1 Corinthians 15 is the chapter that talks about resurrection and vivification. It tells that death is abolished (:26), swallowed up in victory (:54) and that therefore, because there will be no more death, vivification will be the ultimate part of every human being (:22,28).
It has happened to me a number of times that when I bring this up, I am told that I am skipping verses 1 and 2 of the same chapter. That’s strange. The above verses are so clear, would Paul say something different in earlier verses?
1 Corinthians 15
1 I preach the gospel to you, brothers, that I evangelize to you, which you also accepted, in which you also stand,
2 whereby you will also be saved, if you hold fast to the words with which I evangelize you, unless of course you believe for the sake of appearances.
lost?
Especially in the words “by which you will also be saved, if you hold fast to the words with which I evangelize to you”, one seems to read as if the Corinthians could still be lost. And people then reason: lost forever. So the continuation of the argument is: “all in Adam” are not the same all as “all in Christ” (:22), death is not annulled (:26), but always remains and as God became “all in all ” (:28), this is only in a very limited part of humanity.
believers
But the Corinthians were believers (see 15:1, but also 1:2, etc), so that cannot be the meaning anyway. Paul’s reason for writing this great chapter is that there were among the Corinthians who said that there is no resurrection of the dead (:12).
Paul shows in the following verses how foolish this idea is. If that is the case, then Christ has not been raised (:13) and the gospel is empty and without content (:14). Then the proclamation of Paul and the other apostles is also without content (:14) and the faith of the Corinthians is empty, without content (:17). All who fell asleep in Christ perished (:18) and there is no salvation from death.
To those people who said there is no resurrection of the dead, Paul said:
1 I declare the gospel to you, brothers (…)
2 whereby you will also be saved, if you hold fast to the words with which I evangelize you, unless of course you believe for the sake of appearances.
vivification = gospel!
If you believe that you will not be resurrected, then you do not believe that you are saved. The very fact that you are saved means that you are saved from death. And hence, whoever does not believe this, believes in vain and his faith is meaningless. What do you mean, “there is no resurrection of the dead”? The message of the gospel is precisely that death will be abolished and imperishable life has been brought to light through Christ Jesus (2 Tim. 1:10). And indeed, for every person! (1 Cor.15:22,28).
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