Verse 44
It is natural (Gr. psychikon, soulish), belonging to the present age; but it becomes spiritual (pneumatikos, i.e., supernatural), belonging to the future age. The Corinthians had not entered into their eschatological states yet. This would come with their resurrections. Their bodies would become spiritual, namely, fitted for their future existence. Thus "spiritual" here refers to the body’s use, as well as its substance.
". . . for pagans in and outside the church, Paul seeks to show that the fundamental relation of creation to resurrection (and behind that the identification of the Creator as the Redeemer) is a non-negotiable of the metanarrative of the Christian gospel, an essential sine qua non of the Bible’s world view, without which one is lost (1 Corinthians 15:17; cf. Acts 17:30-31)." [Note: Peter Jones, "Paul Confronts Paganism in the Church: A Case Study of 1 Corinthians 15:45," Journal of the Evangelical Theological Society (49:4 (December 2006):736. See also René A. López, "Does The Jesus Family Tomb Disprove His Physical Resurrection?" Bibliotheca Sacra 165:660 (October-December 2008):425-46.]
The Corinthians believed that they were alive in a new kind of "spiritual" existence since they trusted Christ. This is the only type of resurrection they saw. They did not believe that human bodies had any future beyond the grave. Paul wrote to help them see that their physical bodies would be raised to continuing life, but that those bodies, while physical, would be of a different type than their present physical bodies. They would be spiritual, but of a different type than what they thought of as spiritual.
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