Immerse: Messiah - Flipbook - Page 158
146
IMMERSE
•
MESSIAH
15:20-41
But in fact, Christ has been raised from the dead. He is the first of a great
harvest of all who have died.
So you see, just as death came into the world through a man, now
the resurrection from the dead has begun through another man. Just as
everyone dies because we all belong to Adam, everyone who belongs to
Christ will be given new life. But there is an order to this resurrection:
Christ was raised as the first of the harvest; then all who belong to Christ
will be raised when he comes back.
After that the end will come, when he will turn the Kingdom over to
God the Father, having destroyed every ruler and authority and power. For
Christ must reign until he humbles all his enemies beneath his feet. And
the last enemy to be destroyed is death. For the Scriptures say, “God has
put all things under his authority.” (Of course, when it says “all things are
under his authority,” that does not include God himself, who gave Christ
his authority.) Then, when all things are under his authority, the Son will
put himself under God’s authority, so that God, who gave his Son authority over all things, will be utterly supreme over everything everywhere.
If the dead will not be raised, what point is there in people being baptized for those who are dead? Why do it unless the dead will someday rise
again?
And why should we ourselves risk our lives hour by hour? For I swear,
dear brothers and sisters, that I face death daily. This is as certain as my
pride in what Christ Jesus our Lord has done in you. And what value was
there in fighting wild beasts—those people of Ephesus—if there will be
no resurrection from the dead? And if there is no resurrection, “Let’s feast
and drink, for tomorrow we die!” Don’t be fooled by those who say such
things, for “bad company corrupts good character.” Think carefully about
what is right, and stop sinning. For to your shame I say that some of you
don’t know God at all.
But someone may ask, “How will the dead be raised? What kind of bodies
will they have?” What a foolish question! When you put a seed into the
ground, it doesn’t grow into a plant unless it dies first. And what you put
in the ground is not the plant that will grow, but only a bare seed of wheat
or whatever you are planting. Then God gives it the new body he wants
it to have. A different plant grows from each kind of seed. Similarly there
are different kinds of flesh—one kind for humans, another for animals,
another for birds, and another for fish.
There are also bodies in the heavens and bodies on the earth. The glory
of the heavenly bodies is different from the glory of the earthly bodies.
The sun has one kind of glory, while the moon and stars each have another
kind. And even the stars differ from each other in their glory.
