Religious Symbols

Verses 13 and 14 read, "If there is no resurrection of the dead, then not even Christ has been raised. And if Christ has not been raised, our preaching is useless and so is your faith." To me, this pretty much sums up Christianity in a nutshell.

We celebrate Easter every year because Christ rose from the dead. Easter is what it’s all about for Christians. It’s the season in the life of the church that lets us know that we’ve been redeemed, that Christ is alive, and that we’ve all been promised eternal life.

If there is no resurrection of the dead, then Christ wasn’t raised either. And if Christ wasn’t raised from the dead, what good is our religion? What good is my preaching? It would be a complete waste of time for me to stand up here and tell you that God sent his son to die for us if that’s the end of it.

Big deal. Jesus was born, Jesus died so we’d be forgiven, Jesus is still dead. What good is that to anybody? You might as well have faith in the Easter Bunny or the Tooth Fairy. Your faith would be useless.

The next verse, verse 15, says, "More than that, we are then found to be false witnesses about God, for we have testified about God that he raised Christ from the dead. But he did not raise him if in fact the dead are not raised." In other words, if there’s no resurrection, then Christ hasn’t been raised from the dead. And if that’s true, then Christianity is all a lie, and all the preachers for the last 2000 years have been lying to you about God.

We’ve lied when we said that God sent his Son for our sake. We lied when we said that Jesus died to redeem us from our sins. We lied when we said that Jesus rose from the dead. We lied when we said that Jesus has gone to prepare a place for us. In fact, Jesus himself must have lied when he said that.

If Christ wasn’t resurrected, then we’ve lied about God’s promises, and about God’s love for us. The scriptures have lied about the end times, about how we’ll all be taken to the throne room, where we’ll spend eternity with God. So they must also have lied about God wiping every tear from our eyes and granting us eternal peace.

In verses 16 and 17, Paul repeats himself a little. This was a device used for emphasis back when this letter was written. So what Paul is saying here is something he considered important: "For if the dead are not raised, then Christ has not been raised either. And if Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile; you are still in your sins."

Your faith is futile; you are still in your sins. Wow. All this time we’ve been practicing a faith that means everything to us. We worship God; we strive to be like Christ. We go and try to make disciples by spreading the Good News as we know it. We tell everyone that our sins have been atoned for; that their sins will be forgiven; that they’ll get a fresh start at living a Godly life. We tell people that they’ll be washed white as snow, purified, sanctified by the blood of the Lamb.

And now Paul is saying that if Christ wasn’t raised from the dead, we’re still in our sins. That means that nothing has been forgiven. Nothing has been atoned for. Our sins count against us just as they always did. Our souls are just as unclean as they always were. We’re no better off than we ever were, and we’re no better off than the people we’ve been trying to convert.