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To understand the apostle's reply to the question we must lay firm hold of these two things: first, that he is speaking of the man, who is dead, not of the mass of matter undergoing dissolution in the earth; second, that his purpose is to point out analogies to the fundamental conception on which his proof rests, viz., the conception of a progress that is not checked but realised through death.

I. IN THE RELATION OF THE SEED TO THE PLANT we recognise —

1. That death is, in some cases at least, necessary to the perpetuation of life.

2. That this perpetuation involves a development.

3. That this development is not automatic, but the consequence of a creative and beneficent act of God.

4. That in this act God appropriates indefinite material to produce the development of definite kinds.

II. THE ANALOGY OF THE VARIOUS KINDS OF FLESH teaches us that this limiting of the limitless in the formation and development of kinds consists in differentiating their physical constitution.

III. THE ANALOGY OF THE VARIOUS GLORIES IN SUN, etc., intimates that such a differentiation of nature implies a difference also in sphere of action. Conclusion: To apply all this to the subject in hand, it means —

1. That the believer's relation to Christ involves development.

2. That this development implies death as one of its conditions.

3. That this development is brought about "through God's creative and beneficent act.

4. That it is a development within the limits of kind.

5. That it involves a change in mode of existence.

6. That it necessitates and secures transference of the entire man into another sphere.

(Principal Edwards.)

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KJV: But some man will say, How are the dead raised up? and with what body do they come?

WEB: But someone will say, "How are the dead raised?" and, "With what kind of body do they come?"