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.