9. All the other apostles are greater than I am. I say this because I persecuted the church of God. That is why I am not even good enough to be called an apostle.
10. But, because of God’s grace, that is what I am. And his grace that he gave me was not wasted. I worked harder than all the other apostles. (But I was not really the one working. It was God’s grace that was with me.)
11. So then it is not important if I told you God’s message or if it was the other apostles who told you—we all tell people the same message, and this is what you believed.
12. We tell everyone that Christ was raised from death. So why do some of you say that people will not be raised from death?
13. If no one will ever be raised from death, then Christ has never been raised.
14. And if Christ has never been raised, then the message we tell is worth nothing. And your faith is worth nothing.
15. And we will also be guilty of lying about God, because we have told people about him, saying that he raised Christ from death. And if no one is raised from death, then God never raised Christ from death.
16. If those who have died are not raised, then Christ has not been raised either.
17. And if Christ has not been raised from death, then your faith is for nothing; you are still guilty of your sins.
18. And those in Christ who have already died are lost.
19. If our hope in Christ is only for this life here on earth, then people should feel more sorry for us than for anyone else.
20. But Christ really has been raised from death—the first one of all those who will be raised.
21. Death comes to people because of what one man did. But now there is resurrection from death because of another man.
22. I mean that in Adam all of us die. And in the same way, in Christ all of us will be made alive again.