The Book of 1 Corinthians

Word Study

"gospel," Greek euangelion (εὐαγγέλιον). The word means good news, glad tidings; from it come our words evangel and evangelist. Paul here gives the clearest, most compact definition of the gospel in all of Scripture: "how that Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures; and that he was buried, and that he rose again the third day according to the scriptures." The euangelion is not first a set of ideas or a moral code but a series of historical facts about Jesus Christ, His atoning death, His burial, and His bodily resurrection, all "according to the scriptures," fulfilling what God had promised. This is the good news "by which also ye are saved." Everything Paul builds in this chapter rests on the fact at the heart of the gospel: Christ is risen. Strip away the resurrection and there is no good news; keep it, and death itself is undone. The gospel is the report of what God has done in Christ, and to believe it is to be saved.

Explanation

Paul restates "the gospel" on which they stand and by which they are saved, and it is grounded in history: "Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures; and... was buried, and... rose again the third day according to the scriptures." He was "seen of Cephas, then of the twelve," of "above five hundred brethren at once," and last "of me also, as of one born out of due time." The resurrection is no legend but attested by many living witnesses. And Paul owns his own transformation: "by the grace of God I am what I am," the former persecutor made an apostle by grace.

Gospel Focus

As Paul turns to the resurrection, he goes back to bedrock: "the gospel which I preached unto you, which also ye have received, and wherein ye stand; by which also ye are saved." The gospel is the ground they stand on and the power that saves them. And Paul states it as a fixed tradition he "received" and "delivered": "Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures; and... he was buried, and... he rose again the third day according to the scriptures." Four facts, each essential: Christ died, and His death was "for our sins," an atoning sacrifice, not a tragedy; He was buried, proving He truly died; He rose "the third day," a bodily resurrection; and all of it happened "according to the scriptures," fulfilling God's ancient promises. Then Paul piles up the eyewitnesses of the risen Lord: Cephas (Peter), "the twelve," "above five hundred brethren at once," most still living and able to be questioned, James, "all the apostles," and "last of all... me also." The resurrection is not a legend but an event attested by hundreds who saw the risen Christ. Paul adds his own testimony with humility: he is "the least of the apostles," unworthy because he "persecuted the church of God," yet "by the grace of God I am what I am." His changed life is itself evidence, and he gives all the credit to grace: "yet not I, but the grace of God which was with me." The gospel that raises the dead had raised him from the death of sin and made him its herald. This is the message all the apostles preached and the Corinthians believed: Christ crucified, buried, and risen.

Word Study

"vain," Greek kenos (κενός). The word means empty, hollow, without content or effect. Paul uses it to show what the faith becomes if Christ is not risen: "if Christ be not risen, then is our preaching vain, and your faith is also vain." An empty preaching and an empty faith, hollow words about nothing. Everything the gospel promises, forgiveness, hope, life beyond the grave, depends on the fact that Christ rose. If the resurrection is not true, then the apostles are "false witnesses," the dead in Christ have "perished," and believers are "of all men most miserable," pitiable people who staked everything on a lie. Paul is utterly honest: Christianity is not a set of comforting ideas that would be worth keeping even if untrue; it stands or falls on a fact. If Christ is not raised, faith is kenos, empty, and we are still "in our sins." But the whole force of the argument is to make the opposite blaze the brighter: because Christ is risen, our faith is full, our sins are forgiven, and our hope is sure.

Explanation

Paul confronts those denying a resurrection by showing what their view would destroy. "If there be no resurrection of the dead, then is Christ not risen" — and the dominoes fall: "our preaching [is] vain, and your faith is also vain," Paul is a false witness, "ye are yet in your sins," and the Christian dead "are perished." His conclusion is stark: "if in this life only we have hope in Christ, we are of all men most miserable." The whole gospel stands or falls with the empty tomb; deny the resurrection and nothing of Christianity is left.

Gospel Focus

Some at Corinth, influenced by Greek ideas that despised the body, were saying "there is no resurrection of the dead." Paul exposes what that denial really costs. He reasons relentlessly: if there is no resurrection of the dead as a principle, "then is Christ not risen," for Christ's resurrection is the supreme case. And "if Christ be not risen," watch the dominoes fall. "Then is our preaching vain, and your faith is also vain", empty, pointless. The apostles are exposed as "false witnesses of God," having claimed He raised Christ when He did not. Worse, "if Christ be not raised, your faith is vain; ye are yet in your sins", for it was the resurrection that proved the cross had conquered sin; without it, we remain unforgiven. And "they also which are fallen asleep in Christ are perished", the believing dead would simply be gone, with no hope. Paul's conclusion is stark: "if in this life only we have hope in Christ, we are of all men most miserable." A Christianity with no resurrection would make believers the most pitiable of people, sacrificing and suffering for nothing. Paul lets the full weight of the denial land, so that its emptiness is felt. Everything, forgiveness, hope, the salvation of the dead, hangs on this one fact. And that is exactly why the next words come as a trumpet blast of certainty. The resurrection is not a hopeful maybe; it is the fact on which the whole gospel rests, and Paul is about to declare it.

