The Resurrection
For since death came through a man, the resurrection of the dead comes also through a man. 1 Corinthians 15:21 · Berean Standard Bible
Just as the first human brought death into the world, so one human—Jesus—brings resurrection. The problem and the solution both come through humanity.
Paul is responding to people in Corinth who doubted the resurrection. Some were saying the dead don't rise at all. Paul traces the logic back to basics: Adam's sin introduced death to everyone, so it makes sense that another human would be the one to undo it.
Paul, writing to the Corinthian church
This connects Genesis 3 (Adam's fall) with the gospel message. Jesus doesn't come as some abstract force—He comes as a real human, the second Adam, to reverse what the first Adam broke.
Just as death entered the human family through Adam's sin, resurrection power enters through Christ, the God-man who reverses Adam's catastrophic failure.
Paul is addressing Corinthian believers who apparently doubted resurrection altogether, perhaps influenced by Greek philosophical dualism that viewed the body as inherently inferior or expendable. They needed to understand that resurrection isn't a Platonic escape from matter but a recapitulation — a reversal of the cosmic damage Adam initiated. The logic here is stark: one man brought death; one man brings life.
Paul, writing to the church at Corinth
This verse crystallizes the theological arc from Genesis 3 through Christ — the Fall narrative finds its answer in the Incarnation. Just as Romans 5 will elaborate, Christ as the second Adam (the eschatos Adam, in Paul's terminology) undoes what the first Adam accomplished. This is not merely individual salvation but cosmic reversal.
19If our hope in Christ is for this life alone, we are to be pitied more than all men.
20But Christ has indeed been raised from the dead, the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep.
21For since death came through a man, the resurrection of the dead comes also through a man.
22For as in Adam all die, so in Christ all will be made alive.
23But each in his own turn: Christ the firstfruits; then at His coming, those who belong to Him.
Read all of 1 Corinthians 15 — If Christ has not been raised, Paul says, everything falls apart. But He has — and that changes everything.
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