Key passage
1 Corinthians 15:42-44
The resurrection chapter, where imperishability and immortality are given rather than assumed.
The text
42So also is the resurrection of the dead. The body is sown perishable; it is raised imperishable. 43It is sown in dishonor; it is raised in glory. It is sown in weakness; it is raised in power. 44It is sown a natural body; it is raised a spiritual body. There is a natural body and there is also a spiritual body.
50Now I say this, brothers, that flesh and blood can’t inherit the Kingdom of God; neither does the perishable inherit imperishable. 51Behold, I tell you a mystery. We will not all sleep, but we will all be changed, 52in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised incorruptible, and we will be changed. 53For this perishable body must become imperishable, and this mortal must put on immortality. 54But when this perishable body will have become imperishable, and this mortal will have put on immortality, then what is written will happen: “Death is swallowed up in victory.” 55“Death, where is your sting? Hades, where is your victory?” 56The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law. 57But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.
20But now Christ has been raised from the dead. He became the first fruits of those who are asleep. 21For since death came by man, the resurrection of the dead also came by man. 22For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ all will be made alive. 23But each in his own order: Christ the first fruits, then those who are Christ’s, at his coming. 24Then the end comes, when he will deliver up the Kingdom to God, even the Father; when he will have abolished all rule and all authority and power. 25For he must reign until he has put all his enemies under his feet. 26The last enemy that will be abolished is death. 27For, “He put all things in subjection under his feet.” But when he says, “All things are put in subjection”, it is evident that he is excepted who subjected all things to him. 28When all things have been subjected to him, then the Son will also himself be subjected to him who subjected all things to him, that God may be all in all.
The immediate context
Paul's long argument for the resurrection of the dead. He answers the question of what body the dead are raised with, contrasts what is sown perishable with what is raised imperishable, and ends with the mortal putting on immortality and death being swallowed up in victory.
Where it sits in the canon
It stands with 1 Timothy 6:16, where God alone has immortality, and 2 Timothy 1:10, where Christ brings life and immortality to light through the gospel. Verses 20 to 28 also supply the language of God being all in all, which the case reads as fitting a creation from which evil has been removed rather than relocated.
Why it matters
The whole question of conditional immortality turns on whether unending existence belongs to human beings by nature or is granted, and this chapter is where the granting is described.
How the passage is interpreted
The eternal conscious torment reading
Defenders of eternal conscious torment reply that Paul is answering a question about the resurrection body of believers, not about human nature as such, so the chapter says nothing directly about the unrighteous. They add that the tradition does not claim human beings are immortal in the way God is. It holds that God created human souls to continue and will sustain the raised bodies of the lost for judgment, as Daniel 12:2 assumes a resurrection of both groups.
The conditionalist reading
Conditionalists read the promise as bounded by its recipients. What is raised imperishable in verses 42 to 44 is described in terms of glory and power, and verse 50 says the perishable does not inherit the imperishable. The source document argues that the unrighteous are not given an imperishable body, that Matthew 10:28 ties the fate of body and soul together, and that the conclusion follows: they do not go on living.
Where the readings agree
- The chapter promises a raised, imperishable body to those who are in Christ.
- Immortality here is described as something put on rather than something possessed.
- Both readings affirm a real bodily resurrection of the dead.
- Death is the last enemy and is finally destroyed.
Where the disagreement lies
Whether the silence of this chapter about an imperishable body for the unrighteous leaves their continued existence an open question, or rules it out.
Notes on the wording
- Paul uses the language of putting on imperishability and immortality, which presents both as given rather than native.
Fuller treatment of the Greek and Hebrew words behind these notes is in the glossary and language notes.
Editorial notes
- The source document reads verses 24 to 28 as Christ destroying his enemies rather than holding them in permanent subjugation.
- The source document argues that an inherently immortal soul is a Platonic idea rather than a biblical one, and the site reports that as the author's argument rather than as a settled historical consensus.
Where this passage appears in the case
- RB2 Does the Image of God Make Humans Immortal?Why the image of God does not entail an indestructible soul, and where Scripture locates immortality instead.
- S22 The Biblical Case for Conditional ImmortalityThe synthesis: 1 Corinthians 15 read through, and the short chain of reasoning from perishable bodies to the fate of the soul.
- S24 No More Death, Mourning, Crying, or PainThe verb in Revelation 21, what it is applied to, and how far the argument reaches.
- S25 How “All in All” Fits After Final JudgmentWhy the all texts do not teach universalism, and why they sit more easily with conditionalism than with unending rebellion.
- S32 Why Might Satan and His Angels Have a Different Fate?The author’s reasons, the alternative conditionalist position stated fairly, and why the human case does not depend on this.
Related passages
- Matthew 10:28Jesus tells his disciples to fear the one who can destroy both soul and body in Gehenna.
- Revelation 21:1-8The new heaven and new earth, the second death, and the tree of life inside the city.
- Revelation 20:10-15The lake of fire, the great white throne, and the naming of the second death.
Sources consulted for this passage
- Phil Welch. My case for Conditional Immortality/Annihilation (CI) instead of Eternal Conscious Torment (ECT). Working document, revised through 2026. 2023-03-01 Details
- God Alone Is Immortal. Afterlife (afterlife.co.nz) View original of God Alone Is Immortal (opens in a new tab) Details
- Joseph Dear. The Bible Teaches Annihilationism. 1st edition, PDF version. 2016. approximately 590 pages View original of The Bible Teaches Annihilationism (opens in a new tab) Details
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