In Chapter 15 of the First Letter to the Corinthians, St. Paul defended the doctrine of the Resurrection.

He stated the historical truth of the Resurrection of Jesus. “For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received: that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures (1 Cor 15:3–4).” 

St. John Chrysostom said, “After all, what is the gospel but the message that God became man, was crucified and rose again?”

St. Cyril of Alexandria commented: “Paul says that he delivered to them not simply whatever came into his mind without thought or examination, but the gospel that he received. For knowledge of it had been given to him by the one who became a man for our sake. The same Paul, speaking in another place about the gospel, says: For I did not receive it from man, nor was I taught it, but it came through a revelation of Jesus Christ (Gal 1:12).”

St. Paul declared: “By the grace of God I am what I am” (1 Cor 15:10). 

St. John Chrysostom commented: “As we hear these words, let us parade our weaknesses and keep silent about our successes. And if we are forced to mention our successes, let us do so with humility and attribute everything to the grace of God. This is what Paul does: he condemns everything about his previous way of life and attributes everything subsequent to grace so as to use every means to demonstrate God’s compassion: God saved someone like Paul and, once he had saved him, made him what he was. So, let no one living a wicked life despair; let no one living virtuously be overconfident … You see, both despair and false security are equally bad. For despair quickly pulls a person down from the heights of heaven, and false security prevents the fallen from rising.”

St. Paul explained that our own bodily resurrection is based on the Resurrection of Our Lord (1 Cor 15:12–34). He declared: “If Christ has not been raised, then our preaching is in vain and your faith is in vain” (1 Cor 15:14).

Father John Hardon, S.J., wrote, “Christ’s Resurrection strengthens our faith in his divinity, because only God in human form could reunite his body and soul. It is the foundation of our hope in our own future resurrection from the dead. In the words of St. Peter, ‘Through him you now have faith in God, who raised him from the dead and gave him glory for that very reason—so that you would have faith and hope in God’ (1 Pt 1:21). Finally, Christ’s Resurrection inspires us to love him by dying to ourselves. In the words of St. Paul, ‘Since you have been brought back to true life with Christ, you must look for the things that are in heaven, where Christ is, sitting at God’s right hand’ (Col 3:1).”

St. Paul declared: “For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ shall all be made alive” (1 Cor 15:22). 

St. Augustine wrote, “No human enters into death except through Adam and no one into eternal life except through Christ. This is the meaning of that repeated phrase all, because as all men belong to Adam through their first or carnal birth, so all men who belong to Christ come to the second or spiritual birth. Therefore he says ‘all’ in both places because as all who die die only in Adam, so all who will be made alive will not be made alive except in Christ.”

St. Paul argued: “If the dead are not raised, ‘Let us eat and drink, for tomorrow we die.’ Do not be deceived: ‘Bad company ruins good morals’” (1 Cor 15:32–33).

St. Augustine commented: “If men take care, with their death day approaching, to make a will for the sake of those they leave behind, how much more should they have a care for their own souls? A man thinks of those he leaves behind: Does he have no thought for the one who is leaving all this behind? … Therefore let the tongues of those who say, Let us eat and drink, for tomorrow we die fall silent. Reply at once, ‘Let us fast and pray, for tomorrow we die.’”