1 Corinthians 15
15
The “heart and soul” of Paul’s gospel
1Now for the fundamental truth of my teaching, — not mine, but what I received, the same that was given to me, and that I handed on to you, — 2the Gospel which supports you and is saving you, and will save you to the end, if your faith fail not! 3This is the heart and soul of that Gospel as I received it and gave it to you, and the whole of it is contained in this, that according to the meaning of the Scriptures 4the Christ died for our sins and was buried, and then according to the same truth of the Scriptures the Christ rose on the third day. 5The witnesses of this resurrection are first Cephas, then the twelve, 6then over five hundred brethren most of whom are alive at the present day, 7then James, then all the Apostles. These all saw him alive and triumphant after death, and the appearances were in the order I have mentioned. 8And last of all I myself saw the risen Christ, 9last as though I were the least and unworthiest of all, the persecutor that is to say of that divine Church of God, which is His infinite body. 10But the grace of God pierced even down to those depths where I lay, and made me such as I am, and abode with me, in my labours, labours exceeding those of all the others; for the grace of God has worked with me in an extraordinary manner in every way, not only in my first conversion from the lowest depths of opposition to God but in my subsequent labours. 11This then is the gist and burden of the message, I care not who it be that preaches it, whether I or they.
The Christ did conquer death
12Then what means this contention amongst some of you that the dead do not rise? 13-16But the Christ did rise. For death came through Adam, it came through a man, and through a man must come eternal life. If in Adam all die, then must death be conquered where it began, in a man. So rose the Christ from the dead. But if you say there is no resurrection from the dead, then neither did the Christ rise from the dead, and the whole of our teaching collapses, 17it falls to earth, empty, void, a perfect nothing, a falsity. 18The testimony we bear concerning God, namely, that He raised the Christ-man from the dead, has no meaning in it. 19If the Christ exists for this world only and has no eternal existence, we are the most miserable of all the dwellers on this planet!
20But the Christ has risen, and his rising is the commencement of a similar resurrection for the whole world. 21-22His re-appearance after death is like the first fruits of a mighty harvest. 23The increase and growth of this vast divine process will first include all who belong to him, when his eternal presence will become apparent throughout the world; 24and this process will continue till “the end” when there shall exist not one single power, influence or authority that moves contrary to His will, but everything will be subordinate to the infinite God and Father of All, the Creator. 25-27Everything that opposes must be reversed and subdued just there where it arose, namely in man on earth, until there be nothing left that opposes, and until death itself has been completely obliterated. That will be the end, when death is ended, and God is All-in-all, and even the Christ that saves and redeems exists only as the eternally perfect son subject to the infinite Father, there being no more enemies from which to save and redeem us, thus fulfilling the meaning of the Scriptures. For the reign of the Christ will continue on earth for a finite period, namely, until “He has made his enemies his foot-stool” (Ps. 110:1), until all finite death-conditioned things are overruled. “He hath put all things under his feet” (Ps. 8:6). 28All things, but not the Christ himself, for though the Christ has appeared amidst these things, he is not their subject, he is not conditioned by them, he is eternally, spiritually royal, existing only as subject to God, the All-in-all. 29That is the only significance of that practice which obtains amongst some of you, whereby the living are baptised on behalf of those already dead. It means that this progressive victory over death will ultimately include all who have died. The purpose of the Christ penetrates far beyond the little sphere of this life. But if you think that the Christ only comes to you on earth and for this life, what significance has this rite of baptism on behalf of those already beyond its pale? Unless they too are changed by the infinite operation of the Christ life, the rite is meaningless. And if the dead rise not, if there be no such victory and struggle at work, what is the significance of present struggles? 30-32I have faced the beasts in the circus before the crowd at Ephesus, I have run every risk, endured every danger, and won through them successfully — that is your boast, and the glory which you accord me for my service of the Christ; but if in this daily death of mine there is no underlying meaning, if it does not mean that even now Christ in me is fighting his victory over death, and successfully putting it under his feet and rescuing me from it, then what is the use of it all? I would rather say with the disobedient “Let us eat and drink; for to-morrow we shall die” (Is. 22:13) for there is no longer any meaning in my struggles. Beware! Do not let sleep overtake you, and your spiritual perception be cheated and fade. 33This is the result, as the tragic poet says, of that “bad company that doth corrupt the good.” 34There are those in your midst who have no knowledge of God. Protect yourselves against their influence.
