In the first passage only one order of the redeemed is indicated, viz.:

`They that are Christ's at His coming'.  The amplifying verses 37-44 keep

within these bounds, and do not add other orders, but rather shew the variety

of ranks that will be found among the redeemed at that time.  This

explanation arises out of the answer to the question of verse 35, `But some

will say, How are the dead raised up? and with what body do they come?' The

apostle's answer is short and pointed.  `Thou fool!' The question `How?' is

not always a question of faith or unto edifying.  The Lord has nowhere

revealed `how' the resurrection will take place; He has revealed the fact for

our hope and our faith.  The apostle, for answer, calls the questioner's

attention to a phenomenon of the physical world:

`That which thou sowest is not quickened (made alive, as verse 22),

except  it die; and that which thou sowest, thou sowest not that body

that shall be, but bare (naked) grain, it may chance of wheat, or of

some other grain: but God giveth it a body as it hath pleased Him, and

to every seed his own body' (15:36-38).

There is much food for thought here.  Many Christians wonder how it is

possible for the individual dead body to be raised, and ask many questions to

which no answer is available.  One might put to them a question in this form.

A certain man 3,000 years ago died, and was buried.  Five hundred years

later, the elements that composed the first man's body became the body of

another man.  He also died, and each five hundred years the same elements

became the body of another man.  At the resurrection whose body would it be,

for all these men had it?  The answer would be, `Ye do err, not knowing the

Scriptures, nor the power of God'.  First of all, Scripture does not speak of

the resurrection of the body, but of the resurrection of the dead.  The body

that is given by God at the resurrection will be in accord with the

believer's rank.  `There are heavenly bodies, and earthly bodies'.  These

words do not refer to the `heavenly bodies' of astronomy, but to the

resurrection bodies of believers.  In resurrection there will be some raised

to sit at the right hand of God far above all; some will walk the streets of

the New Jerusalem; some will inherit the earth, and for each sphere of

blessing an appropriate body will be given.  `How' God preserves the identity

and individuality of each soul is not explained, possibly the explanation

would not have been intelligible to us even if it had been given.  Then as to

the differing `ranks':

`There is one glory of the sun, and another glory of the moon, and

another glory of the stars: for star differeth from star in glory.

So

also is the Resurrection of the Dead' (15:41,42),

that is, each is raised with a different body, and the glory of one raised

believer will differ from another, `every man in his own rank'.  The

contrasts between the body which we have `in Adam' and that which God will

give `in Christ' are given:

Weakness

A natural body

a spiritual body.

The `sowing' here in each of the four instances must not be translated as of

the death and burial of a believer.  When seed is sown it must be alive, or

nothing will come of it.  If living seed be sown, it dies, and lives again.