42 So is it with the resurrection of the dead. What is sown is perishable; what is raised is imperishable. 43 It is sown in dishonor; it is raised in glory. It is sown in weakness; it is raised in power. 44 It is sown a natural body; it is raised a spiritual body. If there is a natural body, there is also a spiritual body. 45 Thus it is written, “The first man Adam became a living being”; the last Adam became a life-giving spirit. 46 But it is not the spiritual that is first but the natural, and then the spiritual. 47 The first man was from the earth, a man of dust; the second man is from heaven. 48 As was the man of dust, so also are those who are of the dust, and as is the man of heaven, so also are those who are of heaven. 49 Just as we have borne the image of the man of dust, we shall also bear the image of the man of heaven.
Key term for this text is what does it mean to have a spiritual body? Many people think the term spiritual body is like a ghostly body. This idea that you have some none physical form that is able to dwell in heaven. So we bury the natural body and the spiritual body lives with God in heaven forever.
Wrong! The natural body is the physical body you were conceived with. The spiritual body is the new physical body, which is filled with the Holy Spirit. It is better understood as a spirit-filled body. You can even see this as St Paul talks about the first Adam and the last Adam. The Last Adam became a life-giving spirit. Yet, the last Adam, Jesus Christ, was still physical as his resurrection appearances confirm.
Likewise, the natural body and spiritual body are connected to a man of dust and man from heaven. The man from the dust returns to the dust, but the man from heaven provides everlasting life. So Seth was born in the image of his father Adam, but we are given new birth in the image of our LORD Jesus Christ. This is the image that is restored to us, since it was lost in the fall.
The spiritual body is the physically resurrected body, which has been filled with the Holy Spirit and conforms to the image of the risen Christ. So we die with the Old Adam and rise with the last Adam, namely Jesus Christ. Here we see the restoration of God's creation, and the image of God in which he created humanity.
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