No, that is NOT the real meaning per Bible Scripture. When Paul said “flesh and blood” that is exactly… what he meant, LITERAL flesh and blood.
And didn’t you know that Lord Jesus basically showed the same thing in John 3 when He said, “That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit”?
I’ve noticed modern English Bible translations try to get away from Paul’s literal “flesh and blood” meaning, replacing it with that ‘fallen humanity’ kind of idea.
The Heavenly dimension, or ‘realm’, since some brethren don’t like that word dimension, is NOT made up of material matter, period. Material matter CANNOT GO THERE.
And there it is again, that old Jewish tradition that it is our flesh body that is raised from the dead.
In Lord Jesus’ case His flesh WAS raised, which is why they never found it. But at some point His flesh body was TRANSFIGURED to the Heavenly Spirit body He has always had, even while dwelling in His flesh body. The flesh is NOT the REAL us. It is ONLY a shell that our spirit with soul lives in whiile here on earth in this earthly realm.
In the Heavenly realm, we no longer need that flesh body, because our OTHER BODY, the “spiritual body” is the TYPE body for the Heavenly. Thus there exists TWO types of bodies, and Paul listed them…
“natural body”, “body of corruption”, “image of the earthy” = FLESH BODY
“spiritual body”, a body “not made with hands, eternal in the heavens”, “image of the heavenly” = SPIRIT BODY
The physical, bodily resurrection of Jesus is foundational to Christian doctrine and our hope of heaven. Because Jesus rose from the dead with a physical body, every Christian has the guarantee of his own bodily resurrection (John 5:21, 28; Romans 8:23). Now Jesus is in heaven, where He is pictured as sitting in a place of authority, at the right hand of God (1 Peter 3:22). But is Jesus’ body in heaven the same as His body on earth?
The Bible is clear that Jesus’ body was resurrected. The tomb was empty. He was recognizable to those who knew Him. Jesus showed Himself to all His disciples after His resurrection, and more than five hundred people were eyewitnesses to His earthly, post-resurrection presence (1 Corinthians 15:4–6). In Luke 24:16, on the road to Emmaus, two of Jesus’ disciples “were kept from recognizing [Jesus].” However, later, “their eyes were opened and they recognized Him” (verse 31). It’s not that Jesus was unrecognizable; it’s that, for a time, the disciples were supernaturally restrained from recognizing Him.
Later in the same chapter of Luke, Christ makes it plain to His disciples that He does have a physical body; He is not a disembodied spirit: “See my hands and my feet, that it is I myself. Touch me, and see. For a spirit does not have flesh and bones as you see that I have” (Luke 24:39). After spending forty days with His disciples, Jesus ascended bodily into heaven (Acts 1:9). Jesus is still human, and He has a human body in heaven right now. His body is different, however; earthly human flesh is perishable, but heavenly bodies are imperishable (1 Corinthians 15:50). Jesus has a physical body, with a difference. His resurrected body is designed with eternity in view.
First Corinthians 15:35–49 describes what the body of the believer will be like in heaven. Our heavenly bodies will differ from our earthly ones in type of flesh, in splendor, in power, and in longevity. The apostle Paul also states that the believer’s body will be an image of Christ’s body (verse 49). Paul discusses this subject again in 2 Corinthians, where he compares earthly bodies to tents and heavenly bodies to heavenly dwellings (2 Corinthians 5:1–2). Paul says that, once the earthly tents come off, Christians will not be left “naked”—that is, without a body to live in (2 Corinthians 5:3). When the new body is “put on,” we will go from mortality to immortality (2 Corinthians 5:4).
So, we know that the Christian will have a heavenly body like Jesus’ “glorious body” (Philippians 3:21). At His incarnation Jesus took on human flesh, and at His resurrection His body was glorified, although He retained the scars (John 20:27). He will forever be the God-Man, sacrificed for us. Christ, the Creator of the universe, will forever stoop to our level, and He will be known to us in heaven in a tangible form that we can see, hear, and touch (Revelation 21:3–4; 22:4).
