The Resurrection Will and Should Change Your Life

We have already discussed in this chapter the reality of the resurrection of Christ. Now remember what is behind this is that some among the Corinthians in the church at Corinth were denying bodily resurrection. That is a very serious error. Paul wants to affirm the reality of bodily, physical resurrection and he starts by clarifying the fact that Jesus rose from the dead, therefore there is such a thing as bodily resurrection.

The theme, as you remember in verses 1–11, is the resurrection of Jesus Christ.

And then in verse 12 he says,

1 Corinthians 15:12 KJV 1900

12 Now if Christ be preached that he rose from the dead, how say some among you that there is no resurrection of the dead?

“If Christ is preached, and you have believed it, and been redeemed by believing it, that He has been raised from the dead, how do some among you say there’s no resurrection of the dead?

If there is no resurrection of the dead, then Christ hasn’t been raised.

Conversely, if Christ has been raised, there is a resurrection. And then it’s only a question of looking to the Word of God to see who also participates in that resurrection.”

So Paul starts with the resurrection of Christ and then he moved to a section demonstrating the tragic results of not believing in resurrection. Christ is not raised, we are not raised, the evangelists who preach the resurrection are liars and we’re, of all men, most miserable, all the way down to verse 19. Then in verse 20, he turns a corner and he discusses the order of resurrection, Christ being the preeminent one, the firstfruits, and the rest follow. And we looked at that last time and he swept us all the way into eternity when all the redeemed are resurrected, gathered into the presence of the Lord Jesus Christ, His bride is complete, then He in an act of reciprocal love to the Father who gave this bride to Him, returns the bride and Himself to the Father so that God is all in all.

So resurrection is defended, based upon the resurrection of Christ, based upon the fact that if you pull the resurrection out, the whole Christian house collapses. And then he gives us the full extent of resurrection, sweeping us all the way into glory.

Now starting in verse 29, he says that the truth of resurrection has implications, practical implications. And in these few verses we see those implications laid out for us. This is a little bit like a simple statement, for example, in Psalm 116:12 where the psalmist asks the question,

Psalm 116:12 KJV 1900

12 What shall I render unto the Lord For all his benefits toward me?

The fact that God has promised us a resurrection has very powerful influence on us. The resurrection is a reality and now he will discuss for us its practical implications. Those implications are not only discussed here, of course, all of the gospel in all of its fullness and all of its glory, and all of its promises comes with great implications.

But particularly in this passage, Paul wants us to see how really practical believing in the resurrection is. And I hope that you’ll be able to grasp that. But let me give you just a few illustrations.

Do you think, for example, that Stephen would have offered himself to the stones that crushed out his life if he didn’t believe in a resurrection?

Do you think that Andrew would have confidently allowed himself to be martyred by being tied to a cross and left for days until dead, or Peter would have been willing to be crucified upside down or James would have put himself in a position to be beheaded, or any other of the apostles who was martyred, or any other martyr would have been willing to do that, or even the Apostle Paul would have put his head on a block and waited till an axe chopped it off his body if he didn’t believe in a resurrection?

They drew the reality of the resurrection out of the Old Testament.

Job said, “Though worms destroy this body, yet in my flesh shall I see God.” And this is precisely what was behind the willingness of martyrs to give their lives. They and everybody else who names the name of Christ through all of human history has embraced Christ with the hope of resurrection, with the hope of eternal life. They believe that Jesus was risen and they would rise to be with Him in resurrection glory and to be with all the rest of the saints in resurrection glory.

And here come the Corinthians, however, and for whatever reason, they have bought in to the dominating pagan lie that was familiar to them in their culture that there is no bodily resurrection, that material is bad, spiritual is good, the spirit survives, the material does not. And so, some of them were questioning whether there was a real resurrection. If there was no resurrection, Jesus didn’t rise, they wouldn’t rise and that changes absolutely everything. If redemptive history ends as a cul-de-sac, in a grave outside of Jerusalem, and that’s where Jesus’ life ended, then some grave somewhere is where ours ends as well.

But that is not what the church has believed, and in fact, all who have ever sacrificed their lives, all who have presented themselves as living sacrifices in the words of Romans 12, because of the great mercies of God which have been promised to us, we do what we do because we have no fear of death and because we have hope of life after death, not hope that we will be some floating spirit, absorbed in the great universal spirit, as some would suggest, but that we will be who we are in the life to come. This is the very foundation of our faith.

