Old/New Testament

The gospel of the Messiah, crucified, buried and risen

15 Let me remind you, brothers and sisters, about the good news which I announced to you. You received this good news, and you’re standing firm on it, ² and you are saved through it, if you hold fast the message I announced to you—unless it was for nothing that you believed!

³ What I handed on to you at the beginning, you see, was what I received, namely this: “The Messiah died for our sins in accordance with the Bible; ⁴ he was buried; he was raised on the third day in accordance with the Bible; ⁵ he was seen by Cephas, then by the Twelve; ⁶ then he was seen by over five hundred brothers and sisters at once, most of whom are still with us, though some fell asleep; ⁷ then he was seen by James, then by all the apostles; ⁸ and, last of all, as to one ripped from the womb, he appeared even to me.”

⁹ I’m the least of the apostles, you see. In fact, I don’t really deserve to be called “apostle” at all, because I persecuted God’s church! ¹⁰ But I am what I am because of God’s grace, and his grace to me wasn’t wasted. On the contrary. I worked harder than all of them—though it wasn’t me, but God’s grace which was with me. ¹¹ So whether it was me or them, that was the way we announced it, and that was the way you believed.

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.