[15:35] Someone will ask, “How can the dead be raised to life? What kind of body will they have?”
[15:36] You fool! When you plant a seed in the ground, it does not sprout to life unless it dies.
[15:37] And what you plant is a bare seed, perhaps a grain of wheat or some other grain, not the full-bodied plant that will later grow up.
[15:38] God provides that seed with the body he wishes; he gives each seed its own proper body.
[15:39] And the flesh of living beings is not all the same kind of flesh; human beings have one kind of flesh, animals another, birds another, and fish another.
[15:40] And there are heavenly bodies and earthly bodies; the beauty that belongs to heavenly bodies is different from the beauty that belongs to earthly bodies.
[15:41] The sun has its own beauty, the moon another beauty, and the stars a different beauty; and even among stars there are different kinds of beauty.
[15:42] This is how it will be when the dead are raised to life. When the body is buried, it is mortal; when raised, it will be immortal.
[15:43] When buried, it is ugly and weak; when raised, it will be beautiful and strong.
[15:44] When buried, it is a physical body; when raised, it will be a spiritual body. There is, of course, a physical body, so there has to be a spiritual body.
[15:45] For the scripture says, “The first man, Adam, was created a living being”; but the last Adam is the life-giving Spirit.
[15:46] It is not the spiritual that comes first, but the physical, and then the spiritual.
[15:47] The first Adam, made of earth, came from the earth; the second Adam came from heaven.
[15:48] Those who belong to the earth are like the one who was made of earth; those who are of heaven are like the one who came from heaven.
[15:49] Just as we wear the likeness of the man made of earth, so we will wear the likeness of the Man from heaven.
[15:50] What I mean, friends, is that what is made of flesh and blood cannot share in God's Kingdom, and what is mortal cannot possess immortality.
[15:53] For what is mortal must be changed into what is immortal; what will die must be changed into what cannot die.
[15:54] So when this takes place, and the mortal has been changed into the immortal, then the scripture will come true: “Death is destroyed; victory is complete!”
[15:55] “Where, Death, is your victory? Where, Death, is your power to hurt?”
[15:56] Death gets its power to hurt from sin, and sin gets its power from the Law.
[15:57] But thanks be to God who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ!
[15:58] So then, my dear friends, stand firm and steady. Keep busy always in your work for the Lord, since you know that nothing you do in the Lord's service is ever useless.