15:1 Now what I’m telling you, brothers and sisters, is the Gospel I delivered to you and you accepted, and in which you have stood

15:2 and are saved— that is, unless you never really took it to heart and your faith wasn’t genuine.

15:3 What I first handed over to you is what I too had accepted: that the Anointed died for our failures according to the scriptures,

15:4 and that he was buried, and that he has been raised the third day according to the scriptures,

15:5 and that he was then seen by Cephas and then the Twelve.

15:6 After that he was seen by over five hundred sisters and brothers at one time, most of whom are still alive, although some have been laid to rest.

15:7 Then he was seen by James, then all the rest of the Ambassadors,

15:8 and last of all by me, as if I were some kind of miscarriage.

15:9 For I am the least of the Ambassadors and don’t even deserve to be called one, because I persecuted the Congregation of God.

15:10 Yet by his favor I am what I am. And his favor was not without results in me, but in fact I worked harder than all of them— but of course not I, but the favor of God that was with me.

15:11 So then, no matter who it is, we have proclaimed and so you believed.

15:12 Now if the Anointed is being proclaimed as having risen from the dead, how is it that some of you are reported as saying there is no such resurrection?

15:13 If that can’t happen, then neither did the Anointed rise—

15:14 and if that’s true then both our proclamation and your faith was for nothing!

15:15 What’s more, we are then guilty as false witnesses of God, seeing that we have testified before God that he raised the Anointed— which couldn’t have happened if the dead are not raised.

15:16 Once again: if the dead are not raised then neither was the Anointed.

15:17 And if he wasn’t raised then your faith is worthless and you are still in your failures.

15:18 Consequently, those believers united with the Anointed who have been laid to rest are gone forever.

15:19 If our hope in the Anointed is only for this life, then we are the most pitiful people of all!

15:20 Yet the Anointed has in fact risen from the dead, the first harvest of them.

15:21 For since death came through a human, the resurrection of the dead also comes through a human.

15:22 Just as we all die because of Adam, so also we will all be made alive because of the Anointed—

15:23 yet each in turn: the Anointed as the first harvest, then those belonging to the Anointed upon his arrival,

15:24 and finally the completion when he hands over the kingdom to God the Father and neutralizes all rule and authority and power.

15:25 For he must reign until he places all opponents under his feet,

15:26 and the last opponent to be neutralized is Death.

15:27 “Everything was aligned under his feet.” Now when it is said that all has been aligned under his feet, it is obvious that this excludes the One who put them there.

15:28 But when everything aligns with the Son, then he himself will be aligned with the One who aligned everything to him, so that everything will be in God.

15:29 Otherwise, what’s the point of immersing people concerning the dead? If the dead are not raised, what is that for?

15:30 And why are we always taking risks?

15:31 Brothers and sisters, I swear by your reason to boast— Anointed Jesus our Master— that I’m continually dying!

15:32 If I fought wild animals in Ephesus for purely human reasons, then what did I gain? If the dead don’t rise, then we might as well just go on eating and drinking, for tomorrow we are to die!

15:33 Now don’t be fooled; “being intimate with evil corrupts good habits,”

15:34 so wake up! Live righteously and don’t fail, because some are ignorant of God— and I say this to your shame.

15:35 But someone will ask, “How are the dead raised? What kind of body will they have?”

15:36 Dimwit! The seed you plant will not live unless it first dies.

15:37 And the form you plant is not the form that will rise but only a plain kernel of grain or whatever.

15:38 Yet God has decided to assign a unique form to each seed.

15:39 They are not all the same: humans have one kind of flesh, livestock another, birds another, and fish still another.

15:40 There are celestial bodies and terrestrial bodies; the celestial bodies have one characteristic and the terrestrial bodies have another.

15:41 The sun and moon each have their own qualities, and one star differs from another.

15:42 And so it is with the resurrection of the dead. A dead body is buried in mortality but raised in immortality;

15:43 it is buried in dishonor but raised in honor; it is buried in weakness but raised in power;

15:44 it is buried as a soulish body but raised as a spiritual body. It follows, then, that if there is a soulish body there must also be a spiritual one,

15:45 and so it is written: “The first human, Adam, became a living soul.” The Last Adam is a life-giving Spirit.

15:46 But the soulish must come before the spiritual.

15:47 The first person was from the earth but the second Person was from heaven.

15:48 All the earthy are like the earthy one, but all the heavenly are like the Heavenly One.

15:49 And just as we bore the image of the earthy one, we will also bear the image of the Heavenly One.

15:50 What I am trying to tell you, brothers and sisters, is that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God, and the mortal cannot inherit the immortal.

15:51 Look, I’m telling you a secret: We will not all be laid to rest but we will all be transformed!—

15:52 in an instant, in the blink of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised immortal and we will be transformed.

15:53 This mortal, the dying, must be clothed with immortality.

15:54 And when this happens then the written word will be fulfilled: “Death was swallowed by conquest!”

15:55 “Death, where is your conquest? Death, where is your stinger?”

15:56 Death’s stinger is Failure, and Failure’s power is the Law.

15:57 But thank God, who gives us the conquest by means of our Master Jesus the Anointed!

15:58 So then, dear sisters and brothers, become settled and immovable. Excel in the work of the Master, and always remember that your labor for the Master is not wasted.