The Word Made Fresh
1I want to remind you now of the good news I proclaimed to you. You received it and have taken it as your stand. 2You are being saved through that good news if you take care to keep the message I gave you – otherwise your faith is in vain.
3I passed on to you that which I had received, which I thought was of primary importance – that according to the scriptures Christ died for our sins, 4was buried, was raised on the third day, 5and appeared to Cephas and then to the twelve. 6Then he was seen by more than five hundred at one time, most of whom are still living, though some have fallen asleep. 7Then he appeared to James, and then to all the apostles. 8Last of all he appeared to me, as though I was born late. 9After all, I am the least important of the apostles and shouldn’t even be called an apostle because I persecuted the church of God. 10But I am what I am by God’s grace, and his grace for me hasn’t been for nothing because I worked harder than any of them. Of course, it wasn’t just me, but God’s grace that dwells within me. 11It doesn’t matter whether it was me or them – we proclaimed, and you believed.
12Now if our proclamation is that Christ was raised from the dead, how can any of you say there is no resurrection of the dead? 13If that were the case, then Christ has not been raised, 14and if Christ wasn’t raised we have preached in vain, and your faith has been in vain. 15We could even be charged with misrepresenting God because we have proclaimed Christ risen and that can’t be true if the dead aren’t raised. 16If that’s the case, then neither has Christ been raised, 17and if Christ has not been raised your faith is foolish and you are still condemned by your sins, 18and those who have died in Christ are lost. 19If we have hoped in Christ for the sake of this life only, then we are to be pitied more than anyone.
20But in fact Christ has been raised from the dead, and is the first fruits of those who have died. 21And since death came through a man, the resurrection of the dead has also come through a man. 22As the descendants of Adam have all died, so will all of them live in Christ. 23But everything will come in order: first, Christ is risen, then he will come to gather those who belong to him. 24Then follows the rest, when he hands the kingdom over to God the Father after destroying every ruler and authority and power. 25He must reign, you see, until all his enemies are trampled, 26and the last enemy is death. 27It is written that God has given us dominion over everything, but when it says “everything” it doesn’t include the one who put everything under God. 28When everything has been subjected to God, the Son himself will also be subjected to the one who placed everything under him so that God is indeed over everything. 29If that isn’t the case, what will those folks do who were baptized for someone who has died? If the dead aren’t going to be raised at all, why are people baptized for them?
30And why should we endanger ourselves hour by hour? 31I myself die every day, and that is as sure as my bragging of you in the name of Christ Jesus our Lord. 32If I fought with the wild beasts at Ephesus with merely human hopes, what have I gained? If the dead aren’t raised, “Let us eat, drink, and be merry, for tomorrow we die!” 33Don’t be deceived. “Bad company ruins good intentions.” 34So, get a grip on yourselves and sin no more. Some people have never heard of God, and you should be ashamed because of that.
35But someone might ask, “How are the dead raised? What sort of body will they have?” 36That’s a foolish question: nothing sown will come to life unless it dies. 37When you sow, you’re only sowing a bare seed – of wheat or some other grain. 38But God chooses the body that will be given to each kind of seed. 39Not every living body is the same, but some are given human flesh, some the flesh of animals, some of birds, some of fish. 40There are heavenly bodies and earthly bodies, but the glory of the heavenly and the glory of the earthly are different from one another. 41The sun has its glory, and the moon and the stars have their glory – and every star is different from the others.
42That’s how things are with the resurrection of the dead. What is sown is perishable; what is raised is imperishable. 43It may be sown in dishonor, but is raised in glory. And that which is sown in weakness is raised in power. 44The physical body is raised a spiritual body – if there’s a physical body there is also a spiritual body. 45That’s why the scriptures say that the first man, Adam, became a living being. And the last Adam became a life-giving spirit. 46But the physical is first, then the spiritual. 47The first man was formed from the dust of the earth; the second is from heaven. 48Those who are of the dust are like the first man; those who are of heaven are like the man of heaven. 49And as we are the image of the man of dust, we will become the image of the man of heaven.
