1Now, brothers and sisters, I remind you of the gospel I preached to you. You received it, and you stand in it.
2By it you are also saved, if you hold on to what I preached to you. Otherwise you have believed for nothing.
3For I passed on to you first of all what I also received: that Christ died for our sins, as the scriptures said;
4and that he was buried; and that he rose again the third day, as the scriptures said;
5and that he was seen by Cephas, and then by the twelve.
6After that he was seen by more than five hundred brothers and sisters at one time. Most of them are still alive, but some have fallen asleep.
7After that he was seen by James, then by all the apostles.
8Last of all he was seen by me too, as by someone born at the wrong time.
9For I am the least of the apostles. I am not fit to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the church of God.
10But by the grace of God I am what I am. His grace given to me was not wasted. I worked harder than all of them - yet it was not I, but the grace of God which was with me.
11So whether it was I or they, this is what we preach, and this is what you believed.
12Now if it is preached that Christ rose from the dead, how can some among you say there is no resurrection of the dead?
13If there is no resurrection of the dead, then Christ has not been raised.
14And if Christ has not been raised, then our preaching is empty, and your faith is empty too.
15More than that, we are found to be false witnesses about God. For we testified about God that he raised up Christ - and he did not raise him, if the dead are not raised.
16For if the dead are not raised, then Christ has not been raised.
17And if Christ has not been raised, your faith is empty; you are still in your sins.
18Then those also who have fallen asleep in Christ have perished.
19If our hope in Christ is only for this life, we are the most miserable of all people.
20But in fact Christ has risen from the dead. He has become the firstfruits of those who slept.
21For since death came by a man, the resurrection of the dead also came by a man.
22For as in Adam all die, so in Christ all will be made alive.
23But each one in his own order: Christ the firstfruits; then, at his coming, those who belong to Christ.
24Then comes the end, when he hands over the kingdom to God the Father, when he has put down all rule and all authority and power.
25For he must reign until he has put all enemies under his feet.
26The last enemy to be destroyed is death.
27For he has put all things under his feet. But when it says that all things are put under him, it is clear that this does not include the One who put all things under him.
28And when all things have been brought under him, then the Son himself will also be subject to the One who put all things under him, so that God may be all in all.
29Otherwise, what will they do who are baptized for the dead, if the dead are not raised at all? Why then are they baptized for the dead?
30And why do we stand in danger every hour?
31I declare it by the pride I have in you in Christ Jesus our Lord: I die daily.
32If I fought with beasts at Ephesus in a merely human way, what good does it do me, if the dead are not raised? Let us eat and drink, for tomorrow we die.
33Do not be deceived: bad company ruins good conduct.
34Wake up to righteousness, and do not sin. For some have no knowledge of God. I say this to your shame.
35But someone will say, "How are the dead raised up? And with what kind of body do they come?"
36You fool. What you sow does not come to life unless it dies.
37And what you sow is not the body that will be, but a bare grain - perhaps of wheat, or of some other grain.
38But God gives it a body as he has chosen, and to every seed its own body.
39Not all flesh is the same flesh. There is one kind of flesh of people, another flesh of animals, another of fish, and another of birds.
40There are also heavenly bodies and earthly bodies. But the glory of the heavenly is one kind, and the glory of the earthly is another.
41There is one glory of the sun, another glory of the moon, and another glory of the stars; for one star differs from another star in glory.
42So it is with the resurrection of the dead. The body is sown in decay; it is raised without decay.
43It is sown in dishonour; it is raised in glory. It is sown in weakness; it is raised in power.
44It is sown a natural body; it is raised a spiritual body. There is a natural body, and there is a spiritual body.
45And so it is written, "The first man Adam was made a living soul." The last Adam was made a life-giving spirit.
46But the spiritual did not come first; the natural came first, and afterward the spiritual.
47The first man is of the earth, made of dust. The second man is the Lord from heaven.
48As the man of dust was, so are those who are of dust; and as the heavenly man is, so are those who are heavenly.
49And as we have borne the image of the man of dust, we shall also bear the image of the heavenly man.
50Now I say this, brothers and sisters: flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God, and what decays cannot inherit what does not decay.
51Look, I tell you a mystery. We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed,
52in a moment, in the blink of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised free from decay, and we shall be changed.
53For this body that decays must put on what does not decay, and this body that dies must put on immortality.
54So when this body that decays has put on what does not decay, and this body that dies has put on immortality, then the saying that is written will come true: "Death is swallowed up in victory."
55"O death, where is your sting? O grave, where is your victory?"
56The sting of death is sin, and the strength of sin is the law.
57But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.
58Therefore, my dear brothers and sisters, be steady and immovable. Always give yourselves fully to the work of the Lord, because you know that your labour in the Lord is not wasted.