What does 1 Corinthians 15:6 mean?
Apparently, some misunderstanding about the truthfulness of Christ's real, physical resurrection from the dead had crept into the Corinthian church, or at least confusion about the resurrection of the believers. Paul has insisted that in order to be saved, a person must believe the entire gospel, including Christ's death for our sin and resurrection from death by the power of God.Now Paul has begun to make the case that belief in Jesus' physical resurrection from the dead should be achievable by those in the first-century church. They had the advantage of speaking directly to some who had seen Christ alive after His burial!
In the previous verse, Paul reminded them that Jesus appeared to Peter and the other disciples (1 Corinthians 15:5) before appearing to more than 500 others. Most of the people who saw Jesus alive after He was confirmed dead (John 19:34–35) were eyewitness to the truth that Jesus lives, though some of those witnesses had died already—"fallen asleep"—at the time Paul wrote this.