The fourth difference is that the old, buried body is a natural body
and the future, resurrected body a spiritual body.
This is perhaps Paul’s way of summarizing the first three differences (1 Corinthians 15:42–43).
In 1 Corinthians 2:1–16 Paul also drew a contrast between the natural
(psuchikos) and the spiritual
(pneumatikos). He wrote that the natural person does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are folly to him, and he is not able to understand them because they are spiritually discerned. The spiritual person judges all things
(1 Corinthians 2:14–15).
Clearly, then, the difference between natural
and spiritual
is not a difference between material
and immaterial.
Both the natural person and the spiritual person have real bodies. But the natural
person is the person who lives without the Spirit. Likewise, the natural body
is the body which lacks the life-giving work of the Spirit.
Although we as believers possess the Spirit, the power of the Spirit is not yet seen in our perishable bodies. Because of Adam’s sin, our bodies bear the mark of death, not the mark of the life-giving Spirit.
But, says Paul, if there is a natural body, there is also a spiritual body.
One day the Spirit himself will give new life to our bodies, just as he gave new life to Christ’s body.
These truths are clearly set forth in Romans 8:10–11: But if Christ is in you, although the body is dead because of sin, the Spirit is life because of righteousness. If the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, he who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through his Spirit who dwells in you.
44 It is sown a natural body; it is raised a spiritual body. If there is a natural body, there is also a spiritual body.