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New Testament Reading - The Resurrection of the Dead

¹²But tell me this! Since you believe what we preach, that Christ rose from the dead, why are some of you saying that dead people will never come back to life again? ¹³ For if there is no resurrection of the dead, then Christ must still be dead. ¹⁴And if he is still dead, then all our preaching is useless and your trust in God is empty, worthless, hopeless; ¹⁵and we apostles are all liars because we have said that God raised Christ from the grave, and of course that isn’t true if the dead do not come back to life again. ¹⁶If they don’t, then Christ is still dead, ¹⁷and you are very foolish to keep on trusting God to save you, and you are still under condemnation for your sins; ¹⁸in that case, all Christians who have died are lost! ¹⁹And if being a Christian is of value to us only now in this life, we are the most miserable of creatures.

²⁰But the fact is that Christ did actually rise from the dead and has become the first of millions^a who will come back to life again someday.

1. Literally, “the firstfruits of them that are asleep.”