15
“Where, O Death, Is Your Victory?”
1 Now I want to remind you, brothers and sisters, of the gospel I proclaimed to you, which you also received, on which you have also taken your stand,
2 by which you will also be saved, if you faithfully adhere to the gospel I proclaimed to you—unless, of course, it was without any real basis for hope that you believed.
3 For I passed on to you, among first things, what I also received: The Messiah died to atone for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures;
4 he was buried; he was raised to life on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures;
5 he appeared to Kefa,+ and then to the Twelve.
6 After that, he appeared to more than five hundred of his followers at the same time, of whom the majority are still alive, though some have died.
7 After that, he appeared to James, then to the apostles, all of them.
8 Last of all, as to one born at the wrong time, he appeared also to me.
9 I, you see, am the least of the apostles, and am not fit to be called an apostle, because I persecuted God’s assembly.
10 Yet it is by the gift of God that I am what I am; the enablement that he graciously lavished on me has produced very fruitful results. I have worked harder, in fact, than all the others—not I, that is, but the gift of God that is with me.
11 Whether I or they, therefore, this is what we proclaim, and this is what you believed.
12 Now, if the Messiah is being proclaimed as having been raised from the dead, how can certain people among you dare claim that the dead will not be resurrected?
13 If there is no resurrection from the dead, it means that not even the Messiah himself has been raised to life.
14 And if the Messiah himself hasn’t been raised to life, then our message is a lie devoid of hope, and your faith, too, a lie devoid of hope.
15 More than that, we are guilty of telling lies about God, since we have borne solemn witness that God has in fact raised the Messiah to life—which he obviously didn’t do if it is true that the dead are not raised to life!
16 If the dead are not raised to life, you see, then not even the Messiah himself has been raised to life.
17 And if the Messiah himself hasn’t been raised to life, your faith is a delusion; you are still in your sins!
18 It would likewise mean that those who have died in union with the Messiah are also lost.
19 If it is with regard to this life alone that we have placed our hope in the Messiah, we are indeed more pitiable than all the rest of humankind.
20 The truth, however, is that the Messiah has indeed been raised from the dead, the “firstfruits”+ of those who have died.
21 Since it was through a man, you see, that death came into the world, it is through a man, too, that the resurrection of the dead will take place.
22 Indeed, just as in union with Adam all die, so, too, in union with the Messiah all will be brought back to life.
23 Each, however, in his own turn: The firstfruits is the Messiah, and then later, those who belong to the Messiah when he comes again.
24 Then comes the finale, when the Messiah will hand the Kingdom over to God the Father, after he has reduced every ruler and every authority and power to nothing.
25 It is appointed for him to reign, you see, until God has “put all his enemies under his feet.”+
26 The final enemy will itself certainly be reduced to nothing—death.
27 God has “subjected under his feet the whole creation,”+ you see. Now, when the Scripture says that it is “the whole creation” that has been subjected, it is obvious that God himself, who subjects the whole creation to the authority of the Messiah, is not included.
28 And after the whole creation has been subjected to the Messiah, at that time the Son, too, will himself be made subject to the one who had subjected the whole creation to him, and God will be supreme over all.
29 Now if there is no resurrection, what will those people do who are being baptized for+ the dead? If the dead aren’t raised to life at all, why in the world are people being baptized for them?
30 And as for us, why in the world do we run the constant risk of danger?
31 I face death day after day after day—I truly mean this, brothers and sisters, just as surely as I have reason in union with Messiah Jesus our Lord to speak confidently with respect to you.
32 If it was for merely human reasons that I fought with wild beasts in Ephesus, what good is that to me? If the dead aren’t going to be raised to life, we might as well just “feast and enjoy life, because tomorrow we die!”+
33 Don’t be deceived: “It is bad company that corrupts good morals.”
34 Come back to your right senses and stop sinning, for some of you don’t know God at all. It is to your shame that I say this.
35 “Well,” someone will retort, “in what way are the dead going to be raised? Exactly what kind of body is it they will have when they come back to life?”
36 You foolish person! When ˢyou sow a seed into the ground, it does not come to life unless it “dies,” so to speak.
37 And when you sow a seed, it isn’t the fully grown body of the plant that you sow, but a naked seed, perhaps a grain of wheat or some other kind of kernel.
38 God, moreover, gives it the body he intended it to have; to each kind of seed he gives its own body.
39 Different kinds of creatures have different kinds of bodies. There is one kind of body for human beings, another for animals, another for birds, and another for fish.
40 There are also bodies in the sky and bodies on the earth; yet while the glorious appearance of those in the sky is of one kind, the glorious appearance of those on the earth is of another.
41 One kind of glorious appearance belongs to the sun, and another to the moon, and another to the stars. One star, in fact, even differs from another star in glory.
42 This is how it will be, too, when the dead are resurrected. A person’s body is “sown” into the grave in a state of decay; it will be raised to life in a state not subject to decay.
43 It is “sown” into the ground an ugly corpse; it will be raised to life resplendent in glory. It is “sown” into the ground in a state of weakness; it will be raised to life full of power.
44 It is “sown” into the ground an ordinary human body; it will be raised a body livened by the Spirit. If there is an ordinary body, there will certainly be, too, a body livened by the Spirit.
45 Thus also it is written: The first man, Adam, “became a living being”;+ the later+ Adam, a spirit who gives new life.
46 The body livened by the Spirit does not come first, however; it is the ordinary one that comes first. The body livened by the Spirit comes later.
47 The first Adam came from the ground, made of dust; the second Adam comes from heaven.
48 As was the man made of dust, such are those, too, who are made of dust, and as is the man raised in heavenly glory, such are those, too, who will be raised in heavenly glory.
49 And just as we have borne the likeness of the man made of dust, so we will bear, too, the likeness of the man raised in heavenly glory.
50 Now here is what I am saying, brothers and sisters: Mortals, mere flesh and blood, cannot inherit the Kingdom of God, nor can that which is subject to decay inherit that which is not subject to decay.
51 Listen carefully, I am going to tell you a mystery: Not all of us will die, but all of us will be transformed
52 in a moment, in the blink of an eye, at the final trumpet. When the trumpet sounds, you see, the dead will be raised to life not subject to decay, and we will be transformed.
53 It is God’s plan, you see, for this body of decay to become clothed with that which is not subject to decay, and for this mortal body to become clothed with immortality.
54 When this body of decay becomes clothed with that which is not subject to death, moreover, and this mortal body becomes clothed with immortality, then what is written in the Scriptures will be fulfilled:
“Death will certainly be swallowed up in victory!”+
55 “Where, O death, is your victory?
Where, O death, is your sting?”+
56 Now, the “sting” that leads to death is sin, and sin’s severity and intensity hinge on Torah.
57 Yet thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus the Messiah!
58 So then, my dear brothers and sisters, be steadfast, immovable, excelling in the Lord’s work always, knowing that your hard work and difficulties aren’t for nothing in union with the Lord.