Word Study

"firstfruits," Greek aparche (ἀπαρχή). The word means the first portion of the harvest, offered to God, which both consecrated the whole crop and guaranteed that the full harvest was coming. "Now is Christ risen from the dead, and become the firstfruits of them that slept." Christ's resurrection is not an isolated wonder but the first sheaf of a great harvest; because He is raised, all who are His will surely be raised at His coming. His rising is the pledge and pattern of ours. On the difficult words that follow, "then shall the Son also himself be subject unto him that put all things under him, that God may be all in all," Scripture is not teaching that a second divine person is eternally lesser than the Father, for there is one God, and Jesus is that one God come in flesh. It speaks of the mediatorial work of the incarnation: the Son, God manifest in flesh, reigns as man until every enemy, last of all death, is subdued; then the mediatorial kingdom is "delivered up... to God," the office of the incarnate Mediator complete, "that God may be all in all", the one God fully manifest and supreme over all. The goal of the whole plan is that God, who was in Christ, be all in all. Christ the firstfruits secures it: because He lives, we shall live, and God shall be all in all.

Explanation

"But now is Christ risen from the dead, and become the firstfruits of them that slept." As the firstfruits guarantee the harvest, His rising guarantees ours. Paul sets the two heads of humanity side by side: "as in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive," each in his order. Christ reigns "till he hath put all enemies under his feet. The last enemy that shall be destroyed is death." The doctrine has practical force: if the dead rise not, why risk one's life for the gospel, and why not "eat and drink; for to morrow we die?" The resurrection is the ground of Christian courage and holiness.

Paul's passing phrase, "baptized for the dead," has puzzled readers for centuries, and some have even built a practice of proxy baptism upon it. But it cannot mean that the living may be baptized to save the dead, for Scripture is plain that "it is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the judgment" (Hebrews 9:27), and that each is saved through his own repentance and faith. Notice, too, that Paul suddenly shifts to the third person -- "why are they then baptized for the dead?" -- holding the custom at arm's length. His aim is not to endorse it but to argue from it: whatever men may intend by being baptized "for the dead," the act is empty "if the dead rise not at all." The verse is one more proof of the resurrection, never a doctrine of salvation for the departed. Most simply, believers are baptized in the hope of the resurrection of the dead; take that hope away, and baptism, courage, and daily dying for Christ all lose their meaning.

Gospel Focus

After the dark "if" comes the glorious "but": "now is Christ risen from the dead, and become the firstfruits of them that slept." The fact stands: Christ is raised, and His rising guarantees ours. Paul explains the logic through two representative men. "By man came death", through Adam's sin death entered the race, "by man came also the resurrection of the dead", through Christ, the new man, comes resurrection life. "For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive." All who are in Adam by birth share his death; all who are in Christ by the new birth share His life. There is an order: "Christ the firstfruits; afterward they that are Christ's at his coming." Then Paul looks to the end of all things: "then cometh the end, when he shall have delivered up the kingdom to God, even the Father," having "put down all rule and all authority and power." Christ "must reign, till he hath put all enemies under his feet," and "the last enemy that shall be destroyed is death." Death, the final foe, will itself be abolished at the resurrection. When all is subdued, the incarnate Son delivers up the mediatorial kingdom, "that God may be all in all", the one God, who was manifest in Christ, fully and forever supreme. This is not the subordination of a lesser God to a greater, for Jesus is Himself that one God in flesh; it is the completion of the plan of redemption, so that God is everything to everyone. From this towering hope Paul draws practical force: why would believers risk baptism, jeopardy, and daily death "if the dead rise not"? If there were no resurrection, the wisest course would be "let us eat and drink; for to morrow we die." But because there is, Paul warns, "be not deceived: evil communications corrupt good manners. Awake to righteousness, and sin not." The resurrection is not merely a comfort for the future but a summons to holy, purposeful living now.

Word Study

"a quickening spirit," Greek pneuma zoopoioun (πνεῦμα ζῳοποιοῦν), from zoopoieo. The verb means to make alive, to give life. "The first man Adam was made a living soul; the last Adam was made a quickening spirit", a life-giving spirit. Adam received life; Christ, the last Adam, gives life. This is a testimony to who Christ is, for to give life to the dead is the work of God alone. Paul calls Him "the second man... the Lord from heaven", not merely a man of earth like Adam, but the Lord Himself come from heaven, the one God in flesh, who has life in Himself and quickens whom He will (John 5:21, 26). Adam's descendants "bear the image of the earthy"; those who are Christ's "shall also bear the image of the heavenly," raised into the likeness of their risen Lord. So the resurrection is not a return to the old mortal life but a transformation: the body "sown in corruption" is "raised in incorruption," "sown in weakness... raised in power," "sown a natural body... raised a spiritual body." The last Adam, the life-giving Lord from heaven, will raise His people to share His own glorious, deathless life.

