1 Corinthians 15

Paul answers some in Corinth who denied the resurrection of the dead. He begins with the gospel itself: Christ died, was buried, rose, and was seen by many witnesses. Then he shows that without the resurrection everything collapses, explains what the raised body will be like, and ends with the shout of victory over death and a call to steady, hopeful work.

1 Corinthians 15:1-2

Paul reminds the Corinthians of the good news they first received and on which they have taken their stand. It saves them, as long as they keep holding to it. Faith that lets go of the message has no ground left under it.

BSA: hold firmly (“keep in memory, hold fast”): Saving faith is a continuing grip on what was preached, not a single moment that is then forgotten.

See also: Colossians 1:22-23.

1 Corinthians 15:3

Paul passes on what he himself was given: Christ died for our sins, as the Scriptures foretold. The death was not an accident or a tragedy. It was God’s plan, and it dealt with our sins on our behalf.

BSA: first importance (“a message of vital importance”): These facts are the center of the gospel, not side issues. died (“sacrificed, gave His life”): His death was a willing offering made for us.

Greek: παρέδωκα (paredōka, G3860) — “I handed over, delivered.” This is the word for passing along a trusted treasure. Paul did not invent the gospel. He received it and handed it on faithfully, unchanged.

See also: Isaiah 53:5-6.

1 Corinthians 15:4

Christ was really buried, which shows He really died. Then God raised Him on the third day, again as the Scriptures said. Burial and resurrection are physical events, not a symbol or a feeling.

BSA: raised (“brought back to life, caused to arise”): Jesus did not simply survive. God acted to bring Him up out of death.

See also: Hosea 6:2; Psalm 16:10.

1 Corinthians 15:5-7

Paul lists the witnesses: Peter, the Twelve, over five hundred at once, James, and all the apostles. Many of them were still alive and could be asked. The resurrection rests on eyewitnesses, not on rumor.

BSA: fallen asleep (“died, passed away”): Believers’ death is spoken of as sleep, a rest from which they will be woken.

1 Corinthians 15:8

Last of all, the risen Christ appeared to Paul, on the road to Damascus. Paul calls himself one born at the wrong time, as if something unformed and unexpected. He had no right to be an apostle, yet Christ met him.

BSA: untimely birth (“born out of due time, prematurely, as the least expected”): Paul sees himself as an unlikely, unready latecomer whom Christ called anyway.

Greek: ἐκτρώματι (ektrōmati, G1626) — “one born abnormally or too early.” It is a strong, almost harsh word, probably first thrown at Paul by critics. He takes it up humbly as a picture of how undeserving he was.

See also: Acts 9:1-6.

1 Corinthians 15:9-10

Paul admits he persecuted God’s church and is unworthy of the title apostle. Yet he is what he is by God’s grace, and that grace was not wasted. He worked hard, but he gives the credit to the grace that worked with him.

BSA: grace (“unmerited favor, divine influence”): Grace is both a gift he did not earn and a power that went on working in him.

Greek: χάρις (charis, G5485) — “grace, free favor.” For Paul grace is not only forgiveness. It is God’s undeserved help at work in daily labor, so that effort and grace are not rivals.

See also: Ephesians 2:8-9; Ephesians 3:8.

1 Corinthians 15:11

Whoever the preacher was, Paul or the other apostles, the message was the same, and the Corinthians believed it. The resurrection was part of what they had accepted from the beginning.

1 Corinthians 15:12

Here is the problem. Some in Corinth said there is no resurrection of the dead, yet they accepted that Christ was raised. Paul asks how both can be true. If Christ rose, then rising from death is possible.

1 Corinthians 15:13-15

Paul works out the logic. If no one can rise, then Christ did not rise. If Christ did not rise, the preaching is empty, faith is empty, and the apostles are lying about God. Everything stands or falls together.

BSA: worthless (“empty, without effect”): Without the resurrection the message would be a hollow box with nothing inside.

1 Corinthians 15:16-17

Paul repeats his point for emphasis. If Christ is still dead, faith has nothing to hold and sins are not forgiven. The resurrection is God’s seal that Christ’s death really did deal with sin.

BSA: futile (“empty, useless, vain”): Faith in a dead Christ would reach nothing and change nothing.

1 Corinthians 15:18-19

If there were no resurrection, believers who have died would be lost, and Christians would be the most pitiable of people. They have given up much in this life for a hope that would turn out to be false.

