seekeroftruth
Well-Known Member
1 Corinthians 15:1 Now, brothers and sisters, I want to remind you of the gospel I preached to you, which you received and on which you have taken your stand. 2 By this gospel you are saved, if you hold firmly to the word I preached to you. Otherwise, you have believed in vain.
3 For what I received I passed on to you as of first importance[a]: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, 4 that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures, 5 and that he appeared to Cephas,[b] and then to the Twelve. 6 After that, he appeared to more than five hundred of the brothers and sisters at the same time, most of whom are still living, though some have fallen asleep. 7 Then he appeared to James, then to all the apostles, 8 and last of all he appeared to me also, as to one abnormally born.
9 For I am the least of the apostles and do not even deserve 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 to me was not without effect. No, I worked harder than all of them—yet not I, but the grace of God that was with me. 11 Whether, then, it is I or they, this is what we preach, and this is what you believed.
12 But if it is preached that Christ has been raised from the dead, how can some of you say that there is no resurrection of the dead? 13 If there is no resurrection of the dead, then not even Christ has been raised. 14 And if Christ has not been raised, our preaching is useless and so is your faith. 15 More than that, we are then found to be false witnesses about God, for we have testified about God that he raised Christ from the dead. But he did not raise him if in fact the dead are not raised. 16 For if the dead are not raised, then Christ has not been raised either. 17 And if Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile; you are still in your sins. 18 Then those also who have fallen asleep in Christ are lost. 19 If only for this life we have hope in Christ, we are of all people most to be pitied.
20 But Christ has indeed been raised from the dead, the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep. 21 For since death came through a man, the resurrection of the dead comes also through a man. 22 For as in Adam all die, so in Christ all will be made alive. 23 But each in turn: Christ, the firstfruits; then, when he comes, those who belong to him. 24 Then the end will come, when he hands over the kingdom to God the Father after he has destroyed all dominion, authority and power. 25 For he must reign until he has put all his enemies under his feet. 26 The last enemy to be destroyed is death. 27 For he “has put everything under his feet.”[c] Now when it says that “everything” has been put under him, it is clear that this does not include God himself, who put everything under Christ. 28 When he has done this, then the Son himself will be made subject to him who put everything under him, so that God may be all in all.
29 Now if there is no resurrection, what will those do who are baptized for the dead? If the dead are not raised at all, why are people baptized for them? 30 And as for us, why do we endanger ourselves every hour? 31 I face death every day—yes, just as surely as I boast about you in Christ Jesus our Lord. 32 If I fought wild beasts in Ephesus with no more than human hopes, what have I gained? If the dead are not raised,
“Let us eat and drink,
for tomorrow we die.”[d]
for tomorrow we die.”[d]
33 Do not be misled: “Bad company corrupts good character.”[e] 34 Come back to your senses as you ought, and stop sinning; for there are some who are ignorant of God—I say this to your shame.
35 But someone will ask, “How are the dead raised? With what kind of body will they come?” 36 How foolish! What you sow does not come to life unless it dies. 37 When you sow, you do not plant the body that will be, but just a seed, perhaps of wheat or of something else. 38 But God gives it a body as he has determined, and to each kind of seed he gives its own body. 39 Not all flesh is the same: People have one kind of flesh, animals have another, birds another and fish another. 40 There are also heavenly bodies and there are earthly bodies; but the splendor of the heavenly bodies is one kind, and the splendor of the earthly bodies is another. 41 The sun has one kind of splendor, the moon another and the stars another; and star differs from star in splendor.
42 So will it be with the resurrection of the dead. The body that is sown is perishable, it is raised imperishable; 43 it is sown in dishonor, it is raised in glory; it is sown in weakness, it is raised in power; 44 it is sown a natural body, it is raised a spiritual body.
If there is a natural body, there is also a spiritual body. 45 So it is written: “The first man Adam became a living being”[f]; the last Adam, a life-giving spirit. 46 The spiritual did not come first, but the natural, and after that the spiritual. 47 The first man was of the dust of the earth; the second man is of heaven. 48 As was the earthly man, so are those who are of the earth; and as is the heavenly man, so also are those who are of heaven. 49 And just as we have borne the image of the earthly man, so shall we[g] bear the image of the heavenly man.
50 I declare to you, brothers and sisters, that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God, nor does the perishable inherit the imperishable. 51 Listen, I tell you a mystery: We will not all sleep, but we will all be changed— 52 in a flash, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, the dead will be raised imperishable, and we will be changed. 53 For the perishable must clothe itself with the imperishable, and the mortal with immortality. 54 When the perishable has been clothed with the imperishable, and the mortal with immortality, then the saying that is written will come true: “Death has been swallowed up in victory.”[h]
55 “Where, O death, is your victory?
