New Testament in a Year

Christ became alive again after he died

15 My Christian friends, I want you to remember the good news that I taught to you. You received it from me and you continue to believe it as a true message. ² Because of the message that I spoke to you, God will save you. He will save you if you continue to trust that same good news. If you do not, you have believed it for nothing.

³ I received the good news from Christ, and I told that message to you. I told you the most important things:

Christ died as a sacrifice for our sins. The Bible already said how that would happen. ⁴ People buried his dead body. On the third day after that God raised him up to live again. The Bible already spoke about that too.

⁵ After that, Christ appeared to Peter. Later, he appeared to his 12 disciples. ⁶ And after that, he appeared to more than 500 believers at the same time. Most of those 500 people are still alive, but some of them have died. ⁷ Then Christ appeared to James. Later he appeared to all the apostles.

⁸ After all these people had seen him, Christ also appeared to me. I was like someone who was born at the wrong time. ⁹ Among all the apostles, I am the least important. I caused so much trouble for God's church that people should not really call me an apostle. ¹⁰ But God was very kind to me. He helped me to become a different person. And because God has been so kind to me, the result has been great. I have worked more than all the other apostles. But it was not really I myself who could do that work. No, I could do it because God was so kind to me. ¹¹ So then, all of us apostles teach the same good news about Christ. That is the message that you have believed. It does not matter which of us told it to you, whether it was me or someone else.

People do live again after death

¹² We all speak this message: God raised Christ up after his death. But some of you say that dead people do not live again. ¹³ Anyone who says that is wrong. If dead people do not live again, then Christ did not rise up after his death. He would still be dead. ¹⁴ And if God did not raise Christ up, it does no good for us to tell God's good news to people. There would be nothing for you to believe. ¹⁵ We would have been telling lies about God, because we told you that God raised Christ up after his death. But if dead people do not live again, that would not be true.

¹⁶ So, if dead people never rise to a new life, then Christ himself did not rise after his death. ¹⁷ And if Christ did not rise, then you have believed a false message. God would still say that you are guilty, because of your sins.

¹⁸ Also, think about those people who believed in Christ but they have already died. If dead people do not rise to a new life, those people would have no life with God. ¹⁹ As believers, we trust Christ to lead us into a new life after death. But if we only trust him to help us in this life, we should be very sad. Everybody should be very sorry for us, more than for anyone else.

²⁰ But it is really true that God raised Christ up after his death. He rose up to go to God in heaven. He was the first, so we know that believers who die will also rise up.

²¹ All people die because of what one man did. That was Adam.^[a] And it is because of another man that people can rise up after death to a new life. That is Christ. ²² As people, all of us belong to Adam's family. So all of us must die. But all people who belong to Christ will live again after death. ²³ It is like this: First of all, Christ died and then he became alive again. Then, when Christ returns, his people will live again too. ²⁴ After that, the end of everything will happen. Christ will win against every ruler and power and authority. He will give the kingdom to God, the Father. God will rule over everything.

²⁵ Christ himself must rule as king until he has won against all his enemies. ²⁶ The last enemy that he must destroy is death. ²⁷ It says in the Bible, ‘God has put all things under his authority.’^[b]

But it is clear that the words ‘all things’ do not include God himself. No, because it is God who put all things under Christ's authority. ²⁸ When God has put all things under Christ's authority, then God's Son, Jesus Christ, will put himself under his Father's authority. Then God will have complete authority over all things, everywhere.