You are very, very wrong about that idea of flesh Salvation. That kind of thinking is for those who cannot fathom about that other dimension of Spirit that Jesus mentioned.
And I have to refer you back to the 1 Cor.15:45 and 1 Peter 3:18-19 and 1 Peter 4:5-6 Scripture that prove what I have been saying.
1 Cor 15:45
45 And so it is written, The first man Adam was made a living soul; the last Adam was made a quickening spirit.
KJV
1 Peter 3:18-19
18 For Christ also hath once suffered for sins, the just for the unjust, that He might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh, but quickened by the Spirit:
19 By which also He went and preached unto the spirits in prison;
KJV
1 Peter 4:5-6
5 Who shall give account to Him That is ready to judge the quick and the dead.
6 For, for this cause was the gospel preached also to them that are dead, that they might be judged according to men in the flesh, but live according to God in the spirit.
KJV
You claim modern translations twist “flesh and blood” into a metaphor for “fallen humanity,” but Paul’s wording in 1 Corinthians 15 is explicit and precise.1 Corinthians 15:50:
“I tell you this, brothers: flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God, nor does the perishable inherit the imperishable..”
Paul does not say “sinful flesh cannot inherit the kingdom.” He contrasts two distinct substances and origins:1 Corinthians 15:47–48:
“The first man was from the earth, a man of dust; the second man is from heaven. 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.”
If “flesh and blood” literally means earthly flesh and blood, then by Paul’s direct statement, that material substance cannot exist in or inherit the Heavenly kingdom. It must be changed into a completely different type, the “image of the heavenly” (v. 49).
You say Jesus had to be made Spirit. However, this ignores the nature of how heavenly beings interact with the physical realm throughout Scripture. Angels and Theophanies ate earthly food. In Genesis 18:1–8, YHWH and two angels appeared to Abraham as men. They had feet that could be washed, sat down, and ate literal beef, butter, and bread. Yet, angels are spiritual beings, not material creatures born of earthly flesh.
In Judges 13:19–20, the Angel of the LORD appeared as a man, conversed with Manoah, and then ascended to heaven in the flame of the altar. Christ’s Post-Resurrection Body Passed Through Matter: In John 20:19, Jesus appeared in the middle of a locked room without using doors. In Luke 24:31, as soon as their eyes were opened, Jesus “vanished out of their sight.”
Showing “flesh and bones” to Thomas and eating fish in Luke 24 was a deliberate, local manifestation to prove to the disciples that He was tangibly risen and not an imaginary phantom but a body that appears inside locked rooms, vanishes instantly, and ascends into the clouds (Acts 1:9) is operating under the laws of a higher, heavenly dimension, not standard earthly biology.
Christ’s ultimate heavenly state is not defined by His temporary post-resurrection appearances on Earth, but by His glorified state in Heaven. The Transfiguration (Matthew 17:2): Before His death, Jesus allowed Peter, James, and John to see His true heavenly glory. His face shone like the sun, and His clothes became light. Paul’s Encounter (Acts 9:3–5): When the glorified Christ appeared to Paul on the Damascus road, He did not appear as a localized man of flesh and bone walking the dirt road, but as a blinding heavenly light from another dimension that knocked Paul to the ground and blinded him.
Philippians 3:20–21: “For our conversation is in heaven; from whence also we look for the Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ: Who shall change our vile body, that it may be fashioned like unto his glorious body…”
Our future body will be patterned after Christ’s glorious body in Heaven, not the temporary earthly flesh He took on during His incarnation or His brief post-resurrection phase on earth before His ascension.
Scripture explicitly teaches that the spirit/soul inhabits different “clothing” or “tabernacles” depending on the realm.2 Corinthians 5:1–2:
“For we know that if the tent that is our earthly home is destroyed, we have a building from God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens. 2 For in this tent we groan, longing to put on our heavenly dwelling.”
Notice Paul calls the earthly flesh a “tent” or “house” while the heavenly body is a completely different “building of God… eternal in the heavens.”
