{"collection":"Bible & Christianity","html_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/browse/bib/cmt/pnt/co1015.htm","path":"bib/cmt/pnt/co1015.htm","source_url":"https://sacred-texts.com/bib/cmt/pnt/co1015.htm","text":"The People's New Testament, B.W. Johnson, [1891]\nI declare unto you the gospel which I preached unto you. He states the fundamentals of that gospel as the basis of the argument he is about to make. That gospel was common ground, for they received it and still professed it.\nBy which, also, ye are saved. Are in a saved state unless you have forgotten the gospel preached and departed from it; that is, unless their faith is vain, which he shows would be the case if there was no resurrection. Observe the tact with which he first presents facts conceded by all the disciples, and upon these builds an impregnable argument. He next states those facts.\nFor I delivered unto you, first of all, that which I also received (Act 18:8). Note the three facts which Paul declares to be the gospel, or the facts on which it rests; viz: the death, the burial, and the resurrection. The facts Paul received by revelation (Gal 1:12) as well as from men.\nChrist died for our sins according to the scriptures. The fifty-third chapter of Isaiah is especially exact in the outlines of our Lord's suffering. He quotes it in Luk 22:37.\nThat he was buried and rose again the third day, according to the scriptures. Paul himself quotes Psa 16:10 as predicting the resurrection. See Act 13:35.\nThat he was seen of Cephas. He now gives the proof of these facts. The women saw Christ before Peter Cephas, but Paul names the witnesses who would carry most weight to the Corinthians. For the appearance to Peter, see Luk 24:34.\nThen of the twelve. See Mat 28:17 and Joh 20:19, Joh 20:25.\nAfter that he was seen of above five hundred brethren at once. No other account of this appearance is recorded. It is probable that it took place in Galilee where Christ repeatedly directed the disciples to gather. It is possible that Mat 28:16 refers to it. Paul had no doubt seen some of \"the five hundred brethren,\" \"the greater part\" of whom were still alive when he wrote.\nAfter that he was seen by James. James, the Lord's brother, not James the apostle. This James was prominent, when Paul wrote, as the chief bishop at Jerusalem (Act 15:13; Act 21:18) and the author of the epistle of James. James, the apostle, had been killed by Herod (Act 12:2).\nThen of all the apostles. See Luk 24:50.\nLast of all he was seen by me. See Act 9:4.\nFor I am the least of the apostles. As far as human worth is concerned, not fit to be called an apostle. He could never forget that he had been a persecutor.\nBut by the grace of God I am what I am. Not by his own merit, which he considered so small, but by God's grace he had been enabled to do a more abundant work than any other apostle.\nWhether it be I, or they. I and all the apostles preach the same gospel of a risen Lord and this you accepted when you believed. Their faith was built on the resurrection.\nHow say some . . that there is no resurrection of the dead. These seemed to admit that Christ was raised, but denied the resurrection of others. He now shows that if Christ be raised the general resurrection must follow as a result.\nIf there be . . then is Christ not risen. If persons once dying cannot be raised, as these false teachers say, then Christ could not have risen.\nThen is our preaching vain. For in that case we have preached what is false, and you have believed it, so that your faith is vain.\nWe are found false witnesses of God. In that case we have declared that God did what he never did do.\nIf Christ be not raised, your faith is vain. In that case he is not the Savior. He is a dead man, who could not even save himself. Such a one has no power to pardon sins, and ye are yet in your sins.\nThen they which are fallen asleep, etc. All the Christians who had died had fallen into eternal sleep. There is hope, in that case, only in this life; no hope of immortality.\nIf in this life, only, we have hope in Christ. If there is no life beyond, no hope of it, then Christians who deny themselves in this life and endure persecutions and sufferings for the sake of eternal life, are of all men the most miserable. They \"lose life\" and gain no eternal life. Such are the consequences of this false belief.\nBut now is Christ risen. This is certain. Paul had seen the risen Lord. So had many other credible witnesses. But since he is risen, the resurrection of his disciples must follow.\nHe is the first fruits of those who have slept in death. On the morrow after the first Sabbath of the passover a sheaf of the first fruits of the barley harvest was \"waved before the Lord\" (Lev 23:10-16) as a pledge of the harvest to come. So on the morning after the first Sabbath of the passover, Christ, the first fruits arose and appeared living, \"the first fruits\" of the great harvest of souls gathered into eternal life.