Six Gifts of the Resurrection: The Gospel of Christ.

1 Corinthians 15:12–20

1 Corinthians 15:12–20 NKJV

12 Now if Christ is preached that He has been raised from the dead, how do some among you say that there is no resurrection of the dead? 13 But if there is no resurrection of the dead, then Christ is not risen. 14 And if Christ is not risen, then our preaching is empty and your faith is also empty. 15 Yes, and we are found false witnesses of God, because we have testified of God that He raised up Christ, whom He did not raise up—if in fact the dead do not rise. 16 For if the dead do not rise, then Christ is not risen. 17 And if Christ is not risen, your faith is futile; you are still in your sins! 18 Then also those who have fallen asleep in Christ have perished. 19 If in this life only we have hope in Christ, we are of all men the most pitiable. 20 But now Christ is risen from the dead, and has become the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep.

"If Christ Has Not Been Raised . . . " 

Paul says there are six things that would be in shambles if Christ did not rise from the dead. Then verse 20 reverses the whole paragraph: "But in fact Christ has been raised from the dead." So let's look at those six things.

Verse 14: "If Christ has not been raised, then our preaching is in vain." But since Christ has been raised, our preaching is not in vain.Verse 14: " . . . and your faith is in vain." But since Christ has been raised, our faith is not in vain.

Verse 15: If Christ has not been raised, "we are found to be misrepresenting God [literally: we are false witnesses], because we testified of God that he raised Christ." But since Christ has been raised, the apostles are not false witnesses about the work of God.Verse 17:

"If Christ has not been raised then your faith is futile and you are still in your sins." But since Christ has been raised, we are not still in our sins.

Verse 18: If Christ has not been raised, then "those who have fallen asleep in Christ have perished." But since Christ has been raised, the dead in Christ have not perished.

Verse 19: If Christ has not been raised, then "we are of all men most to be pitied." But since Christ has been raised, we are not to be pitied.

1. We Are Forgiven for Our Sins

First, from verse 17, instead of saying negatively that we are not still in our sins, we can say positively that because of the resurrection we are forgiven for our sins.

I put this first as the basic need and longing of our hearts because if God holds our sins against us—and we all have sinned!—then there is no hope of anything else from God. The foundation for every other blessing from God is that God won't hold our sins against us. Everything hangs on forgiveness.

How is the resurrection connected to our forgiveness? Isn't it the death of Jesus that takes away our sin, because he bore our sins and took our judgment (1 Corinthians 15:3)? Yes.

1 Corinthians 15:3 NKJV

3 For I delivered to you first of all that which I also received: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures,

But the connection with the resurrection is very important.

Romans 4:25 puts it like this. "He was handed over [to death] on account of our transgressions, and he was raised on account of our justification."

Romans 4:25 NKJV

25 who was delivered up because of our offenses, and was raised because of our justification.

This means that by his death he paid the penalty for our sins and purchased our acquittal, our justification, our forgiveness. And since the achievement of the cross was so complete and the work of our justification so decisive, God raised Jesus from the dead to validate our forgiveness and to vindicate his Son's righteousness and to celebrate the work of justification.

Everybody in this room this morning needs forgiveness, and deep inside, even when we don't think about it, we long for it. We long to be accepted by God. We fear the alienation of our guilt. But Paul says, because Christ rose from the dead, we are no longer in our sins. This is the first and most basic longing of our hearts.

2. Our Faith Is Well-Founded.. \We belive by the spirit.

Second, from verse 14, instead of saying negatively that our faith is not in vain, we can say positively that because of the resurrection our faith is well-founded. Or, to put it more personally, because of the resurrection of Jesus there is someone we can trust absolutely.

I believe that deep in the heart of every person is a longing for someone that you can count on through thick and thin. Someone who is absolutely trustworthy. Someone who, if you put your faith in him, it won't be in vain. He won't let you down. He will always be there. We want it because we were made for it. God put man and woman in the garden of Eden to glorify God by trusting him for everything they needed.

That need has never changed, in spite of sin. And now that we are no longer in our sins, this longing too is satisfied by the resurrection of Jesus. The death of Jesus proves his love for us, and the resurrection proves his power over every enemy of life. And so there is someone you can count on. Someone absolutely trustworthy. Someone who will never let you down. Jesus is alive to be trusted. "The life I live I live by faith in the Son of God who loved me and gave himself for me" (Galatians 2:20).

