1 Corinthians 15
15
Jesus Christ died, then he came alive again
1My Christian friends, I want you to remember the good news that I taught you. You listened to that message and believed it, and you still strongly believe it. 2And if you keep on believing that good news, God will save you. If you don’t keep on believing it, I reckon you didn’t believe it properly in the first place.
3You know, God told me that message, and then I taught it to you. And, you know, a long time ago, God got his men to write about some of those things, and they are in God’s book. Now I’ll tell you the important part of that message again. Everybody did bad things. We are all bad, but Jesus Christ died instead of us. That message is in God’s book.#Isaiah 53:5-12 4People buried Jesus. Then after 2 nights, on the 3rd day, God made him alive again. That message is in God’s book too.#Psalm 16:8-10; Matthew 12:40; Acts 2:24-32 5After that, Jesus showed himself to Peter. Then later he showed himself to all of his 12 special workers.#Matthew 28:16-17; Mark 16:14; Luke 24:34, 36; John 20:19 6After that, he showed himself to more than 500 of his followers at the same time. Most of those 500 people are still alive, but some of them have died. 7Then he showed himself to James, and later he showed himself to all of his special workers.
8All those people saw Jesus. But I was different from Jesus’s other special workers. He didn’t show himself to me until some time later.#Acts 9:3-6
9But before I ever saw Jesus, he sent out his other special workers. They were the first people to go out and tell his message, so they are all more important than me. You see, I used to make a lot of trouble for God’s own people, so I’m not really good enough for anyone to call me one of Jesus’s special workers.#Acts 8:3 10But God was very good to me. He changed me and made me the way I am now. And so more people heard the good news about Jesus. You see, I’ve worked harder than any of his other special workers. But it wasn’t really me that did that work. No. It was God that gave me the power to do his work, so he is the one that did it. 11So it doesn’t really matter who told you God’s message. Maybe it was me, or maybe it was one of his other special workers. We all tell people the same good news about Jesus Christ, and that is the good news that you believed. That is the important thing.
God will make dead people come alive again
12This is our message. Jesus Christ died, and then God made him alive again. But some of you reckon that God never makes dead people alive again. But you are wrong. 13You see, if you reckon that God never makes dead people alive again, you are also saying that God didn’t make Jesus Christ alive again. 14And if you reckon that God didn’t make Jesus Christ alive again, you are saying that our message is useless, and that you believed something that was wrong. 15If that’s what you reckon, you are saying that we lied to you about God when we told you that he made Jesus Christ alive again. But you are not right. 16You see, if you reckon that God never makes dead people alive again, you are saying that he didn’t make Jesus Christ alive again. 17And if God didn’t make Jesus Christ alive again, like you reckon, then you believed in Jesus for nothing, and it means that you are still guilty of the bad things you did. 18And if you reckon that God never makes dead people alive again, you are saying that the Christians that died are now lost and gone for ever. 19You reckon that we can only be sure that Jesus Christ will look after us here in this life. But we Christians get trouble in this life, and other people in the world are more happy than us. So if God will not make us alive again after we die, they can feel sorry for us. But that is not true.
20Listen, this is the true story. Jesus Christ died, and God made him alive again. Jesus was the first person to die and then come back to life again, and to live for ever.
21-22You see, it’s like this. God said that everyone that does bad things has to die. Remember the first man, called Adam. He did something bad, so he died. And we are all from Adam, so we are all in his family, and we all do bad things too, so we all have to die. But then another man came, and he only did good things. That man is Jesus Christ. So now, after people die, God can make them alive again. You see, everyone that believes in Jesus Christ is in Jesus’s family now, so God will make them alive again. 23But we each have to wait for our turn. The first one was Jesus Christ. He died, and then God made him alive again. He is the first one to live again. After he comes back, all his people will live again too. 24Then Jesus will finish up all the bad spirits. Some of them are bosses, and some of them have power. He will take away their power, and he will finish them all up. Then the end will come, and Jesus will give everything to God, the father, and God will be the biggest boss for everybody.
25You see, Jesus Christ will keep on being the big boss, until he wins against his enemies, and God makes all those enemies do what Jesus says.#Psalm 110:1 26In the end he will stop us from dying. He will keep everything alive, and nobody will die any more. 27God’s book says this,
“God will win, and he will make everything do what he says.”#Psalm 8:6
Those words tell us that God is the one that will make everything do what Jesus says. You see, Jesus will not be the boss over God, but he will be the boss over everything else. 28When God makes everything do what Jesus Christ says, then Jesus, God’s son, will have God as his boss. Then God will control everything everywhere. He will be the one and only biggest boss.