Where, O death, is your sting?”[i]
Where, O death, is your sting?”[i]
56 The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law. 57 But thanks be to God! He gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.
58 Therefore, my dear brothers and sisters, stand firm. Let nothing move you. Always give yourselves fully to the work of the Lord, because you know that your labor in the Lord is not in vain.
a. 1 Corinthians 15:3 Or you at the first
b. 1 Corinthians 15:5 That is, Peter
c. 1 Corinthians 15:27 Psalm 8:6
d. 1 Corinthians 15:32 Isaiah 22:13
e. 1 Corinthians 15:33 From the Greek poet Menander
f. 1 Corinthians 15:45 Gen. 2:7
g. 1 Corinthians 15:49 Some early manuscripts so let us
h. 1 Corinthians 15:54 Isaiah 25:8
i. 1 Corinthians 15:55 Hosea 13:14
So this is from the easy English site.
The reason that Paul was writing about the resurrection is in verse 12. Some Christians were saying that there is no resurrection from the dead. They may have denied this vital part of the gospel for any of the following reasons:
1. Greeks believed that the soul is in the body. It is as if it is in prison. This world is only like a shadow. Death sets the soul free to live in the real world. So some Christians may have believed that a ‘soul’ could live for ever without a body.
2. Some Christians believed that the resurrection had already happened. At baptism they had received every blessing that they needed. So they did not look forward to a resurrection of the body. In another letter, Paul mentions Hymenaeus and Philetus, who had this false idea (2 Timothy 2:17, 18).
3. Some Jews may have tried to explain the empty grave. This may have tested a person’s belief in the resurrection of Jesus.
The appearance to five hundred people is important. Five hundred people were not likely to make a mistake. As some of them were still alive, it would be possible to question them about their experience.
James was one of the four brothers of Jesus (Mark 6:3). He had not believed in Jesus during his life. He thought that Jesus was mad (Mark 3:21). He suggested that Jesus should go to Jerusalem (John 7:5). But after the resurrection, James was among the disciples (Acts 1:14). He became a leader of the church in Jerusalem, where he met Paul (Galatians 1:19). He believed that Gentile believers need not accept circumcision (Acts 15:13-19). Paul went to see him on his return from his third journey (Acts 21:18). There is no other record in the Bible of Jesus’ appearance to James. But it is clear that something important made him change. He had doubted about Jesus. Now he had accepted him as Saviour.
The last appearance of Jesus was to Paul himself. It was on the road to Damascus (Act 9:1-5). Paul’s spiritual birth took place after the Ascension. The other apostles lived with Jesus for a long time. They slowly realised that he was God’s Son, the Messiah. The way that Paul became an apostle was quite different. It was sudden. He only saw Jesus long after the other apostles did. So, it was as if he was born at the wrong time and not in the normal way. People sometimes used the Greek word for this kind of birth as an insult. A baby that is born early can be very small. And it may sometimes look ugly. Paul was not handsome. He may have been quite small. Some Christians insulted him (2 Corinthians 10:10). People may have used the word as an insult because he emphasised God’s grace. Some Christians said that he was not born again. He was like a baby that leaves its mother’s body too soon to remain alive.
Paul emphasises that he has become a Christian through God’s grace. He did not deserve to have the name ‘apostle’, because he had attacked God’s church. God’s grace gave him the desire and the strength to work harder than all the other apostles. But whoever preached the gospel gave the same facts about the resurrection as Paul gave. These were the facts that the Christians in Corinth had believed.
Adam’s failure to obey God brought sin into the world (Genesis 3:17-19). Sin was responsible for death. As people, we all have the same tendency to sin. Everyone has sinned. Therefore all will die. We cannot avoid death.
But Christ is the new Adam. He came into the world as a real person. He came into the world to rescue us from sin and its results. Christ gives life. We can choose to share in his life. If we belong to him, we are part of his completely new human family. We have God’s gift of eternal life. This life begins on earth. It continues beyond physical death. Our spirit will live with God.
Events will take place in the right order. Christ is the first to rise from the dead. Christ will come again. Then, God will raise all those who belong to Christ. Then the end of human history will come. Christ will destroy the power of everyone and everything that opposes him. ‘Rule, power and authority’ can refer to both human and spiritual beings that are against God. Christ will give to the Father those who belong to his kingdom.