Galatians 2:20 NKJV

20 I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me.

3. The Apostles Preach What Is True

Our young people are being taught (and many of us were taught) that there is no absolute truth—something that is true all the time and everywhere whether people know it or like it.

Therefore the need for truth is a deep need of the human soul and human society. And Jesus came into the world to say, "I am the way, the truth, and the life" (John 14:6). And then he rose from the dead to vindicate his claim. Jesus has a right to tell us what is absolutely true because in the resurrection God proved him to be absolutely true.

4/5. We Are to Be Envied

Fourth and fifth, from verse 19, instead of saying negatively that we are not to be pitied, we can say positively that because of the resurrection we are to be envied. Our preaching is not in vain—it is full, meaningful, valid, valuable, significant.

If Christ is not raised, then living for him, doing what he says, following his will is a great delusion. We should be pitied like insane people who live by hallucinations. But since he has been raised and is alive and reigns as king forever, all our obedience, all our love, all our self-denial is not just not-to-be-pitied, but is positively enviable. "This slight momentary affliction is working for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison," Paul said (2 Corinthians 4:17).

And there is in every one of us the longing that our lives be well spent—that our lives count for something, that they have significance and usefulness, that we don't come to the end of our days and say, it was all in vain, empty, pointless, useless, insignificant—pitiable.

Paul knows this. That's why he ends this whole chapter on the resurrection (v. 58) with the words: "Be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that in the Lord your labor is not in vain."

Not in vain! That's the longing of our lives. O Lord let it not be misspent. Let me not come to my grave and say, "I've wasted it!" It does not have to be. Christ is risen and everything done in his name—by his strength and for his glory—is not in vain. It is enviable. Significant. Valuable. Eternal.

6. Those Who Have Fallen Asleep Are Alive

Finally, there is the longing that we shall live forever in joy. That we not come to an empty end after a full and valuable life. That we not become a zero, or worse, damned. And so Paul says in verse 18 that because Christ is raised those who have fallen asleep in him—those who have died in faith—have not perished. Or positively, they are alive. They will live forever. They live the way Christ lives. They will enter into the joy of their Master.

The Greatest News in All the World 

The greatest news in all the world is that God and his Son are most glorified in you when you are most satisfied in them. And to make that true God raised his Son Jesus from the dead to reign forevermore.

In raising him from the dead

he gave us forgiveness and glorified Jesus as the all-sufficient forgiver;he gave us a friend to count on and glorified Jesus as utterly reliable;he gave us guidance and unchanging truth and glorified Jesus as the absolute foundation for truth and righteousness;he gave us a life that is not pitiable but enviable, a ministry that is not in vain but fruitful, and glorified Jesus as the source and goal of all life and all ministry;and he gave us everlasting joy that will not be ended by death, and glorified Jesus as the author of life, the victor over death, and the first fruits of those who have fallen asleep.

So Celebrates HIM at this Season ..

Jesus Is Lord

So, before I give three reasons from the New Testament that the resurrection is essential to God’s purposes in creation and salvation, let me just say clearly that affirming the bodily resurrection of Jesus is essential to being a Christian. Paul says in Romans 10:9, “If you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.”

Now, I know that Acts 16:31 says this: “Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved.” But when he said that, “Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved,” he did not mean, “Believe on a dead man.” When he said, “Believe in the Lord,” he meant, “He’s Lord — he’s Lord.” You can’t read Paul’s letters and think that Jesus was Lord, and now he’s in the grave. Paul said in 1 Corinthians 12:3, “No one can say ‘Jesus is Lord,’ except in the Holy Spirit.” He is Lord. You can’t be a Christian if you only believe in a dead human being who was Lord. You can’t. He is Lord. And Jesus is Lord is the fundamental early-church confession.

So, here are three reasons why the resurrection — and, consequently, Easter — is so important.

It’s important because of the connection between Christ’s resurrection and his death.It’s important because of the connection between Christ’s resurrection and our resurrection.It’s important because of the connection between Christ’s resurrection and his present and future ministry.

End …

1. Christ’s resurrection vindicates his death and frees us from sin.

Christ’s resurrection closely connects with his death. Consider two key passages.