“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 15:44
Paul uses two distinct Greek terms meaning: A soul-animated/natural body, and a spirit-animated/spiritual body
Peter
You are operating from a dualistic framework where “the spiritual” and “the material” are two mutually exclusive dimensions. You view the physical body as a temporary shell and salvation as an escape into a non-material “Spirit realm.” Because you read Scripture through that lens, every time he sees words like “spirit” or “spiritual,” he interprets them as “non-physical.” Let’s take them one on one so you may see how you are misreading.
1 Corinthians 15:45 “Thus it is written, “The first man Adam became a living being”; the last Adam became a life-giving spirit.”
You think Paul calling Jesus a “life-giving spirit” means Jesus ceased to have a physical body and turned into a pure spirit entity. However, Paul is contrasting Adam and Jesus. Adam was given life (a living soul), but Jesus gives life (a life-giving spirit). Paul does not say Jesus became an incorporeal ghost. He is describing Jesus’s role and power in the resurrection. Christ was raised by the power of the Holy Spirit to impart eternal life to us.
If calling Jesus a “life-giving spirit” means He has no physical body, why did Jesus explicitly command His disciples after His resurrection in Luke 24:39, “Touch me and see; a spirit does not have flesh and bones, as you see I have”? Did Jesus lie to His apostles?
1 Peter 3:18 & 4:6 “Put to death in the flesh, but quickened by the Spirit”
You use this to claim Jesus’s flesh died forever and only His spirit survived. In the original Greek, verse 18 literally says Jesus was “put to death in flesh, but made alive in/by spirit”. This isn’t contrasting two parts of Jesus (His body vs. His soul). It is contrasting two states of existence: Flesh: His mortal, weak, earthly human condition subject to death. Spirit: His resurrected state, where His physical body was raised and glorified by the Holy Spirit.1 Peter 4:6: Saying believers “live according to God in the spirit” means living a life powered by the Holy Spirit. Not living as floating, disembodied phantoms!
Your view treats physical matter as a downgrade or a prison. But God created the material universe and called it very good. God’s original design for humanity was not to be disembodied spirits, but embodied creatures ruling over a physical Earth.
Jesus simply returned to a non-material “spirit dimension” while His earthly body transfigured/vanished into thin air; then there is no victory over death. Death is the separation of soul and body. If the physical body stays dead or gets discarded, death wins! Jesus’s tomb was empty because His physical body was raised, transformed, and glorified.
You keep focusing on going “up” into a heavenly realm, but Revelation 21:2–3 says the Holy City comes DOWN out of heaven to the New Earth, and “the dwelling place of God is with man.” God’s plan isn’t to evacuate us off the Earth into a spiritual void, but to bring Heaven down to a physical, restored Earth where we live in resurrected physical bodies forever. Davy, you are confusing incarnation with resurrection. Jesus didn’t put on physical human nature like a temporary suit of clothes that He threw away when He went back to heaven. He became human FOREVER.
To deny a physical resurrection on a restored New Earth isn’t spiritual maturity; it’s an ancient heresy called Gnosticism that treats God’s physical creation as something to be escaped rather than redeemed.
Peter
If you had actually understood… my point you would have realized that I mentioned that drop in the ocean device as a doctrine of the devil. I never said I believed such an idea, which is from paganism. But all you did was mock me for just bringing it up with like, I thought we were talking about The Bible!
You said to me:
By what I was talking about from paganism, I was showing how many wrongly interpret the Ecclesiastes 12:5-7 about where the ‘spirit’ part goes back to God as written there. But you MISSED that, no doubt because of your traditional Jewish belief in a flesh resurrection.
That’s what you are doing. Paul was pointing to literal flesh and blood cannot enter into the Kingdom of God. And when he gave the example, ‘neither doth corruption inherit incorruption’, he was being specific that the flesh corruptible body cannot inherit the body of incorruption which is about the “spiritual body” he also taught about.
