³For I delivered to you first of all that which I also received: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, ⁴that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures, ⁵and that he appeared to Cephas, then to the twelve. ⁶Then he appeared to over five hundred brothers at once, most of whom remain until now, but some have also fallen asleep. ⁷Then he appeared to James, then to all the apostles,

¹⁶For if the dead aren’t raised, neither has Christ been raised. ¹⁷If Christ has not been raised, your faith is vain; you are still in your sins. ¹⁸Then they also who are fallen asleep in Christ have perished. ¹⁹If we have only hoped in Christ in this life, we are of all men most pitiable.

But now Christ has been raised from the dead. He became the first fruits of those who are asleep.

⁸for by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, ⁹not of works, that no one would boast.

¹⁴For the love of Christ constrains us; because we judge thus, that one died for all, therefore all died. ¹⁵He died for all, that those who live should no longer live to themselves, but to him who for their sakes died and rose again.

“Come to me, all you who labor and are heavily burdened, and I will give you rest.

¹⁰that I may know him, and the power of his resurrection, and the fellowship of his sufferings, becoming conformed to his death, ¹¹if by any means I may attain to the resurrection from the dead.

My little children, of whom I am again in travail until Christ is formed in you—

For whom he foreknew, he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brothers.

¹Therefore let’s also, seeing we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, lay aside every weight and the sin which so easily entangles us, and let’s run with perseverance the race that is set before us, ²looking to Jesus, the author and perfecter of faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising its shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. ³For consider him who has endured such contradiction of sinners against himself, that you don’t grow weary, fainting in your souls.