50What I’m saying is that flesh and blood cannot inherit God’s kingdom. That which is perishable can’t inherit the imperishable. 51Here is a mystery – we will not all die, but we will be changed 52in the blink of an eye at the last trumpet. The trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised immortal. We will be changed! 53This perishable body will become imperishable; this mortal body will become immortal! 54When that happens, the saying that is written will come to pass: “Death has been swallowed up in victory!”
55So, “where is your victory, death? Where is your sting?” 56Sin is death’s sting, and the law is sin’s power. 57But thanks be to God who has given us the victory through Jesus Christ our Lord!
58So, my dear friends, stand firm. Keep your faith. Give yourselves completely to the Lord’s work, because you know that in the Lord the work you do will not be done in vain.
Commentary
1-11: All the preceding notwithstanding, the most important thing is: (1) that Christ died for our sins; (2) that he did so in accordance with scriptures; (3) that he was buried; (4) that he was raised on the third day (also in accordance with scriptures); and the proof of this last claim is that (5) he appeared to a number of witnesses, including Paul himself, surely a reference to his Damascus Road experience. He is the last, he says, to see the risen Christ and therefore he has just as much authority to teach in the churches as do the others. Indeed, the fact that he is the last to have seen the risen Christ has only served to make him work harder than any of the others.
12-19: Everything hinges on the resurrection of Jesus from the dead.
20-28: Paul lays out his understanding of God’s plan to redeem all creation:
Christ is raised from the dead (verses 20-22). Christ will return (verse 23). Those who belong to Christ will join him (verse 23). Christ will reign in the earth (verse 25). Every other realm – and this includes “powers,” not just human realms – will be destroyed (verse 24b). Every enemy of Christ will be subdued (verse 25). Finally, death itself will be subdued (verse 26-28), but of course the reign of Christ is for the purpose of redeeming creation for God the Father. “Then comes the end” (verse 24), although we gather from other passages that “the end” is only the end of the way things presently are in the world.
29: Although the practice of the dead being baptized by proxy has never been encouraged or officially accepted since very early in the church’s history, it was apparently part of the worship of the Christians in Corinth. Rather than challenge the practice, Paul simply notes that they do it, and uses it to say they are already doing something which presupposes that the dead are raised.
30-32: If the dead are not raised, why should Paul bother to risk his life for the sake of the gospel? His comment that he dies every day either means that he faces constant persecution, or simply that he’s getting older every day. The “wild animals” at Ephesus were of the two-footed variety (see Acts 19:21-41).
33-34: Paul reverts to his earlier exhortations that they should disengage themselves from those who engage in immoral behavior. They bring shame on themselves by associating with such.
35-41: Now back to the dead being raised: What will they look like? After all, you’re talking about bodies that have been decomposing for years. Paul reverts here to an ancient understanding of the generation of living things. The buried seed was thought to die, and the plant pushing up through the soil was its new manifestation. The new manifestation does not resemble that which was put in the ground, but is a new kind of reality for the original seed. The rest of this paragraph seems a little out of place, and reflects something of the Greek (Platonic) concept of forms.
42-44: There is therefore a difference between that which has died and its new form when resurrected. Old body – new body: Perishable – Imperishable: Dishonorable – Glorified: Weak – Powerful: Physical – Spiritual.
45-49: He again contrasts Christ with Adam (see verses 21-23). Adam represents that old type of human being whose existence is manifested physically. Jesus, the “last Adam” represents the new type of human being whose existence is manifested spiritually. The difference between the two is that the first is of earth (physical existence) and must perish; the second is from heaven (spiritual existence) and will never perish. Those who receive Christ will participate in a resurrection like his (see Romans 6:5).
50: In order for us to inherit the kingdom of God, then, we must become imperishable — born of the spirit.
51-57: Paul launches into a rising crescendo to his argument, beginning with his image of the bursting forth of life amid death, heralded by a trumpet blast. Obviously, this aging body can’t survive the way it’s going, so it must take on a new nature, one that is imperishable and immortal. The quote in verse 55 is taken from Hosea 13:19, with some elaboration provided by Paul’s active imagination. He ends with a victory shout of thanksgiving.
58: So, having described the reward to come, he encourages them to keep the faith.
Takeaway
Life doesn’t end. It pauses between two realities: earth and heaven, and the nature of our “heavenly” life depends on how we live in this one.