1 Now I would remind you, brethren, in
what terms I preached to you the gospel, which you received, in which
you stand,
2 by which you are saved, if you
hold it fast-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 brethren 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, unfit 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 which is with me.
11 Whether then it was I or they,
so we preach and so you believed.
12 Now if Christ is preached 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 Christ has not been raised;
14 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 of 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,
then Christ has not been raised.
17 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 for this life only we have
hoped in Christ, we are of all men most to be pitied. 
20 But in fact Christ has been
raised from the dead, the first fruits 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 first fruits, 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 under him," it is plain that he is
excepted who put all things under him.
28 When all things are subjected
to him, then the Son himself will also be subjected to him who put all
things under him, that God may be everything to every one.
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 am I in peril every
hour?
31 I protest, brethren, 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 Come
to your right mind, and sin no more. For some have no knowledge of God.
I say this to your shame.
35 But some one will ask, "How are
the dead raised? With what kind of body do they come?"
36 You
foolish man! What you sow does not come to life unless it dies.
37 And
what you sow is not the body which 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 alike, but there is one kind for men, another for animals,
another for birds, and another for fish.
40 There are celestial
bodies and there are terrestrial bodies; but the glory of the celestial
is one, and the glory of the terrestrial is 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 physical body, it is raised a spiritual body. If there is a
physical 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
which is first but the physical, 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 are those who are of the
dust; and as is the man of heaven, so 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,
brethren: flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God, nor does
the perishable inherit the imperishable.
51 Lo! 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 nature must put on the
imperishable, and this mortal nature 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
thy victory? O death, where is thy 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
brethren, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the
Lord, knowing that in the Lord your labor is not in vain.
1 Corinthians 15:1 (RSV)
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