³⁸ He is not the God of the dead, but of the living, for to him all are alive.”

¹³ It is written: “I believed; therefore I have spoken.”^[a](A) Since we have that same spirit of^[b] faith,^(B) we also believe and therefore speak, ¹⁴ because we know that the one who raised the Lord Jesus from the dead^(C) will also raise us with Jesus^(D) and present us with you to himself.^{(E) 15} All this is for your benefit, so that the grace that is reaching more and more people may cause thanksgiving^(F) to overflow to the glory of God.

¹⁴ For Christ’s love compels us, because we are convinced that one died for all, and therefore all died.^{(A) 15} And he died for all, that those who live should no longer live for themselves^(B) but for him who died for them^(C) and was raised again.

¹⁶ So from now on we regard no one from a worldly^(D) point of view. Though we once regarded Christ in this way, we do so no longer. ¹⁷ Therefore, if anyone is in Christ,^(E) the new creation^(F) has come:^[a] The old has gone, the new is here!^{(G) 18} All this is from God,^(H) who reconciled us to himself through Christ^(I) and gave us the ministry of reconciliation: ¹⁹ that God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ, not counting people’s sins against them.^(J) And he has committed to us the message of reconciliation. ²⁰ We are therefore Christ’s ambassadors,^(K) as though God were making his appeal through us.^(L) We implore you on Christ’s behalf: Be reconciled to God.^{(M) 21} God made him who had no sin^(N) to be sin^[b] for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.^(O)