Results of the resurrection for the present, verses 29-34
1. Some members of the church at Corinth were having baptism on behalf of friends or family. They had died before they became Christians. Or as Christians they had died before baptism. If there is no resurrection, there was no sense in ‘baptism for the dead’. They would be wasting their time.
The later Christian church has never used this practice.
2. Verses 30-32 Paul then spoke about himself. He suffered and put himself in danger every day to preach the gospel with its good news about resurrection. At Ephesus, he had been in great danger. ‘To fight with animals’ was a way to describe the very dangerous situation there. The angry crowd were like animals and could easily have killed Paul (Acts 19:23-31). There was no reason for him to go through such hard times if there is no resurrection. He might just as well follow pagan advice: ‘Let us eat and drink, because tomorrow we die’ (Isaiah 22:13). Instead of the daily struggle, he could enjoy physical pleasures. And he could live without care.
3. Verses 33-34 Some people think that there is no future life. So, they live as if this world is everything. They easily behave badly. The rich man in Jesus’ story forgot about eternity. So he planned to live selfishly (Luke 16:19). A Greek poet had written, ‘Bad company ruins good characters.’ This was a well-known thing that people said. Paul says that those who deny the resurrection are the bad company. They behave badly and they will cause other people to behave badly too. So, Paul tells the Christians at Corinth to come back to their senses. The words that Paul used mean that they are like confused people. They are like people who have drunk too much alcohol. The Christians at Corinth must make sure that they can think clearly. They must stop sinning. To deny the resurrection is not a sign of their superior ‘knowledge’. It is a sign that they are like pagans. They do not know God. And their lack of love for other people is also a sign. They do not know what God wants. Paul wanted to make the Christians at Corinth ashamed about their wrong behaviour. Their behaviour was the result of their proud, false ideas. Paul hoped to make them change their behaviour.
‘In a flash’ translates the word ‘atom’, which is something very tiny. So it will be in the very shortest time. The change from a human body to a spiritual body will happen very quickly. A trumpet gave a signal that the enemy had lost the battle. In the Old Testament it is often one of the signs of the ‘Day of the Lord’ (for example Joel 2:1). The sound of the last trumpet will tell everyone that Jesus has defeated death. It is the time of Jesus’ return. Then God will change our human bodies into spiritual bodies. It will be like when a person changes his clothes. Paul used the words from Isaiah 25:8 to show that God’s victory over death was complete.
Christ’s last words on the cross were ‘It is finished’ (John 19:30). He had destroyed the power of death. God raised Christ from the dead. So he will also raise those who belong to Christ. So Paul ends his teaching about the resurrection with words of praise.
So..... when there is a complicated topic like Resurrection.... the commentaries are really long winded. When this happens.... I just have to remember.... if I get down in the weeds.... it'll be like solving for pi..... the more I solve the longer it gets and it doesn't really change a thing... pi is still pi.....
Back in Genesis.... when God was setting up the universe, the planet, the land, the seas, the plants, fish, birds, animals and then humans..... God knew how everything was going to work out. He knew.... because He controls time.... He can flip to the final chapter of the book while we are just the characters.
When God started carving humans..... He wanted them to be His companions. He talked about walking through a beautiful garden conversing with his smartest creation...... but man didn't listen..... and insisted on sinning right out of the gate.... so God had to throw humans out of the garden....and proceed with the back up plan..... conquering the death the humans caused when the didn't follow the rules.
Humans were always meant to live forever...... that's why God had to shut down the Garden..... because eternal life [it's described as the tree of life] would have been a catastrophic mistake if humans were to have no death. If an man has no fear..... everything can go horribly wrong. So Resurrection is the reset. It puts humans back to where they were before Adam decided he wanted to be God.
Paul says that people were Baptizing the dead. This is a complicated issue. Some Christian based religions in more modern times did this too..... sort of.... The Corinthians had this strange idea that since their family or friends had not believed.....or had not made a public statement of faith...... they could stand in for them... be baptized.... and that would allow their soul to go to that Heaven that Jesus talked about. In other words.... they were standing up for their dead relatives..... so that their dead relatives could have eternal life..... without having to make the right choice..... humans granting other humans immunity. Ignorant.....
If I had been born to this earth as a human..... but when I got to Heaven I was a green lizard...... what difference does it make? As a human I am like all the other humans.... and as a green lizard.... I would be like all the other green lizards...... I would be alive.... I don't care if I have a human body.... a wispy body..... or a body that I as an ignorant human can't describe..... I will be in Heaven.... and it will be as planned..... so Resurrection..... it's a good thing.... that can only be gifted..... I can't earn a resurrection...... but I can enjoy it.
