Introduction
Imagine hearing someone give a word of revelation like this from the First Church of Corinth on Easter morning: We have become new creatures in Christ. He has sent his Holy Spirit who has made us spiritual beings. The resurrection of Jesus Christ that we celebrate is a sign to us of our own spiritual resurrections. How do we know we have achieved a new spiritual state? Look at our spiritual gifts. We speak the tongues of angels; we receive special revelation unknown to man’s wisdom. Surely, God’s Spirit is within us, making us new in Christ and setting us free from the temporal laws of this world. Someday we shall know full freedom when our spirits are set free from our bodies. It is that freedom we long for – to be rid of our bodies. Do not look for a physical resurrection. That would mean being bound again. No, our true resurrection – the resurrection of our spirits – has already taken place. No physical body will rise again; our spirits long for true freedom, unhindered by bodies.
Thus spoke prophets and teachers at Corinth. And they added interesting application. Since the body is destined to be destroyed, then laws pertaining to what could not be done with the body no longer mattered. Sexual immorality? How can there be sexual immorality of the body when the body had no value? What matters is the spirit, and clearly the Corinth believers were okay in that regard, considering how rich they were in spiritual gifts.
It is to such teaching that Paul responds, saving his greatest powers of reason and eloquence to refute a heresy that struck at the very heart of the gospel.
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Now if Christ is proclaimed as raised from the dead, how can some of you say that there is no resurrection of the dead? 13 But if there is no resurrection of the dead, then not even Christ has been raised.
Paul has just established as definitely as possible that Jesus’ body was raised from the dead. The Corinth saints had heard this message, believed it, and staked their salvation on it. They do not question Jesus’ resurrection. How then have they missed the connection between Jesus’ resurrection and their own resurrection still to come?
Here, again, is the argument of these heretical teachers. The body is temporal. It was not made to be eternal, and, indeed, only hinders the freedom intended for the eternal spirit. Thus, there is no physical resurrection of the dead. They are not coming back to life on this earth, and certainly not in human form.
Wait a minute, Paul says. To make that argument is to undermine the doctrine of Christ’s resurrection, which was a physical resurrection. It was his body that rose, his body that was seen by many witnesses. I saw him. If you are saying that there is no resurrection of the body, then Jesus’ resurrection never took place. And if it did not happen, here are the consequences you must accept.
14 And if Christ has not been raised, then our preaching is in vain and your faith is in vain.
Our preaching and your faith are useless. Paul will elaborate in a moment about their faith being in vain. The point here is that his engaging in the preaching ministry serves no purpose if Christ was not raised. He is not in the ministry to form religious societies. He is not creating a religion that uses resurrection imagery to get connected with our divinity. His preaching makes sense, and possesses power, only on the basis of a historical, physical resurrection.
And it is the same for their faith, by the way. The gospel is mortally harmed if Jesus’ physical resurrection did not take place. Remember the three-fold definition: Jesus died for our sins; he was buried; he was raised on the third day. Remove the third event, and the previous two serve no purpose. Believe what you want; but without the resurrection, everything else falls down.
Furthermore…
15 We are even found to be misrepresenting God, because we testified about God that he raised Christ, whom he did not raise if it is true that the dead are not raised. 16 For if the dead are not raised, not even Christ has been raised.
This is the most serious charge that can be made against an apostle and any minister – to misrepresent God. Back in chapter 4, Paul wrote: “This is how one should regard us, as servants of Christ and stewards of the mysteries of God. 2 Moreover, it is required of stewards that they be found trustworthy” (1-2). And, he notes that he will be judged by God. If the resurrection of Christ is not true, God will judge him as a false apostle.
And if Christ was not raised, then I, and every minister of the Word who teaches such doctrine, are misrepresenting God who called us to our office. We will be charge with misleading our people and of telling lies about God.
Furthermore…
17 And if Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile and you are still in your sins.
Think again of the first event of the gospel: “Christ died for our sins.” We examined what that statement “for our sins” meant. Christ’s death on the cross was a real sacrifice made to atone for our sins. By becoming our substitute for punishment, he provided forgiveness for our sins. When he took our sins upon himself, he transferred to us his righteousness. How do we know that his sacrifice was successful? By the resurrection. If God had not regarded him as a perfect sacrifice, then he would not have raised Jesus from the dead in glory. Because he did raise him, we know that Jesus’ successfully completed his mission.
So, if God did not raise Jesus from the dead, Christ’s work was not accepted and we remain in our same sinful, guilty state. We are doomed. We can have as much faith as we want; we can be as religious as we want; but if Jesus Christ has not accomplished his work, no work we can do will avail us. We are lost.
Furthermore…
18 Then those also who have fallen asleep in Christ have perished.
Your brothers and sisters in Christ who have died…they died in their sins and under the wrath of God. Their fate is hopeless as is yours. Death haunts us all, as it should, for it leads us into the black night of judgment.
Furthermore…
19 If in this life only we have hoped in Christ, we are of all people most to be pitied.
We are to be pitied however our life may be. If life is comfortable and pleasant, we are like the sheep or cattle being fattened for the slaughter. We are living a delusion. We are pathetic creatures living a lie. We worship a false image of God; we live a way of life that has no justification, that accomplishes nothing which we hope for.
That is one reason for which we are to be pitied, but Paul would have something more in mind. Remember, this is a man who had devoted his life to the gospel, so much so that he has endured many and greatly hard trials. He has been attacked physically and verbally from enemies and even his spiritual children. He has foregone the pleasures and conveniences that others enjoy, and he has done all this for the sake of the gospel. Surely, if the gospel is not true, he is to be pitied; and surely we are to be pitied, we who have foregone to a lesser degree pleasures (both good and bad) for the gospel. Surely, couples like the Thomaes should be pitied, who gave up a lucrative career to toil without reward among a people resistant to the gospel. Surely, all those who have exposed themselves to slander and persecution are to be pitied, for their sacrifice for God means nothing to him.
