The First Epistle of Paul the Apostle to the Corinthians

⭑ Unlocked Dynamic Bible :: World English Bible Catholic ⭑

- Chapter 15 -

And now I wish to remind you, brothers and sisters, about the good news I proclaimed to you. You believed this message and now you live according to it.

This good news saved you, as long as you hold firmly to it, unless you did not truly believe it.

For I have passed on to you what others first told me, that Messiah died for our sins, as the scripture foretold he would;

also that they buried him, and that God raised him to life on the third day, all just the way the scriptures said it would happen.

Then Messiah appeared to Cephas (known as Peter), and then he appeared to the rest of the apostles.

He later appeared to more than five hundred brothers and sisters in the Lord when they were all together. Some of them have since died, but most are still alive and can verify this.

Then he appeared to James, and then again to all the apostles.

Last of all he appeared to me, although I am very unlike the other apostles.

For I am the least of the apostles. I made the church of Messiah suffer greatly, so I do not deserve to be an apostle.

But God has been very kind to me, so I am an apostle, and he has done much good through me. Really, I have worked harder than all the other apostles. Still, it was not really I who worked, but God, who gave me the strength.

So whether it is the other apostles or I who preached to you, we proclaimed the good news about Messiah, and you believed us.

The Resurrection of the Dead

Now some of you are saying that those who are now dead will not rise anymore. This cannot be true, because we have announced to you that Messiah rose from the dead.

If no one rises from the dead, then God certainly has not raised Messiah.

And if he has not raised Messiah from the dead, then what we preach makes no sense at all, and what you believe about Messiah can do nothing for you in your life or in your death.

In addition, people will see that we have told lies about God, if the dead really do not rise again.

Again I say, if no one rises from the dead, then God has not even raised Messiah.

And if he has not raised Messiah, then what you believe is useless, and God still condemns you because you have sinned.

If that is the case, then all those who have died trusting in Messiah have also died with no hope of resurrection.

If in this life only we have hope in Messiah, and we expect him to do nothing for us after we die, then of all people we most deserve the pity of others, for we have believed in a lie.

The Order of Resurrection

But in fact, God has raised Messiah from the dead, and he is only the first of the many people that he will raise.

For everyone in the world dies because of what one man, Adam, did. However, those who have died will live again, also because of what one person has done; that is, the man Messiah Jesus.

Because, just as all die because Adam sinned, in the same way, all will live again because of what Messiah has done.

But they will rise from the dead in a certain order: Messiah is the first to have risen from the dead; then those who are joined to Messiah will live again when he returns to earth.

Then the world will come to an end, when Messiah will present all the world to God the Father, for him to rule. This is when Messiah will bring to an end all who have the status of rulers, and everything that has reigning authority and all seats of power in this world.

For Messiah must rule until God has conquered every one of his enemies, and placed them under Messiah’s feet to show that they have no more power.

The final enemy that God will destroy is death itself.

For the scriptures say, “God has placed everything under his feet,” that is, Messiah’s feet. But it is clear that this does not include God himself.

After God has placed all things into Messiah’s power, then the Son also will place himself in the power of God the Father, so that God may be the same in relation to everyone and everything.

If there is no resurrection from the dead, as some say, then there is no reason for people to receive baptism for the sake of those who have died, as some do. If God does not bring any dead people back to life, then there is no reason for living people to receive baptism for the sake of those who have died.

And we apostles would have no reason to risk our lives every day, as we do, to proclaim the good news if there is no resurrection from the dead.

My brothers and sisters, I am so proud of you; you are like my possessions that I show off to Messiah Jesus our Lord. But I tell you that I die every day!

If God will not raise the dead, then I fought with those wild animals at Ephesus for nothing. What the poets wrote would in that case be true: “Let us eat food and drink wine today, because we will die tomorrow.”

Do not be tricked: “If you have bad friends, you will not care to live any longer in the right way.”

Sober up! Live in the right way and do not keep sinning. Some of you do not know God at all. I say this to shame you.

