1 Corinthians 15:1-11

The Voice

15 Let me remind you, brothers and sisters, of the good news that I preached to you when we first met. It’s the essential message that you have taken to heart, the central story you now base your life on; ² and through this gospel, you are liberated—unless, of course, your faith has come to nothing. ^3-4 For I passed down to you the crux of it all which I had also received from others, that the Anointed One, the Liberating King, died for our sins and was buried and raised from the dead on the third day. All this happened to fulfill the Scriptures; it was the perfect climax to God’s covenant story. ⁵ Afterward He appeared alive to Cephas^[a] (you may know him as Simon Peter), then to the rest of the twelve. ⁶ If that were not amazing enough, on one occasion, He appeared to more than 500 believers at one time. Many of those brothers and sisters are still around to tell the story, though some have fallen asleep^[b] in Jesus. ⁷ Soon He appeared to James, His brother and the leader of the Jerusalem church, and then to all the rest of the emissaries^[c] He Himself commissioned.^{[d] 8} Last of all, He appeared to me;^[e] I was like a child snatched from his mother’s womb. ⁹ You see, I am the least of all His emissaries, not fit to be called His emissary because I hunted down and persecuted God’s church. ¹⁰ Today I am who I am because of God’s grace, and I have made sure that the grace He offered me has not been wasted. I have worked harder, longer, and smarter than all the rest; but I realize it is not me—it is God’s grace with me that has made the difference. ¹¹ In the end, it doesn’t matter whether it was I or the other witnesses who brought you the message. What matters is that we keep preaching and that you have faith in this message.