1 Corinthians 15:51-52
What is written? (ESV)
Behold! I tell you a mystery. We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed, in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised imperishable, and we shall be changed.
What does it say?
Pay attention! I (Paul) am telling you a mystery. We shall not all die, but we all will be changed in an instant at the last trumpet. For when the trumpet sounds, the dead will be raised imperishable, and we shall be changed.
What is its immediate context?
Paul is making his great defense of the resurrection of Christ. Some were denying the bodily resurrection from the dead (vss 12-19) which Paul refutes based on the fact that Jesus was raised in the body to live again.
How 1 Corinthians 15:51-52 is applied across Bible answers
What happens when Jesus returns?
A trumpet will sound at His coming, when the faithful will be "raised imperishable" (e.g. unable to die or decay) and "changed".
Will there be a physical bodily resurrection?
Paul states that we all (the physically dead and living) will be "raised" (resurrected) and "changed" at the "last trumpet".
The importance of understanding our resurrection and its nature is prefaced by and connected to "the gospel" Paul preached and us not believing "in vain" (vss 1-2). Furthermore, the entire chapter is clearly contemplating a physical bodily resurrection throughout given Paul's argument:
- starts with affirming Jesus' own physical bodily resurrection (vss 12-19),
- compares Adam's physical bodily death ("fallen asleep") with ours (vss 20-23) and contrasts with Jesus' physical bodily resurrection,
- affirms the "last enemy" which is physical bodily death (vs 26).
