1 Corinthians 15

15 ¹Brothers and sisters, I remind you of the gospel I preached, which you received and now stand on. ²By this gospel you are saved, if you hold firmly to the word I preached to you—unless your faith was empty.

³For I passed on to you as most important what I also received: Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, ⁴that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures, ⁵and that he appeared to Cephas, then to the Twelve. ⁶After that he appeared to more than 500 brothers and sisters at once; most remain alive, though some have fallen asleep. ⁷Then he appeared to James, then to all the apostles. ⁸And last of all he appeared to me also, like one born at the wrong time. ⁹I am the least of the apostles, unfit to be called an apostle, since I persecuted the church of our Father. ¹⁰By our Father's grace I am what I am, and his grace to me wasn't wasted. But I worked harder than all of them—not I, though, but our Father's grace with me. ¹¹So then, whether I or they, so we preach, and so you believed.

If Christ Was Not Raised

¹²Now if Christ is proclaimed raised from the dead, how can some among you say there is no resurrection of the dead? ¹³If there is no resurrection of the dead, then not even Christ has been raised. ¹⁴And if Christ has not been raised, then our preaching is useless, and so is your faith. ¹⁵More than that, we're found to be false witnesses about our Father, since we testified about our Father that he raised Christ from the dead—but he didn't raise him, if the dead truly aren't raised. ¹⁶For if the dead are not raised, then not even Christ has been raised. ¹⁷And if Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile; you are still in your sins. ¹⁸Then those also who have fallen asleep in Christ are lost. ¹⁹If we only hope in Christ for this life, we deserve more pity than anyone alive.

²⁰But Christ has indeed been raised from the dead, the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep. ²¹For since death came through a man, the resurrection of the dead also comes through a man. ²²For as in Adam all die, so in Christ all will be made alive. ²³But each in turn: Christ, the firstfruits; then, when he comes, those who belong to him. ²⁴Then the end comes, when he hands over the kingdom to our Father, when he has abolished all rule, authority, and power. ^a a v24 When everything is complete, the Son places the whole kingdom back into the hands of our Father — the goal of all things is the Father himself. ²⁵For he must reign until he has put all his enemies under his feet. ²⁶The last enemy to be destroyed is death. ²⁷Our Father has put everything under the Son's feet. But when it says 'everything' is put under him, that clearly excludes our Father, who put everything under the Son. ²⁸When everything is subject to him, the Son himself will be subject to the one who subjected everything to him, so our Father may be all in all. ^b b v28 When everything is finally restored, the Son gladly takes his place under our Father, so that our Father is everything to everyone — the destination the whole story has been moving toward.

²⁹Otherwise, what will those baptized for the dead do? If the dead aren't raised at all, why be baptized for them? ^c c v29 The exact practice Paul refers to here is unknown; he uses it as evidence that even those doing it believed in resurrection. ³⁰And as for us, why do we endanger ourselves every hour? ³¹I die every day—as surely as I take pride in you, brothers and sisters, in Christ Jesus our Lord. ³²If I fought wild beasts in Ephesus for merely human reasons, what's my gain? If the dead don't rise, "Let us eat and drink, for tomorrow we die." ³³Do not be deceived: "Bad company corrupts good character." ³⁴Sober up rightly and stop sinning—some are ignorant of our Father; I say this to your shame.

The Body the Father Gives

³⁵But someone will ask, "How are the dead raised? With what kind of body will they come?" ³⁶How foolish! What you sow does not come to life unless it dies. ³⁷When you sow, you don't sow the body to come, but a bare seed, perhaps wheat or something else. ³⁸But our Father gives it the body he chose, and to each seed its own body. ³⁹Not all flesh is alike: humans, animals, birds, fish each differ. ⁴⁰Heavenly bodies exist, and earthly bodies; the glory of the heavenly is one, the glory of the earthly another. ⁴¹The sun has one splendor, the moon another, the stars another—star differs from star in splendor.

⁴²So it is with the resurrection of the dead: the body sown perishable, raised imperishable. ⁴³Sown in dishonor, raised in glory; sown in weakness, raised in power. ⁴⁴Sown a natural body, raised a spiritual body. If there is a natural body, there is also a spiritual body. ⁴⁵So it is written: "The first man, Adam, became a living soul"; the last Adam became a life-giving spirit. ^d d v45 Jesus is the "last Adam": where the first Adam brought death to everyone, Jesus gives life to all who belong to him. ⁴⁶But it was not the spiritual that came first, but the natural, and afterward the spiritual. ⁴⁷The first man was of the dust of the earth; the second man is from heaven. ⁴⁸Like the man of dust, so are those made of dust; like the man of heaven, so are those made of heaven. ⁴⁹Just as we bore the earthly man's image, we will bear the heavenly man's image.

⁵⁰I tell you this, brothers and sisters: flesh and blood cannot inherit our Father's kingdom, nor can the perishable inherit the imperishable.

⁵¹Listen, I tell you a mystery: We will not all sleep, but we will all be changed. ⁵²In an instant, in the blink of an eye, at the last trumpet—it will sound, the dead will be raised undying, and we will be changed. ⁵³The perishable must be clothed with the imperishable, the mortal with immortality. ⁵⁴When this perishable puts on the imperishable, and this mortal puts on immortality, then what is written comes true: "Death is swallowed up in victory. ⁵⁵Where, death, is your victory? Where, death, is your sting?"

⁵⁶The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law. ⁵⁷But thanks be to our Father! He gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. ⁵⁸So, my dear brothers and sisters, be steadfast, immovable, always overflowing in the Lord's work, knowing your labor in the Lord is not wasted.