15
1 Now I make know to you, brothers, the gospel that I proclaimed to you, which you also received, on which you also stand,
2 by which also you are being saved, if you hold firmly to the word I preached to you, unless you believed in vain.
3 For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received— that Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures,
4 and that he was buried, and that he was raised on the third day according to the scriptures,
5 and that he appeared to Cephas, and then to the twelve.
6 Then he appeared to more than five hundred brothers at once. Most of them are still alive, but some have fallen asleep.
7 Then he appeared to James, then to all the apostles.
8 Last of all, he appeared to me, as if to a child born at the wrong time.
9 For I am the least of the apostles, who am not worthy to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the church of God.
10 But by the grace of God I am what I am, and his grace that was in me was not in vain. Instead, I worked harder than all of them, yet not I, but the grace of God with me.
11 Therefore whether it was I or they, so we preach and so you believed.
12 Now if Christ is proclaimed that he was raised from the dead, how can some among you say that there is no resurrection of the dead?
13 But if there is no resurrection of the dead, not even Christ has been raised;
14 and if Christ has not been raised, then our preaching is in vain, and your faith is in vain.
15 Also, we are found to be false witnesses about God, because we testified about God that he raised Christ, whom he has not raised, if indeed the dead are not raised.
16 For if the dead are not raised, not even Christ has been raised;
17 and if Christ has not been raised, your faith is in vain; you are still in your sins.
18 Then those who have died in Christ have also perished.
19 If only in this life we have hope in Christ, of all people we are most to be pitied.
20 But now Christ has been raised from the dead, the firstfruit of those who have fallen asleep.
21 For since death came by a man, by a man also came the resurrection of the dead.
22 For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ all will be made alive.
23 But each in his own order: Christ the firstfruit, then at his coming, those who belong to Christ.
24 Then will be the end, when Christ will hand over the kingdom to the God and Father, when he will abolish all rule and all authority and power.
25 For he must reign until he has put all his enemies under his feet.
26 The last enemy to be abolished is death.
27 For “he has put everything under his feet.” But when it says “he has put everything,” it is clear that this does not include the one who put everything in subjection to him.
28 Now when all things have been subjected to him, then the Son himself will also be subjected to the one who subjected all things to him, so that God may be all in all.
29 Otherwise, what will those do who are baptized for the dead? If the dead are not raised at all, why then are they baptized for them?
30 Why also, are we in danger every hour?
31 I die every day! I swear by my boasting in you, brothers, which I have in Christ Jesus our Lord.
32 What is the profit to me, according to human reasoning, if I fought wild beasts at Ephesus? if the dead are not raised, “Let us eat and drink, for tomorrow we die.”
33 Do not be deceived: “Bad company corrupts good morals.”
34 Sober up! Live righteously! Do not keep sinning. For some of you have no knowledge of God— I say this to your shame.
35 But someone will say, “How are the dead raised, and with what kind of body will they come?”
36 You are so foolish! What you sow does not come to life unless it dies.
37 And what you sow, you do not sow the body that will be, but a bare seed— perhaps wheat or something else.
38 But God will give it a body as he desires, and to each of the seeds, its own body.
39 Not all flesh is the same. Instead, there is one flesh of human beings, and another flesh of animals, and another flesh of birds, and another of fish.
40 There are also heavenly bodies and earthly bodies. But the glory of the heavenly is one kind, and the glory of the earthly is another.
41 There is one glory of the sun, and another glory of the moon, and another glory of the stars. For star differs from star in glory.
42 So also is the resurrection of the dead. What is sown in decay, is raised in immortality.
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 So also it is written, “The first man Adam became a living soul.” The last Adam became a life- giving spirit.
46 But the spiritual did not come first but the natural, and then the spiritual.
47 The first man is of the earth, made of dust. The second man is from heaven.
48 Just as the one was earthly, so also are those of the earth; and as the one is heavenly, so also are those of heaven.
49 And just as we have borne the image of the earthly, we will also bear the image of the heavenly.
50 Now this I say, brothers, that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God. Neither does the perishable inherit the imperishable.
51 Look! I tell you a mystery: We will not all fall asleep, but we will all be changed—
52 in an instant, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For a trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised imperishable, and we will be changed.
53 For this perishable body must put on what is imperishable, and this mortal body must put on immortality.
54 But when this perishable body has put on what is imperishable, and when this mortal body has put on immortality, then will come about the saying that is written, “Death is swallowed up in victory.”
55 “Death, where is your victory? Death, where is your sting?”
56 But the sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law.
57 But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ!
58 Therefore, my beloved brothers, be steadfast, immovable, always abound in the work of the Lord, knowing that your work is not in vain in the Lord.
The First Letter of Paul to the Corinthians