\nSince by man came death. Man, the first man, sinned, and death came upon his race, because in him the race had sinned.\nBy man, also, came the resurrection. By Christ, the Son of Man.\nFor as in Adam all die, so in Christ shall all be made alive, etc. All the race in Adam became subject to death; so in Christ all the race shall be raised from the dead to appear at the bar of eternal judgment. The passage does not affirm the final salvation of all, but the final resurrection of all. There is a \"resurrection of the just and of the unjust.\"\nBut each in his own order. In his own rank or division. The first order or division is Christ. The second division is \"they that are Christ's,\" who will be raised at his coming. The time of the third division, the wicked, is not named, but hinted at in the beginning of the next verse (Co1 15:24). \"All that are in the grave shall come forth; they that have done good, unto the resurrection of life; and they that have done evil, to the resurrection of judgment.\" Joh 5:28-29. This is what Paul teaches here.\nThen cometh the end. The end follows soon after the resurrection of the saints.\nWhen he shall have delivered up the kingdom to God. See Co1 15:28. When Christ's work is accomplished he places all in the Father's hands.\nFor he must reign. He is reigning now, and will continue to reign until he has conquered all his enemies. He is not waging a contest for a kingdom, as some contend, but will give up the kingdom when the contest is over and the final victory won.\nAll enemies. All the wicked opposers, human and supernatural; also sin and death. All must be overthrown.\nThe last enemy . . . is death. See Rev 20:12-14. The order there of closing events is the resurrection, the judgment, and the casting of Death and Hell (hades--the grave) into the lake of fire.\nFor he put all things under his feet. Quoted from Psa 8:6; a statement that Christ is Lord of all and that God has subjected all to him.\nHe is excepted who, etc. God gave Christ the power, and hence he is excepted. The Father is not subject to the Son.\nWhen all things have been subjected. When the world is subdued to Christ.\nThen shall the son also himself be subjected. Then, as his work is done, he will give up the kingdom to the Father (Co1 15:24). Then Christ will give up the seals of office.\nElse what shall they do which are baptized for the dead? Paul again returns to the argument for the resurrection. This passage is difficult, and has received almost as many interpretations as there have been commentators. Some have held that there was a custom of baptizing living persons for the benefit of persons who had died without baptism. Had that custom existed, Paul would have rebuked it. It did arise afterwards, as an abuse from the misinterpretation of this passage, among the followers of Cerinthus, and, in our times, of Joseph Smith. I will try to make clear its meaning: (1) All the Corinthians were baptized (Act 18:8). (2) Their baptism was a \"planting\" in the likeness of the burial of Christ, and in the \"likeness of his resurrection\" (Rom 6:4-5). They were in, and raised from, a watery tomb. (3) Their baptism in the likeness of the death and resurrection of Christ was in hope of their own resurrection from the dead through Christ's resurrection. (Huper Nekroon, for, or on account of the dead, with the exception of resurrection from the dead.) But if Christ has not risen, and the dead rise not, this memorial and emblematic burial has no meaning. \"Why, then, are they baptized for the dead?\" that is, for the sake of their own resurrection from the dead. This interpretation harmonizes better with Paul's argument than any I have seen.\nWhy do we also stand in jeopardy every hour? What motive, if there is no hope beyond, can we apostles have for placing ourselves in constant peril by preaching the resurrection?\nI protest, . . . I die daily. I am in daily peril of death.\nIf, after the manner of men. Speaking humanly.\nI fought with beasts at Ephesus. Encountered furious opposition, like the rush of wild beasts. The allusion is hardly to be taken literally. If he had been thrown to wild beasts at Ephesus, some record would have been made of it in the record in Acts of his sojourn at Ephesus. Besides, a Roman citizen was preserved from that manner of death.\nWhat doth it profit me? All his sufferings are to no purpose if the dead rise not.\nLet us eat, drink, etc. All Epicurean maxim, a proverbial saying.\nAwake to righteousness. Such an error leads to Epicurean sensuality. Shake it off, that you sin not.\nSome have no knowledge of God. Such errors can only spring from ignorance of God and his power to raise men.