1 Corinthians 15: 35-38, 42-50
But someone may ask, “How are the dead raised? With what kind of body will they come?” How foolish! What you sow does not come to life unless it dies. When you sow, you do not plant the body that will be, but just a seed, perhaps of wheat or something else. But God gives it a body as he determined, and to each kind of seed he gives its own body.
So will it be with the resurrection of the dead. The body that is sown is perishable, it is raised imperishable; it is sown in dishonor, it is raised in glory; it is sown in weakness, it is raised in power; it is sown a natural body, it is raised a spiritual body.
If there is a natural body, there is also a spiritual body. So it is written: “The first man Adam became a living being”; the last Adam, a life-giving spirit. The spiritual did not come first, but the natural, and after that the spiritual. The first man was of the dust of the earth, the second man from heaven. As was the earthly man, so are those who are of the earth; and as is the man from heaven, so also are those who are of heaven. And just as we have borne the likeness of the earthly man, so shall we bear the likeness of the man from heaven.
I declare to you, brothers, that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God, nor does the perishable inherit the imperishable.
A Thought
After Paul tells the crowd that without the resurrection we are all still in our sins, now they want to know what our body will be when it is raised. Paul answers by comparing the first man, Adam who had a natural body with the last Adam, Christ who has a spiritual body. Our natural body is like a seed in that we are perishable and must die. When the dead seed is made alive, it will be made different than the seed itself. When we are resurrected in power, we will have a spiritual, imperishable, heavenly body that God has chosen for us in the likeness of Christ. Flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God, nor can the perishable inherit the imperishable.
Our Prayer
Father thank you for making our resurrection from this sinful body to our new heavenly body possible through Jesus Christ. You are so worthy to be praised. In Jesus’ name. Amen.
