1 Corintians 15:12-34

MOVING FORWARD

Quantum Physics

Around the beginning of the 20th century theoretical physicists began to re-examine the basic building blocks of life.

Without going into too much detail (which I don’t understand anyway) these men and women began to find new ways to describe the smallest of particles that make up the universe - including objects such as electrons, photons, and other objects that make up the atom - which until around the start of the 20th century was thought to be the smallest of all objects.

What these men and women didn’t necessarily grasp was that an event some 2,000 years ago has already marked a significant change in how people experience life.

One recent author suggests that “Jesus did not come back to life, he went forward into new life.”

Christopher Watkin, Biblical Critical Theory: How the Bible’s Unfolding Story Makes Sense of Modern Life and Culture (Grand Rapids, MI.: Zondervan Academic, 2022), p. 437.

In 1 Corinthians, the most detailed discussion of Jesus’ resurrection from the dead the Apostle Paul points us toward this new direction.

The Resurrection is Central to the Gospel

We saw in the first 11 verses how the death of Christ was ‘according to the Scripture’ as was His resurrection.

Both His death and His resurrection are predicted centuries before these events happened.

Take away the resurrection and the gospel - the truth that God forgives our sin through the substitutionary death of Jesus on the cross has no meaning.

If Jesus didn’t really die, then He could not have experienced NEW LIFE!

Resurrection Life = A New Paradigm

For the Jews of the first century ‘resurrection’ was primarily about the end of time.

For example, the prophet Isaiah wrote a song for God’s people to encourage them during a time of exile.

One part of the song reads like this:

Isaiah 26:19 HCSB

Your dead will live; their bodies will rise. Awake and sing, you who dwell in the dust! For you will be covered with the morning dew, and the earth will bring out the departed spirits.

Most Jews - with the exception of the Sadducee’s - believed that when God finally intervened in human history all those who died - as physical and spiritual descendants of Abraham - would experience a resurrection to a new type of life.

An often cited passage in Ezekiel points to this future restoration:

Ezekiel 37:11–14 HCSB

Then He said to me, “Son of man, these bones are the whole house of Israel. Look how they say, ‘Our bones are dried up, and our hope has perished; we are cut off.’ Therefore, prophesy and say to them: This is what the Lord God says: I am going to open your graves and bring you up from them, My people, and lead you into the land of Israel. You will know that I am Yahweh, My people, when I open your graves and bring you up from them. I will put My Spirit in you, and you will live, and I will settle you in your own land. Then you will know that I am Yahweh. I have spoken, and I will do it.” This is the declaration of the Lord.

The resurrection of Jesus though points to a radically different reality.

Many early believers like Paul Peter, John and others understood Jesus’ resurrection to be a sign that God’s final intervention would occur in their own lifetime.

The fact of Jesus’ resurrection reveals a new model, a new paradigm for life - not just in some distant future, but life in the here and now.

Resurrection Life = New Horizons

If there is no resurrection of the dead - period - as some in Corinth were promoting, then several things must be true:

-Christ has NOT been raised;

-The proclamation of the Gospel is pointless;

-All who claim that Jesus is raised from the dead are liars;

-Those who accept that Jesus was raised from the dead are still stuck in a death spiral of sin and decay; and

-we are of all people to be pitied because there is no genuine hope.

1 Corinthians 15:20 HCSB

But now Christ has been raised from the dead, the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep.

Instead of a horizon that ends at death, instead of a horizon that literally ends with hopelessness - the resurrection of Jesus creates a new horizon.

Resurrection life = a new destiny

Romans 5:12 HCSB

Therefore, just as sin entered the world through one man, and death through sin, in this way death spread to all men, because all sinned.

Now, because Jesus Christ died in our place we no longer face separation from God - now or for eternity.

Sin, which alienates us from God, creating distance between us and God, always results in death.

Our new destiny is now resurrection life -

Jesus’ resurrection is a promise of more to come.

‘Firstfruits’ is an OT term reminding those who sowed seed that the first of the harvest meant more to come.

Jesus, as the Son of God, who died in place of all who receive Him, is raised from the dead as a promise that all who receive Him, becoming children of God, will one day experience a similar resurrection.

Resurrection Life = Fulfillment of God’s Eternal Plan

Vs 24-28 point towards what God has been aiming at since the Garden of Eden - a restoration of His ultimate purpose in creation: an intimate, personal one-on-one relationship with you and I.

The world God created has been corrupted and knocked off kilter by sin.

But God has been working His plan to restore His rule, His sovereignty and His ultimate purpose to create a people for His own possession - a people of whom it will be said, He is their God and they are His people. (see Gen 12, 15, 17).

Resurrection Life = New Power for this life

Among Biblical scholars and theologians there is no consensus on what Paul is referring to in vs 29.

The plain reading of the text seems to indicate some in Corinth were undergoing baptisms for family members of friends who had died without being baptized.

Paul’s point: baptism is intensely personal, meant to be a one time experience for all who profess faith in Jesus Christ.

Second, Paul reminds his audience that if Christ is not raised, his ability to withstand the enemy in various ways would be non-existent.

Only living in resurrection life - made possible through our union, or our abiding in Jesus can we withstand what ever the enemy might use to defeat us.

Finally Paul calls on his readers to remember:

immorality cannot be excused.

A genuine knowledge of God will always lead to godly living.

You are known by the company you keep!

REFLECT AND RESPOND

There are some doctrines and Biblical passages we may or may not agree on.

There are some practices one church adopts that don’t fit in another context.

But there are certain truths, certain foundational truths that cannot be ignored or even disputed:

1 Corinthians 15:3–4 (HCSB)

For I passed on to you as most important what I also received: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, that He was buried, that He was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures,

Are you building a life on these three truths?

Any other foundation will certainly crumble and fail as God fulfills His eternal plan.

Because Jesus is raised from the dead, so we live in new life...

If you believe in your heart that God raised Jesus from the dead and confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord, as Paul affirms in his letter to the Romans, you have resurrection life.

Will you choose to receive all that it means to have resurrection life?