We, he says, turn out to be wrong, because we falsely testified about God that He raised the One whom He did not raise. Such a consequence follows if the dead do not rise. But if such a consequence is absurd, then it is also absurd to believe that the dead do not rise.
1 Cor. 15:16-17. For if the dead are not raised, then Christ has not been raised either. And if Christ has not been raised, your faith is vain: you are still in your sins.
Again he defends the same proposition. For He rose for the purpose of bringing about the universal resurrection. But if there is no resurrection, then He too has not risen; if this is admitted, then your faith is in vain: which is absurd. "You are still in your sins." If He has not risen, then He did not die, and if He did not die, then He did not destroy sin either: for His death is for the destruction of sin. For it is said: "Behold the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world" (Jn. 1:29). He called Him a Lamb, without a doubt, on account of the slaughter. But if sin has not been destroyed, then you certainly remain in it. How then did you come to believe that you have been delivered from it?
1 Cor. 15:18. Therefore those also who have fallen asleep in Christ have perished.
That is, those who died for Christ and bore witness to Him have perished, if there is no resurrection. And in general, all who died in the faith of Christ and in a life of hardship and affliction have perished, because they were deprived of worldly pleasures, and after this will receive no good thing, if there is no resurrection.
1 Cor. 15:19. And if we have hope in Christ only in this life, then we are more miserable than all men.
If, he says, all that is ours is limited to this present life and we who hope in Christ, that is, who have our hope in Christ, exist only in it, and there is no other life beyond, then we are more miserable than all, since we have neither enjoyed the good things of this life, as was said above, nor shall we receive the future ones, because we shall not even rise again, as some say. Perhaps someone will say: the soul alone will enjoy them. But why so? It was not the soul alone that labored, but the body too. Where then is the justice, if the body, which bore the greater part of the hardships, shall be turned to nothing and receive no good, while the soul alone shall be crowned?
1 Cor. 15:20. But Christ is risen from the dead, the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep.
Having shown how many absurdities arise from disbelief in the resurrection, he repeats the point and speaks as follows: this is what follows if there is no general resurrection—then Christ is not risen either. But Christ is risen. Therefore there will also be a general resurrection, and these absurdities will not occur. He constantly adds "from the dead" in order to shut the mouths of the Manichaeans. If He is the firstfruits from the dead, then without doubt they too must rise. For "firstfruits" implies those who follow after, as when one among many does something first, having begun it, and the rest continue it.
1 Cor. 15:21-22. For since death came through a man, through a man also came the resurrection of the dead. For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ shall all be made alive.
He adds the reason by which what was said is confirmed. It was necessary, he says, that the very nature which was defeated should itself be victorious, and that the very one who was cast down should himself overcome. For just as "in Adam," that is, through Adam's fall, all die, so "in Christ" all shall be made alive, that is, because Christ proved to be sinless and not subject to death, and although He died voluntarily, He rose again, because corruption could not hold Him, the Author of life (Acts 2:24). And all this is directed against the Manicheans.
1 Cor. 15:23. Each in his own order.
Lest, having heard that all shall be made alive, you should suppose that sinners also will be saved, he added: as far as the resurrection is concerned, all shall be made alive; but each will be "in his own order" and in that of which he is worthy.
1 Cor. 15:23-24. The firstfruits is Christ, then those who are Christ's, at His coming. And then the end.
Christ became the firstfruits and the path of resurrection. After Him, those who belong to Him, that is, the faithful and pleasing to Him, will rise before the rest, when He descends from heaven (this is what "at His coming" means), for it is just that the righteous have some precedence even in the resurrection itself. Since they will be caught up in the air to meet the Lord (1 Thess. 4:17), they will rise first. Meanwhile, sinners, as the condemned, will wait below for the Judge. Then comes the end of all things, and of the resurrection itself, because all without exception will rise. For now only Christ alone has risen, while human bodies have remained in their condition. But then it will not be so, but everything will reach its end.
