1May I remind you, brothers and sisters, of the gospel (Good News) I preached to you, which you also gladly received, and in which you firmly stand;
2By this gospel you are also saved, if you hold firmly to what I preached to you. Otherwise, you have believed in vain.
3For I passed on to you first of all what I also received: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures;
4That He was buried, that He rose again the third day according to the Scriptures;
5And that He was seen by Cephas (Peter), then by the twelve;
6After that, He appeared to more than five hundred brothers and sisters at one time; of whom most are still living, but some have since died.
7After that, He appeared to James; then to all the apostles.
8And last of all, He appeared to me also, as though I was born out of due time.
9For I am the least of the apostles, and do not deserve to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the church of God.
10But by the grace of God I am what I am; and His grace, which He bestowed upon me, was not without effect. I worked harder than they all; yet not I, but the grace of God that was working through me.
11Therefore, whether it is I or they, this is what we preach, and this is what you believed.
12How is it that some among you say that there will be no resurrection of the dead, if the Christ that is proclaimed to you rose from the dead?
13If there be no resurrection of the dead, then not even Christ is risen;
14And if Christ is not risen, then all our preaching is useless, as is your faith, also.
15Yes, and we would be proven to be lying about God; because we have testified of God that He raised up Christ; if He did not Him raise up - if indeed there is no resurrection of the dead, as some of you claim.
16For if the dead do not rise, then Christ is not raised, either;
17And if Christ is not raised, then your faith is futile; you remain condemned in your sins.
18Then also, those who are fallen asleep (have died as believers) in Christ have perished.
19If our hope in Christ only for this life, then we are of all men most miserable, and to be pitied.
20But Christ has indeed risen from the dead, and become the first fruits of a great harvest of those that have died.
21For since death came into the world by a man, the resurrection of the dead now, also, came by a Man.
22For as in Adam all die, even so also in Christ shall all be made alive;
23But each man in its own order; Christ, the first fruits; then, when He comes, those that belong to Christ will rise.
24Then the end will come, when He shall deliver the kingdom to God, the Father, after He has destroyed all other authority and power.
25For He must reign, until He has put all His enemies under His feet.
26The last enemy to be destroyed is death.
27For He (God) has put all things under His (Christ’s) feet. But when He says all things are put under Him, it is obvious that God, Himself, Who gave Christ this authority to put all things under Him, is not included in “all things”.
28And when all (other) things have been brought under His authority, the Son shall put Himself under God’s authority, so that God, Who gave His Son authority over all things, will be utterly supreme over everything, everywhere. The passage that begins with verse 29 is a bit perplexing; and while this note may offer some insight, it is not likely to answer all the questions that most readers will have. Paul has just expounded on the doctrine of the resurrection of the dead in the preceding passage (vv. 12-28); and then he offers what appears to be further defense of that doctrine. The phrase “baptized for the dead” (v.20) is not easily explained or fully understood, as is evidenced by the differing interpretations offered by expositors of this text. There is not even agreement by what is meant by “baptized”, or “the dead” in this phrase. The goal of brevity in these in-line notes precludes the lengthy comments on this passage; but those with inquiring minds may want to explore some of those commentaries. Many expositors say it alludes to a practice of substitutional baptism, where a living person is baptized in place of a believer who had died before participating in the sacrament of baptism, a practice which many believe those in Corinth, and elsewhere engaged in. Paul certainly does not support or endorse the practice; and it is not conclusively clear that Paul is alluding to that practice here. It is also not obvious why Paul felt the need to add these arguments to support his already more than adequate defense of the belief in resurrection of the dead, Christ being the manifest “first fruits” of that resurrection from the dead.
29If the dead will not be raised, what is the point of people being baptized for the dead? Why do that, unless the dead will one day rise?
30And why should we endanger ourselves (risk our lives) hour by hour?
31I face death every day – just as surely as I rejoice in what our Lord, Christ Jesus, has done in and for you.
32If, from a human point of view, when I have fought the beasts at Ephesus (Paul’s human opponents at Ephesus who deny the resurrection), what did I stand to gain from the risk and effort, if there is no resurrection from the dead? If that is the case, let us eat and drink; for tomorrow we die.
33Do not be deceived: bad company corrupts good character.
34Awaken to what is right, and stop sinning; for I fear some of you do not know God at all. I say this to your shame.
35But someone will ask, ‘How are the dead raised? And what kind of bodies will they have?”
36How foolish! When you sow seed, it does not sprout to life unless it first dies (loses its current form);
37And what you plant in the ground is not what will grow, whether a bare grain of wheat, or some other seed.
38But God gives it a new body as it pleases Him, and to every seed its own kind of body.
39All flesh is not the same: people have one kind of flesh; animals, another kind of flesh; fish, another kind, and birds, yet another kind of flesh.
40There are also celestial (heavenly) bodies, and earthly bodies; but the splendor of the heavenly is one, and the splendor of the earthly is another.
41The sun has one kind of splendor; the moon, another; and each star has its own kind of splendor; for one star differs from another star in their glory.
42So it will also be with the resurrection of the dead. The body that is sown in perishable; it is raised imperishable (immortal).
43It is sown in dishonor (brokenness); it is raised in glory. It is sown in weakness; it is raised in power.
44It is sown (planted) a natural body; it is raised a spiritual body. If there is a natural body, there is also a spiritual body.
45And so it is written, ‘The first man, Adam, was made a living soul; the last Adam was made a life-giving Spirit’ (Gen.2:7, John 5:21).
46However, that which came first was not spiritual, but the natural; and afterward that, the spiritual.
47The first man was of the dust of the earth, earthly; the second Man is the Lord, of and from heaven.
48As was the earthly people, so are those who are of the earth; and as is the heavenly, so also are they that are of heaven.
49And just as we have borne the image of the earthly man, so shall we also bear the image of the heavenly Man.
50What I am saying, brothers and sisters, is that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God; nor does corruption (perishable) inherit incorruption (imperishability).
51Let me reveal a mystery to you: We shall not all sleep (die), but we shall all be changed,
52In a moment (flash), in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet; for the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible (imperishable), and we shall be changed and live forever.
53For the perishable must put on incorruption (imperishability), and this mortal body must put on immortality.
54So, when this perishable shall have put on imperishability, and this mortal shall have put on immortality, then shall the saying be fulfilled that is written: ‘Death is swallowed up in victory.
55O death, where is your sting? O grave, where is your victory?’(Is. 25:8)
56The sting of death is sin; and the strength (power) of sin is the law.
57But thanks be to God, Who gives us victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.
58Therefore, my dear brothers and sisters, stand firm and unmovable, always working for the Lord, because you know that your labor in the Lord is not in vain. Easy Reader Bible: Purple Letter Edition © 2023 by Jim Musser. Used by Permission. All rights Reserved. Bible Hub |
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