\nBut some will say. But two difficulties are raised: How are the dead raised up? What kind of a body do they have?\nThou fool. The idea is, slow of understanding. Why cannot you learn the lesson nature teaches? The grain that thou sowest has to die and be dissolved before it comes forth in a new life. So the body must die and be dissolved.\nAnd that which thou sowest, etc. We sow, not the plant that comes forth, but only a bare seed.\nBut God giveth it a body, etc. To the seed planted God gives a new body, the stalk of wheat or corn, or whatever it may be. This new body bears no outward resemblance to the seed planted.\nAll flesh is not the same. All the different animals have bodies unlike, and suited to their conditions.\nThere are also celestial bodies and . . . terrestrial. These, too, have forms and glories, unlike, and suited to their condition. For instance: The sun has its own peculiar form and glory. So of the moon, and the stars. The thought is, that to every condition is given a form suited to that condition. Now an application is made of this thought in Co1 15:42.\nSo also is the resurrection of the dead. It is sown. Planted in burial in corruption. It goes to decay.\nIt is raised in incorruption. With a new body suited to the new condition of existence, which is incorruptible; cannot decay.\nIt is sown in dishonor. The dead body is repulsive, becomes offensive, and we bury it out of sight.\nIt is raised in glory. Has a glorious beauty.\nSown in weakness. All its powers exhausted.\nRaised in power. Endowed with heavenly energy.\nSown a natural body. A fleshly body with animal life.\nRaised a spiritual body. A body whose life principle is the spirit. Not a fleshly body, but a spiritual existence. We cannot comprehend the nature of this existence, but we can know that it is not a body of flesh, bones, and blood; perhaps not more material than the forms of the angels. See Co1 15:50.\nThe first man, Adam, was made a living soul. Gen 2:7. From him came our natural life.\nThe last Adam, Christ, of whom Adam was a type.\nA quickening spirit. By giving life to the dead, and imparting spiritual existence.\nHowbeit that is not first which is spiritual. The first Adam came before the second Adam. The natural body which proceeds from the first Adam is our tabernacle first; after this life comes the \"spiritual body,\" which the second Adam gives.\nThe first man is of the earth. Was fashioned out of the earth. Gen 2:7.\nThe second man is the Lord who came from heaven.\nAs is the earthy. All have earthly bodies like that of Adam.\nAs is the heavenly. When we are raised to heaven we shall have spiritual bodies like Christ's, not like the body he received from Mary, but the glorious body in which he appears to saints and angels on high. Do we ask what body we shall have? It shall be like Christ's glorious body. See Phi 3:21. Not of flesh and blood, for (Co1 15:50) flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God. If of flesh and blood, our bodies would be corruptible, and would not be suited to the eternal kingdom.\nBehold, I tell you a mystery. I disclose to you a secret of which you have had, hitherto, no knowledge.\nWe shall not all sleep. There will be some on the earth who shall be alive when Christ comes.\nBut we shall all be changed. The living who meet Christ, as well as the dead who are raised up. All shall be made immortal and incorruptible.\nIn a moment. The change will be instantaneous.\nAt the last trump. See Th1 4:16.\nThe trumpet shall sound. This signal for the close of all earthly things. See Mat 24:31.\nFor this incorruptible. For this corruptible body must give place to the incorruptible body; the mortal frame to an immortal one. One must be \"put off,\" the other \"put on.\" See Co2 5:2.\nThen shall be brought to pass the saying. See Isa 25:8. This is the final victory, the victory over death.\nO death, where is thy sting? This is quoted from Hos 13:14. It is here the triumphant shout of the apostle as he sees by faith the final victory over death.\nThe sting of death is sin. It is sin that gives death his power to sting and destroy. See Rom 6:23.\nThe power of sin is the law. The law, broken, is sin, and when this law is consciously broken the conscience is wounded. When a moral law is broken, moral death follows. If there was no law of any kind, there would be no sin, no wounded consciences, no moral death.\nThanks be to God. For the victory over sin and death through Christ.\nTherefore . . . be ye stedfast, unmoveable. Firm as a rock, devoted to Christian life, for their \"faith is not vain.\" Their labor is not vain in the Lord. Jesus Christ is The Resurrection and the Life. The hope of immortality hath sure foundations.","title":"The People's New Testament: 1 Corinthians: 1 Corinthians Chapter 15","type":"page"}