1 Corinthians 15

¹ Now, brothers and sisters, I want to remind you of the good news I preached to you. You welcomed it, and you stand in it.

² Through it you are also being saved, provided you hold firmly to the message I brought you; otherwise, your faith was for nothing.

³ What I passed on to you first was what I myself had received: Christ died for our sins, just as the Scriptures say.

⁴ He was buried, and on the third day he was raised, just as the Scriptures say.

⁵ He appeared to Cephas, then to the Twelve.

⁶ After that, he appeared at one time to more than five hundred brothers and sisters. Most of them are still alive, though some have died.

⁷ Then he appeared to James, and after that to all the apostles.

⁸ Last of all, as though I were one born at the wrong time, he appeared to me too.

⁹ I am the least of the apostles, unworthy even to be called an apostle, because I persecuted God’s church.

¹⁰ Yet by God’s grace I am what I am, and his grace toward me has not been wasted. I worked harder than all of them—though it was not I, but God’s grace with me.

¹¹ So whether it was I or they, this is what we proclaim, and this is what you believed.

¹² Now, if we proclaim that Christ has been raised from the dead, how can some of you say there is no resurrection of the dead?

¹³ If the dead are not raised, then Christ was not raised either.

¹⁴ And if Christ was not raised, our message has no substance, and your faith has no substance either.

¹⁵ We would even be exposed as false witnesses about God, since we testified against him that he raised Christ—whom he did not raise, if the dead really are not raised.

¹⁶ For if the dead are not raised, Christ was not raised either.

¹⁷ And if Christ was not raised, your faith is futile, and you are still caught in your sins.

¹⁸ Then those who have died in Christ have also been lost.

¹⁹ If our hope in Christ is limited to this life, we deserve more pity than anyone.

²⁰ But in truth Christ has been raised from the dead, the first harvest of those who have died.

²¹ Since death came through a man, the raising of the dead also comes through a man.

²² For just as all die in Adam, so in Christ all will be given life.

²³ Each in the proper order: Christ as the first harvest, then, when he comes, those who belong to Christ.

²⁴ Then comes the end, when he hands the kingdom over to God the Father, after bringing every rule, authority, and power to an end.

²⁵ He must reign until he has placed every enemy beneath his feet.

²⁶ The final enemy to be brought to an end is death.

²⁷ For God has placed everything beneath his feet. When it says that everything has been placed under him, it is clear that this leaves out the one who placed everything under him.

²⁸ When everything has been placed under him, then the Son himself will also submit to the one who placed everything under him, so that God may be everything in everyone.

²⁹ Otherwise, what will those who are baptized on behalf of the dead do? If the dead are not raised at all, why are people baptized on their behalf?

³⁰ And why do we put ourselves in danger every hour?

³¹ Brothers and sisters, I face death every day. I swear by the pride I take in you in Christ Jesus our Lord.

³² If I fought wild beasts in Ephesus on merely human terms, what did I gain? If the dead are not raised, let us eat and drink, for tomorrow we die.

³³ Do not be misled: bad company ruins good character.

³⁴ Come to your senses and do what is right; stop sinning. Some among you know nothing about God. I say this to shame you.

³⁵ Someone will ask, “How are the dead raised? What kind of body do they come with?”

³⁶ Foolish person! What you sow does not come to life unless it dies.

³⁷ And when you sow, you are not sowing the body that will grow, but a bare seed—perhaps wheat, or one of the other kinds.

³⁸ God gives it a body as he chooses, and gives each kind of seed its own body.

³⁹ Not all flesh is alike: human flesh is one kind, animal flesh another, birds’ flesh another, and fish flesh another.

⁴⁰ There are heavenly bodies and earthly bodies; the splendor of the heavenly is one kind, and that of the earthly another.

⁴¹ The sun has one splendor, the moon another, and the stars another; even one star differs in splendor from the next.

⁴² That is how it is with the resurrection of the dead. What is sown is subject to decay; what is raised is beyond decay.

⁴³ What is sown is dishonored, what is raised is glorious; what is sown is weak, what is raised is powerful.

⁴⁴ A natural body is sown, a spiritual body is raised. If there is a natural body, there is also a spiritual one.

⁴⁵ Scripture says the same: “The first man, Adam, became a living being”; the last Adam became a life-giving spirit.

⁴⁶ The spiritual does not come first. The natural comes first, and afterward the spiritual.

⁴⁷ The first man came from the earth and was made of dust; the second man came from heaven.

⁴⁸ Those made of dust are like the one made of dust, and those who are heavenly are like the one who is heavenly.

⁴⁹ Just as we have borne the image of the one made of dust, let us also bear the image of the heavenly one.

⁵⁰ I mean this, brothers and sisters: flesh and blood cannot inherit God’s kingdom, and what decays cannot inherit what never decays.

⁵¹ Look, I am telling you a mystery: we will not all die, but every one of us will be changed.

⁵² It will happen in an instant, in the blink of an eye, at the final trumpet. The trumpet will sound, the dead will be raised beyond decay, and we will be changed.

⁵³ This decaying body must put on what never decays, and this mortal body must put on immortality.

⁵⁴ When this decaying body has put on what never decays, and this mortal body has put on immortality, then the written saying will come true: “Death has been swallowed up in victory.”

⁵⁵ Where is your victory, Death? Where is your sting, Death?

⁵⁶ Death’s sting is sin, and sin draws its power from the Law.

⁵⁷ But thanks be to God, who gives us victory through our Lord Jesus Christ!

⁵⁸ So, my dear brothers and sisters, stand firm and let nothing shake you. Keep giving yourselves fully to the Lord’s work, knowing that your labor in the Lord is never wasted.

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