To understand this verse you need to go back to verse 20 and carry it till verse 31..
15:20 The tension is relieved as Paul triumphantly announces the fact of the resurrection of Christ and of the blessed consequences that follow. But now Christ is risen from the dead, ... the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep. There is a difference in the Scripture between the resurrection of the dead and the resurrection from the dead. The previous verses have been dealing with the resurrection of the dead. In other words, Paul has been arguing in a general way that the dead do indeed rise. But Christ rose from the dead. This means that when He rose, not all the dead rose. In this sense it was a limited resurrection. Every resurrection is a resurrection of the dead, but only that of Christ and of believers is a resurrection from among dead people. Does this make sense so far??
15:21 It was by man that death first came into the world. That man was Adam. Through his sin, death came upon all men. God sent His Son into the world as a Man in order to undo the work of the first man and to raise believers to a state of blessedness such as they could never have known in Adam. Thus it was by the Man Christ Jesus that there came the resurrection of the dead. With me so far?
15:22 Adam and Christ are presented as federal heads. This means that they acted for other people. And all who are related to them are affected by their actions. All who are descended from Adam die. So in Christ all shall be made alive. This verse has sometimes been taken to teach universal salvation. It is argued that the same ones who die in Adam will be made alive in Christ, and that all will eventually be saved. But that is not what the verse says. The key expressions are in Adam and in Christ. All who are in Adam die. All who are in Christ shall be made alive, that is, only believers in the Lord Jesus Christ will be raised from the dead to dwell eternally with Him. The all who shall be made alive is defined in verse 23 as those who are Christ’s at His Coming. It does not include Christ’s enemies, for they shall be put under His feet (v. 25), which, as someone has said, is a strange name for heaven.
15:23 Next we have the groups or classes involved in the first resurrection. First is the resurrection of Christ Himself. He is spoken of here as the firstfruits. Firstfruits were a handful of ripened grain from the harvest field before the actual harvest started. They were a pledge, a guarantee, a foretaste of what was to follow. The expression does not necessarily mean that Christ was the first one to rise. We have instances of resurrection in the OT, and the cases of Lazarus, the widow’s son, and Jairus’ daughter in the NT. But Christ’s resurrection was different from all of these in that, whereas they rose to die again, Christ rose to die no more. He rose to live in the power of an endless life. He rose with a glorified body.
The second class in the first resurrection is described as those who are Christ’s at His coming. This includes those who will be raised at the time of the Rapture, and also those believers who will die during the Tribulation and will be raised at the end of that time of trouble, when Christ comes back to reign. Just as there are stages in the coming of Christ, so there will be stages in the resurrection of His saints. The first resurrection does not include all who have ever died, but only those who have died with faith in Christ.
Some teach that only those Christians who have been faithful to Christ, or who have been overcomers will be raised at this time, but the Scriptures are very clear in refuting this. All who are Christ’s will be raised at His coming.
15:24 The expression then comes the end refers, we believe, to the end of the resurrection. At the close of Christ’s Millennial Reign, when He shall have put down all His enemies, there will be the resurrection of the wicked dead. This is the last resurrection ever to take place. All who have ever died in unbelief will stand before the Judgment of the Great White Throne to hear their doom.
After the Millennium and the destruction of Satan (Rev. 20:7–10), the Lord Jesus will deliver the kingdom to God the Father. By that time He will have abolished all rule and all authority and power. Up to this time the Lord Jesus Christ has been reigning as the Son of Man, serving as God’s Mediator. At the end of the thousand-year reign, God’s purposes on earth will have been perfectly accomplished. All opposition will have been put down and all enemies destroyed. The reign of Christ as Son of Man will then give way to the eternal kingdom in heaven. His reign as Son of God in heaven will continue forever.
15:25 Verse 25 emphasizes what has just been said, namely, that Christ’s reign will continue until every trace of rebellion and enmity has been put down.
15:26 Even during Christ’s Millennial Reign, people will continue to die, especially those who openly rebel against the Lord. But at the Judgment of the Great White Throne, death and Hades will be cast into the Lake of Fire.
15:27 God has decreed that all things shall be put under the feet of the Lord Jesus. Of course, in putting all things under Him, God necessarily excepted Himself. Verse 27 is rather hard to follow because it is not clear to whom each pronoun is referring. We might paraphrase it as follows: “For God has put all things under Christ’s feet. But when God says, all things are put under Christ, it is obvious that God is ex cluded, who put all things under Christ.†(This is another verse people use to try and deny Christ his deity.)
15:28 God has made Christ ruler, administrator of all His plans and counsels. All authority and power is put in His hands.
15:29 Verse 29 is perhaps one of the most difficult and obscure verses in all the Bible. Many explanations have been offered as to its meaning. For instance, it is contended by some that living believers may be baptized for those who have died without having undergone this rite. Such a meaning is quite foreign to the Scriptures. It is based on a single verse and must be rejected, not having the collective support of other Scripture. Others believe that baptism for the dead means that in baptism we reckon ourselves to have died. This is a possible meaning, but it does not fit in too well with the context.
The interpretation which seems to suit the context best is this: At the time Paul wrote, there was fierce persecution against those who took a public stand for Christ. This persecution was especially vicious at the time of their baptism. It often happened that those who publicly proclaimed their faith in Christ in the waters of baptism were martyred shortly thereafter. But did this stop others from being saved and from taking their place in baptism? Not at all. It seemed as though there were always new replacements coming along to fill up the ranks of those who had been martyred. As they stepped into the waters of baptism, in a very real sense they were being baptized for, or in the place of (Gk. huper) the dead. Hence the dead here refers to those who died as a result of their bold witness for Christ. Now the apostle’s argument here is that it would be foolish to be thus baptized to fill up the ranks of those who had died if there is no such thing as resurrection from the dead. It would be like sending replacement troops to fill up the ranks of an army that is fighting a lost cause. It would be like fighting on in a hopeless situation. If the dead do not rise at all, why then are they baptized for the dead?
15:30 And why do we stand in jeopardy every hour? The Apostle Paul was constantly exposed to danger. Because of his fearlessness in preaching Christ, he made enemies wherever he went. Secret plots were hatched against him in an effort to take his life. He could have avoided all this by abandoning his profession of Christ. In fact, it would have been wise for him to abandon it if there was no such thing as resurrection from the dead.
15:31 I affirm, by the boasting in you which I have in Christ Jesus our Lord, I die daily might be paraphrased: “As suely as I rejoice over you as my children in Christ Jesus, every day of my life I am exposed to death.â€Â
I will leave it at that.
Jg
