Dual PanelThe resurrection of the dead
1AND now, my friends, I must remind you of the gospel that I preached to you; the gospel which you received, on which you have taken your stand,
2and which is now bringing you salvation. Remember the terms in which I preached the gospel to you -- for I assume that you hold it fast and that your conversion was not in vain.
3First and foremost, I handed on to you the tradition I had received: that Christ died for our sins, in accordance with the scriptures;
4that he was buried; that he was raised to life on the third day, in accordance with the scriptures;
5and that he appeared to Cephas, and afterwards to the Twelve.
6Then he appeared to over five hundred of our brothers at once, most of whom are still alive, though some have died.
7Then he appeared to James, and afterwards to all the apostles.
8Last of all he appeared to me too; it was like a sudden, abnormal birth.
9For I am the least of the apostles, indeed not fit to be called an apostle, because I had persecuted the church of God.
10However, by God's grace I am what I am, and his grace to me has not proved vain; in my labours I have outdone them all -- not I, indeed, but the grace of God working with me.
11But no matter whether it was I or they! This is what we all proclaim, and this is what you believed.
12Now if this is what we proclaim, that Christ was raised from the dead, how can some of you say there is no resurrection of the dead?
13If there is no resurrection, then Christ was not raised;
14and if Christ was not raised, then our gospel is null and void, and so too is your faith;
15and we turn out to have given false evidence about God, because we bore witness that he raised Christ to life, whereas, if the dead are not raised, he did not raise him.
16For if the dead are not raised, it follows that Christ was not raised;
17and if Christ was not raised, your faith has nothing to it and you are still in your old state of sin.
18It follows also that those who have died within Christ's fellowship are utterly lost.
19If it is for this life only that Christ has given us hope, we of all people are most to be pitied.
20But the truth is, Christ was raised to life -- the firstfruits of the harvest of the dead.
21For since it was a man who brought death into the world, a man also brought resurrection of the dead.
22As in Adam all die, so in Christ all will be brought to life;
23but each in proper order: Christ the firstfruits, and afterwards, at his coming, those who belong to Christ.
24Then comes the end, when he delivers up the kingdom to God the Father, after deposing every sovereignty, authority, and power.
25For he is destined to reign until God has put all enemies under his feet;
26and the last enemy to be deposed is death.
27Scripture says, “He has put all things in subjection under his feet.” But in saying “all things”, it clearly means to exclude God who made all things subject to him;
28and when all things are subject to him, then the Son himself will also be made subject to God who made all things subject to him, and thus God will be all in all.
29Again, there are those who receive baptism on behalf of the dead. What do you suppose they are doing? If the dead are not raised to life at all, what do they mean by being baptized on their behalf?
30And why do we ourselves face danger hour by hour?
31Every day I die: I swear it by my pride in you, my friends -- for in Christ Jesus our Lord I am proud of you.
32With no more than human hopes, what would have been the point of my fighting those wild beasts at Ephesus? If the dead are never raised to life, “Let us eat and drink, for tomorrow we die.”
33Make no mistake: “Bad company ruins good character.”
34Wake up, be sober, and stop sinning: some of you have no knowledge of God -- to your shame I say it.
35But, you may ask, how are the dead raised? In what kind of body?
36What stupid questions! The seed you sow does not come to life unless it has first died;
37and what you sow is not the body that shall be, but a bare grain, of wheat perhaps, or something else;
38and God gives it the body of his choice, each seed its own particular body.
39All flesh is not the same: there is human flesh, flesh of beasts, of birds, and of fishes -- all different.
40There are heavenly bodies and earthly bodies; and the splendour of the heavenly bodies is one thing, the splendour of the earthly another.
41The sun has a splendour of its own, the moon another splendour, and the stars yet another; and one star differs from another in brightness.
42So it is with the resurrection of the dead: what is sown as a perishable thing is raised imperishable.
43Sown in humiliation, it is raised in glory; sown in weakness, it is raised in power;
44sown a physical body, it is raised a spiritual body. If there is such a thing as a physical body, there is also a spiritual body.
45It is in this sense that scripture says, “The first man, Adam, became a living creature,” whereas the last Adam has become a life-giving spirit.
46Observe, the spiritual does not come first; the physical body comes first, and then the spiritual.
47The first man is from earth, made of dust: the second man is from heaven.
48The man made of dust is the pattern of all who are made of dust, and the heavenly man is the pattern of all the heavenly.
49As we have worn the likeness of the man made of dust, so we shall wear the likeness of the heavenly man.
50What I mean, my friends, is this: flesh and blood can never possess the kingdom of God, the perishable cannot possess the imperishable.
51Listen! I will unfold a mystery: we shall not all die, but we shall all be changed
52in a flash, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet-call. For the trumpet will sound, and the dead will rise imperishable, and we shall be changed.
53This perishable body must be clothed with the imperishable, and what is mortal with immortality.
54And when this perishable body has been clothed with the imperishable and our mortality has been clothed with immortality, then the saying of scripture will come true: “Death is swallowed up; victory is won!”
55“O Death, where is your victory? O Death, where is your sting?”
56The sting of death is sin, and sin gains its power from the law.
57But thanks be to God! He gives us victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.
58Therefore, my dear friends, stand firm and immovable, and work for the Lord always, work without limit, since you know that in the Lord your labour cannot be lost.