The Resurrection Body

Someone may ask you, “How can the dead rise? What kind of body could they ever have?”

You know nothing! You do not think about the fact that any seed you plant in the ground will not start to grow until it dies.

And what a farmer plants does not look the same as what will come up. It is only a bare seed; it will change into something entirely different.

God will give it a new body just as he chooses, and to each seed put into the ground he will give a different body.

Not all living creatures are the same. There are human beings, and there are animals on the land of many kinds, and there are the birds and fish. All of them are different.

There are also different kinds of things in the heavens. The nature of those bodies in the sky is different from the nature of the things on this world.

There is one kind of nature for the bright sun, and another kind for the softer moon. There is still another kind of nature for the stars, but the stars all differ one from another in many ways.

It is the same way when people rise from the dead. What goes into the ground has died, but what rises will never die again.

When it goes into the ground, it is in the dirt, but when God raises it again, it grows with honor and power.

What goes into the ground belongs to this earth, but what rises from the dead has God’s power. So, there are things that belong to this earth, and there are things that have God’s power, which lasts forever.

So the scriptures say, “The first man, Adam, was a living being who gave his children and descendants life.” But Messiah, the second Adam, gave people God’s power to live forever.

What belongs to the earth came first, the natural, and then came what belongs to God, that is the spiritual.

The first man, Adam, belonged to the earth, for he was made from dust. But the second man, Messiah, belongs to heaven.

All those who are made from dust are just like Adam, the one who was made from dust. All those who belong to heaven are just like Messiah, the man from heaven.

Just as God made us like the man who was made from dust, so he will also make us be like the man from heaven.

Where, O Death, Is Your Victory?

(Hosea 13:9–14)

Now I say this, brothers and sisters, human beings who will die cannot obtain the things that God promises to give all those whom he rules. It is just as the things that die cannot become things that do not die.

Look! I tell you something that God has hidden from us. Not all believers will die, but God will change all of us.

He will change us in an instant, as fast as one can blink his eye, when God’s angels blow the final trumpet. For they will blow that trumpet and then God will raise the dead so as to never die again.

For it is these bodies that will die, but God will make them live forever, never to die again, and it is these bodies that now can be destroyed, but God will make them new, never to die again.

When this happens, then it will come true, what the scriptures say: “God has totally defeated death.”

“Death will never win again! The pain of dying has been taken away!”

It is sin that brings such pain to us when we are dying. And sin’s power comes into our lives because of the law.

But now we thank God because he gives us victory over death through our Lord Jesus Christ!

Therefore, my dear brothers and sisters, be solid in your faith, unmoveable in your life, doing more and more in the Lord’s work. You know that whatever you do for him will last forever.

Now I declare to you, brothers, the Good News which I preached to you, which also you received, in which you also stand,

by which also you are saved, if you hold firmly the word which I preached to you—unless you believed in vain.

For I delivered to you first of all that which I also received: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures,

that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures,

and that he appeared to Cephas, then to the twelve.

Then he appeared to over five hundred brothers at once, most of whom remain until now, but some have also fallen asleep.

Then he appeared to James, then to all the apostles,

and last of all, as to the child born at the wrong time, he appeared to me also.

For I am the least of the apostles, who is not worthy to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the assembly of God.

But by the grace of God I am what I am. His grace which was given to me was not futile, but I worked more than all of them; yet not I, but the grace of God which was with me.

Whether then it is I or they, so we preach, and so you believed.

The Resurrection of the Dead

Now if Christ is preached, that he has been raised from the dead, how do some among you say that there is no resurrection of the dead?

But if there is no resurrection of the dead, neither has Christ been raised.

If Christ has not been raised, then our preaching is in vain and your faith also is in vain.

Yes, we are also found false witnesses of God, because we testified about God that he raised up Christ, whom he didn’t raise up if it is true that the dead are not raised.

For if the dead aren’t raised, neither has Christ been raised.

If Christ has not been raised, your faith is vain; you are still in your sins.

Then they also who are fallen asleep in Christ have perished.