1 Cor. 15:24. When He shall deliver the Kingdom to God and the Father.
Scripture knows two kingdoms: one by right of adoption, the other by right of creation. By right of creation He reigns over all, over Greeks, Jews, and over the demons themselves, and over those who do not wish it. By right of adoption He reigns over the faithful and the saints, who submit voluntarily. Of this kingdom it is said: "Ask of Me, and I will give You the nations for Your inheritance" (Ps. 2:8) and: "All authority has been given to Me" (Matt. 28:18); this is the kingdom He will deliver to the Father, that is, He will arrange it, bring it to completion. Let us imagine that some king entrusted his son with waging war against nations that had revolted from him; when the son has carried out the war and subdued those nations, then he can say that he has delivered the war to his father, that is, he has shown that the task entrusted to him is finished. So Paul says that when the Son has subdued all things, then the end will come. For Christ will fully reign over us when we are no longer divided between God and the prince of this world; He will, as it were, take back the kingdom seized by the tyrant and present it to the Father free.
1 Cor. 15:24. When He shall have abolished all rule and all authority and power.
That is, when He conquers and subdues the evil powers. For now they act very much, but then they will cease to act.
1 Cor. 15:25-26. For He must reign until He puts all enemies under His feet. And the last enemy to be destroyed is death.
Since he said that He will abolish the opposing powers and set up trophies, and someone might doubt and say, "perhaps He will grow weak while He does all this, and will not be able to accomplish it," he says that He will not grow weak, but He must reign, that is, conduct Himself as King and as the Mighty One, until He subdues His enemies, and the last of them — death. For He who subdued the devil will obviously also subdue his work — death. And from what would it be seen that it has been subdued, if it does not give up the bodies it has seized? For then properly will it be defeated, when its spoil too has been plundered. So, having heard that He will abolish all rule and authority, do not fear that He will grow weak and not do this: He will do all things, reigning and directing the war, until He subdues all. Do you see that the word "until" is placed not to negate what comes "after" this, but for the reason that has been stated? For, he says, His kingdom abides and will not weaken until He sets all things in order. All the more will it abide after He has set all things in order, for of His Kingdom there will be no end (Luke 1:33). Gregory the Theologian says that here "kingdom" refers to the fact that He brings about submission and places us under His dominion; therefore, when we submit to Him, such a kingdom of His — that is, the effort and activity of bringing us into submission to Him — will cease. For just as a builder is occupied with building until he has put on the roof, and afterward ceases the work of construction, so also the Son reigns, that is, establishes His kingdom in us, until we become His subjects.
1 Cor. 15:27. For He hath put all things under His feet. But when He saith all things are put under Him, it is manifest that He is excepted, which did put all things under Him.
Since he said of the Son that He will put down the enemies and raise a trophy, he feared lest they consider the Son some other unbegotten principle. Therefore he refers everything to the Father, saying that He subjected the enemies to the Son. And since he was writing to Greeks, among whom there was a tale that Zeus rose up against his Father, he says that everything is subjected to the Son, except the Father. For it is He who subjected everything else to the Son.
1 Cor. 15:28. And when all things shall be subdued unto Him, then shall the Son also Himself be subject unto Him that put all things under Him.
Lest anyone say that although the Father did not subject Himself to the Son, nevertheless nothing prevents the Son from being stronger than Him, he thoroughly demolishes such a supposition and says that the Son too will be subjected to the Father, showing the complete unity of mind of the Son with the Father. Therefore know that the Father is the cause and source of this power for the Son, and that the Son is not some other power opposed to the Father. If he used an expression more humble than was fitting, do not be surprised. For Paul, when he wishes to uproot something completely, customarily uses intensified expressions. For example, wishing to prove that a believing wife, living with an unbelieving husband, suffers no harm, he said that the unbelieving husband is sanctified by the wife (1 Cor. 7:14); he does not mean that the husband, remaining an unbeliever, becomes holy, but by the intensified expression he shows that the believing wife suffers no harm whatsoever. So here too, by the name of subjection, the wicked thought is uprooted completely — the thought that might arise in someone that the Son is perhaps stronger than the Father, if He can accomplish so many deeds. Gregory the Theologian, however, says that the Son, appropriating everything of ours to Himself, considers our subjection as His own. Now we resist God: unbelievers by not acknowledging Him, believers by the fact that many serve the passions, and for this reason we are not yet subjected. But when some acknowledge the One whom they now reject, and others — we — depart from the passions in this life, then without doubt it can be said that the Son has been subjected. For, having taken upon Himself the person of humanity, He imputes what is ours to Himself.