³⁵ But someone will say, “How are the dead raised? And with what kind of body will they come?” ³⁶ You fool! Every time you plant seed you sow something that does not come to life [germinating, springing up and growing] unless it first dies. ³⁷ The seed you sow is not the body (the plant) which it is going to become, but it is a bare seed, perhaps of wheat or some other grain. ³⁸ But God gives it a body just as He planned, and to each kind of seed a body of its own [is given].^{(A) 39} All flesh is not the same. There is one kind for humans, another for animals, another for birds, and another for fish. ⁴⁰ There are also heavenly bodies [sun, moon and stars] and earthly bodies [humans, animals, and plants], but the glory and beauty of the heavenly is one kind, and the glory of the earthly is another. ⁴¹ There is a glory and beauty of the sun, another glory of the moon, and yet another [distinctive] glory of the stars; and one star differs from another in glory and brilliance.

⁴² So it is with the resurrection of the dead. The [human] body that is sown is perishable and mortal, it is raised imperishable and immortal.^{(B) 43} It is sown in dishonor, it is raised in glory; it is sown in weakness, it is raised in strength; ⁴⁴ it is sown a natural body [mortal, suited to earth], it is raised a spiritual body [immortal, suited to heaven]. As surely as there is a physical body, there is also a spiritual body. ⁴⁵ So it is written [in Scripture], “The first man, Adam, became a living soul (an individual);” the last Adam (Christ) became a life-giving spirit [restoring the dead to life].^{(C) 46} However, the spiritual [the immortal life] is not first, but the physical [the mortal life]; then the spiritual. ⁴⁷ The first man [Adam] is from the earth, earthy [made of dust]; the second Man [Christ, the Lord] is from heaven.^{(D) 48} As is the earthly man [the man of dust], so are those who are of earth; and as is the heavenly [Man], so are those who are of heaven. ⁴⁹ Just as we have borne the image of the earthly [the man of dust], ^[a]we will also bear the image of the heavenly [the Man of heaven].

The Mystery of Resurrection

⁵⁰ Now I say this, believers, that flesh and blood cannot inherit nor be part of the kingdom of God; nor does the perishable (mortal) inherit the imperishable (immortal).