I’m not going to argue a fleshy resurrection with you. That’s an old Jewish tradition which is dispelled in The New Testament Scriptures.
You’re toying with me now. Sounds like you need a lesson in 1 Corinthians 15 about what Apostle Paul actually revealed…
1 Cor 15:35-37
35 But some man will say, ‘How are the dead raised up? and with what body do they come?’
36 Thou fool, that which thou sowest is not quickened, except it die:
That which is sown isn’t “quickened” unless it first dies. Paul isn’t talking about our flesh being quickened. He is pointing to what is sown… in our flesh. And per Eccl.12:5-7; Matt.10:28; Hebrews 4:12; 2 Corinthians 5; and here, we know that which is sown is about our spirit with soul.
37 And that which thou sowest, thou sowest not that body that shall be, but bare grain, it may chance of wheat, or of some other grain:
KJV
Paul simply shows our flesh body is NOT the body that shall be. Then he uses the idea of seed germination as an example, though even seed germination is still not going to explain the workings of our ‘spirit/soul’ part.
1 Cor 15:42-50
42 So also is the resurrection of the dead. It is sown in corruption; it is raised in incorruption:
The KJV translators obviously recognized this distinction of something that is sown… into our flesh from Paul’s example.
43 It is sown in dishonour; it is raised in glory: it is sown in weakness; it is raised in power:
The next 44 verse is what determines this interpretation of these previous verses about something that is sown… in our flesh body that is not flesh.
44 It is sown a natural body; it is raised a spiritual body. There is a natural body, and there is a spiritual body.
Our spirit with soul is sown… into our flesh body at conception, and is raised to a “spiritual body” when our flesh dies. Our ‘spirit’ inside our flesh body is actually that “spiritual body”. It is simply released from our flesh at flesh death. Paul in 2 Corinthians 5:1 showed that we already have that heavenly body made up of spirit.
45 And so it is written, The first man Adam was made a living soul; the last Adam was made a quickening spirit.
The “last Adam” is our Lord Jesus Christ. His flesh was raised and then at some point was changed or “made a quickening spirit” before He ascended to The Father. His quickened Spirit body retained the marks of His crucifixion, as He now sits on the right hand of The Father’s throne, but not in a flesh body, but in His quickened Spirit body.
Our flesh body will not be changed like Lord Jesus’ flesh body was, which is why His flesh body did not see corruption (Acts 13:34-37). But our flesh bodies do… and will see corruption. Our flesh decays and goes back to the elements of the earth like Eccl.12:5-7 says, while our ‘spirit’ (with soul) goes back to God in the heavenly realm.This is why Paul said in 2 Corinthians 5 that to be absent from the body (flesh) is to be present with The Lord.
46 Howbeit that was not first which is spiritual, but that which is natural; and afterward that which is spiritual.
We manifest in the flesh in this earthly realm first, with our spirit/soul placed in a flesh shell body at conception. Our flesh body is Paul’s “natural” above. At flesh death, “that which is spiritual”, i.e., our spirit body, is then manifest in the heavenly realm, Paul again sticking to what is shown in Eccl.12:5-7.
47 The first man is of the earth, earthy: the second man is the Lord from heaven.
Paul reveals 2 separate realms or dimensions, this earthly one and the heavenly one. Jesus also was born in the flesh, His Spirit placed in a flesh body by The Holy Spirit. That’s how He was still GOD while walking this earth in a flesh body, which one of His titles ‘Immanuel’ means “God with us” per Matthew 1:23.
48 As is the earthy, such are they also that are earthy: and as is the heavenly, such are they also that are heavenly.
Paul then emphasizes this distinction between the two realms, and their different type bodies, a different type body for each separate realm.
49 And as we have borne the image of the earthy, we shall also bear the image of the heavenly.
The angels have that “image of the heavenly”, and Paul confirms that we shall also. Thus Paul revealed that the “spiritual body” is a heavenly realm body type LIKE the angels. Lord Jesus confirmed this too in Matthew 22:30 when He said those of the resurrection are “as the angels of God in heaven.”
