1 Corinthians 15:3-22

3I received the good news from Christ, and I told that message to you. I told you the most important things: Christ died as a sacrifice for our sins. The Bible already said how that would happen.

4People buried his dead body. On the third day after that God raised him up to live again. The Bible already spoke about that too.

5After that, Christ appeared to Peter. Later, he appeared to his 12 disciples.

6And after that, he appeared to more than 500 believers at the same time. Most of those 500 people are still alive, but some of them have died.

7Then Christ appeared to James. Later he appeared to all the apostles.

8After all these people had seen him, Christ also appeared to me. I was like someone who was born at the wrong time.

9Among all the apostles, I am the least important. I caused so much trouble for God's church that people should not really call me an apostle.

10But God was very kind to me. He helped me to become a different person. And because God has been so kind to me, the result has been great. I have worked more than all the other apostles. But it was not really I myself who could do that work. No, I could do it because God was so kind to me.

11So then, all of us apostles teach the same good news about Christ. That is the message that you have believed. It does not matter which of us told it to you, whether it was me or someone else.

12We all speak this message: God raised Christ up after his death. But some of you say that dead people do not live again.

13Anyone who says that is wrong. If dead people do not live again, then Christ did not rise up after his death. He would still be dead.

14And if God did not raise Christ up, it does no good for us to tell God's good news to people. There would be nothing for you to believe.

15We would have been telling lies about God, because we told you that God raised Christ up after his death. But if dead people do not live again, that would not be true.

16So, if dead people never rise to a new life, then Christ himself did not rise after his death.

17And if Christ did not rise, then you have believed a false message. God would still say that you are guilty, because of your sins.

18Also, think about those people who believed in Christ but they have already died. If dead people do not rise to a new life, those people would have no life with God.

19As believers, we trust Christ to lead us into a new life after death. But if we only trust him to help us in this life, we should be very sad. Everybody should be very sorry for us, more than for anyone else.

20But it is really true that God raised Christ up after his death. He rose up to go to God in heaven. He was the first, so we know that believers who die will also rise up.

21All people die because of what one man did. That was Adam. And it is because of another man that people can rise up after death to a new life. That is Christ.

22As people, all of us belong to Adam's family. So all of us must die. But all people who belong to Christ will live again after death.