1 corinthians 15 (NMV)
1 Now I want to make known to you, brothers and sisters, the good news that I proclaimed to you, which you received, on which you have taken your stand,
2 and by which you are being saved, if you hold firmly to the message I proclaimed to you, unless you believed in vain.
3 For I passed on to you as most important what I also received: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures,
4 that He was buried, that He was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures,
5 and that He appeared to Cephas, then to the twelve.
6 After that, He appeared to more than five hundred brothers and sisters at once, most of whom are still alive, though some have died.
7 Then He appeared to James, then to all the apostles.
8 Last of all, as to one born at the wrong time, He appeared also to me.
9 For I am the least of the apostles, not even worthy to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the church of God.
10 But by the grace of God I am what I am, and His grace to me was not wasted. No, I worked harder than all of them, yet not I, but the grace of God that was with me.
11 Whether it is I or they, this is what we proclaim, and this is what you believed.
12 Now if it is proclaimed that Christ has been raised from the dead, how can some of you say there is no resurrection of the dead?
13 If there is no resurrection of the dead, then Christ has not been raised either.
14 And if Christ has not been raised, then our preaching is meaningless, and your faith is also meaningless.
15 In fact, we are found to be false witnesses about God, because we testified about God that He raised Christ, whom He did not raise if indeed the dead are not raised.
16 For if the dead are not raised, then Christ has not been raised either.
17 And if Christ has not been raised, your faith is useless and you are still in your sins.
18 Then those who have died in Christ have perished.
19 If our confident expectation in Christ is only for this life, we are to be pitied more than all people.
20 But now Christ has been raised from the dead, the firstfruits of those who have died.
21 For since death came through a man, the resurrection of the dead also comes through a man.
22 For just as in Adam all die, so also in Christ all will be made alive.
23 But each in turn: Christ, the firstfruits; then, when He comes, those who belong to Christ.
24 Then the end will come, when He hands over the kingdom to God the Father after He has abolished all rule and all authority and power.
25 For He must reign until He has put all His enemies under His feet.
26 The last enemy to be destroyed is death.
27 For "God has put everything under His feet." Now when it says "everything" is put under Him, it is obvious that this does not include the One who put everything under Him.
28 When everything is subject to Him, then the Son Himself will also be made subject to the One who subjected everything to Him, so that God may be all in all.
29 Otherwise, what will those do who are baptized for the dead? If the dead are not raised at all, why are people baptized for them?
30 And why are we in danger every hour?
31 I face death every day, yes, just as surely as I take pride in you, brothers and sisters, in Christ Jesus our Lord.
32 If I fought wild beasts in Ephesus with only human motives, what did I gain? If the dead are not raised, "Let us eat and drink, for tomorrow we die."
33 Do not be deceived: "Bad company corrupts good character."
34 Come to your senses and stop sinning, for some of you are ignorant of God, I say this to your shame.
35 But someone will ask, "How are the dead raised? What kind of body will they have?"
36 You foolish person! What you sow does not come to life unless it dies.
37 And what you sow is not the body that will be, but only a bare seed, perhaps of wheat or something else.
38 But God gives it a body as He wills, and to each kind of seed its own body.
39 Not all flesh is the same: people have one kind of flesh, animals another, birds another, and fish another.
40 There are heavenly bodies and earthly bodies, but the splendor of the heavenly is of one kind, and the splendor of the earthly is of another.
41 The sun has one kind of splendor, the moon another, and the stars yet another, and even among the stars, each differs in its brightness. In the same way, the bodies we will have in the resurrection will differ in their glory.
42 So also is the resurrection of the dead: the body is sown perishable, it is raised imperishable;
43 it is sown in dishonor, it is raised in glory; it is sown in weakness, it is raised in power;
44 it is sown a natural body, it is raised a spiritual body. If there is a natural body, there is also a spiritual body.
45 So it is written: "The first man Adam became a living being"; the last Adam became a life-giving spirit.
46 The spiritual did not come first, but the natural, and then the spiritual.
47 The first man was from the earth, made of dust; the second man is from heaven.
48 Like the man made of dust, so are those who are made of dust; and like the heavenly man, so are those who are heavenly.
49 And just as we have borne the image of the man of dust, we will also bear the image of the heavenly man.
50 Now I declare this, brothers and sisters: Flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God, nor does what is perishable inherit what is imperishable.
51 Listen, I am telling you a mystery: We will not all die, but we will all be changed,
52 in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised imperishable, and we will be changed.
53 For this perishable body must put on the imperishable, and this mortal body must put on immortality.
54 When this perishable body has put on the imperishable, and this mortal body has put on immortality, then the saying that is written will come to pass: "Death has been swallowed up in victory."
55 "Where, O death, is your victory? Where, O death, is your sting?"
56 The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the Old Covenant Law.
57 But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.
58 Therefore, my dear brothers and sisters, be steadfast, immovable, always excelling in the work of the Lord, because you know that your labor in the Lord is not in vain.