37. What you plant, whether it’s wheat or something else, is only a seed. It doesn’t have the form that the plant will have.
38. God gives the plant the form he wants it to have. Each kind of seed grows into its own form.
39. Not all flesh is the same. Humans have one kind of flesh, animals have another, birds have another, and fish have still another.
40. There are heavenly bodies and earthly bodies. Heavenly bodies don’t all have the same splendor, neither do earthly bodies.
41. The sun has one kind of splendor, the moon has another kind of splendor, and the stars have still another kind of splendor. Even one star differs in splendor from another star.
42. That is how it will be when the dead come back to life. When the body is planted, it decays. When it comes back to life, it cannot decay.
43. When the body is planted, it doesn’t have any splendor and is weak. When it comes back to life, it has splendor and is strong.
44. It is planted as a physical body. It comes back to life as a spiritual body. As there is a physical body, so there is also a spiritual body.
45. This is what Scripture says: “The first man, Adam, became a living being.” The last Adam became a life-giving spirit.
46. The spiritual does not come first, but the physical and then the spiritual.
47. The first man was made from the dust of the earth. He came from the earth. The second man came from heaven.
48. The people on earth are like the man who was made from the dust of the earth. The people in heaven are like the man who came from heaven.
49. As we have worn the likeness of the man who was made from the dust of the earth, we will also wear the likeness of the man who came from heaven.
50. Brothers and sisters, this is what I mean: Flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God. What decays cannot inherit what doesn’t decay.
51. I’m telling you a mystery. Not all of us will die, but we will all be changed.
52. It will happen in an instant, in a split second at the sound of the last trumpet. Indeed, that trumpet will sound, and then the dead will come back to life. They will be changed so that they can live forever.
53. This body that decays must be changed into a body that cannot decay. This mortal body must be changed into a body that will live forever.
54. When this body that decays is changed into a body that cannot decay, and this mortal body is changed into a body that will live forever, then the teaching of Scripture will come true:“Death is turned into victory!