Paul explains the resurrection
35And now you ask me, How? What is that body which dies not, but comes again? 36How can flesh and blood not perish for ever, but live on immortal? Does it seem so impossible? 37Yet even in nature we see the seed buried in the ground, becoming a shrivelled extinct husk, 38and out of that decay and dissolution springs the new body which the eternal power of God shapes and forms.
Different kinds of bodies
39We see every type and pattern of shape and form given to various existences as their bodies, we see the elements of flesh and blood taking on the form of every type of being, man, beast, fish, bird — all distinct and separate entities with appropriate bodies. 40On the same principle the form of body appropriate to the heavenly and spiritual things of God’s creation is quite other than those which we see clothing things on earth. The things on earth all have their own special beauties, forms, types and their own splendour. And when we come to that which is spiritual and heavenly, we find that that too has its own appropriate expression and glory. 41The sun, moon and stars are glorious bodies, each with its own distinct glory and splendour. 42-44And the Spirit has in a similar manner its own appropriate distinct body, the spiritual species can by no possibility overrun into and mix with a distinct species of earthly things. Hence the contrast so difficult to grasp in the resurrection of the dead, whereby the spiritual species with its appropriate body appears in substitution of the former human expression of life. On the one hand weakness, corruption, dishonour, comparable to the body of a seed which rots and dissolves beneath the layer of soil; and on the other hand power, glory and incorruption, of which the green shapely stalk of corn may be taken as a simile. But the absolute distinctness of species on earth is a lesson to us, whereby the mind grasps the significance of the great spiritual category of things wholly distinct from the earthy. These things possess spiritual bodies and have no connection with earthy bodies. Their glory is distinct.
The distinction between Adam and Christ
45This is the distinction implied by the Bible between Adam, “formed of the dust of the ground,” who became “a living soul,” and that other man who is wholly spiritual with a spiritual body, 46and is conditioned by Spirit only, who gives him his appropriate form. 47This man is of heaven, not of earth, a different order of being, in a different state of existence from that of Adam. 48Now we have known the former man, and we shall also know that distinct and separate man who is a spiritual being. 49We have borne that image which is the appearance of an earthy physical man, we shall also bear that distinct heavenly stamp, the peculiar spiritual mode of being. 50-51For physical flesh and its laws are remote from the life and laws of the kingdom of God. Do not think that one can pass over into and inherit the other. Nature knows of no such amalgamation as that throughout her infinite being. 52Rather there must be a total and absolute change, a complete reversal of the mode of being, which is what the Scriptures imply by “the sounding of the last trump,” when in a timeless instant the spiritual order of being, 53the incorruptible and the eternal comes as a new order of life, a new dress, a new clothing, a new body for man. 54That is the moment at which death draws back its foot; it is at the coming of that new body and life and organism which declare and express the immortality and being of Spirit. Then is it that the words come true: “He hath swallowed up death in victory” (Is. 25:8). 55“Where is thy sting, O death? Where is thy victory, O grave?” (Hos. 13:14), 56because the law which constituted the peculiar life of the old flesh, the law which made that life perishable, and which was in itself the power of sin, antagonistic to the new law of life, that law has given place to the new nature governed by God. 57He gives us the victory through Jesus Christ, and to him arise our thanks and praise therefore. 58Hence no labour of ours is vain, hence we remain steadfast and unmoved, because the work is that of the infinite God, and His action is irrepressible, abounding and never vain.
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1 Corinthians 15: GWC
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Translated in 1916, published in 1937.
1 Corinthians 15
15
1 And so I make known to you, brothers, the Gospel that I preached to you, which you also received, and on which you stand.
2 By the Gospel, too, you are being saved, if you hold to the understanding that I preached to you, lest you believe in vain.
3 For I handed on to you, first of all, what I also received: that Christ died for our sins, according to the Scriptures;
4 and that he was buried; and that he rose again on the third day, according to the Scriptures;
5 and that he was seen by Cephas, and after that by the eleven.
6 Next he was seen by more than five hundred brothers at one time, many of whom remain, even to the present time, although some have fallen asleep.
7 Next, he was seen by James, then by all the Apostles.
8 And last of all, he was seen also by me, as if I were someone born at the wrong time.
9 For I am the least of the Apostles. I am not worthy to be called an Apostle, because I persecuted the Church of God.
10 But, by the grace of God, I am what I am. And his grace in me has not been empty, since I have labored more abundantly than all of them. Yet it is not I, but the grace of God within me.
