45-49 We follow this sequence in Scripture: The First Adam received life, the Last Adam is a life-giving Spirit. Physical life comes first, then spiritual—a firm base shaped from the earth, a final completion coming out of heaven. The First Man was made out of earth, and people since then are earthy; the Second Man was made out of heaven, and people now can be heavenly. In the same way that we’ve worked from our earthy origins, let’s embrace our heavenly ends.

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45 So it is written: “The first man Adam became a living being”[a];(A) the last Adam,(B) a life-giving spirit.(C) 46 The spiritual did not come first, but the natural, and after that the spiritual.(D) 47 The first man was of the dust of the earth;(E) the second man is of heaven.(F) 48 As was the earthly man, so are those who are of the earth; and as is the heavenly man, so also are those who are of heaven.(G) 49 And just as we have borne the image of the earthly man,(H) so shall we[b] bear the image of the heavenly man.(I)

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Footnotes

  1. 1 Corinthians 15:45 Gen. 2:7
  2. 1 Corinthians 15:49 Some early manuscripts so let us