Here in this portion of 1 Corinthians, Paul deals primarily with this matter of the resurrection body, that is, the nature of the kind of body that we are going to have in the resurrection. He did that, presumably, because that was the chief question in the minds of the Greek people here to whom he was writing. I mentioned in an earlier study of Paul’s epistle how this difficulty with the resurrection grew naturally out of Greek philosophical thought. Every culture has its own way of thinking about ultimate things, though not always articulately.

Yesterday we examined some explanations for the idea of being baptized for the dead as found in 1 Corinthians 15:29. There is yet another explanation that I will mention briefly. Some have said that it has to do with our being baptized for Christ who has died, i.e., in honor of Christ who has died. The problem with this explanation is that Christ is singular, and the terminology of this particular portion of 1 Corinthians 15 is plural. Paul is referring to numerous people so that does not seem to fit.

What are the qualifications of an apostle? First, an apostle had to have seen the risen Lord; and second, an apostle had to have been commissioned by the risen Lord. In the case of the early disciples, they had been with the Lord during the three years of his public ministry, and then he had appeared to them after his resurrection. In Paul's case, he had not been among that band of disciples, but Jesus had appeared to him on the road to Damascus to commission Paul as an apostle.

Our study has brought us to the great chapter of the New Testament on the Resurrection, the fifteenth chapter of 1 Corinthians. In the first eleven verses of the chapter Paul reminded the believers at Corinth what they had been taught; namely, that the Lord Jesus Christ was crucified for our sins. Then, according to the Scriptures, he was buried and raised again on the third day, and he was observed by up to five hundred people, most of whom were still living at the time of his letter. So, anyone in doubt about the truth of the Resurrection needed only to go and talk to those who were eyewitnesses of the resurrected Christ.

Paul continues in his Gospel presentation by saying that this great fact of the Resurrection is well attested historically. There are many evidences for it, he says, and chief among these evidences is the fact that Jesus appeared to Peter and then to the twelve. After that he appeared to more than five hundred of the brothers at the same time, most of who were still living, though some had died. And then he appeared to James, then to all the apostles. And last of all, he appeared to Paul "as to one abnormally born."