Sowing the Body
What does sowing the body mean? In order to understand the resurrection or raising of the body spoken of in 1 Corinthians 15, one must first understand what it means to sow the body. If we fail to grasp that meaning it will cause problems in our resurrection doctrine.
In the Old and New Testaments, the Bible has given us very clear meanings on what the sowing of the body is. However, some are led to reject these clear bible statements and claim sowing means something vastly different. As we will see, sowing becomes quite a confusing process when we live the Bible narrative.
To understand the sowing process, it should be kept separate from the result. The sowing is a causation process. The birth or plant is the result of that which has been sown. Birth is not sowing. It cannot occur without a seed being sown. But the birth is not the sowing. Birth follows the sowing process. It is the fruit or the result of the sowing.
Without the sowing of the seed, nothing can grow or be born. When a man plants his seed into a woman and impregnates her, that is the sowing of the seed. The birth follows 40 weeks later in a normal pregnancy.
What Do The Scriptures Say About Sowing?
“Then I will sow her for Myself in the earth, and I will have mercy on her who had not obtained mercy.” (Hos. 2:23) Note what God would do to those who were not his people. He would sow the northern kingdom in the earth as a seed is sown. Observe the place of the sowing. It is “in the earth”. Note also the result of the sowing. Those who are sown as “not my people” would become those who “are my people”. In other words, they undergo a dying and rising process. They die to being not God’s people and rise to being his people.
Those who are not God’s people live in a state of sin and death. They are separated from God through their iniquities, (Isaiah 59:1-2) They must die to sin in order to be made alive to God. In order to die, they must be sown. We learn this from the New Testament.
“Most assuredly, I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the ground and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it produces much grain. (John 12:24) A seed must die experience a dying process in order to experience new life. An unsown seed remains alone. If it dies it will produce fruit when sown.
Note in each of these texts, the seed is sown into the earth. Jesus said unless a grain of wheat falls “into” (eis) the ground, not merely on it. Unless the seed “enters” the ground, it does not sprout. It’s root, must enter or penetrate the earth. A seed lying on the ground will be eaten by birds, blown away or crushed. This was the very purpose of Jesus discussing the types of soils in which none produced fruit but those which took root in the ground.
Sowing the Body Requires Death
Finally, sowing the body requires death. In the action of sowing, the seed must undergo death before new life can rise from it. “Foolish one, what you sow is not made alive unless it dies.” (1 Cor. 15:36) This text is parallel to John 12:24. It is divinely inspired commentary on the necessity of the seed’s death in order that new life may come forth from it.
That which you sow is not made a alive unless it dies. In our next article, we will demonstrate the problem this causes for the physical body view including that of the individual body at death or IBV.
Summary Points of Sowing the Body
We have looked at where the seed is sown; in the earth. We’ve notice when it was sown. When it is planted in the earth, literally or metaphorically. We’ve noted why the body is sown. Sowing the body is necessary in order for death to occur. How the seed is sown is through the process of planting or scattering the seed into the earth. Check out our next article on sowing the body where we discuss the types of bodies sown and their implications.