29You know, sometimes a Christian dies before anyone baptised them, so sometimes you mob try to help them, and you baptise another Christian instead of them. But think about it, if dead people will never live again, that is a useless thing for you to do.
30And think about me and the other people that work with me. We tell everyone God’s message, and some people get angry with us and they want to kill us. 31Every day, I worry that somebody might kill me. My Christian friends, I’m very happy that you are trusting our leader Jesus Christ, so I’m telling you this. 32At that town called Ephesus, I got trouble for telling people about Jesus. Some men there tried to kill me, and I had to fight back. I was like a man fighting wild animals. But, if God will not make me alive again after I die, it means I got all that trouble for nothing. Some of you reckon that dead people will never live again. If that is true, then we can be like the people that say this,
“We are going to die tomorrow, so today we will have fun.
We will eat and drink as much as we like, and we will not worry about tomorrow.”#Isaiah 22:13
That is what they say, but it is not true.
33Listen, don’t let anyone trick you with that sort of talk. Remember that wise people say this, “Don’t have friends that do bad things, or they will get you to do bad things too.”
34So start thinking properly, and do what is right. Stop doing bad things. I think that some of you don’t really know God. I’m saying this to make you feel shame.
We will get new bodies
35Somebody might hear me say that dead people will come alive again, and they might ask me, “How can that happen? What sort of bodies will they have?” 36That’s a stupid question. You know, all sorts of things die and then they get new bodies. Think about seeds and plants. If you plant a seed in the ground, that seed dies. But that is not the end. A new plant grows up. That seed comes alive again and grows up into a new plant. 37The thing you put into the ground was just a seed (maybe a wheat seed, or whatever). You don’t put the body of the plant in the ground, but just the seed. 38Then God makes it grow up and become a new plant, with its own sort of body. God gives every sort of seed its own sort of body.
39Every sort of thing that is alive has a different sort of body from every other sort of thing. People have one sort of body. Animals have a different sort of body. Birds have another sort of body, and fish have another sort of body. 40And other things have different sorts of bodies too. There are bodies in the sky, and there are bodies here on the earth. They are all beautiful in their own way. The bodies in the sky are beautiful in a different way from the bodies on the earth. 41The sun is bright and beautiful. And the moon is beautiful too, in a different way from the sun. The stars are bright and beautiful too, but they are different again, and some stars are brighter than other stars.
42Well, it will be like that for us when God makes us alive again. The bodies we have now will die. But after God makes us alive again, our new bodies will never die. 43The bodies we have now are weak and not very good. But after God makes us alive again, our new bodies will be beautiful and strong. 44The bodies we have when we die are normal bodies. But after God makes us alive again, we will have new bodies, and they will be spiritual bodies. You see, there are normal bodies, and there are spiritual bodies. 45This is what God says in his book,
“The 1st man, Adam, became a living person.”#Genesis 2:7
But we can think of Jesus, that he is the last Adam. You see, he is the spirit that makes people alive. 46It is like this. Right now, each of us has a normal body. They are the bodies we got at first. But later we will each get a new spiritual body. 47And think about Adam. He was the 1st man, and he came from the ground. But Jesus, the 2nd man, came from heaven. 48Everyone on earth has a body like the man that came from the ground. But the people that belong to heaven will have a body like the man that came from heaven. 49You see, the bodies that we have now are like Adam’s body. He was the 1st man, and God made him out of the ground. But our spiritual bodies will be different. They will be like Jesus’s body. He is the man that came from heaven.
50My Christian friends, this is what I’m telling you. We can’t go to God and live for ever in his family in our normal bodies. They are made of meat, blood, bones, skin, and all that. These bodies that we have now have to die. They can’t go on for ever.
51Listen, I’m telling you something new. God didn’t tell other people this message before, but it is important. He will change all of us. Some of us will still be alive at that time, but maybe some of us will be dead. It doesn’t matter, God will change all of us. 52It will happen like this. We will hear the sound of somebody blowing the last trumpet, then straight away God will change us. It will be quick, as quick as you can blink your eyes. You see, as soon as that trumpet makes its sound, God will make his dead people alive again. At that time, he will give us new bodies that will never die. God will change all of us, those of us that are alive and those of us that are dead at that time.#1 Thessalonians 4:15-17 53You see, the bodies we have now will die, but they will get new life. God will change our normal bodies into bodies that can never die.
