The Resurrection Body

³⁵ But someone will ask, “How are the dead raised? What kind of body will they have when they come back?” ³⁶ You fool! The seed you plant does not come to life unless it dies, ³⁷ and what you plant is not the form that it will be, but a bare kernel, whether it is wheat or something else. ³⁸ But God gives the plant^[a] the form he wants it to have, and to each kind of seed its own form. ³⁹ Not all flesh is the same.^[b] Humans have one kind of flesh,^[c] animals in general have another,^[d] birds have another,^[e] and fish have still another. ⁴⁰ There are heavenly bodies and earthly bodies, but the splendor of those in heaven is of one kind, and that of those on earth is of another. ⁴¹ One kind of splendor belongs to the sun, another^[f] to the moon, and still another^[g] to the stars. In fact, one star differs from another star in splendor.

⁴² This is how it will be at the resurrection of the dead. What is planted is decaying, what is raised cannot decay. ⁴³ The body^[h] is planted in a state of dishonor but is raised in a state of splendor. It is planted in weakness but is raised in power. ⁴⁴ It is planted a physical body but is raised a spiritual body. If there is a physical body, there is also a spiritual body.^[i]

⁴⁵ This, indeed, is what is written: “The first man, Adam, became a living being.”^[j] The last Adam became a life-giving spirit. ⁴⁶ The spiritual does not come first, but the physical does, and then comes the spiritual. ⁴⁷ The first man came from the dust of the earth; the second man came from heaven. ⁴⁸ Those who are made of the dust are like the man from the dust; those who are heavenly are like the man who is from heaven. ⁴⁹ Just as we have borne the likeness of the man who was made from dust, we will^[k] also bear the likeness of the man from heaven.

⁵⁰ Brothers, this is what I mean: Mortal bodies^[l] cannot inherit the kingdom of God, and what decays cannot inherit what does not decay. ⁵¹ Let me tell you a secret. Not all of us will die,^[m] but all of us will be changed— ⁵² in a moment, faster than an eye can blink, at the sound of the last trumpet. Indeed, that trumpet^[n] will sound, and then the dead will be raised never to decay, and we will be changed. ⁵³ For what is decaying must be clothed with what cannot decay, and what is dying must be clothed with what cannot die.