50 Now this I say, brethren, that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God; neither doth corruption inherit incorruption.
KJV
And there it is, Paul’s direct statement that flesh and blood cannot inherit the Kingdom of God, because a body of corruption is only of this earthly realm, and not the heavenly realm.
@DavyP, you have constructed an elaborate, highly customized interpretation here, but you have fundamentally twisted 1 Corinthians 15 inside out to make it say the exact opposite of what Paul is arguing.
Your core assumption is that “what is sown” refers to a soul/spirit inserted into a flesh shell, and “resurrection” is just the soul being released from the flesh at death. That is not Christian resurrection; that is ancient Gnosticism (the idea that the physical body is a prison/shell to escape from).
I think you misunderstand the Seed Analogy. You claim “What is sown” means a spirit being sown into flesh at conception. In agricultural language, the “seed” IS the body that dies and goes into the dirt! You don’t plant a seed into another seed. You plant the body (the seed) into the ground (burial). What dies and goes into the ground? The physical corpse.
Paul is answering the objection: “How are the dead raised? With what body do they come?” Paul says the buried corpse is like a seed; when it is raised, it is transformed into a glorious plant. The plant comes from the dead seed, transformed. Not a spirit escaping from a seed.
“Spiritual Body” (Sōma Pneumatikon) Does NOT Mean “Made of spirit.” You assume “spiritual body” means a body made of invisible spirit-stuff. But in Koine Greek, adjectives ending in -kos describe what animates, empowers, or drives something, not what it is physically composed of.
Natural Body (Sōma Psychikon): A body animated and driven by natural human life (psyche). It is frail, subject to decay, and mortal.
Spiritual Body (Sōma Pneumatikon): A physical body animated, energized, and transformed by the Holy Spirit (pneuma).
When Paul speaks of a “spiritual man” (pneumatikos) in 1 Corinthians 2:15, he doesn’t mean a ghost with no physical organs. He means a physical human who is led by the Holy Spirit. Likewise, a “spiritual body” is a physical body completely empowered and glorified by God’s Spirit.
You claim our resurrection is purely spiritual, leaving the flesh behind to rot. But you explicitly admit that Jesus’ physical flesh WAS raised and changed! “His flesh was raised and then at some point was changed…”
But Paul’s whole point in 1 Corinthians 15:20 & 49 is that Jesus is the FIRSTFRUITS, and we will bear the same image He bears!
If Jesus’ physical flesh was raised and glorified, and He is the pattern for our resurrection, then our physical bodies will also be raised and transformed. You invent a two-tier system: Jesus got a physically changed body, but we just get spirit-release that Paul never taught.
You are using verse 50 as a “mic drop”: “Flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God.”
“Flesh and blood” is a standard Hebrew idiom meaning mortal, weak, perishable human nature (e.g., Matthew 16:17: “Flesh and blood has not revealed this to you”).
Notice the second half of Paul’s sentence in verse 50 (which defines the first half):
“Neither does corruption inherit incorruption.”
Paul is saying that our current decaying, mortal flesh cannot enter the eternal kingdom as it is. It must be changed! Look at verses 52–53: Paul doesn’t say “the flesh is discarded.” He says:
“For this perishable body must put on imperishability, and this mortal body must put on immortality.”
Notice that word: THIS. This mortal body puts on immortality. It is transformed, not dropped in the trash.
You claim that Jesus sits at the right hand of the Father in a “quickened Spirit body” that is not flesh. How then do you handle Jesus’ own post-resurrection words to His terrified disciples who thought He was a spirit?
“See my hands and my feet, that it is I myself. Touch me, and see. For a spirit does not have flesh and bones as you see that I have.” Luke 24:39
Jesus explicitly denied being a spirit-only resurrection! He possessed a glorified body of “flesh and bones.” Remember, Paul’s verse 50 says mortal/decaying flesh can’t enter heaven as it is; it must be transformed into an immortal, incorruptible physical body verses. 52-53, not discarded.