54-56You know, whenever we do bad things, we break God’s law, and God’s law says we have to die for doing those bad things. There is a power that gets us to go wrong and die like that. It is like a cheeky scorpion that stings us and kills us. But God will change our bodies into bodies that will never die, and at that same time God will finish up that power that makes us go wrong. You know, a long time ago, one of God’s men wrote about this, and it is in God’s book. He wrote,
“God will finish up that power that makes everything die.”#Isaiah 25:8
“It will be gone. It will not sting us any more,
and people will not die any more.”#Hosea 13:14
And it will happen just like those men wrote.
57You see, our leader Jesus Christ has won the fight. So with Jesus we win too. And we say, “Thank you God.”
58So always remember those things, my Christian friends. I love you, and I want you to stay strong for God. Don’t let anything take you away from him. Keep on working hard for our leader Jesus. Remember, he will help you, so that everything you do with him will be good. It will not be useless.
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© 2021, Wycliffe Bible Translators, Inc. All rights reserved.
1 Corinthians 15
15
The Fact of Christ’s Resurrection
1Now brothers and sisters, let me remind you [once again] of the good news [of salvation] which I preached to you, which you welcomed and accepted and on which you stand [by faith]. 2By this faith you are saved [reborn from above—spiritually transformed, renewed, and set apart for His purpose], if you hold firmly to the word which I preached to you, unless you believed in vain [just superficially and without complete commitment].
3For I passed on to you as of first importance what I also received, that Christ died for our sins according to [that which] the Scriptures [foretold], 4and that He was buried, and that He was [bodily] raised on the third day according to [that which] the Scriptures [foretold], 5and that He appeared to Cephas (Peter), then to the #A title referring to the original disciples chosen by Jesus (including Judas). A few hours after betraying Jesus, Judas committed suicide (Matt 27:5) leaving only the eleven (Matt 28:16; Mark 16:14; Luke 24:9, 33).Twelve. 6After that He appeared to more than five hundred brothers and sisters at one time, the majority of whom are still alive, but some have fallen asleep [in death]. 7Then He was seen by James, then by all the apostles, 8and last of all, as to one #Paul’s life-changing encounter with the resurrected Christ occurred on the road to Damascus (Acts 9).untimely (prematurely, traumatically) born, He appeared to me also. 9For I am the least [worthy] of the apostles, and not fit to be called an apostle, because I [at one time] fiercely oppressed and violently persecuted the church of God. 10But by the [remarkable] grace of God I am what I am, and His grace toward me was not without effect. In fact, I worked harder than all of the apostles, though it was not I, but the grace of God [His unmerited favor and blessing which was] with me. 11So whether it was I or they, this is what we preach, and this is what you believed and trusted in and relied on with confidence.
12Now if Christ is preached as raised from the dead, how is it that #Perhaps these were converted Sadducees, who as a sect denied the possibility of a resurrection (Acts 23:8).some among you say that there is no resurrection of the dead? 13But if there is no resurrection of the dead, then not even Christ has been raised; 14and if Christ has not been raised, then our preaching is vain [useless, amounting to nothing], and your faith is also vain [imaginary, unfounded, devoid of value and benefit—not based on truth]. 15We are even discovered to be false witnesses [misrepresenting] God, because we testified concerning Him that He raised Christ, whom He did not raise, if in fact the dead are not raised. 16For if the dead are not raised, then Christ has not been raised, either; 17and if Christ has not been raised, your faith is worthless and powerless [mere delusion]; you are still in your sins [and under the control and penalty of sin]. 18Then those also who have fallen asleep in Christ are lost. 19If we who are [abiding] in Christ have hoped only in this life [and this is all there is], then we are of all people most miserable and to be pitied.
The Order of Resurrection
20But now [as things really are] Christ has in fact been raised from the dead, [and He became] the first fruits [that is, the first to be resurrected with an incorruptible, immortal body, foreshadowing the resurrection] of those who have fallen asleep [in death]. 21For since [it was] by a man that death came [into the world], it is also by a Man that the resurrection of the dead has come. 22For just as #Because of our physical nature as descendants of Adam.in Adam all die, so also #Because of our spiritual nature as born-again believers in Christ.in Christ all will be made alive. 23But each in his own order: Christ the first fruits, then those who are Christ’s [own will be resurrected with incorruptible, immortal bodies] at His coming. 24After that comes the end (completion), when He hands over the kingdom to God the Father, after He has made inoperative and abolished every ruler and every authority and power. 25For Christ must reign [as King] until He has put all His enemies under His feet. 26The last enemy to be abolished and put to an end is death. 27For He (the Father) has put all things in subjection under His (Christ’s) feet. But when He says, “All things have been put in subjection [under Christ],” it is clear that He (the Father) who put all things in subjection to Him (Christ) is excepted [since the Father is not in subjection to His own Son]. 28However, when all things are subjected to Him (Christ), then the Son Himself will also be subjected to the One (the Father) who put all things under Him, so that God may be all in all [manifesting His glory without any opposition, the supreme indwelling and controlling factor of life].
