⁵ Those who live following their sinful selves think only about things that their sinful selves want. But those who live following the Spirit are thinking about the things the Spirit wants them to do. ⁶ If people’s thinking is controlled by the sinful self, there is death. But if their thinking is controlled by the Spirit, there is life and peace. ⁷ When people’s thinking is controlled by the sinful self, they are against God, because they refuse to obey God’s law and really are not even able to obey God’s law. ⁸ Those people who are ruled by their sinful selves cannot please God.

⁹ But you are not ruled by your sinful selves. You are ruled by the Spirit, if that Spirit of God really lives in you. But the person who does not have the Spirit of Christ does not belong to Christ. ¹⁰ Your body will always be dead because of sin. But if Christ is in you, then the Spirit gives you life, because Christ made you right with God. ¹¹ God raised Jesus from the dead, and if God’s Spirit is living in you, he will also give life to your bodies that die. God is the One who raised Christ from the dead, and he will give life through^[a] his Spirit that lives in you.

What Kind of Body Will We Have?

³⁵ But someone may ask, “How are the dead raised? What kind of body will they have?” ³⁶ Foolish person! When you sow a seed, it must die in the ground before it can live and grow. ³⁷ And when you sow it, it does not have the same “body” it will have later. What you sow is only a bare seed, maybe wheat or something else. ³⁸ But God gives it a body that he has planned for it, and God gives each kind of seed its own body. ³⁹ All things made of flesh are not the same: People have one kind of flesh, animals have another, birds have another, and fish have another. ⁴⁰ Also there are heavenly bodies and earthly bodies. But the beauty of the heavenly bodies is one kind, and the beauty of the earthly bodies is another. ⁴¹ The sun has one kind of beauty, the moon has another beauty, and the stars have another. And each star is different in its beauty.

⁴² It is the same with the dead who are raised to life. The body that is “planted” will ruin and decay, but it is raised to a life that cannot be destroyed. ⁴³ When the body is “planted,” it is without honor, but it is raised in glory. When the body is “planted,” it is weak, but when it is raised, it is powerful. ⁴⁴ The body that is “planted” is a physical body. When it is raised, it is a spiritual body.

There is a physical body, and there is also a spiritual body. ⁴⁵ It is written in the Scriptures: “The first man, Adam, became a living person.”^[a] But the last Adam became a spirit that gives life. ⁴⁶ The spiritual did not come first, but the physical and then the spiritual. ⁴⁷ The first man came from the dust of the earth. The second man came from heaven. ⁴⁸ People who belong to the earth are like the first man of earth. But those people who belong to heaven are like the man of heaven. ⁴⁹ Just as we were made like the man of earth, so we will^[b] also be made like the man of heaven.

⁵⁰ I tell you this, brothers and sisters: Flesh and blood cannot have a part in the kingdom of God. Something that will ruin cannot have a part in something that never ruins. ⁵¹ But look! I tell you this secret: We will not all sleep in death, but we will all be changed. ⁵² It will take only a second—as quickly as an eye blinks—when the last trumpet sounds. The trumpet will sound, and those who have died will be raised to live forever, and we will all be changed. ⁵³ This body that can be destroyed must clothe itself with something that can never be destroyed. And this body that dies must clothe itself with something that can never die. ⁵⁴ So this body that can be destroyed will clothe itself with that which can never be destroyed, and this body that dies will clothe itself with that which can never die. When this happens, this Scripture will be made true: