1 CORINTHIANS 15: 12-19 [RESURRECTION REALITIES SERIES]
THE IMPORTANCE OF THE RESURRECTION
[John 5:24-30; John 11: 22-44]
Thomas Jefferson, an author of the Declaration of Independence and third president of the USA, was a deist-one who believed in the God revealed in nature. Congress once printed a special edition of Thomas Jefferson's Bible, in which he had cut out all references to the supernatural. He confined himself solely to Christ's ethical teachings.
The closing, somber words to Jefferson's Bible are these: "There laid they Jesus, and rolled a great stone to the mouth of the sepulcher and departed."
Jefferson apparently did not believe in the resurrection from the dead, unlike Benjamin Franklin who was a fellow deist. The fifteenth child in a family of seventeen children, Franklin was born in Boston, Massachusetts, on January 17, 1706. At the age of eighty-four on April 17, 1790, Franklin died in Philadelphia.
Franklin wrote his own epitaph which reads:
The Body of Benjamin Franklin Printer (like the cover of an old book Its contents torn out and stript of its lettering and gilding) Lies here, food for worms. But the work shall not be lost for it will (As he believed) Appear Once More In a new and more elegant edition, Revised and corrected by THE AUTHOR.
Because the resurrection is the cornerstone of the gospel, it has been the target of Satan's greatest attacks against the church. If there is no resurrection the life-giving power of the gospel is eliminated, the deity of Christ is eliminated, salvation from sin is eliminated, and eternal life is eliminated.
A lady wrote to a question-and-answer forum. "Dear Sirs, Our preacher said on Easter, that Jesus just swooned on the cross and that the disciples nursed Him back to health. What do you think? Sincerely, Bewildered.
Dear Bewildered, Beat your preacher with a cat-of-nine-tails with 39 heavy strokes, nail him to a cross. Hang him in the sun for 6 hours; run a spear thru his side...put him in an airless tomb for 36 hours and see what happens. Sincerely, Charles.
The Apostle here contemplates some dismal consequences that would arise if we only had a dead Christ(CIT). [We would have nothing to preach, we would have no Gospel. All hope of deliverance, from sin would fade away. The one fact which gives assurance of immortality having vanished, the dead who had nurtured the assurance of life have perished.] If Christ did not rise from the dead, then those who believed, believe an empty gospel, and nourish an empty faith, and die clinging to a baseless hope. [We are far more to be pitied, than men who had less splendid dreams and less utter illusions. “If we have hoped in Christ in this life only, we are of all men most to be pitied” (1 Cor. 15:19).]
If Christ did not live past the grave, those who trust in Him cannot hope to live either. But because Christ has been bodily raised, the resurrection of the dead is the new reality for man. The resurrection of Christ means the resurrection of humanity for they are inseparably linked. If Christ is raised, then there is a resurrection for all the dead [CIT].
I. A RESURRECTION FROM THE DEAD, 12.
II. CONSEQUENCES OF NO RESURRECTION, 13-18.
III. NO RESURRECTION, NO HOPE, 19.
In verse12 we learn that the admission of the resurrection of Christ is inconsistent with the denial of the resurrection of the dead. “Now if Christ is preached, that He has been raised from the dead, how do some among you say that there is no resurrection of the dead?”
Paul says that what has happened, can happen. Christ has forged the way to a bodily resurrection from the dead.
[Christ is one with His people. There is no salvation apart from Christ. Our salvation, our new life, come from being united with Christ in His death and in His resurrection. Without being united under the headship, the lordship of Christ we cannot participate in His life. Salvation cannot be realized outside of Christ. But if we have become united with Him in the likeness of His death, so will we be united with Him in the likeness of His life (Rom. 6:4-8). An essential part of that likeness is the bodily resurrection from the dead. The argument is since Christ rose, those made righteous by identifying with His death, must rise also.]
A key to this section is found in the statement in verse 12. ‘Some’ among the Corinthians were saying, ‘There is no resurrection of the dead.’ We infer that some persons were denying the general resurrection of the dead at the end of history. But for what reasons?