29Otherwise, what will those do who are being #This has nothing to do with Christian baptism or salvation. Paul may be referring to the practices of a pagan religion that required a ritual washing to enter an afterlife.baptized for the dead? If the dead are not raised at all, why are people even baptized for them? 30[For that matter] why are we [running such risks and putting ourselves] #Paul’s life was continuously threatened because of his public commitment to Christ.in danger [nearly] every hour [if there is no resurrection]? 31I assure you, believers, by the pride which I have in you in [your union with] Christ Jesus our Lord, I die daily [I face death and die to self]. 32What good has it done me if, [merely] from a human point of view, I #This may refer figuratively to the furious crowd that rose up against Paul in Ephesus, rather than to literal animals (Acts 19:23-41).fought with wild animals at Ephesus? If the dead are not raised [at all], let us eat and drink [enjoying ourselves now], for tomorrow we die. 33Do not be deceived: #Paul quotes this one verse maxim from the writings of the Greek dramatist Menander (342-291 b.c.). “Bad company” in this case undoubtedly refers to the teachers who were denying the truth of the resurrection.“Bad company corrupts good morals.” 34Be sober-minded [be sensible, wake up from your spiritual stupor] as you ought, and stop sinning; for some [of you] have no knowledge of God [you are disgracefully ignorant of Him, and ignore His truths]. I say this to your shame.
35But someone will say, “How are the dead raised? And with what kind of body will they come?” 36You fool! Every time you plant seed you sow something that does not come to life [germinating, springing up and growing] unless it first dies. 37The seed you sow is not the body (the plant) which it is going to become, but it is a bare seed, perhaps of wheat or some other grain. 38But God gives it a body just as He planned, and to each kind of seed a body of its own [is given]. 39All flesh is not the same. There is one kind for humans, another for animals, another for birds, and another for fish. 40There are also heavenly bodies [sun, moon and stars] and earthly bodies [humans, animals, and plants], but the glory and beauty of the heavenly is one kind, and the glory of the earthly is another. 41There is a glory and beauty of the sun, another glory of the moon, and yet another [distinctive] glory of the stars; and one star differs from another in glory and brilliance.
42So it is with the resurrection of the dead. The [human] body that is sown is perishable and mortal, it is raised imperishable and immortal. 43It is sown in dishonor, it is raised in glory; it is sown in weakness, it is raised in strength; 44it is sown a natural body [mortal, suited to earth], it is raised a spiritual body [immortal, suited to heaven]. As surely as there is a physical body, there is also a spiritual body. 45So it is written [in Scripture], “The first man, Adam, became a living soul (an individual);” the last Adam (Christ) became a life-giving spirit [restoring the dead to life]. 46However, the spiritual [the immortal life] is not first, but the physical [the mortal life]; then the spiritual. 47The first man [Adam] is from the earth, earthy [made of dust]; the second Man [Christ, the Lord] is from heaven. 48As is the earthly man [the man of dust], so are those who are of earth; and as is the heavenly [Man], so are those who are of heaven. 49Just as we have borne the image of the earthly [the man of dust], #Two early mss read “let us also.”we will also bear the image of the heavenly [the Man of heaven].
The Mystery of Resurrection
50Now I say this, believers, that flesh and blood cannot inherit nor be part of the kingdom of God; nor does the perishable (mortal) inherit the imperishable (immortal). 51Listen very carefully, I tell you a mystery [a secret truth decreed by God and previously hidden, but now revealed]; we will not all sleep [in death], but we will all be [completely] changed [wondrously transformed], 52in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at [the sound of] the last trumpet call. For a trumpet will sound, and the dead [who believed in Christ] will be raised imperishable, and we will be [completely] changed [wondrously transformed]. 53For this perishable [part of us] must put on the imperishable [nature], and this mortal [part of us that is capable of dying] must put on immortality [which is freedom from death]. 54And when this perishable puts on the imperishable, and this mortal puts on immortality, then the Scripture will be fulfilled that says, “Death is swallowed up in victory (vanquished forever). 55O death, where is your victory? O death, where is your sting?” 56The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin [by which it brings death] is the law; 57but thanks be to God, who gives us the victory [as conquerors] through our Lord Jesus Christ.
58Therefore, my beloved brothers and sisters, be steadfast, immovable, always excelling in the work of the Lord [always doing your best and doing more than is needed], being continually aware that your labor [even to the point of exhaustion] in the Lord is not futile nor wasted [it is never without purpose].
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