1 Corinthians 15
15
Resurrection
1-2Friends, let me go over the Message with you one final time—this Message that I proclaimed and that you made your own; this Message on which you took your stand and by which your life has been saved. (I’m assuming, now, that your belief was the real thing and not a passing fancy, that you’re in this for good and holding fast.)
3-9The first thing I did was place before you what was placed so emphatically before me: that the Messiah died for our sins, exactly as Scripture tells it; that he was buried; that he was raised from death on the third day, again exactly as Scripture says; that he presented himself alive to Peter, then to his closest followers, and later to more than five hundred of his followers all at the same time, most of them still around (although a few have since died); that he then spent time with James and the rest of those he commissioned to represent him; and that he finally presented himself alive to me. It was fitting that I bring up the rear. I don’t deserve to be included in that inner circle, as you well know, having spent all those early years trying my best to stamp God’s church right out of existence.
10-11But because God was so gracious, so very generous, here I am. And I’m not about to let his grace go to waste. Haven’t I worked hard trying to do more than any of the others? Even then, my work didn’t amount to all that much. It was God giving me the work to do, God giving me the energy to do it. So whether you heard it from me or from those others, it’s all the same: We spoke God’s truth and you entrusted your lives.
12-15Now, let me ask you something profound yet troubling. If you became believers because you trusted the proclamation that Christ is alive, risen from the dead, how can you let people say that there is no such thing as a resurrection? If there’s no resurrection, there’s no living Christ. And face it—if there’s no resurrection for Christ, everything we’ve told you is smoke and mirrors, and everything you’ve staked your life on is smoke and mirrors. Not only that, but we would be guilty of telling a string of barefaced lies about God, all these affidavits we passed on to you verifying that God raised up Christ—sheer fabrications, if there’s no resurrection.
16-20If corpses can’t be raised, then Christ wasn’t, because he was indeed dead. And if Christ weren’t raised, then all you’re doing is wandering about in the dark, as lost as ever. It’s even worse for those who died hoping in Christ and resurrection, because they’re already in their graves. If all we get out of Christ is a little inspiration for a few short years, we’re a pretty sorry lot. But the truth is that Christ has been raised up, the first in a long legacy of those who are going to leave the cemeteries.
21-28There is a nice symmetry in this: Death initially came by a man, and resurrection from death came by a man. Everybody dies in Adam; everybody comes alive in Christ. But we have to wait our turn: Christ is first, then those with him at his Coming, the grand consummation when, after crushing the opposition, he hands over his kingdom to God the Father. He won’t let up until the last enemy is down—and the very last enemy is death! As the psalmist said, “He laid them low, one and all; he walked all over them.” When Scripture says that “he walked all over them,” it’s obvious that he couldn’t at the same time be walked on. When everything and everyone is finally under God’s rule, the Son will step down, taking his place with everyone else, showing that God’s rule is absolutely comprehensive—a perfect ending!
29Why do you think people offer themselves to be baptized for those already in the grave? If there’s no chance of resurrection for a corpse, if God’s power stops at the cemetery gates, why do we keep doing things that suggest he’s going to clean the place out someday, pulling everyone up on their feet alive?
30-33And why do you think I keep risking my neck in this dangerous work? I look death in the face practically every day I live. Do you think I’d do this if I wasn’t convinced of your resurrection and mine as guaranteed by the resurrected Messiah Jesus? Do you think I was just trying to act heroic when I fought the wild beasts at Ephesus, hoping it wouldn’t be the end of me? Not on your life! It’s resurrection, resurrection, always resurrection, that undergirds what I do and say, the way I live. If there’s no resurrection, “We eat, we drink, the next day we die,” and that’s all there is to it. But don’t fool yourselves. Don’t let yourselves be poisoned by this anti-resurrection loose talk. “Bad company ruins good manners.”
34Think straight. Awaken to the holiness of life. No more playing fast and loose with resurrection facts. Ignorance of God is a luxury you can’t afford in times like these. Aren’t you embarrassed that you’ve let this kind of thing go on as long as you have?
