1 Corinthians 15

ST. PAUL’S NINTH RESPONSE:

IN REPLY TO THE DENIAL OF THE RESURRECTION, 1 Corinthians 15:1-58.

This chapter crowns the climax of the epistles with the fullest defence and sublimest description of the resurrection contained in revelation. It forms a response, not to any letter of inquiry of the Corinthians, but to an intelligence received that there were among the Corinthians deniers of the resurrection.

St. Paul answers them by showing that such a denial is a contradiction, and destruction of the very foundations of the Christian system as unanimously stated by the apostles of Christ, and as received by the then Catholic Church:

1. He states the historical doctrines of Christianity, as narrated by the apostles, of Christ’s atoning death, burial, and especially the six resurrection appearances of the risen Christ, as reported by veritable apostolic witnesses, (1 Corinthians 15:1-10.)

2. The object of this firm and formal statement is covered, until suddenly (1 Corinthians 15:11-19) he arraigns the deniers of the resurrection, and places them at once in uncompromising issue with fundamental historical Christianity, of which the resurrection of Christ is the basis. It is maintained and shown to be a life and death contest.

3. He then eloquently reaffirms Christ’s resurrection, and, by sublime apostolic apocalypse, states the organic position of the universal resurrection and its sequents in God’s system of human destiny, (1 Corinthians 15:20-28.)

4. He then retraces, as if in continuance of 1 Corinthians 15:1-10, the devastating consequences of denying the resurrection upon all their hopes, and all the motives for their heroic Christianity, (1 Corinthians 15:29-35.)

So far the positive argument. It is not “a demonstration of the resurrection” as based upon nature, philosophy, or logic, but a showing that its denial is a deadly contradiction to the very foundations of the Christian system. Christianity or that denial must die.

The second part meets a Gnostic objection based on the inherent evil of matter, and the consequent baseness of our present material body as unworthy of resurrection in any form. To this Paul gives a reply based on nature, showing that matter is not necessarily degraded; but that, composed of the same matter, there may be glorious as well as inglorious bodies, (1 Corinthians 15:35-41.) He draws a brilliant contrast, in a series of antitheses, between the body corruptible and the body glorified, admitting in conclusion that it is only by a change in the properties of our present body, from inglorious to glorious, that a resurrection can take place, (1 Corinthians 15:42-49.)

The third part is another apocalypse, revealing prophetically the glories of the Christian resurrection, and inferring a closing lesson of firmness and energy for his Corinthian brethren, (1 Corinthians 15:50-58.)