1 Corinthians 15:35-58
”But someone will ask,
‘How
are the dead raised? With what kind of body will they come?’
36 How foolish! What you sow
does not come to life unless it dies.
37 When you sow, you do not plant the
body that will be, but just a seed, perhaps of wheat or of something else.
38 But GOD gives it a body as HE has
determined, and to each kind of seed HE gives its own body.
39 Not all flesh is the same:
People
have one kind of flesh, animals have another, birds another and fish another.
40 There are also heavenly bodies and
there are earthly bodies; but the splendor of the heavenly bodies is one kind,
and the splendor of the earthly bodies is another.
41 The sun has one kind of
splendor, the moon another and the stars another; and star differs
from star in splendor.
42 So will it be with THE RESURRECTION of
the dead. The body that is sown is perishable, it is raised imperishable;
43 it is sown in dishonor, it is
raised in glory; it is sown in weakness, it is raised in power;
44 it is sown a natural body, it is
raised a spiritual body.
If
there is a natural body, there is also a spiritual body.
45 So it is written: ‘The first man
Adam became a living being’; the last Adam, a life-giving spirit.
46 The spiritual did not come first,
but the natural, and after that the spiritual.
47 The first man was of the dust of
the earth;
the
second man is of heaven.
48 As was the earthly man, so are
those who are of the earth;
and as
is the heavenly man, so also are those who are of heaven.
49 And just as we have borne the
image of the earthly man, so shall we bear the image of the
heavenly man.
50 I declare to you, brothers and
sisters, that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of GOD, nor does
the perishable inherit the imperishable.
51 Listen, I tell you a
mystery:
We
will not all sleep, but we will all be changed—
52 in a flash, in the twinkling of an
eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, the dead will
be raised imperishable, and we will be changed.
53 For the perishable must
clothe itself with the imperishable, and the mortal with immortality.
54 When the perishable has been
clothed with the imperishable, and the mortal with immortality, then the saying
that is written will come true: ‘Death has been swallowed up in VICTORY.’
55 ‘Where, O death, is YOUR VICTORY?
Where, O death, is your sting?’
56 The sting of death is
sin, and the power of sin is the law.
57 But thanks be to GOD! HE gives us
THE VICTORY
through OUR LORD JESUS
CHRIST.
58 Therefore, my dear brothers and
sisters, stand firm. Let nothing move you. Always give yourselves fully to the
work of THE LORD, because
you know that your labor in THE LORD is not in vain."