“[Christ] was delivered up [to death] for our trespasses and raised for our justification” (Romans 4:25). That means that the resurrection was God’s sovereign act to emblazon the triumph of Christ’s death across the universe. The death of Christ successfully completed the foundational work of our justification. Nobody would be saved without God’s declaring us just and righteous before his throne of justice. And Romans 4:25 says that the death of Christ so completely and successfully secures this justification that God put his omnipotent stamp of approval on it by raising Jesus from the dead. The bodily resurrection of Jesus vindicated the saving success of the bloody death of Jesus.

Now, here’s the other text: 1 Corinthians 15:14–18. Paul is talking about bodily resurrection in 1 Corinthians 15. “If Christ has not been raised, then our preaching is in vain and your faith is in vain. . . . If Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile and you are still in your sins” (1 Corinthians 15:14, 17).

Jesus died to remove the guilt of our sins. And Paul is saying that if he’s not raised, you’re still in your sins. He goes on to say that “those also who have fallen asleep in Christ have perished” (1 Corinthians 15:18). In other words, Paul’s preaching of the cross is pointless if Christ was not raised from the dead. “Futile,” he says. And we know it means bodily resurrection because the rest of 1 Corinthians 15 makes it clear that’s the kind of resurrection he’s talking about. You are still in your sins; they are not forgiven; the blood of Jesus is powerless, useless, a failure; it aborted — if Christ was not raised from the dead. First Corinthians 15:20: “In fact Christ has been raised from the dead.” So the resurrection is important because of its connection to the death of Christ.

2. Christ’s resurrection guarantees ours.

The resurrection is also important because of its connection between Christ’s resurrection and our resurrection. First Corinthians 15:20: “Christ has been raised from the dead, the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep.” That means the resurrection is viewed as one great harvest, and Christ’s resurrection is the firstfruits, the first stage of the resurrection that guarantees our resurrection.

Or Romans 6:5: “If we have been united with him in a death like his, we shall certainly be united with him in a resurrection like his.” Our resurrection will be owing to our union with Christ, who was raised. If he wasn’t, we won’t be.

Or 2 Corinthians 4:14: “He who raised the Lord Jesus will raise us also with Jesus.” So, Christ’s resurrection is important because ours depends on his. If he wasn’t raised, we won’t be either.

3. Christ’s resurrection empowers his present ministry.

The resurrection of Christ is important because of the connection between Christ’s resurrection and his present and future ministry. The death of Christ was the purchase of our salvation, not the application or consummation of it.

The Bible describes much more to be done for our everlasting enjoyment of the glory of God and the fellowship of Jesus. Christ’s saving work goes on in his resurrection body as he intercedes for us, and when he comes again in glory to establish his kingdom. The goal of our eternal life is to enjoy and magnify the living Christ as he rules over his church and gives himself in service and fellowship to his bride. It is a salvation of living fellowship. If he weren’t alive, we wouldn’t have any salvation. There would be nothing to enjoy forever and ever that is supremely satisfying. So, with no resurrection, we get no fellowship, no salvation, no joy. Consider these texts:

Romans 6:9: “We know that Christ, being raised from the dead, will never die again; death no longer has dominion over him.”

Romans 8:34: “Who is to condemn [us]? Christ Jesus is the one who died — more than that [that’s really important!], who was raised — who is at the right hand of God, who indeed is interceding for us.”

Ephesians 1:20–23: “[God] raised him from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly places, far above all rule and authority and power and dominion, and above every name that is named. . . . And he put all things under his feet and gave him as head over all things to the church, which is his body, the fullness of him who fills all in all.” That’s his present ministry today, as all-supplying guide and head for the church.

Acts 17:31: “[God] has fixed a day on which he will judge the world in righteousness by a man whom he has appointed.” Judgment is coming. Jesus is going to be the man who does the judgment. “And of this he has given assurance to all by raising him from the dead.”

Colossians 1:18: “He is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that in everything he might be preeminent.”

So, the resurrection of Jesus is all-important because his death would be ineffective without it; and because we would have no hope of resurrection without it; and because the ministry of Jesus that he is performing right now, and will perform forever for our everlasting joy, would not exist without the resurrection. Together with the death of Jesus, his resurrection is the all-important event in the history of the world.