35-38Some skeptic is sure to ask, “Show me how resurrection works. Give me a diagram; draw me a picture. What does this ‘resurrection body’ look like?” If you look at this question closely, you realize how absurd it is. There are no diagrams for this kind of thing. We do have a parallel experience in gardening. You plant a “dead” seed; soon there is a flourishing plant. There is no visual likeness between seed and plant. You could never guess what a tomato would look like by looking at a tomato seed. What we plant in the soil and what grows out of it don’t look anything alike. The dead body that we bury in the ground and the resurrection body that comes from it will be dramatically different.
39-41You will notice that the variety of bodies is stunning. Just as there are different kinds of seeds, there are different kinds of bodies—humans, animals, birds, fish—each unprecedented in its form. You get a hint at the diversity of resurrection glory by looking at the diversity of bodies not only on earth but in the skies—sun, moon, stars—all these varieties of beauty and brightness. And we’re only looking at pre-resurrection “seeds”—who can imagine what the resurrection “plants” will be like!
42-44This image of planting a dead seed and raising a live plant is a mere sketch at best, but perhaps it will help in approaching the mystery of the resurrection body—but only if you keep in mind that when we’re raised, we’re raised for good, alive forever! The corpse that’s planted is no beauty, but when it’s raised, it’s glorious. Put in the ground weak, it comes up powerful. The seed sown is natural; the seed grown is supernatural—same seed, same body, but what a difference from when it goes down in physical mortality to when it is raised up in spiritual immortality!
45-49We follow this sequence in Scripture: The First Adam received life, the Last Adam is a life-giving Spirit. Physical life comes first, then spiritual—a firm base shaped from the earth, a final completion coming out of heaven. The First Man was made out of earth, and people since then are earthy; the Second Man was made out of heaven, and people now can be heavenly. In the same way that we’ve worked from our earthy origins, let’s embrace our heavenly ends.
50I need to emphasize, friends, that our natural, earthy lives don’t in themselves lead us by their very nature into the kingdom of God. Their very “nature” is to die, so how could they “naturally” end up in the Life kingdom?
51-57But let me tell you something wonderful, a mystery I’ll probably never fully understand. We’re not all going to die—but we are all going to be changed. You hear a blast to end all blasts from a trumpet, and in the time that you look up and blink your eyes—it’s over. On signal from that trumpet from heaven, the dead will be up and out of their graves, beyond the reach of death, never to die again. At the same moment and in the same way, we’ll all be changed. In the resurrection scheme of things, this has to happen: everything perishable taken off the shelves and replaced by the imperishable, this mortal replaced by the immortal. Then the saying will come true:
Death swallowed by triumphant Life!
Who got the last word, oh, Death?
Oh, Death, who’s afraid of you now?
It was sin that made death so frightening and law-code guilt that gave sin its leverage, its destructive power. But now in a single victorious stroke of Life, all three—sin, guilt, death—are gone, the gift of our Master, Jesus Christ. Thank God!
58With all this going for us, my dear, dear friends, stand your ground. And don’t hold back. Throw yourselves into the work of the Master, confident that nothing you do for him is a waste of time or effort.
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THE MESSAGE: The Bible in Contemporary Language copyright © 1993, 2002, 2018 by Eugene H. Peterson. All rights reserved. Used by permission of NavPress. Represented by Tyndale House Publishers.
Qorintiyim Aleph (1 Corinthians) 15
15
1But brothers, I make known to you the Good News, which I brought as Good News to you, which you also did receive, and in which you stand,
2through which also you are being saved, if you hold fast that word I brought as Good News to you. Otherwise, you have believed in vain.
3For I delivered to you at the first that which I also received: that Messiah died for our sins according to the Scriptures,
4and that He was buried, and that He was raised the third day, according to the Scriptures,
5and that He was seen by Kĕpha, then by the twelve.
6After that He was seen by over five hundred brothers at one time, of whom the greater part remain till now, but some have fallen asleep.
7After that He was seen by Ya‛aqoḇ, then by all the emissaries.
8And last of all He was seen by me also, as if to one born prematurely.
9For I am the least of the emissaries, who am not worthy to be called an emissary, because I persecuted the assembly of Elohim.
10But by the favour of Elohim I am what I am, and His favour toward me was not in vain, but I laboured much more than they all, yet not I, but the favour of Elohim with me.
11Whether, then, it was I or they, so we proclaimed and so you believed.
