Book of Common Prayer

What if the Messiah wasn’t raised?

¹² Well, then: if the royal proclamation of the Messiah is made on the basis that he’s been raised from the dead, how can some of you say that there is no such thing as resurrection of the dead? ¹³ If there is no such thing as resurrection of the dead, the Messiah hasn’t been raised, either; ¹⁴ and if the Messiah hasn’t been raised, our royal proclamation is empty, and so is your faith. ¹⁵ We even turn out to have been misrepresenting God, because we gave it as our evidence about God that he raised the Messiah, and—if the dead really are not raised—he didn’t! ¹⁶ For if the dead aren’t raised, the Messiah wasn’t raised either; ¹⁷ and if the Messiah wasn’t raised, your faith is pointless, and you are still in your sins. ¹⁸ What’s more, people who have fallen asleep in the Messiah have perished for good. ¹⁹ If it’s only for this present life that we have put our hope in the Messiah, we are the most pitiable members of the human race.

The reign of the Messiah

²⁰ But in fact the Messiah has been raised from the dead, as the first fruits of those who have fallen asleep. ²¹ For since it was through a human that death arrived, it’s through a human that the resurrection from the dead has arrived. ²² All die in Adam, you see, and all will be made alive in the Messiah.

²³ Each, however, in proper order. The Messiah rises as the first fruits; then those who belong to the Messiah will rise at the time of his royal arrival. ²⁴ Then comes the end, the goal, when he hands over the kingly rule to God the father, when he has destroyed all rule and all authority and power. ²⁵ He has to go on ruling, you see, until “he has put all his enemies under his feet.” ²⁶ Death is the last enemy to be destroyed, ²⁷ because “he has put all things in order under his feet.” But when it says that everything is put in order under him, it’s obvious that this doesn’t include the one who put everything in order under him. ²⁸ No: when everything is put in order under him, then the son himself will be placed in proper order under the one who placed everything in order under him, so that God may be all in all.

⁹ [When Jesus was raised, early on the first day of the week, he appeared first of all to Mary Magdalene, from whom he had cast out seven demons. ¹⁰ She went and told the people who had been with him, who were mourning and weeping. ¹¹ When they heard that he was alive, and that he had been seen by her, they didn’t believe it.

¹² After this he appeared in a different guise to two of them as they were walking into the countryside. ¹³ They came back and told the others, but they didn’t believe them.

¹⁴ Later Jesus appeared to the eleven themselves, as they were at table. He told them off for their unbelief and hardheartedness, for not believing those who had seen him after he had been raised.

¹⁵ “Go into all the world,” he said to them, “and announce the message to all creation. ¹⁶ Anyone who believes and is baptized will be rescued, but people who don’t believe will be condemned. ¹⁷ And these signs will happen around those who believe: they will drive out demons in my name, they will speak with new tongues, ¹⁸ they will pick up serpents in their hands; and if they drink anything poisonous it won’t harm them. They will lay their hands on the sick, and they will get better.”

¹⁹ When the Lord Jesus had spoken with them, he was taken up into heaven, and sat down at God’s right hand. ²⁰ They went out and announced the message everywhere. The Lord worked with them, validating their message by the signs that accompanied them.]