If we have only hoped in Christ in this life, we are of all men most pitiable.

The Order of Resurrection

But now Christ has been raised from the dead. He became the first fruit of those who are asleep.

For since death came by man, the resurrection of the dead also came by man.

For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ all will be made alive.

But each in his own order: Christ the first fruits, then those who are Christ’s at his coming.

Then the end comes, when he will deliver up the Kingdom to God the Father, when he will have abolished all rule and all authority and power.

For he must reign until he has put all his enemies under his feet.

The last enemy that will be abolished is death.

For, “He put all things in subjection under his feet.”(a) But when he says, “All things are put in subjection”, it is evident that he is excepted who subjected all things to him.

When all things have been subjected to him, then the Son will also himself be subjected to him who subjected all things to him, that God may be all in all.

Or else what will they do who are baptized for the dead? If the dead aren’t raised at all, why then are they baptized for the dead?

Why do we also stand in jeopardy every hour?

I affirm, by the boasting in you which I have in Christ Jesus our Lord, I die daily.

If I fought with animals at Ephesus for human purposes, what does it profit me? If the dead are not raised, then “let’s eat and drink, for tomorrow we die.”(b)

Don’t be deceived! “Evil companionships corrupt good morals.”

Wake up righteously and don’t sin, for some have no knowledge of God. I say this to your shame.

The Resurrection Body

But someone will say, “How are the dead raised?” and, “With what kind of body do they come?”

You foolish one, that which you yourself sow is not made alive unless it dies.

That which you sow, you don’t sow the body that will be, but a bare grain, maybe of wheat, or of some other kind.

But God gives it a body even as it pleased him, and to each seed a body of its own.

All flesh is not the same flesh, but there is one flesh of men, another flesh of animals, another of fish, and another of birds.

There are also celestial bodies and terrestrial bodies; but the glory of the celestial differs from that of the terrestrial.

There is one glory of the sun, another glory of the moon, and another glory of the stars; for one star differs from another star in glory.

So also is the resurrection of the dead. The body is sown perishable; it is raised imperishable.

It is sown in dishonor; it is raised in glory. It is sown in weakness; it is raised in power.

It is sown a natural body; it is raised a spiritual body. There is a natural body and there is also a spiritual body.

So also it is written, “The first man Adam became a living soul.” (c) The last Adam became a life-giving spirit.

However, that which is spiritual isn’t first, but that which is natural, then that which is spiritual.

The first man is of the earth, made of dust. The second man is the Lord from heaven.

As is the one made of dust, such are those who are also made of dust; and as is the heavenly, such are they also that are heavenly.

As we have borne the image of those made of dust, let’s(d) also bear the image of the heavenly.

Where, O Death, Is Your Victory?

(Hosea 13:9–14)

Now I say this, brothers,(e) that flesh and blood can’t inherit God’s Kingdom; neither does the perishable inherit imperishable.

Behold,(f) I tell you a mystery. We will not all sleep, but we will all be changed,

in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound and the dead will be raised incorruptible, and we will be changed.

For this perishable body must become imperishable, and this mortal must put on immortality.

But when this perishable body will have become imperishable, and this mortal will have put on immortality, then what is written will happen: “Death is swallowed up in victory.”(g)

“Death, where is your sting? Hades,(h) where is your victory?”(i)

The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law.

But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.

Therefore, my beloved brothers, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the Lord’s work, because you know that your labor is not in vain in the Lord.

Footnotes

(a)15:27 ℘ Psalms 8:6

(b)15:32 ℘ Isaiah 22:13

(d)15:49 NU, TR read “we will” instead of “let’s”

(e)15:50 The word for “brothers” here and where context allows may also be correctly translated “brothers and sisters” or “siblings.”

(f)15:51 “Behold”, from “ἰδοὺ”, means look at, take notice, observe, see, or gaze at. It is often used as an interjection.

(g)15:54 ℘ Isaiah 25:8

(h)15:55 or, Hell

(i)15:55 ℘ See Hosea 13:14