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I was not worthy to become an apostle, but the Lord Jesus committed to me the message about his death and resurrection.
1 Corinthians 15:1-11
1 Now, my fellow believers, I want to remind you about the message about Christ that I preached to you. It is the message that you received and that you have continued to trust firmly. 2 If you keep on firmly believing this message that I preached to you, you will be saved {God will save you}. If you do not continue to believe it, your believing in Christ was ◄all for nothing/useless►!
3 The most important part of the message that I received from the Lord Jesus, and that I told you, was this: Christ died to take away the guilt of our sins, as the Scriptures said that he would do. 4 His dead body was buried {They buried his body}. On the third day after that, God caused him to become alive again, as the Scriptures said would happen. 5 After that, Christ was seen by {appeared to} Peter. Then he appeared to eleven of the original twelve apostles. 6 Later he was seen by {appeared to} more than 500 of our fellow believers. Most of those are still living, but some of them have died [EUP]. 7 Then he was seen by {appeared to} his younger brother James, who became the leader of the congregation in Jerusalem. Then he appeared to all of the apostles. 8 Finally, he was seen by {appeared to} me, but I became an apostle in a way that was very unusual [MET]. 9 The fact is, I consider that I am the least important of the apostles. I do not deserve to be an apostle, because I ◄persecuted God’s groups of believers/caused God’s groups of believers to suffer► everywhere I went. 10 But it is because God acted kindly toward me in ways that I did not deserve that I became what I am now. And his acting kindly toward me produced a great result [LIT], which is that I worked harder for Christ than all the other apostles. But it was not that I was working with my own ability. Instead, God was helping me in a way I did not deserve. 11 So it does not matter whether it was I who was preaching or whether it was the other apostles who were preaching. We all preached the same message, and that message is what you believed.
Christ has truly come back to life, and he will some day raise all believers.
1 Corinthians 15:12-34
12 So now let me ask you this: Since we have all preached to you that Christ was raised again {that God caused Christ to become alive} after he died, ◄no one among you should be saying that God will not cause believers to become alive again after they die!/why do some of you say that God will not cause believers to become alive again after they die?► [RHQ] 13 If it is true that God will not cause anyone to become alive again, that situation would mean that Christ was not raised from the dead {he did not cause Christ to become alive again}! 14 And if Christ was not raised from the dead {if God did not cause Christ to become alive again}, then what we preached to you was useless, and your believing in Christ is useless. 15 If it is true that no one will be raised from the dead {that God will not cause anyone to become alive again after he dies}, we (exc) have been guilty of lying to you about God, because we told you that God caused Christ to become alive again. 16 But if it were really true that no one who has died will be raised {that God will not cause anyone who has died to become alive} again, then Christ was not raised {he did not cause Christ to become alive} again either! 17 If it were true that Christ was not raised {that God did not cause Christ to become alive} again after he died, you have believed in Christ for nothing, because God will still punish you for [MTY] your sins. 18 And those people who died [EUP] while they were trusting in Christ will go to hell. 19 In this life many of us have suffered much for Christ because we confidently expect that he will reward us in heaven. If we have confidently expected this in vain, people should pity us more than they pity anyone else!
20 But the truth is that Christ has been raised from the dead {that God has caused Christ to live again after he had died}, and ◄that guarantees/because of that, it is certain► [MET] that he will also cause those believers who have died [EUP] to become alive again. 21 What one man, Adam, did affects us all. We all die. Similarly, what one man—Christ—did affects us(inc) all: God will cause all believers to become alive again. 22 Because of what Adam did, all of us who are descended from him die. Similarly, because of what Christ did, all of us who have a close relationship with him will be brought back to life {God will make alive all of us who have a close relationship with Christ}. 23 But we must all take our turn. God raised Christ first [MET]. And when Christ returns, God will cause those who belong to Christ to become alive again. 24 Then, after Christ has destroyed all [DOU] the evil powers that oppose God, the world will end. Then Christ will give to God, his Father, his kingdom to completely rule over it. 25 You must realize that Christ must rule here on earth until he has completely defeated [MTY] all his enemies. 26 The last thing that he will get rid of is death. But he certainly will get rid of death, which is like an enemy to us. 27 In the Scriptures the Psalmist wrote that God will cause everything to be under Christ’s authority [MTY]. But it is clear that the word ‘everything’ here does not include God, because God is the one who will cause everything to be under Christ’s authority [MTY]. 28 After everything is put under the authority of God’s Son, then Christ will put himself completely under the authority of God, the one who gave him that authority. Then God will be completely in control of everything [IDM], everywhere.
