodied creatures relying upon the Holy Spirit in the life to come. We should live our current lives in light of that fact. Our bodies matter. We should serve the Lord with our bodies now in anticipation of our future embodied life. That service should be conducted in reliance upon God, knowing that it is He who will transform us and make us fit for life in “spiritual bodies” as we glory in full communion with God.