Explanation

To the question "How are the dead raised up? and with what body?" Paul answers with the seed: it must "die" and be sown to rise as something greater. So the resurrection body is gloriously transformed — "sown in corruption... raised in incorruption," "sown a natural body... raised a spiritual body." He contrasts the two Adams: "the first man Adam was made a living soul; the last Adam was made a quickening spirit." As we have borne "the image of the earthy," we "shall also bear the image of the heavenly." The resurrection is not resuscitation of the old but transformation into the likeness of the risen Christ.

Gospel Focus

A skeptic objects: "How are the dead raised up? and with what body do they come?" Paul answers first with a picture from nature: a seed. "That which thou sowest is not quickened, except it die", the seed must go into the ground and seem to perish, and what comes up is gloriously different from the bare grain sown, yet truly continuous with it. "God giveth it a body as it hath pleased him." So resurrection is neither the resuscitation of the old body unchanged nor the escape from body altogether, but the raising of a transformed body from what was buried. Paul notes the rich variety of bodies God has made, men, beasts, fish, birds, and the differing glory of sun, moon, and stars, to show that God can clothe the resurrection life in a body suited to its new state. Then he draws the contrasts: the body is "sown in corruption... raised in incorruption; sown in dishonour... raised in glory; sown in weakness... raised in power; sown a natural body... raised a spiritual body." The resurrection body is real and physical, yet no longer subject to decay, weakness, or death, a body perfectly fitted for the life of the Spirit. Paul roots this in the two representative men. "The first man Adam was made a living soul", he received natural life; "the last Adam", Christ, "was made a quickening spirit", He gives life. "The first man is of the earth, earthy; the second man is the Lord from heaven." Adam was of dust; Christ is the Lord Himself come from heaven. And here is the hope: "as we have borne the image of the earthy, we shall also bear the image of the heavenly." Just as we have shared Adam's mortal nature, those who are Christ's will be raised in the image of their heavenly Lord, glorious and deathless like Him. The One who gives that life is no mere man but the Lord from heaven, God come in flesh, who alone can raise the dead.

Word Study

"victory," Greek nikos (νῖκος). The word means victory, conquest, triumph. It rings out three times at the climax of the chapter: "Death is swallowed up in victory. O death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory?... thanks be to God, which giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ." Death, the last enemy, the terror of the whole human race, is not merely survived but conquered, "swallowed up," gone. Paul names death's weapon: "the sting of death is sin; and the strength of sin is the law", death has its power to wound because of sin, and sin draws its condemning strength from the law we have broken. But Christ met all three: He bore our sin, satisfied the law, and rose from the grave, so that for those in Him, death's sting is drawn and its victory reversed. And the nikos is not our achievement but God's gift: "God... giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ." The risen Lord who conquered death shares His triumph with all who are His. So the chapter ends not in fear of the grave but in a shout of victory, and a call to labor on, for in the Lord no work is ever "in vain."

Explanation

Paul unveils "a mystery": "We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed, in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump." The corruptible will "put on incorruption," mortality swallowed up in life, so that Scripture's taunt comes true: "O death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory?" — for "thanks be to God, which giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ." And the towering chapter lands on a practical charge: "be ye stedfast, unmoveable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, forasmuch as ye know that your labour is not in vain in the Lord."

Gospel Focus

Paul brings the great chapter to its climax. "Flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God", our present mortal, perishable bodies are not fit for the eternal kingdom; they must be transformed. Then he reveals "a mystery": not every believer will die before the Lord comes, "we shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed, in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump." At the sounding of the trumpet, "the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed." In an instant, "this corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality", the perishable clothed with the imperishable, the dying with deathless life. And when that happens, the ancient promise comes true: "Death is swallowed up in victory." Then Paul breaks into a taunt against the conquered foe: "O death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory?" Death once seemed to have the final word over every human life; now it is stripped and defeated. Paul explains how: "the sting of death is sin; and the strength of sin is the law." Death wounds because of sin, and sin condemns by the law; but Christ bore our sin, fulfilled the law, and rose again, so the sting is gone. And so the whole chapter ends in worship: "thanks be to God, which giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ." The victory over death is not earned but given, through the risen Lord. Therefore, Paul closes, the resurrection is not just doctrine to believe but strength to live by: "be ye stedfast, unmoveable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, forasmuch as ye know that your labour is not in vain in the Lord." Because Christ is risen and we shall rise, nothing done for Him is ever wasted. Stand firm, work on, and never lose heart, for death is defeated and the victory is ours in Jesus Christ.