11 For whether it is I or they: so we preach, and so you have believed.
12 Now if Christ is preached, that he rose again from the dead, how is it that some among you say that there is no resurrection of the dead?
13 For if there is no resurrection of the dead, then Christ has not risen.
14 And if Christ has not risen, then our preaching is useless, and your faith is also useless.
15 Then, too, we would be found to be false witnesses of God, because we would have given testimony against God, saying that he had raised up Christ, when he had not raised him up, if, indeed, the dead do not rise again.
16 For if the dead do not rise again, then neither has Christ risen again.
17 But if Christ has not risen, then your faith is vain; for you would still be in your sins.
18 Then, too, those who have fallen asleep in Christ would have perished.
19 If we have hope in Christ for this life only, then we are more miserable than all men.
20 But now Christ has risen again from the dead, as the first-fruits of those who sleep.
21 For certainly, death came through a man. And so, the resurrection of the dead came through a man
22 And just as in Adam all die, so also in Christ all will be brought to life,
23 but each one in his proper order: Christ, as the first-fruits, and next, those who are of Christ, who have believed in his advent.
24 Afterwards is the end, when he will have handed over the kingdom to God the Father, when he will have emptied all principality, and authority, and power.
25 For it is necessary for him to reign, until he has set all his enemies under his feet.
26 Lastly, the enemy called death shall be destroyed. For he has subjected all things under his feet. And although he says,
27 "All things have been subjected to him," without doubt he does not include the One who has subjected all things to him.
28 And when all things will have been subjected to him, then even the Son himself will be subjected to the One who subjected all things to him, so that God may be all in all.
29 Otherwise, what will those who are being baptized for the dead do, if the dead do not rise again at all? Why then are they being baptized for them?
30 Why also do we endure trials every hour?
31 Daily I die, by means of your boasting, brothers: you whom I have in Christ Jesus our Lord.
32 If, according to man, I fought with the beasts at Ephesus, how would that benefit me, if the dead do not rise again? "Let us eat and drink, for tomorrow we shall die."
33 Do not be led astray. Evil communication corrupts good morals.
34 Be vigilant, you just ones, and do not be willing to sin. For certain persons have an ignorance of God. I say this to you with respect.
35 But someone may say, "How do the dead rise again?" or, "What type of body do they return with?"
36 How foolish! What you sow cannot be brought back to life, unless it first dies.
37 And what you sow is not the body that will be in the future, but a bare grain, such as of wheat, or of some other grain.
38 For God gives it a body according to his will, and according to each seed's proper body.
39 Not all flesh is the same flesh. But one is indeed of men, another truly is of beasts, another is of birds, and another is of fish.
40 Also, there are heavenly bodies and earthly bodies. But while the one, certainly, has the glory of heaven, the other has the glory of earth.
41 One has the brightness of the sun, another the brightness of the moon, and another the brightness of the stars. For even star differs from star in brightness.
42 So it is also with the resurrection of the dead. What is sown in corruption shall rise to incorruption.
43 What is sown in dishonor shall rise to glory. What is sown in weakness shall rise to power.
44 What is sown with an animal body shall rise with a spiritual body. If there is an animal body, there is also a spiritual one.
45 Just as it was written that the first man, Adam, was made with a living soul, so shall the last Adam be made with a spirit brought back to life.
46 So what is, at first, not spiritual, but animal, next becomes spiritual.
47 The first man, being earthly, was of the earth; the second man, being heavenly, will be of heaven.
48 Such things as are like the earth are earthly; and such things as are like the heavens are heavenly.
49 And so, just as we have carried the image of what is earthly, let us also carry the image of what is heavenly.
50 Now I say this, brothers, because flesh and blood is not able to possess the kingdom of God; neither will what is corrupt possess what is incorrupt.
51 Behold, I tell you a mystery. Certainly, we shall all rise again, but we shall not all be transformed:
52 in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, and the dead will rise up, incorruptible. And we shall be transformed.
53 Thus, it is necessary for this corruptibility to be clothed with incorruptibility, and for this mortality to be clothed with immortality.
54 And when this mortality has been clothed with immortality, then the word that was written shall occur: "Death is swallowed up in victory."
55 "O death, where is your victory? O death, where is your sting?"
56 Now the sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law.
57 But thanks be to God, who has given us victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.
58 And so, my beloved brothers, be steadfast and unmovable, abounding always in the work of the Lord, knowing that your labor is not useless in the Lord.
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