BSA: pitied (“considered miserable, worthy of sorrow”): A hope that ends at the grave would deserve sympathy, not admiration.

1 Corinthians 15:20

Now Paul turns with a joyful ‘But’. Christ has been raised, and He is the firstfruits. As the first ripe sheaf promises the full harvest, His rising promises that all who belong to Him will rise too.

BSA: firstfruits (“the beginning of a harvest, a pledge of more to come”): His resurrection is a guarantee that more will follow, not an isolated event.

Greek: ἀπαρχή (aparchē, G536) — “firstfruits, the first part of the harvest.” In Israel the first ripe grain was offered to God as a sign that the whole harvest was coming. Christ’s rising is that first sheaf.

See also: Leviticus 23:10-11.

1 Corinthians 15:21-22

One man, Adam, brought death into the human family. One man, Christ, brings resurrection. Adam stands at the head of all who share his nature, and Christ stands at the head of all who are joined to Him.

BSA: Adam (“the first man, humanity’s representative”): Adam acted for the whole race, and his fall affected everyone.

See also: Romans 5:12; Romans 5:17.

1 Corinthians 15:23

God’s plan has an order. Christ rose first. Those who belong to Him will rise when He comes. The resurrection of believers is tied to the return of Christ.

BSA: coming (“presence, arrival”): The word suggests the arrival of a king, with all that goes with it.

1 Corinthians 15:24-26

After this, the end comes. Christ gives the kingdom to the Father, having put down every hostile power. He reigns until every enemy is beaten, and the last enemy to fall is death itself.

BSA: destroyed (“abolished, made useless”): Hostile powers are not just defeated but stripped of all power to act.

Greek: καταργήσῃ (katargēsē, G2673) — “to put out of action, abolish.” The word means making something completely powerless. Death will not just be pushed back. It will be put out of work.

See also: Psalm 110:1; Revelation 21:4.

1 Corinthians 15:27-28

Scripture says God has put everything under the Son. The One who does the subjecting is obviously not Himself subject. At the end the Son hands all back to the Father, so that God is everything to everyone. This shows the Son’s loyal obedience to the Father, not any lack in Him.

BSA: subject (“submit, obey”): The Son’s willing submission completes the work and presents the victory to the Father.

See also: Psalm 8:6.

1 Corinthians 15:29

This is one of the most puzzling verses in the Bible. Some in Corinth were being baptized in connection with the dead, and Paul uses this only as an argument: such a practice makes no sense if there is no resurrection. He neither explains nor recommends it. Christians have understood it in several ways.

BSA: baptized (“immersed, fully wet”): The word describes being plunged under, a picture of death and rising.

1 Corinthians 15:30-32

Paul’s own life shows he believes in the resurrection. He faces danger every hour and risks death daily. If the dead do not rise, that would be foolish, and the sensible motto would be to eat and drink, for tomorrow we die.

BSA: boast (“take pride, glory”): Paul’s daily dying is matched by his pride in the Corinthians’ faith. wild beasts (“like a gladiator, with fierce people”): It may be a vivid picture of savage opposition in Ephesus.

Greek: ἐθηριομάχησα (ethēriomachēsa, G2341) — “I fought with wild beasts.” The word comes from the arena. Paul may mean it literally or as a picture of fierce enemies, but either way he lived under mortal threat.

See also: Isaiah 22:13.

1 Corinthians 15:33-34

Paul warns against being misled. Casual company with people who deny the resurrection wears away good habits. He tells them to wake up from their stupor and stop sinning. Some have no real knowledge of God, and he says so to stir them.

BSA: Sober up (“awake to righteousness, come to your senses”): He calls them out of a drowsy, careless state into clear thinking.

Greek: ἐκνήψατε (eknēpsate, G1594) — “wake up from drunkenness, become sober.” It pictures someone shaking off a stupor. Wrong ideas about the resurrection had dulled their moral judgment.

1 Corinthians 15:35-37

Someone asks how the dead are raised and what kind of body they will have. Paul answers sharply with a picture from a garden. A seed must be buried and die before it grows, and what comes up is not the bare seed you planted.

BSA: dies (“to stop living, pass away, undergo death”): In the seed’s case, death is the doorway to a fuller life.

See also: John 12:24.

1 Corinthians 15:38-41

God gives each seed the body He chooses. Creation is full of different kinds of bodies and different kinds of glory, from fish and birds to sun, moon and stars. So the God who made them can give us a body fit for the life to come.