No resurrection of the dead; no resurrection of Jesus. No resurrection of Jesus; no hope of God’s favor. Truly, all is meaningless for any who put their hope in him.
Lessons
Understand the stakes of the physical resurrection of Jesus Christ. If Jesus was not raised from the dead, consider what it says about him. His life, his ministry, his teaching and miracles are all to know avail. His miracles were signs that he was the Messiah who would save his people. He preached that the kingdom of God was near in his person. He came to be a ransom for sin, and his blood purchased nothing. Either he was a liar or a deluded failure.
We became familiar with the phrase "the passion of the Christ" this past spring, which encompasses the Jesus' suffers beginning with his agony in the garden of Gethsemane to the cross on Calvary. If Jesus Christ did not rise from the dead, his passion is a horror of meaningless violence.
Jesus did not die to make a statement as some martyrs have done. Sometimes a person will die to draw attention to, say, the sufferings of a people. That is not why Jesus died. He did not die for a principle. Some have died rather than compromise their beliefs. That is not why Jesus died. And then some have died in battle fighting for deliverance, giving up their lives that others might be free. That is closer to what Jesus did. He died to free his people. But, Jesus did not intend to remain dead. Each time that he prophesied his death, he also prophesied his resurrection. Hebrews 12:2 says that for the joy set before him, he was able to endure the cross and despise the shame so that he was then exalted to the right hand of the throne of God. It was for the resurrection – his own and his people – that he died.
To die for our sins means to die that we might not die, and if we do die, we will nevertheless rise again. "I am the resurrection and the life. Whoever believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live, and everyone who lives and believes in me shall never die" (John 11:25-26). And if Jesus did not rise then he is not the resurrection; he is not the life. He is but another man who raised false hopes.
Secondly, if Jesus did not rise, consider what it says about us. We are fools to be reviled or pitied by the world; worse, we are sinners destined for God's wrath. We can try to ignore death; we can try to create new religions to make us feel that we are okay with God; we can try to make up reasons for why we live. But if Jesus die not rise, darkness awaits us.
Even so, there are those professing to be Christian who believe Jesus' physical resurrection is nothing more than a picture. But we cannot have it both ways. We cannot have God's favor without the resurrection; and we certainly cannot play with the Christian faith, turning what was founded on historical events into a religion of fanciful pictures.
I'm saying that resurrection is only one of several ways that Christians could think about their experience of "Jesus-with-us." So the question is where that emphasis on resurrection comes from. And the answer is: from Paul.
If you look at 1 Corinthians 15, you find Paul…defending the idea of bodily resurrection. But here's a very interesting twist: He never argues that resurrection was a special miracle only for Jesus. Just the opposite: Jesus' resurrection is for him one instance of a general resurrection.
It's easy to see how he develops his argument. Before his conversion, Paul had been a devout Pharisee – and Pharisees believed that God would raise up the righteous dead at the end of "this present age." Paul, as you know, was on his way to Damascus to persecute Christians when he had an experience that we would call vision or trance – a blinding light, a voice, a fall to the ground. To Paul, this was an encounter with the Jesus he was attacking. How would he understand this experience of Jesus? I think the answer is that he would conclude the general resurrection has begun. In fact, that's exactly the way he describes his belief: Jesus is "the firs fruits of those who have died." Given his expectation of a general resurrection, his experience of Jesus would persuade him that it had in fact begun. Jesus isn't the only one to be raised, just the first.
It is significant that Paul does not say, "If Christ's tomb is not empty, vain is our faith," but, "if Christ is not risen, vain is our faith." He is not talking about the resuscitation of Jesus' corpse but about the presence of Jesus in a wholly new mode existence….
So Paul's use of the category of resurrection was just one possible way of talking about the presence and power of Jesus in the lives of his followers.
In fact, I'd go even further. Paul's image of Jesus as the "first fruits of those who have died" depends upon the notion that the full harvest is at hand. But if that isn't the case, the metaphor doesn't work very well. If Paul were here today, I might ask him, "Paul, we've been waiting a long time since the 'first fruits' for that harvest you talked about. Maybe you weren't quite right about that general resurrection being just around the corner. Is there a better way to talk about Jesus' presence among us than 'resurrection?'"
Well, now that this author brings up the question, the answer is, No! Jesus isn't the only one to be raised precisely because he is the first. And, no, Paul does not say that the general resurrection has begun. He says that we can put our hope in our resurrection that will come some day because Jesus was raised from the dead. And, no, Paul does not mention the empty tomb; but, as the author said, he defended Jesus' bodily resurrection. A body that has risen means an empty tomb. If Paul were here today, and if he could be convinced that Jesus did not rise from the dead, I assure you that he would not think of "a better way to talk about Jesus' presence among us." He would say, "our preaching is in vain and your faith is in vain. We are guilty of misrepresenting God. Our faith is futile and we are still in our sins. If in this life only we have hoped in Christ, we are of all people most to be pitied." Accuse Paul of being wrong; but don't turn him into a liberal theologian who likes to make up word-pictures and have "interesting" discussions about theology. Paul was a follower of the risen Lord Jesus Christ.
The stakes are high when it comes to the resurrection's historical reality. But remember, it is God who has dealt the cards. It is God who sent his Son on his dangerous mission and who raised him from the dead. I will side with him. I would rather place all my bets on him, rather than try to cover myself against cards someone else may play. And so Jesus calls all who would follow him to do the same. Take him as he is presented in Scripture, in the gospel. He is worthy of your trust.
