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But someone will ask, “How are the dead raised? With what kind of body will they come?” You fool! What you sow does not come to life unless it dies. And what you sow is not the body that will be, but just a seed, perhaps of wheat or something else. But God gives it a body as He has designed, and to each kind of seed He gives its own body. Not all flesh is the same: Men have one kind of flesh, animals have another, birds another, and fish another. There are also heavenly bodies and earthly bodies. But the splendor of the heavenly bodies is of one degree, and the splendor of the earthly bodies is of another. The sun has one degree of splendor, the moon another, and the stars another; and star differs from star in splendor. So will it be with the resurrection of the dead: What is sown is perishable; it is raised imperishable. It is sown in dishonor; it is raised in glory. It is sown in weakness; it is raised in power. It is sown a natural body; it is raised a spiritual body. If there is a natural body, there is also a spiritual body. (1 Corinthians 15:35-44 BSB)
Most English translations say:
“It is sown a natural body; it is raised a spiritual body.”
The Greek word rendered “natural” is ψυκικος. But psychikos does not simply mean “physical” in the modern sense. It is related to psychē—life, soul, or animate life. In this context it denotes a body characterized by ordinary creaturely life: mortal, perishable, and belonging to Adam’s present age.
Pneumatikos means “spiritual,” but not “made of nonmaterial spirit.” It denotes a body characterized, animated, and empowered by the Holy Spirit. The contrast concerns the source and mode of life, rather than the body’s substance.
The wider contrast
Paul sets the two bodies within four parallel contrasts:
| Present body: “sown” | Resurrection body: “raised” |
|---|---|
| Perishable | Imperishable |
| Dishonor | Glory |
| Weakness | Power |
| Sōma psychikon—natural/animate body | Sōma pneumatikon—Spirit-empowered body |
| Bearing Adam’s image | Bearing the heavenly man’s image |
See 1 Corinthians 15:42–49. The “natural body” is fitted for the old creation under mortality and death; the “spiritual body” belongs to the new creation, fully governed by the Spirit and incapable of corruption.
What “spiritual body” does not mean
A spiritual body is not:
- An immaterial soul with no body.
- A merely symbolic resurrection.
- A body abandoned in favor of a purely heavenly spirit-existence.
- A return to ordinary mortal “flesh and blood.”
Paul repeatedly insists on body (sōma), speaks of what is “sown” being “raised,” and uses seed-to-plant imagery to express real continuity amid radical transformation. “Flesh and blood cannot inherit God’s kingdom” (v. 50) means mortal, corruptible human life cannot inherit it as it is; it must be changed into imperishable life.
The believer’s ultimate future is a body transformed from mortal weakness into imperishable, Spirit-animated glory.
What that body will be remains to be seen.
Beloved, we are now children of God, and what we will be has not yet been revealed. We know that when Christ appears, we will be like Him, for we will see Him as He is. (1 John 3:2 BSB)