2. You will be saved by this message, if you hold firmly to it. But if you don't, your faith was all for nothing.
3. I told you the most important part of the message exactly as it was told to me. That part is:Christ died for our sins,as the Scriptures say.
4. He was buried,and three days laterhe was raised to life,as the Scriptures say.
5. Christ appeared to Peter,then to the twelve.
6. After this, he appearedto more than five hundredother followers.Most of them are still alive,but some have died.
7. He also appeared to James,and then to allthe apostles.
8. Finally, he appeared to me, even though I am like someone who was born at the wrong time.
9. I am the least important of all the apostles. In fact, I caused so much trouble for God's church that I don't even deserve to be called an apostle.
10. But God was kind! He made me what I am, and his wonderful kindness wasn't wasted. I worked much harder than any of the other apostles, although it was really God's kindness at work and not me.
11. But it doesn't matter if I preached or if they preached. All of you believed the message just the same.
12. If we preach that Christ was raised from death, how can some of you say that the dead will not be raised to life?
13. If they won't be raised to life, Christ himself wasn't raised to life.
14. And if Christ wasn't raised to life, our message is worthless, and so is your faith.
15. If the dead won't be raised to life, we have told lies about God by saying that he raised Christ to life, when he really did not.
16. So if the dead won't be raised to life, Christ wasn't raised to life.