45. So it is also written, The first human, Adam, became a living person, and the last Adam became a spirit that gives life.
46. But the physical body comes first, not the spiritual one—the spiritual body comes afterward.
47. The first human was from the earth made from dust; the second human is from heaven.
48. The nature of the person made of dust is shared by people who are made of dust, and the nature of the heavenly person is shared by heavenly people.
49. We will look like the heavenly person in the same way as we have looked like the person made from dust.
50. This is what I’m saying, brothers and sisters: Flesh and blood can’t inherit God’s kingdom. Something that rots can’t inherit something that doesn’t decay.
51. Listen, I’m telling you a secret: All of us won’t die, but we will all be changed—
52. in an instant, in the blink of an eye, at the final trumpet. The trumpet will blast, and the dead will be raised with bodies that won’t decay, and we will be changed.
53. It’s necessary for this rotting body to be clothed with what can’t decay, and for the body that is dying to be clothed in what can’t die.
54. And when the rotting body has been clothed in what can’t decay, and the dying body has been clothed in what can’t die, then this statement in scripture will happen: Death has been swallowed up by a victory.
55. Where is your victory, Death? Where is your sting, Death? (
56. Death’s sting is sin, and the power of sin is the Law.)
57. Thanks be to God, who gives us this victory through our Lord Jesus Christ!
58. As a result of all this, my loved brothers and sisters, you must stand firm, unshakable, excelling in the work of the Lord as always, because you know that your labor isn’t going to be for nothing in the Lord.