Materialists or Darwinist believe in utter extinction, total annihilation. Nothing human, physical or otherwise, survives after death. Death ends it all. Some religions teach reincarnation, wherein the soul or spirit is continually recycled from one form to another—even from human to animal or animal to human. Others teach we are returned to the universal consciousness. In all of these human personhood and individuality are forever lost at death. Whatever, if anything, survives is no longer a person, no longer an individual, no longer a unique being.
In Paul’s day Greek philosophy was prevalent. A basic tenet of ancient Greek philosophy was dualism [generally attributed to Plato]. Dualism considered everything spiritual to be intrinsically good and everything physical to be intrinsically evil. To anyone holding that view the idea of a resurrected body was repugnant. For them, the very reason for going to an afterlife was to escape all things physical. They considered the body a tomb or a corpse, to which, in this life, their souls were shackled. For those Greeks, their bodies were the last things they would want to take along to the next life. They believed in the immortality of the soul but strongly opposed the idea of a resurrection of the body. [“Now when they [the Athenian philosophers] heard of the resurrection of the dead, some began to sneer” (Acts 17:32).] [MacArthur, John. MacArthur NT Commentary. 1 Cor. Moody Press. Chicago.1984. p 408]
Some Jewish members of the Corinthian church may have been influenced by the Sadducees (Mt. 22:23-30). Despite the fact that resurrection is taught in the Old Testament (Job 19:26; Ps. 17:15), some did not believe in it.
II. CONSEQUENCES OF NO RESURRECTION, 13-18.
The argument for the resurrection of the dead changes. Paul confronts the Corinthians with the logical consequences of doubt or denial of a bodily resurrection in verses 13-19. The first and most obvious consequence of there being no resurrection is in verse 13. “But if there is no resurrection of the dead, not even Christ has been raised;”
“If” the dead cannot rise, Christ did not rise. Since it is the resurrection of Christ that is the cause of man’s resurrection, if man cannot rise, then it’s cause did not occur, meaning that Christ did not rise. It is only because He rose that we can rise. The denial of bodily resurrection is a denial of Christ’s resurrection.
If Christ has not been raised, there are grave consequences for the Christian faith. A consequence in verse 14 is that it makes our faith is empty. “and if Christ has not been raised, then our preaching is vain, your faith also is vain.”
If there is no resurrection, the preaching of the gospel would be vain, completely meaningless, and without effect. The heart of the gospel is Christ's death and resurrection on our behalf (15:3–4). Apart from the resurrection Jesus did not conquer sin or death or hell, and those three great evils would forever be man's conquerors.
Without the resurrection the good news would be bad news, and there would be nothing worth preaching. Without the resurrection the gospel would be an empty, hopeless message of meaningless nonsense. Unless our Lord conquered sin and death, making a way for men to follow in that victory, there is no gospel to proclaim.
Just as no resurrection would make preaching Christ meaningless, it would also make faith in Him worthless. Faith in such a gospel would be vain (kenos, “empty, fruitless, void of effect, to no purpose”). A dead savior could not give life. If the dead do not rise, Christ did not rise and we will not rise.
To deny the resurrection is to call the apostles and every other leader of the New Testament church not simply mistaken but liars. Verse 15; “Moreover we are even found to be false witnesses of God, because we testified against God that He raised Christ, whom He did not raise, if in fact the dead are not raised.”
If Christ was not raised, the apostles were false witnesses. [When a man bears false witness, he usually has a motive for doing so.] What motive had these men, what did they gain by bearing false witness to Christ’s resurrection? It was all loss and no profit to them if Jesus had not risen. They declared in Jerusalem that He had risen from the dead, and men began to throw them in prison, and put them to death. Those who survived bore the same testimony. They were so certain of the resurrection’s reality that they went into distant countries to tell the story of Jesus and His resurrection from the dead. Some went to Rome, some to Spain; probably some came even to Britain. Wherever they went, they testified that Christ had risen from the dead, and that they had seen Him alive, and that He was the Savior of all who trusted in Him.
[What became of them? Hebrews 11:37 says “they were stoned, they were sawn asunder, were tempted, were slain with the sword: they wandered about in sheepskins and goatskins; being destitute, afflicted, tormented.” They were brought before the authorities again and again, and threatened with the most painful of deaths; but none of them ever withdrew his testimony concerning Christ’s resurrection.]
