And by which you are saved, if you hold fast and keep firmly what I preached to you, unless you believed at first without effect and all for nothing.
For I passed on to you first of all what I also had received, that the Messiah, the Anointed One died for our sins in accordance with [what] the Scriptures [foretold], [Isa 53:5-12]
That He was buried, that He arose on the third day as the Scriptures foretold, [Psa 16:9-10]
And [also] that He appeared to Cephas (Peter), then to the Twelve.
Then later He showed Himself to more than five hundred brethren at one time, the majority of whom are still alive, but some have fallen asleep [in death].
Afterward He was seen by James, then by all the apostles (the special messengers),
And last of all He appeared to me also, as to one prematurely and born dead [no better than an unperfected fetus among living men].
For I am the least [worthy] of the apostles, who am not fit or deserving to be called an apostle, because I once wronged and pursued and molested the church of the Almighty Creator [oppressing it with cruelty and violence].
But by the grace (the unmerited favor and blessing) of the Almighty Creator I am what I am, and His grace toward me was not [found to be] for nothing (fruitless and without effect). In fact, I worked harder than all of them [the apostles], though it was not really I, but the grace (the unmerited favor and blessing) of the Almighty Creator which was with me.
So, whether then it was I or they, this is what we preach and this is what you believed [what you adhered to, trusted in, and relied on].
The Resurrection of the Dead
But now if the Messiah is preached as raised from the dead, how is it that some of you say that there is no resurrection of the dead?
But if there is no resurrection of the dead, then the Messiah has not risen; And if the Messiah has not risen, then our preaching is in vain [it amounts to nothing] and your faith is devoid of truth and is fruitless (without effect, empty, imaginary, and unfounded).
We are even discovered to be misrepresenting the Almighty Creator, for we testified of Him that He raised the Messiah, Whom He did not raise in case it is true that the dead are not raised.
