Chapter 15

1Brothers and sisters, I want to remind you of the good news I announced to you. You received it, and it is the ground on which you now stand.

2Through this good news you are also being saved—if you hold firmly to the message as I announced it to you. Otherwise, your faith was for nothing.

3I passed on to you, as a matter of first importance, what I had also received: the Messiah died because of our sins, just as the Scriptures said;

4he was buried and was raised on the third day, just as the Scriptures said;

5he appeared to Cephas, also known as Peter, and then to the Twelve;

6after that, he appeared at one time to more than five hundred fellow believers. Most of them are still alive, though some have died.

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

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

9I am the least of the apostles. I do not deserve even to be called an apostle, because I persecuted God’s community.

10But by God’s generous kindness, I am what I am, and his kindness toward me was not wasted. I worked harder than all the other apostles—though it was not really I, but God’s kindness working with me.

11So whether it was I or the other apostles, this is what we announce, and this is what you believed.

12Now if we announce that the Messiah has been raised from the dead, how can some of you say that the dead will not be raised?

13If the dead will not be raised, then the Messiah has not been raised either.

14And if the Messiah has not been raised, our message is empty, and your faith is empty too.

15Worse still, we are exposed as people who have lied about God, because we declared that God raised the Messiah. But God did not raise him if it is really true that the dead are not raised.

16For if the dead are not raised, then the Messiah has not been raised either.

17And if the Messiah has not been raised, your faith is useless, and you are still trapped in your sins.

18Then those who have died trusting in the Messiah have also been lost.

19If our hope in the Messiah is only for this present life, we deserve more pity than anyone else.

20But the truth is that the Messiah has been raised from the dead. He is the first part of the harvest—the first of those who have died to be raised.

21Death came through a human being, and the resurrection of the dead also comes through a human being.

22Just as everyone connected with Adam dies, so everyone connected with the Messiah will be brought to life.

23But each will be raised in the proper order: the Messiah first, like the first part of a harvest; then, when he returns, those who belong to him.

24After that comes the end. The Messiah will destroy every opposing ruler, authority, and power, and then hand over the kingdom to God the Father.

25For the Messiah must rule until God has put all his enemies beneath his feet.

26The last enemy to be destroyed is death.

27For Scripture says that God “put everything beneath his feet.” When it says that everything has been put under the Messiah, it clearly does not include God, who put everything under him.

28When everything has been placed under the Son, the Son himself will also place himself under God, who put everything under him. Then God will be everything in everyone.

29Otherwise, what will people accomplish by being baptized on behalf of the dead? If the dead are not raised at all, why are people baptized on their behalf?

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

31I face death every day. I swear this is true by the pride I have in you because of the Messiah Jesus our Lord.

32If I fought wild beasts in Ephesus for merely human reasons, what did I gain? If the dead are not raised, then, as the saying goes, “Let us eat and drink, because tomorrow we die.”

33Do not fool yourselves: “Bad company ruins good character.”

34Come back to your senses and do what is right. Stop sinning. Some of you have no knowledge of God. I say this to make you ashamed.

35But someone will ask, “How are the dead raised? What kind of body will they have?”

36What a foolish question! The seed you plant does not come to life unless it first dies.

37What you plant is not the body that will grow. You plant only a bare seed—perhaps a grain of wheat or some other kind of seed.

38But God gives the seed a body as he chooses, giving each kind of seed its own body.

39Not every living body is the same. Humans have one kind, land animals another, birds another, and fish another.

40There are also bodies in the heavens and bodies on earth. Heavenly bodies have one kind of splendor, while earthly bodies have another.

41The sun has one kind of splendor, the moon another, and the stars another. Even one star differs from another in splendor.

42The resurrection of the dead is like that. The body is planted in the ground subject to decay, but it is raised never to decay.

43It is planted in humiliation but raised in splendor. It is planted in weakness but raised in power.

44It is planted as a body animated by natural life but raised as a body animated by the Spirit. If there is a body animated by natural life, there is also a body animated by the Spirit.

45Scripture says, “The first man, Adam, became a living being.” The last Adam—the Messiah—became a Spirit who gives life.

46The body animated by the Spirit did not come first. The body animated by natural life came first, and the spiritual body came afterward.

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

48Those who belong to the earth are like the man made of dust. Those who belong to heaven are like the man from heaven.

49Just as we have carried the likeness of the man made of dust, we will also carry the likeness of the man from heaven.

50Brothers and sisters, what I mean is this: our present bodies of flesh and blood cannot inherit God’s kingdom. What decays cannot inherit what never decays.

51Listen, I will tell you a mystery: we will not all die, but we will all be changed.

52It will happen in an instant, in the blink of an eye, when the final trumpet sounds. The trumpet will sound, the dead will be raised never to decay, and we will be changed.

53This body that decays must put on a body that never decays, and this mortal body must put on immortality.

54When this decaying body has put on a body that never decays, and this mortal body has put on immortality, the words of Scripture will come true: “Death has been swallowed up in victory.”

55“Death, where is your victory? Death, where is your sting?”

56Sin is the sting that brings death, and the law gives sin its power.

57But thank God! He gives us victory through our Lord Jesus the Messiah.

58So, my dear brothers and sisters, stand firm and let nothing move you. Always give yourselves fully to the Lord’s work, because you know that your hard work for the Lord is not wasted.