12And if Messiah is proclaimed that He has been raised from the dead, how do some among you say that there is no resurrection of the dead?
13And if there is no resurrection of the dead, then Messiah has not been raised.
14And if Messiah has not been raised, then our proclaiming is empty, and your belief also empty,
15and we are also found false witnesses of Elohim, because we have witnessed of Elohim that He raised up Messiah, whom He did not raise up, if then the dead are not raised.
16For if the dead are not raised, then neither Messiah has been raised.
17And if Messiah has not been raised, your belief is to no purpose, you are still in your sins!
18Then also those who have fallen asleep in Messiah have perished.
19If in this life only we have expectation in Messiah, we are of all men the most wretched.
20But now Messiah has been raised from the dead, and has become the first-fruit of those having fallen asleep.
21For since death is through a man, resurrection of the dead is also through a Man.
22For as all die in Aḏam, so also all shall be made alive in Messiah.
23And each in his own order: Messiah the first-fruits, then those who are of Messiah at His coming,
24then the end, when He delivers up the reign to Elohim the Father, when He has brought to naught all rule and all authority and power.
25For He has to reign until He has put all enemies under His feet.
26The last enemy to be brought to naught is death.
27For “He has put all under His feet.”# Psa. 8:6 But when He says “all are put under Him,” it is clear that He who put all under Him is excepted.
28And when all are made subject to Him, then the Son Himself shall also be subject to Him who put all under Him, in order that Elohim be all in all.
29Otherwise, what shall they do who are immersed for the dead, if the dead are not raised at all? Why indeed are they immersed for the dead?
30And why do we stand in danger every hour?
31I affirm, by the boasting in you which I have in Messiah יהושע our Master, I die day by day.
32If, as men do, I have fought with beasts at Ephesos, of what good is it to me? If the dead are not raised, “Let us eat and drink, for tomorrow we die.”# Isa. 22:13; Isa. 56:12
33Do not be led astray, “Evil company corrupts good habits.”
34Wake up to soberness, righteously, and do not sin, for some do not have the knowledge of Elohim. I speak this to your shame.
35But someone might say, “How are the dead raised up? And with what body do they come?”
36Senseless one! What you sow is not made alive unless it dies.
37And as to what you sow: you do not sow the body which is to be, but a bare grain, it might be wheat or some other grain.
38But Elohim gives it a body as He wishes, and to each seed a body of its own.
39All flesh is not the same flesh, but there is one flesh of men, and another flesh of beasts, and another of fishes, and another of birds.
40And there are heavenly bodies and earthly bodies, but the esteem of the heavenly is truly one, and the esteem of the earthly is another,
41one esteem of the sun, and another esteem of the moon, and another esteem of the stars – for star differs from star in esteem.
42So also is the resurrection of the dead: it is sown in corruption, it is raised in incorruption;
43it is sown in disrespect, it is raised in esteem; it is sown in weakness, it is raised in power;
44it is sown a natural body, it is raised a spiritual body; there is a natural body, and there is a spiritual body.
45And so it has been written, “The first man Aḏam became a living being,”# Gen. 2:7 the last Aḏam a life-giving Spirit.
46The spiritual, however, was not first, but the natural, and afterward the spiritual.
47The first man was of the earth, earthy; the second Man is the Master from heaven.
48As is the earthy, so also are those who are earthy; and as is the heavenly, so also are those who are heavenly.
49And as we have borne the likeness of the earthy, we shall also bear the likeness of the heavenly.
50And this I say, brothers, that flesh and blood is unable to inherit the reign of Elohim, neither does corruption inherit incorruption.
51See, I speak a secret to you: We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed,
52in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed.
53For this corruptible has to put on incorruption, and this mortal to put on immortality.
54And when this corruptible has put on incorruption, and this mortal has put on immortality, then shall come to be the word that has been written, “Death is swallowed up in overcoming.”# Isa. 28:5
55“O Death, where is your sting? O She’ol, where is your overcoming?”# Hosea 13:14
56And the sting of death is the sin, and the power of the sin is the Torah.
57But thanks to Elohim who gives us the overcoming through our Master יהושע Messiah.
58Therefore, my beloved brothers, be steadfast, immovable, always excelling in the work of the Master, knowing that your labour is not in vain in the Master.
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