BSA: designed (“purposed, willed”): The new body is not an accident of nature but the result of God’s own choice. splendor (“glory, honor”): Each kind of body has its own brightness, so different does not mean lesser.

1 Corinthians 15:42-44

Paul sets the old and new side by side. Our body is sown in decay, dishonor and weakness, and raised in imperishable glory and power. It is sown a natural body and raised a spiritual one, meaning one fully ruled and empowered by God’s Spirit.

BSA: perishable (“corruptible, subject to decay”): Our present body is on a path toward decay, but the raised body is not. natural (“worldly, fleshly”): It describes a body suited to this present life, not a body made of lesser stuff.

Greek: ψυχικόν (psychikon, G5591) — “natural, belonging to ordinary soul-life.” It describes a body fitted for life in this world as it is. ‘Spiritual’ here does not mean unreal or ghostly, but a body suited to the age of the Spirit.

See also: Philippians 3:20-21.

1 Corinthians 15:45-49

Two men head two families. Adam was made from dust and became a living being. Christ, the last Adam, gives life. We have borne Adam’s likeness, shaped by earth, and we will bear Christ’s likeness, shaped by heaven.

BSA: life-giving (“quickening, vivifying”): Christ does not just have life. He imparts it to others. likeness (“image, representation”): We will not just resemble Christ. We will carry His image.

Greek: ζῳοποιοῦν (zōopoioun, G2227) — “making alive, giving life.” Adam received life. The last Adam is a source of life and passes it on to His people.

See also: Genesis 2:7; Romans 8:29.

1 Corinthians 15:50

Our present flesh-and-blood bodies, as they are, cannot enter God’s final kingdom. What decays cannot inherit what never decays. A change is needed, and that is what the resurrection and the transformation provide.

BSA: inherit (“receive as a gift, possess”): The kingdom is a gift received, not something our natural strength can win.

1 Corinthians 15:51-52

Paul shares a mystery, a truth now revealed: not all will die, but all will be changed. It will happen in a moment, at the last trumpet. The dead will rise imperishable, and the living will be changed too.

BSA: mystery (“secret, hidden truth”): It is something hidden until God revealed it, not something puzzling or vague. twinkling (“shutting, blink”): It points to how swift the change will be.

Greek: ἀτόμῳ (atomō, G823) — “indivisible, a moment that cannot be cut smaller.” The English word ‘atom’ comes from it. Paul means a moment too small to divide, a time with no pause in it.

See also: 1 Thessalonians 4:16-17.

1 Corinthians 15:53-54

What decays must put on what cannot decay, and what dies must put on deathlessness, like putting on clothing. When that happens, the word of Scripture comes true: death is swallowed up in victory.

BSA: swallowed up (“totally conquered, overcome”): Death is not merely defeated but completely consumed, leaving nothing of it.

Greek: κατεπόθη (katepothē, G2666) — “was swallowed down.” It pictures death being gulped down whole. The enemy that swallows everyone is itself swallowed.

See also: Isaiah 25:8.

1 Corinthians 15:55-56

Paul now taunts death. Its victory and its sting are gone. The sting of death is sin, which gives death its poison, and the law shows sin for what it is and makes us accountable. Christ has dealt with both.

BSA: sting (“sharp point, painful wound, causing sorrow”): Death hurts because of what stands behind it, our guilt before God. law (“set of rules, divine standard”): The law reveals God’s standard, and by it sin is exposed and condemned.

See also: Hosea 13:14; Romans 7:7-13.

1 Corinthians 15:57

Victory over sin and death is not something we win ourselves. God gives it to us through our Lord Jesus Christ. The right response is thanks.

BSA: victory (“triumph, conquest”): It is the winning of a battle that Christ has fought for us.

See also: Romans 8:37.

1 Corinthians 15:58

Because the resurrection is sure, nothing done for the Lord is wasted. So Paul calls his dear friends to stay firm and keep giving themselves fully to the Lord’s work. The future guarantees that present labor counts.

BSA: steadfast (“firm, unshakeable”): They are to stay settled like something rooted in place. immovable (“unwavering, firmly established”): Hope in the resurrection holds them in place when pressure comes.

Greek: ἑδραῖοι (hedraioi, G1476) — “seated, firmly settled.” It describes someone sitting firmly in place. The resurrection hope gives believers a solid seat that cannot be pushed out.

See also: Hebrews 6:10.