1 Corinthians 15:49

49 Just as we wear the likeness of the man made of earth, so we will wear the likeness of the Man from heaven.

1 Corinthians 15:49 Meaning and Commentary

1 Corinthians 15:49

And as we have borne the image of the earthy
Which regards not so much the sinful image of the first man upon the soul, or the depravity of the powers and faculties of it, as his image of frailty and mortality on the body, having like him a body subject to infirmities and death:

we shall also bear the image of the heavenly;
which likewise regards not so much the spiritual image of Christ stamped on the soul in regeneration, when Christ is formed in the heart, and the new man is created after his likeness, and which more and more appears, through every transforming view of him, and will be complete in glory, as the image and likeness of Christ upon the bodies of the saints in the resurrection, when they shall be fashioned like unto his: some copies, as the Alexandrian and others, read the words as an exhortation, let us bear the image as if the words were an improvement of the apostle's reasoning on this subject, engaging saints to be more concerned for, and seeking after a greater likeness to Christ in righteousness and true holiness; but the other reading and sense are best.

1 Corinthians 15:49 In-Context

47 The first Adam, made of earth, came from the earth; the second Adam came from heaven.
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.
49 Just as we wear the likeness of the man made of earth, so we will wear the likeness of the Man from heaven.
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.
51 Listen to this secret truth: we shall not all die, but when the last trumpet sounds, we shall all be changed in an instant, as quickly as the blinking of an eye. For when the trumpet sounds, the dead will be raised, never to die again, and we shall all be changed.

Footnotes 1

  • [a]. we will wear; [some manuscripts have] let us wear.
Scripture taken from the Good News Translation - Second Edition, Copyright 1992 by American Bible Society. Used by Permission.