They stood by their testimony that they had known Him in life, many of them had
been near Him in death, and they had all communed with Him after His resurrection. They declared that Jesus of Nazareth was the Son of God, that He died and was buried, that He rose again, and that there was salvation for all who believed in Him.
Were these men false witnesses? If so, they were the most extraordinary false witnesses who ever lived. [What were their morals? What kind of men were they? Were they drunkards? Were they adulterers? Were they thieves? No, they were the purest and best of mankind; their adversaries could bring no charge against their moral conduct. They were eminently honest, and they spoke with conviction. As I have already said, they suffered for their testimony. They do not have the characteristics of false witnesses of God.
If we even suppose that they were mistaken about this we must suspect their witness about everything else; and the only logical result is to give up the New Testament altogether. If they were mistaken as to Christ having risen from the dead, they are not credible witnesses upon anything else; and if they are discredited, the whole of our religion falls with them; the Christian faith, and especially all that the apostles built on the
resurrection, must be a delusion. They taught that Christ’s rising from the dead was the evidence that His sacrifice was accepted, that he rose again for our justification, that his rising again was the hope of believers in this life, and the assurance of the resurrection of their bodies in the life to come. You must give up all your hope of salvation the moment you doubt the Lord’s rising from the dead.] [Spurgeon, 790-791]
For emphasis Paul restates his conclusion of verse 13 again in verse 16. “For if the dead are not raised, not even Christ has been raised;”
A dead Christ would be the chief disastrous consequence from which all the other consequences would result. There is an inseparable connection between the dead being raised and Christ being raised. If the dead being bodily raised is impossible, then Christ resurrection is impossible.
Faith in an un–resurrected Christ is, he says in verse 17 is worthless. “and if Christ has not been raised, your faith is worthless; you are still in your sins.”
“If” Jesus did not rise from the dead, then sin won the victory over Christ and therefore sin continues to be victorious over all men. Faith in an un–resurrected Christ is ‘futile’, ‘senseless’, ‘pointless,’ ‘fruitless’ (mataia). This word is used of the worship of carved idols that are no gods, that have no existence. Faith in a dead man is just as worthless. What help can a corpse give?
If Christ died for our sins, but was not raised by God in vindication, then His death by itself achieved nothing and so our faith is ‘senseless’. The Corinthians, and all believers, would be ‘still in their sins,’ remaining unforgiven. Christ’s resurrection is necessary for our justification (Rom. 4:25). The denial of the bodily resurrection is a denial of the atonement of Christ’s death.
The next disastrous consequence is that all the dead in Christ are lost. Verse 18, “Then those also who have fallen asleep in Christ have perished.”
To “fall asleep” in Christ is to die in faith or in relationship with Christ (1 Thess. 4: 14; Rev. 14:13). To perish is to lose the freedom, happiness and love of God for ever.
If Jesus Christ be not raised, the godly dead are yet in their sins, and they can never rise. For, if Christ did not rise from the dead, they cannot rise from the dead. Only through His bodily resurrection is there resurrection for the saints.
III. NO RESURRECTION, NO HOPE, 19.
The conclusion to Paul’s argument is found in verse 19. “If we have hoped in Christ in this life only, we are of all men most to be pitied.”
Why does Paul say believers should “be pitied” if there is only earthly value to Christianity? In Paul’s day, being a Christian often brought persecution, ostracism from family and other social and economic problems. Believers gave up the sensuous joys of worldliness. There were few tangible benefits from being a Christian. It would not get you a step up the ladder. An even greater forfeit though is the lost of spiritual blessings.
Without the resurrection, and the salvation and blessings it brings, Christianity would be pointless and pitiable. Without the resurrection we would have no Savior, no forgiveness, no gospel, no meaningful faith, no life, and no hope of any of those things.
To have “hoped in Christ in this life only” would be to teach, preach, suffer, sacrifice, and work entirely for nothing. If Christ is still dead, then not only can He not help us in regard to the life to come but He cannot help us here and now. If He cannot grant us eternal life, He cannot improve our earthly life. If He is not alive, where would be our source of peace, joy, or satisfaction now. The Christian life would be a mockery, a charade, a tragic joke.
