1 Corinthians 15 - The Utmost Importance
There's a ton of good reasons why you should be a Christian, but there's one that's the most important.
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1 Corinthians 15 (ESV)
1 Now I would remind you, brothers,
of the gospel I preached to you,
which you received,
in which you stand,
2 and by which you are being saved,
if you hold fast to the word I preached to you—
unless you believed in vain.
3 For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received:
that Christ died
for our sins
in accordance with the Scriptures,
4 that he was buried,
that he was raised
on the third day
in accordance with the Scriptures,
5 and that he appeared
to Cephas,
then to the twelve.
6 Then he appeared to more than five hundred brothers at one time,
most of whom are still alive,
though some have fallen asleep.
7 Then he appeared to James,
then to all the apostles.
8 Last of all,
as to one untimely born,
he appeared also to me.
9 For I am the least of the apostles,
unworthy to be called an apostle,
because I persecuted the church of God.
10 But by the grace of God I am what I am,
and his grace toward me was not in vain.
On the contrary, I worked harder than any of them,
though it was not I, but the grace of God that is with me.
11 Whether then it was I or they,
so we preach
and so you believed.
12 Now if Christ is proclaimed as raised from the dead, how can some of you say that there is no resurrection of the dead?
13 But if there is no resurrection of the dead,
then not even Christ has been raised.
14 And if Christ has not been raised,
then our preaching is in vain
and your faith is in vain.
15 We are even found to be misrepresenting God,
because we testified about God
that he raised Christ,
whom he did not raise if it is true that the dead are not raised.
16 For if the dead are not raised, not even Christ has been raised.
7 And if Christ has not been raised,
your faith is futile
and you are still in your sins.
18 Then those also who have fallen asleep in Christ have perished.
19 If in Christ we have hope in this life only,
we are of all people most to be pitied.
20 But in fact Christ has been raised from the dead, the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep.
21 For
as by a man came death,
by a man has come also the resurrection of the dead.
22 For
as in Adam all die,
so also in Christ shall all be made alive.
23 But each in his own order:
Christ
the firstfruits,
then at his coming those who belong to Christ.
24 Then comes the end,
when
he delivers the kingdom to God the Father
after destroying every rule and every authority and power.
25 For he must reign until he has put all his enemies under his feet.
26 The last enemy to be destroyed is death.
27 For “God has put all things in subjection under his feet.”
But when it says, “all things are put in subjection,” it is plain that he is excepted who put all things in subjection under him.
28 When all things are subjected to him, then the Son himself will also be subjected to him who put all things in subjection under him, that God may be all in all.
29 Otherwise, what do people mean by being baptized on behalf of the dead?
If the dead are not raised at all,
why are people baptized on their behalf?
30 Why are we in danger every hour?
31 I protest, brothers,
by my pride in you,
which I have in Christ Jesus our Lord,
I die every day!
32 What do I gain if, humanly speaking, I fought with beasts at Ephesus?
If the dead are not raised,
“Let us eat and drink,
for tomorrow we die.”
33 Do not be deceived:
“Bad company ruins good morals.”
34 Wake up from your drunken stupor, as is right,
and do not go on sinning.
For some have no knowledge of God.
I say this to your shame.
35 But someone will ask, “How are the dead raised? With what kind of body do they come?”
36 You foolish person!
What you sow
does not come to life
unless it dies.
37 And what you sow
is not the body that is to be,
but a bare kernel,
perhaps of wheat or of some other grain.
38 But
God gives it a body as he has chosen,
and to each kind of seed its own body.
39 For not all flesh is the same, but there is one kind for humans, another for animals, another for birds, and another for fish.
40 There are heavenly bodies and earthly bodies, but the glory of the heavenly is of one kind, and the glory of the earthly is of another.
41 There is one glory of the sun, and another glory of the moon, and another glory of the stars; for star differs from star in glory.
42 So is it with the resurrection of the dead.
What is sown is perishable;
what is raised is imperishable.
43 It is sown in dishonor;
it is raised in glory.
It is sown in weakness;
it is raised in power.
44 It is sown a natural body;
it is raised a spiritual body.
If there is a natural body, there is also a spiritual body.
45 Thus it is written,
“The first man Adam became a living being”;
the last Adam became a life-giving spirit.
46 But
it is not the spiritual that is first
but the natural,
and then the spiritual.
47 The first man
was from the earth,
a man of dust;
the second man is from heaven.
48 As was the man of dust,
so also are those who are of the dust,
and as is the man of heaven,
so also are those who are of heaven.
49 Just as
we have borne the image of the man of dust,
we shall also bear the image of the man of heaven.
50 I tell you this, brothers:
flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God,
nor does the perishable inherit the imperishable.
51 Behold! I tell you a mystery.
We shall not all sleep,
but we shall all be changed,
52 in a moment,
in the twinkling of an eye,
at the last trumpet.
For
the trumpet will sound,
and the dead will be raised imperishable,
and we shall be changed.
53 For this perishable body must put on the imperishable,
and this mortal body must put on immortality.
54 When
the perishable puts on the imperishable,
and the mortal puts on immortality,
then shall come to pass the saying that is written:
“Death is swallowed up in victory.”
55 “O death, where is your victory? O death, where is your sting?”
56 The sting of death is sin,
and the power of sin is the law.
57 But thanks be to God,
who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.
58 Therefore, my beloved brothers,
be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord,
knowing that in the Lord your labor is not in vain.
Read the chapter on BibleGateway
Read previous DIG DEEPER posts on 1 Corinthians
1 Corinthians 15 Summary
The chapter begins with a simple reminder of what the gospel is: The gospel is the announcement of victory over death, through Jesus Christ, which comes primarily through preaching.
This gospel will save you if you hold firmly to the Word you've heard preached, otherwise you're wasting your time.
Notice the tension here - your salvation is dependent upon your strength to hold firmly, but yet never forget it's God who's giving you this strength, and He's developing your strength to hold on through Spiritual Disciplines like reading the Bible and hearing the gospel preached.
The most fundamental aspect of the Gospel is that:
Christ died for our sins
He was buried and raised three days later
His resurrected body was witnessed by hundreds of people.
Dig Deeper
Sadly, every generation has the 'we believe Jesus was a great guy but we don't believe in miracles like life after death' people.
If Jesus hasn't been raised, your faith is a futile waste of time.
If you just want to think of Jesus as a wise teacher we should emulate, who helps you 'live your best life now,' then you are the most pitiful of people.
But Jesus has indeed been raised from the dead! He's replaced the fallen Adam as our new covenant head, and He will rule over all things.
Death, is a process, made necessary by sin, by which our natural bodies are sown in the ground and are raised into new, imperishable, spiritual bodies. We must be clothed with the immortality in this way in order to inherit the Kingdom of God.
Christ has been raised, and since you're in Him, you also will be raised! Because this is true, don't get kicked around by this world. Instead, go all out in doing the work of the Lord.
AAA Prayer:
ACKNOWLEDGE WHO GOD IS: God the Father who raised Jesus Christ from the dead (v15)
ALIGN YOUR LIFE WITH GOD'S WILL: Pray that God will fully wake your senses that you will live fully in Christ, both now and in the life to come (v34)
ASK GOD FOR WHAT YOU NEED:
