This We Believe
“I Believe in the Resurrection of the Body, and the Life Everlasting”
1 Corinthians 15 (selected verses)
We come this morning to close our series This We Believe as we take our final look at the foundations of our faith contained in the Apostle’s Creed. We have recounted the wonderful works of God in trying to understand what we mean when we say the words of this creed. God has done all these great things: created the universe and all that is in it, sent His Son, Jesus Christ, who is the chosen vessel of God’s redemption, given us the Holy Spirit, built the church, and forgiven our sins. But if we stop there we are left to say, “So what?” To end there leaves our faith unfinished. There would be something missing. The statement, “I believe in the resurrection of the body, and the life everlasting,” are the exclamation point of the Apostle’s Creed. They are, therefore, the exclamation point of our faith, as well. These words serve to remind us that, not only is God’s redemptive work moving toward completion, but that we are part and parcel of that work. The closing words of the Apostle’s Creed inspire confidence and hope as we live out our faith in this world so full of confusion and doubt.
The Christians who lived in the city of Corinth wrestled with the issue of the resurrection. Some even said there was no resurrection from the dead. Paul, in his first letter to the church in that city, addressed the issue head-on, and in so doing, laid the foundation for the words contained in the Creed. I want us to look at chapter 15 of that letter today, and find the words of confidence and hope Paul shared with those Christians as we seek to understand what we mean when we say, “I believe in the resurrection of the body, and the life everlasting.”
I want us to read verses 12-23 and 51-58. Paul takes the whole chapter answering the question of the resurrection, not only of Jesus, but our resurrection as well. These verses form the heart of his argument, but as we go through the message this morning I will reference other passages in the chapter, too. Let’s look at what Paul says:
1 Cor. 15:12-23
But tell me this—since we preach that Christ rose from the dead, why are some of you saying there will be no resurrection of the dead? [13] For if there is no resurrection of the dead, then Christ has not been raised either. [14] And if Christ was not raised, then all our preaching is useless, and your trust in God is useless. [15] And we apostles would all be lying about God, for we have said that God raised Christ from the grave, but that can’t be true if there is no resurrection of the dead. [16] If there is no resurrection of the dead, then Christ has not been raised. [17] And if Christ has not been raised, then your faith is useless, and you are still under condemnation for your sins. [18] In that case, all who have died believing in Christ have perished! [19] And if we have hope in Christ only for this life, we are the most miserable people in the world.
[20] But the fact is that Christ has been raised from the dead. He has become the first of a great harvest of those who will be raised to life again.
[21] So you see, just as death came into the world through a man, Adam, now the resurrection from the dead has begun through another man, Christ. [22] Everyone dies because all of us are related to Adam, the first man. But all who are related to Christ, the other man, will be given new life. [23] But there is an order to this resurrection: Christ was raised first; then when Christ comes back, all his people will be raised.
And then,
1 Cor. 15:51-58
But let me tell you a wonderful secret God has revealed to us. Not all of us will die, but we will all be transformed. [52] It will happen in a moment, in the blinking of an eye, when the last trumpet is blown. For when the trumpet sounds, the Christians who have died will be raised with transformed bodies. And then we who are living will be transformed so that we will never die. [53] For our perishable earthly bodies must be transformed into heavenly bodies that will never die.
[54] When this happens—when our perishable earthly bodies have been transformed into heavenly bodies that will never die—then at last the Scriptures will come true:
"Death is swallowed up in victory.
[55] O death, where is your victory?
O death, where is your sting?"
[56] For sin is the sting that results in death, and the law gives sin its power. [57] How we thank God, who gives us victory over sin and death through Jesus Christ our Lord!
[58] So, my dear brothers and sisters, be strong and steady, always enthusiastic about the Lord’s work, for you know that nothing you do for the Lord is ever useless.
I see in these words of Paul, and in the final words of the Creed, that the resurrection should inspire confidence and hope in every Christian. The creed has already affirmed that Jesus rose from the dead. Paul here in this passage challenges the Corinthian Christians to look at the evidence of Jesus’ resurrection. Paul says the first disciples saw Jesus, and that there were 500 witnesses who say him at one time. Then, Paul says, I saw him too (verses 5-9). Paul was confident in his faith that because Jesus was resurrected, he too, would follow Christ in resurrection. The words of the Creed give us confidence that where Jesus leads we may follow. Though Jesus was dead, yet now he lives. Because he lives, so shall we. Paul calls Jesus the “first” to rise from the dead. 1 Cor. 15:20: But the fact is that Christ has been raised from the dead. He has become the first of a great harvest of those who will be raised to life again. Some translations of the Bible use the word “first fruits.” Jesus was the first fruit of the resurrection. I am reminded of what Paul told the Roman Christians: Romans 8:11
The Spirit of God, who raised Jesus from the dead, lives in you. And just as he raised Christ from the dead, he will give life to your mortal body by this same Spirit living within you. So we have the confidence that where Jesus has led, we will one day follow.
With confidence comes hope. Where do we find our hope? First, the resurrection gives hope in God’s ultimate justice. Without the resurrection life would be devoid of meaning and purpose. Without the resurrection we would be left to ask, “Is this all there is?” Our lives would be reduced, as Paul describes in verse 32: “If there is no resurrection, “Let’s feast and get drunk, for tomorrow we die!” Without the resurrection there is no redemption in the suffering we face in this life. There is no justice for the victims of senseless murders that seem to go unpunished, no justice for evil people who abuse and neglect entire nations, no justice for those trampled under the feet of sorrow, pain, and sin. Without the resurrection, evil and sin win the victory. As Paul puts it, “and if we have hope in Christ only for this life, we are the most miserable people in the world” (verse 19). One translation calls us the most “pitiful people in the world” if there is no resurrection.
It is as if the resurrection provides the “missing link” to our faith. We are all familiar with the “missing link” in the theory of evolution. The missing link is that one thing that is missing from the theory that connects the generation of humanity from the ape-like creature the theorists suppose, to the up-right homo sapiens that we supposedly evolved into. That missing link leaves way too many questions unanswered. For our faith, the resurrection connects the promises of God’s covenant (peace, joy, and victory) to our lives. Certainly we catch glimpses of God’s promises while we live, to come to the end of our lives and say, as we stare death in the face, “So that’s it?” would be futility. The resurrection erases the futility, and fills us with hope.
Not only do we hope in God’s ultimate justice, but we hope in the resurrection as God’s means of fitting us for eternal life. But what is eternal life, or as the Creed states “life everlasting?” The words eternal and life everlasting are not necessarily adjectives describing a prescribed duration of time, though that is a part of it. These words have as much to do with quality of life as they do with quantity of life. Let me phrase it another way. To have a life that never ended that was filled with pain, suffering, sorrow, tears, addiction and disappointment would be hell. To say we believe in the “life everlasting” means that we will inherit, with our resurrection, the quality of life that God has within Himself. It will be never-ending, but it will be never-ending blessedness. We will have God’s life for all eternity, and that is blessedness.
In “fitting” us for everlasting life, we hope in the resurrection as the final restoration of humanity’s fallen nature. The resurrection is the completion of God’s redemption of His fallen creation. It is the culmination of God’s saving work that began when Adam sinned in the Garden of Eden. In resurrection, we will trade the “old clothes” of this mortal, perishable life for the “new clothes” of eternity. The “old clothes” of this life are fit only for sin and death, but the “new clothes” of resurrection are fit for eternal glory in God’s awesome, beautiful, holy presence.
You know what I have come to determine over the years, especially as I grow older? I think it must be one of the mysterious laws of the universe or something. Clothes left hanging in a closet from one season to another all have one mysterious quality—they shrink! It’s true! I go to my closet after the summer to get out my long sleeves, but when I put them on, they don’t fit anymore. The resurrection of our bodies is like the passing of our bodies from one season to the next, and we find we have outgrown the “old clothes” of sin and death, and we have been fitted with “new clothes” that fit us perfectly for the season we are beginning.
Yes, I said our bodies are fitted for new clothes. The Corinthians wrestled with this question, too. Hear Paul in verse 35: “What kind of bodies will they have?” Paul says they will be heavenly, spiritual bodies, but they are bodies nonetheless. We believe in a bodily resurrection. And yes, they are the same bodies, only different. What do I mean?
Our bodies are our means of self-expression. Bodies make possible our interaction with others. In the resurrection, we will be what we are now, only different. We will be real persons. Our identity will be the same then as now. In Friday’s Shreveport Times, Billy Graham answered a question from a reader asking, “What will we look like in heaven? Will we be young, old, or will we just be spirits?” Dr. Graham answered “we won’t be just spirits. God gave us our bodies, and in the resurrection our souls and our bodies will be united, but our bodies will be far more glorious than we can imagine.”
The Bible never says what our bodies will look like in heaven. Paul simply says we will trade the perishable for the imperishable, the mortal for the immortal, we were sown in death but raised to life, sown in weakness but raised in power. Paul uses the illustration of a seed sown in the ground. The seed sown dies, and is raised to a beautiful plant. In its appearance the plant is different from the seed, but it is in essence the same.
Here’s another illustration. This child is not the same in appearance as this child, but they are the same child. This second child is not the same in appearance as this teenager, but they are the same person, and this teenager is not the same in appearance as this adult, but it is one and the same person. They are the same person, with recognizable features, but each is a different manifestation. Why is it a stretch of our imagination to think that God could change this physical, perishable body into a spiritual, imperishable body, and yet it still be the same recognizable person? We learn this from Jesus’ own resurrection.
Remember in the Garden after his resurrection? Mary was there, and Jesus spoke to her. She mistook him for the gardener, but as he spoke to her, she recognized him. Likewise, two disciples were walking to Emmaus, and the resurrected Lord appeared and walked and talked to them. When Jesus sat down at their table for a meal, Luke records that at that point, the disciples recognized him. Then, Jesus appeared to the other disciples in the locked room. At first, they were afraid and thought they were seeing a ghost, but Jesus encouraged them to touch him and see that it was really him. For no ghost had flesh and bones as Jesus had. His was a real body, that was the same, yet it was somehow different. As Jesus is and was, so shall we one day be. Our bodies will be the same, only different.
We are not “pitiful” people. We are people of confidence and hope. And the resurrection, and our belief in it, offer us the confidence that where Jesus has led, we will follow, and the hope that God’s ultimate justice is certain, and the hope that God is fitting us for everlasting life.
The Apostle’s Creed is our confession that we live our lives in anticipation of the day when all God’s promises, all God’s work in redemption, all God’s saving work will be fulfilled, in us and in creation. The Creed is our reminder of what God has done, what God is doing, and what God is going to accomplish. With every recitation of the Creed we remember, but we also anticipate the day when God will be vindicated, and His victory over hell, death, sin and the grave will be complete. And to that we say, “AMEN!”
