“And what you put in the ground is not the plant that will grow, but only a bare seed of wheat or whatever you are planting. Then God gives it the new body he wants it to have. A different plant grows from each kind of seed.”
1 Corinthians 15:37–38 (NLT)
When Paul teaches about resurrection, he uses a simple picture—seeds. A seed has no beauty compared to the plant it will become. Yet unless it is sown into the ground and dies, it will never produce anything. Our earthly bodies are like those seeds. They must be surrendered to God, “planted” in death, so He can raise them into something glorious.
Verse 38 reminds us that God decides what the seed becomes. Each of us is unique in form now, and we will be unique in our heavenly bodies. Verse 45 draws the contrast—Adam became dust and returned to dust, but Christ, the last Adam, became a life-giving Spirit. If we live without belief in the resurrection, we remain like the first Adam: dead. But if we trust in Jesus, we become new creations, carriers of His Spirit, with eternal hope.
This transformation starts now. Verse 49 calls us to “be like the heavenly man.” That means dying to our own way of thinking and living for His. Just as a planted seed grows into something far beyond its original form, our surrendered lives become something beautiful in God’s hands—not just in eternity, but here on earth.
“So, my dear brothers and sisters, be strong and immovable. Always work enthusiastically for the Lord, for you know that nothing you do for the Lord is ever useless.”
1 Corinthians 15:58 (NLT)