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1 Corinthians 15:50-56
The Voice
1 Corinthians 15:50-56
The Voice
Redemption is not merely forgiveness of sin’s guilt so our souls can go to heaven someday. Our true hope is to be free from physical death just as Jesus was raised from the dead. Accordingly, this hope of bodily resurrection stands against the expectation that souls escape from their mortal bodies (as if your soul is the real “you” and your body is a disposable external space suit) and merely float up to heaven. Rather, Paul presents resurrection as a new creation; and this restored bodily existence affirms and fulfills the original intent of creation. Believers don’t have to wait until the future to experience this Spirit-enabled life because living in obedience to God through the Spirit is a foretaste of the total experience that will come when all is restored later.
50 Now listen to this: brothers and sisters, this present body is not able to inherit the kingdom of God any more than decay can inherit that which lasts forever. 51 Stay close because I am going to tell you a mystery—something you may have trouble understanding: we will not all fall asleep in death, but we will all be transformed. 52 It will all happen so fast, in a blink, a mere flutter of the eye. The last trumpet will call, and the dead will be raised from their graves with a body that does not, cannot decay. All of us will be changed! 53 We’ll step out of our mortal clothes and slide into immortal bodies, replacing everything that is subject to death with eternal life. 54 And, when we are all redressed with bodies that do not, cannot decay, when we put immortality over our mortal frames, then it will be as Scripture says:
Life everlasting has victoriously swallowed death.[a]
55 Hey, Death! What happened to your big win?
Hey, Death! What happened to your sting?[b]
56 Sin came into this world, and death’s sting followed. Then sin took aim at the law and gained power over those who follow the law.
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1 Corinthians 15:50-56
New International Version
1 Corinthians 15:50-56
New International Version
50 I declare to you, brothers and sisters, that flesh and blood(A) cannot inherit the kingdom of God,(B) nor does the perishable inherit the imperishable.(C) 51 Listen, I tell you a mystery:(D) We will not all sleep,(E) but we will all be changed(F)— 52 in a flash, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound,(G) the dead(H) will be raised imperishable, and we will be changed. 53 For the perishable(I) must clothe itself with the imperishable,(J) and the mortal with immortality. 54 When the perishable has been clothed with the imperishable, and the mortal with immortality, then the saying that is written will come true: “Death has been swallowed up in victory.”[a](K)
56 The sting of death is sin,(M) and the power of sin is the law.(N)
Footnotes
- 1 Corinthians 15:54 Isaiah 25:8
- 1 Corinthians 15:55 Hosea 13:14
The Voice (VOICE)
The Voice Bible Copyright © 2012 Thomas Nelson, Inc. The Voice™ translation © 2012 Ecclesia Bible Society All rights reserved.
New International Version (NIV) 
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NIV Reverse Interlinear Bible: English to Hebrew and English to Greek. Copyright © 2019 by Zondervan.