A Christian has no Savior but Christ, no Redeemer but Christ, no Lord but Christ. Therefore if Christ was not raised, He is not alive, then our Christian life is lifeless. We would have nothing to justify our faith, our Bible study, our preaching or witnessing, our service for Him or our worship of Him, and nothing to justify our hope either for this life or the next. We would deserve nothing but the pity reserved for fools. Since there would be no hope for anything after this life, then the point of Christianity would have to be whatever applies to ‘now‘.
If Christ had no power to save and life to give, the church would need to compete with other attractions. The church building would have to be as pretty and as comfortable and as impressive as we could possibly make it. The larger the number of people in a congregation, of course, the more we could afford to put into the structure itself; therefore, the more impressive we could make it.
Since we would be in competition with all the other religions of the world, and in reality would have nothing more to offer than they, (since there is no resurrection from the dead), we would have to compete with them by offering better music, better programs, better benefits, and a more attractive philosophy; one which does not offend or condemn or convict, but one which gives the listener a sense of ease and contentment and happiness and relief from the concerns of life. It would have to be a religion of comfort and personal satisfaction, so as not to drive potentially paying members away. Survival of the most attractive, the most appealing because there is no salvation or absolute truth.
Since there is no judgment of the dead, then there are no eternal values. Do what ever you want. Say whatever you want. Treat others however you want. The only consequences I’ll pay for disobeying man-made rules are those natural consequences I bring upon myself here. No golden rule, just win, however you must do it.
[CONCLUSION]
Paul’s concluding thought is that if there is no resurrection why be a Christian? If we have only this life of suffering for our faith and no future glory to anticipate, why follow Christ? The resurrection is not just important, it is of first importance because all that we believe hinges on it.
Paul is saying that there is no true faith without genuine hope and there is no hope without Christ's resurrection from the dead. The resurrection of Christ is the center of the Christian faith. Because Christ rose from the dead as He promised we know that He is God and what He said is true. Because He rose we have a certain assurance that our sins are forgiven. Because He rose, He lives and ministers to us today. Because He rose and defeated death, we know we will also be raised.
A little girl lived near a cemetery, and often had to walk through it after dark. When someone asked her, “Aren’t you ever afraid?” She answered, “Oh, no! My home is just on the other side.”
The best way to end this message today I think, is to ask the question; ‘where are you going’? Do you have hope for the journey’s end? As you pass through the dark shadows of this life, are you afraid? Or do you walk with a confidence that ‘home’ is just the other side?
It all comes down to this; either you know that when you leave this life you will enter into eternal life with the risen Christ, or you have no hope for salvation beyond this life, then you must face the fact that life is ultimately futile.
Jesus offers you hope today. Because He lives, so you too will live.
BENEDICTION: By the power of Christ’s resurrection may His glory shine on you, and may His glory shine through you as a light to the world, so that all may know and treasure the King of Kings!
O Lord, Risen, alive and full of grace. You paid such a price that we may live in freedom today. We worship your holy name and give thanks for your redeeming grace.
Heavenly Father, May we drink in your tender love so that we can pour this love out to others. Come reign in our hearts, minds and spirits.
Holy Spirit, we welcome you to blow through our every word, action and thought.
Come transform us on the inside so that each day we become more like our risen Lord.
Amen.
Lord, the resurrection of Your Son has given us new life and renewed hope. We welcome You to breath into our every word, action & thought. Come transform us on the inside so that each day we become more like our risen Lord. Help us to live as new people in pursuit of the Christian ideal. Grant us wisdom to know what we must do, the will to want to do it, the courage to undertake it, the perseverance to continue to do it, & the strength to complete it.
Make the resurrection personal to us—help it to inspire and change the way we live each day. Make us agents of your hope by what we do for others and claim for our lives. Strengthen our belief so that we might enjoy spiritual treasures from Your hand & rest in the promise of the life to come.
Confession: Loving and forgiving God, we confess that we find it easier to follow the crowd than to follow You. We seek the praise of others, rather than seeking to give You joy with our faithfulness. Like sheep we have gone astray and have turned to our own ways. We are truly sorry & humbly repent.
