"If Christ be Not Raised" 1 Corinthians 15:14-20

Introduction

1 Corinthians 15:14–20 “And if Christ has not been raised, then our preaching is in vain and your faith is in vain. 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. For if the dead are not raised, not even Christ has been raised. And if Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile and you are still in your sins. Then those also who have fallen asleep in Christ have perished. If in Christ we have hope in this life only, we are of all people most to be pitied. But in fact Christ has been raised from the dead, the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep.”

Text Explained

Today we gather not to remember the wonderful life of a good teacher. We do not gather together because we can learn spiritual lessons from a great prophet. We gather together because Jesus is the Risen Christ. The importance of the Resurrection being a real actual physical event cannot be understated. In the text we just read, the Apostle Paul points out in no uncertain terms that the true physical resurrection of Jesus is so vital to Christianity that if Christ has not been raised, then our preaching is in vain/useless and your faith is in vain/useless. The word means just that, without effect. If the resurrection had not physically happened then our faith is without effect. We cannot be saved. In fact Paul tells us that if Christ did not physically raise from the dead, then our error would be so great that we would be misrepresenting God. Christians would in fact be bearing false witness against God. “The resurrection gives meaning to Christian proclamation and faith, as it does to all work done in the Lord, and it is the root of the Christian hope.” (Rosner, Ciampa. 1 Corinthians Pillar Commentary Series pg 756) Without the resurrected Christ, we meet in vain. Yet today we hear the same words that the women heard 2000 years ago: Matthew 28:6 “He is not here, for He has risen, as He said. Come, see the place where He lay.” We worship a living Savior. This truth is vital for a person to be a Christian. In Romans 4:25 we read “who/Jesus was delivered up for our trespasses and raised for our justification.” As one scholar notes “Jesus was delivered up in order to atone for our sins and was raised in order that we might be justified.” (John Murray, Epistle to the Romans NICNT, 2vol. 1:155) Side note: This does not mean that Christ’s death and resurrection are unrelated. In fact to “bifurcate” the two would be like taking a quarter and separating the heads from the tails. Let us return to the Apostle Paul’s point and look at just a few of the reasons we would be miserable if Christ be not raised…

First, if Christ be not raised from the dead, it would show His death was not enough to pay our debt of sin. For if Christ had not been raised, then His death would have demonstrated that He must have died for His own sin. His bodily resurrection demonstrates God’s approval that Jesus’ death was enough.

Secondly, if Christ be not raised, then our faith would be in a dead man. Remember, a faith that justifies is faith IN Jesus Christ Romans 3:22 “the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe. For there is no distinction:” but only a Risen Christ can justify. If Christ be not raised, then we have no one who is able to justify us. Only the living Savior can justify. Only the living Savior can stand in the courtroom of God and tell the Accuser that our debt of sin is tetelestai. Paid in full.

Thirdly, if Christ be not raised, then the Old Testament Prophecies such as Isaiah 53 could not have been fulfilled. Isaiah 53:12 “Therefore I/God will divide Him a portion with the many, and He shall divide the spoil with the strong, because He poured out His soul to death and was numbered with the transgressors; yet He bore the sin of many, and makes intercession for the transgressors.” God will divide because He died, bore the sin of humanity, and currently makes intercession. Only a living Christ can do this.

Fourthly, if Christ be not raised, then Jesus’ own predictions would have demonstrated that He was a lier and thus worthy of death. John 2:19 “Jesus answered them, “Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up.” John 2:21–22 “But He was speaking about the temple of His body. When therefore He was raised from the dead, His disciples remembered that He had said this, and they believed the Scripture and the word that Jesus had spoken.” If Christ be not raised then He was either a lunatic or a lier.

Fifth, if Christ be not raised, then His claim to be the Son of God would have been a confirmed lie. Yet we read in Romans 1:4 “and Jesus was declared to be the Son of God in power according to the Spirit of holiness HOW? by His resurrection from the dead, Jesus Christ our Lord,” By His resurrection what He claimed to be is Definitively declared to be TRUE!

