And so it is written, “The first man Adam became a living being.” The last Adam became a life giving spirit. (46) However the spiritual is not first, but the natural and afterward the spiritual. (47) The first man was of the earth, made of dust; the second Man is the Lord from heaven. (48) As was the man of dust, so also are those who are made of dust, and as is the heavenly Man so also are those who are heavenly. (49) And as we have borne the image of the man of dust, we shall also bear the image of the heavenly Man.
The first letter to the Corinthians was written by the apostle Paul. In our verses only the resurrection of the believer is in view – nothing is being said about the wicked dead. In sin, in the first Adam, natural man is only a living soul; one in whom the human faculties held sway, not the spirit – man became alienated from God because of his own disobedience. From the last Adam, Christ Jesus, by His obedience became a life giving Spirit from whom we inherit the spiritual nature in us. The first man is of the earth and the last Adam is from heaven. As we bear the image of Adam in our merely physical condition, in faith we will also bear the image of the heavenly last Adam.
Natural man is sown in corruption, raised in faith in incorruption; sown in dishonor raised in faith in glory; sown in weakness raised in faith in power; sown a natural body raised in faith a spiritual body. There is nothing more powerless than a corpse (our natural state) which can do nothing and can resist nothing. But in faith in Christ our weakness in life is perfected in death. Our future glory will be fashioned like the glorious body of our Lord. The natural body precedes the spiritual body – the lower precedes the higher; the imperfect by the perfect. We are born before we are regenerated – we live before we rise. Those who are in Christ are to have a resurrected body fashioned unto His glorious body. Our natural body consists of flesh and blood, susceptible to pain and decay, needing air food and rest. It is an animal body adapted to the conditions of an earthly existence. We only know what a spiritual body is from Paul’s description and from the manifestation of Christ in His glorified body adapted to His heavenly body. But as resurrected believers we will be like Jesus in nature, image and characteristics.
Creation suffers because of man’s sin but Christ’s redemption not only reconciles faithful man to the Father but also renews the entire universe. At Jesus’s return our physical bodies will be resurrected and our souls will join them once more for eternity. Our resurrected bodies will bear the image of Jesus and we will be without sin and share in the glory of the heavenly in our transformed resurrected body.