Old/New Testament
Resurrection gives meaning to present Christian living
29 Otherwise, what are people doing when they get baptized on behalf of the dead? If the dead simply aren’t raised, why should people get baptized on their behalf?
30 And why should we face danger every hour? 31 I die every day—yes, that’s something for you to boast about, my dear family, and that’s the boast I have in the Messiah, Jesus our Lord! 32 If, in human terms, I fought with wild animals at Ephesus, what use is that to me? If the dead are not raised, “let’s eat and drink, for tomorrow we die”!
33 Don’t be deceived: “bad company kills off good habits”! 34 Sober up; straighten up; stop sinning. Yes, some of you simply don’t know God! I’m saying this to bring shame on you.
The transformed resurrection body
35 But someone is now going to say: “How are the dead raised? What sort of body will they come back with?” 36 Stupid! What you sow doesn’t come to life unless it dies. 37 The thing you sow isn’t the body that is going to come later; it’s just a naked seed of, let’s say, wheat, or some other plant. 38 God then gives it a body of the sort he wants, with each of the seeds having its own particular body.
39 Not all physical objects have the same kind of physicality. There is one kind of physicality for humans, another kind for animals, another for birds, and another for fish. 40 Some bodies belong in the heavens, and some on the earth; and the kind of glory appropriate for the ones in the heavens is different from the kind of glory appropriate for the ones on the earth. 41 There is one kind of glory for the sun, another for the moon, and another for the stars, since the stars themselves vary, with different degrees of glory.
42 That’s what it’s like with the resurrection of the dead. The body is sown decaying, and raised undecaying. 43 It is sown in shame, and raised in glory. It is sown in weakness, and raised in power. 44 It is sown as the embodiment of ordinary nature, and raised as the embodiment of the spirit. If ordinary nature has its embodiment, then the spirit too has its embodiment. 45 That’s what it means when the Bible says, “The first man, Adam, became a living natural being”; the last Adam became a life-giving spirit.
46 But you don’t get the spirit-animated body first; you get the nature-animated one, and you get the spirit-animated one later. 47 The first man is from the ground, and is made of earth; the second man is from heaven. 48 Earthly people are like the man of earth; heavenly people are like the man from heaven. 49 We have borne the image of the man made of earth; we shall also bear the image of the man from heaven.
The mystery and the victory
50 This is what I’m saying, my dear family. Flesh and blood can’t inherit God’s kingdom; decay can’t inherit undecaying life. 51 Look! I’m telling you a mystery. We won’t all sleep; we’re all going to be changed— 52 in a flash, at the blink of an eye, at the last trumpet. This is how it will be, you see: the trumpet’s going to sound, the dead will be raised undecaying, and we’re going to be changed. 53 This decaying body must put on the undecaying one; this dying body must put on immortality. 54 When the decaying puts on the undecaying, and the dying puts on the undying, then the saying that has been written will come true:
Death is swallowed up in victory!
55 Death, where’s your victory gone?
Death, where’s your sting gone?
56 The “sting” of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law. 57 But thank God! He gives us the victory, through our Lord Jesus the Messiah.
58 So, my dear family, be firmly fixed, unshakeable, always full to overflowing with the Lord’s work. In the Lord, as you know, the work you’re doing will not be worthless.
Scripture quotations from The New Testament for Everyone are copyright © Nicholas Thomas Wright 2011, 2018, 2019.