Sixth, if Christ be not raised, then His justifying work is proved invalid. The check doesn’t clear, the card is not accepted. The debt is NOT paid. However, Christ’s justifying work on our behalf is not just validated by His Resurrection, but let us go a step farther. By His bodily ascension into Heaven, Christ’s work is validated not just among humanity, by the Heavenly Father. “The merit of Christ’s atoning obedience, His righteousness, was accepted and approved by the Father when He(Jesus) was welcomed back into eternal glory in His exaltation.” (McCune, Rolland. Systematic Theology Vol2. pg232) We see this in Ephesians 1:20–23 “that He(the Father) worked in Christ when He/Father raised Him/Jesus from the dead and seated Him/Jesus at His/Father right hand in the heavenly places, Where is this place? far above all rule and authority and power and dominion, and above every name that is named, not only in this age but also in the one to come. And He/Father put all things under His/Jesus feet and gave Him/Jesus as head over all things to the church, which is His/Jesus body, the fullness of Him who fills all in all.” The final proof that Jesus death, burial, and resurrection were indeed enough is demonstrated by God the Father raising Jesus from the dead and Accepting Him physically into Heaven.

There are many more truths that are validated by the resurrection of Jesus. Yet we would be remiss if we celebrated the Resurrection and all it entails but we never took time to remember the reason Good Friday and Resurrection Sunday had to exist in the first place.

You see there is an irreducible minimum that MUST be believed for a person to be a Christian. A person cannot simply believe that Jesus existed. You cannot simply believe that He was a good person, or even that He was a mighty Prophet. No a person must believe first that God exists, that Jesus is God, that they are a sinner, that Jesus is the Messiah/Christ who died to pay their debt of sin, that He was buried, and that He rose again. We read this in 1 Corinthians 15:3–4 “For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received: that Christ/Messiah died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures, that He was buried, that He was raised on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures,” Bound up in this Gospel nutshell are deep truths. It tells us that we are sinners, we have broken the Laws of God and thus have incurred the penalty/wages of sin which is death. But let us look a bit deeper at this small word “sin”. Sin is the breaking of God’s Law. Sin is Murder, Theft, Adultery, Fornication, Coveting, Pride. 1 Corinthians 6:9–10 gives us a none exhaustive list “Or do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived: neither the sexually immoral, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor men who practice homosexuality, nor thieves, nor the greedy, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God.” Yet Jesus has told us that even those sins we do not act out but only harbor in our hearts condemn us as guilty. The point is this: Romans 3:10 “as it is written: “None is righteous, no, not one;” Romans 3:23 “for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,” Romans 6:23 “For the wages of sin is death,” You may say I am more righteous than… but that is the wrong perspective. A better perspective would be I am less guilty than… You see, sin separates us from God. It is like trying to jump across the grand canyon. You may make it farther across than me, but both of our broken bodies will end up in the bottom. This news is wretched for us because there is nothing we can do to cross that gap that our sin has made. Yet here is the Good News. The Gospel tells us that the Christ, who is the Eternal Son of God, died to pay that debt of sin. He died for our sins, as was prophesied in the Old Testament, He was buried, demonstrating His death was real, and that He rose again fulfilling His promise. In essence, He is the bridge across the Grand Canyon of sin that separates us from God. In fact this is similar to the picture found in 1 Peter 3:18 “For Christ also suffered once for sins, the righteous for the unrighteous, that He might bring us to God...” In order to be a Christian, a person must believe that all these things are true. God exists, I am a sinner, Jesus is God, Jesus died, was buried and rose again FOR MY SINS. Yet salvation goes farther than that. We can believe that all of these things are true without believing IN Christ. (Chair Illustration) I can believe that the chair will hold me, But until I sit in it, I am not believing in the Chair’s ability to hold me. You can believe that Jesus can save, but until you believe in Him, you cannot be saved. How do we believe in Him? We repent. Repentance means to fully turn away and go in the opposite direction. This means we admit we are guilty, we ask Jesus to forgive us and we trust that He does. We trust/take Him at His word that His death was enough to pay my debt of sin and His resurrection proved it to be true. This is the picture. Jesus takes our place of Sin and judgment, and we take His place of righteousness.

1 Corinthians 15:14–20 “And if Christ has not been raised, then our preaching is in vain and your faith is in vain. 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. For if the dead are not raised, not even Christ has been raised. And if Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile and you are still in your sins. Then those also who have fallen asleep in Christ have perished. If in Christ we have hope in this life only, we are of all people most to be pitied. But in fact Christ has been raised from the dead, the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep.”