Now I want to make clear for you, brothers
and sisters, the gospel that I preached to you, that you received
and on which you stand, and by which you are being saved, if you
hold firmly to the message I preached to you — unless you believed
in vain.
For I passed on to you as of first importance
what I also received — that Christ died for our sins according
to the scriptures, and that he was buried, and that he was raised
on the third day according to the scriptures, and that he appeared
to Cephas, then to the twelve. Then he appeared to more than five
hundred brothers and sisters at one time, most of whom are still
living, though some have fallen asleep.
Then he appeared to James, then to all
the apostles. Last of all, as though to one born at the wrong time,
he appeared to me also. For I am the least of the apostles, unworthy
to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the church of God.
Yet by the grace of God I am what I am, and his grace to me has
not been in vain. In fact, I worked harder than all of them —
yet not I, but the grace of God with me.
Whether then it was I or they, this is
the way we preach and this is the way you believed. (1 Corinthians
15:1-11 - NET)