29 Now think about this: Some among you are being baptized (OR, are baptizing people) on behalf of those who died before someone baptized them (OR, who died before they became believers). If, as some people say, believers will not be raised from the dead {God will not cause believers to become alive again}, ◄what is the value in those people doing that?/there is no value in those people doing that!► [RHQ] If God will not cause any believers to become alive again, it is senseless to be baptized {baptize anyone} on behalf of someone who has died. [RHQ] 30 Furthermore, if God will not cause us believers to become alive again, it is [RHQ] very foolish for me and the other apostles to be constantly putting ourselves in danger because we tell people the gospel. 31 My fellow believers, every day I am in danger of being killed {people killing me}! That is as true as it is that I am pleased with you because of your close relationship with Christ Jesus our Lord. 32 If God will not cause us believers to become alive again after we die, ◄I will receive no benefit at all from having opposed those who attacked me so strongly in Ephesus city./what will I gain from having opposed those who attacked me so strongly in Ephesus city?► [RHQ] They were fighting me like wild beasts! If we believers will not be raised from the dead {If God will not cause us believers to live again}, we might as well say as people often say: “Tomorrow we are going to die, so we might as well enjoy now everything that we can. We might as well feast and get drunk!” 33 Do not let yourselves be deceived by those who say that God will not cause believers to live again {Do not let people who say that God will not cause believers to live again deceive you}. If you associate with evil people who say such things, they will ◄influence you to do evil things/destroy your good moral way of living►. 34 Start thinking correctly again about these matters, as you should, and stop your sinful behavior which has resulted from your wrong thinking. I say that because it seems that some among you do not know God, and as a result they are thinking wrongly. I say that to make you ashamed.
In heaven we will have glorious indestructible bodies.
1 Corinthians 15:35-58
35 But some of you are asking, “How will dead people be raised {How will God cause dead people to become alive} again? What kind of bodies will they have?” 36 Anyone who asks such questions is foolish. You know that a seed that is planted in the ground must completely change its form [MET] before it sprouts. 37 A seed, such as a wheat seed, is very different from the plant that sprouts from it. 38 God gives everything that lives the form that he desires. He gives each seed its own form. 39 Similarly, people, animals, birds, and fish all have flesh, but each one has a different kind of flesh. 40 Also, there are angelic beings in heaven (OR, stars and planets in the sky), and there are people with bodies on the earth. The angelic beings (OR, stars and planets) are beautiful in one way, and people on earth are beautiful in a different way. 41 The sun is bright in one way, and the moon is bright in a different way, and the stars are bright in a different way. And even the various stars are different from each other in how bright they are.
42 And it is the same way with our bodies. The bodies that we will have when God causes us to live again after we die will not be the same as the bodies that we have now [MET]. The bodies that we have now will die and decay. The new bodies that we will have will never die. 43 We despise the bodies that we have now, before we die. But our new bodies will be glorious. The bodies that we have before we die are weak. But our new bodies will be strong. 44 The bodies that we have before we die are natural bodies. But our new bodies will be ones that God’s Spirit ◄controls/gives us►. Just like there are natural bodies, there are bodies that God’s Spirit completely controls (OR, makes alive).
45 In the Scriptures it is written {we read} that when the first man, Adam, was created, he became a living human being. Christ later also became a human being. But he is different from Adam, because he became a person who gives us spiritual life. 46 But our bodies that God’s Spirit ◄will completely control/will give us► are not the first bodies that we have. We have our natural bodies first. 47 The first man, Adam, was created {God created the first man, Adam} from the dust of the earth. But Christ, the one who came later, came from heaven. 48 Everyone on earth has a body like the first man on the earth had. And in heaven, everyone will have a body like Christ, the man who came from heaven, has. 49 And just like God gave us bodies like the first man on earth had, so we believers will have bodies like Christ has, who is now in heaven.
50 My fellow believers, I want you to know that we (inc) [SYN] cannot go to heaven, where God rules over everything, with our physical bodies, because our bodies cannot last forever. They will die and decay. 51 But I will tell you something that God has not revealed before: Some of us believers will not die [EUP]. However, all of us will be changed {God will change all of us}. 52 It will happen suddenly, as fast as someone can blink his eye [MET], when we hear the sound of God’s trumpet for the last time. When we hear that trumpet, all the believers who have died will come back to life and will have bodies that are changed {that God has changed}, bodies that will never decay. 53 And the bodies of us who are alive at that time will also be changed {And God will also change the bodies of us who are alive at that time}. These bodies of ours that die and decay must be transformed into new bodies that will never die; it will be like someone [MET] getting rid of his old clothes and putting on new ones. 54 When that happens, what is written {what ◄a prophet/Isaiah► wrote} in the Scriptures will come true/happen:
God will completely get rid of [MET] death. Our dying will no longer have any power to defeat us; 55 Death [APO] will not win a victory over us. Death will not be able to hurt us.
56 It is because we sin [MET] that we die, and it is because we have God’s laws that we know that we have sinned. 57 But because of what our Lord Jesus Christ has done, he enables us to be free from having to obey God’s laws to be saved and to be free of being afraid to die. We should thank God for that!
58 So, my fellow believers whom I love, continue to hold strongly to the things that you believe. Do not let anything cause you to doubt them. Always be doing enthusiastically the work that the Lord gives you. And remember that the work that you do for the Lord is never ◄in vain/useless►, as it would be if God will not cause us to live again after we die.

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© 2008-2017 Ellis W. Deibler, Jr.