Because the resurrection is a reality and he has established that in the first 28 verses beyond doubt, because the resurrection is a reality, because the resurrection is a fact, it carries with it some great incentives or some great motivations. If we remove bodily resurrection, we lose those incentives. We lose those motivations.

Paul wants to say here, we can’t get people to present their bodies to Christ. We can’t get people to come to Christ. We can’t get people to serve Christ. We can’t people to live a holy life if we don’t have a resurrection. And so again, we see that Paul’s approach in this chapter is to say to the critics in verse 12 there, who said there’s no resurrection. If you say that, here’s what you’ve done. And in this little section, he says in effect what you’ve done is to remove some major incentives out of Christian living.

Principles of behavior. And what it boils down to is this, people are not going to give their life to something they don’t really have hope in. And if you tell people there’s no bodily resurrection, what makes you think for a minute they’re going to bother with Christianity? Or what makes you think they’re going to live a sacrificial life? Or what makes you think they’re going to set their life apart to holiness if there’s no resurrection, if there there’s no consequences, if there’s no rewards, if there’s no punishments, if there’s never any accountability? That’s the essence of this chapter.

On the other hand, if there is resurrection, if we will face Christ, if we will have to be at the judgment seat of Christ, if there will be a day of reunion in heaven, if there will be a time when we dwell with the Lord Jesus and the saints and the ages forever, if there are those things in eternity for which we hope and in which we can believe, then there is incentive for this life.

Incentive

1 Corinthians 15:29 KJV 1900

29 Else what shall they do which are baptized for the dead, if the dead rise not at all? why are they then baptized for the dead?

I think what Paul is saying here is simply this, people get saved because they anticipate resurrection.

Incentive of Salvation

In other words, one of the strongest incentives for people to become Christians is the hope of resurrection. You know, it … to become Christian means you don’t have to look at the bleakness of the … of the grave. You can have resurrection hope.

To become a Christian means that you can be rejoined with everybody else as a Christian and spend eternity with them. To become a Christian means you can enter into heaven and dwell with God and live in His celestial kingdom and all the marvels of that kind of afterlife. You see, that in itself is a great incentive for salvation. And I think essentially that’s what Paul is saying here.

Now the Mormon church takes this verse and they take what appears on the surface to be the most obvious view, that somebody is baptized for a dead person. And the Mormons call it vicarious baptism.

They say Paul is saying this that a Christian who is alive and has been baptized can get rebaptized for a dead person so that the dead person can get saved by proxy. Okay? So like if you’re great dear friend at work dies without the Lord, you can come here and get baptized for that dead person and by proxy he’ll get saved. The Mormons, of course, teach that the spirits of those who have died can’t enter heaven unless a Mormon is baptized for them by proxy.

Now it’s obvious, I think, to all of us that we don’t believe that.

Proxy baptism, vicarious baptism could only be extrapolated out of this text, and there’s a simple principle, a biblical interpretation. You never generate a doctrine out of an obscure text when no other text in the Bible teaches it.

I mean, you … that’s mercilessly attacking the Bible with your own bias and making it say what you want it to say and you can’t do that. The person who gets baptized himself doesn’t get saved by being baptized let alone a dead person.

We believe you’re saved by faith in Jesus Christ, right? And baptism is simply an act of obedient faith that proclaims that … that testimony of salvation. But no one is saved by baptism. Not living people to say nothing of dead ones.

It is a point unto men once to die the Bible says and after this the baptism? After this, the judgment. Christian baptism is in view in this verse. Let’s look at that. You see the term baptize. Let’s take it piece by piece. The term baptize is referring to Christian baptism I believe. It’s the normal term.

Some people are being baptized in a Christian manner. Some people are coming to Christ is what it’s literally saying. Now mark this in your thinking. Whenever you see in the New Testament the idea of being baptized, it always has a relationship to salvation unless it’s talking about something like the baptism of the Holy Spirit, which is a spiritual thing. But when you’re talking about water baptism in the New Testament it is something that is synonymous with salvation. And that goes all the way back to the words of Jesus in the great commission. Because Jesus said, “Go into all the world and make disciples, baptizing and teaching.”

Jesus didn’t teach baptismal regeneration. He didn’t mean save them by dunking them. What He was saying was, “Go into all the world and make disciples, first by winning them to Christ and then by teaching them.” In other words, from the very utterance of Jesus, baptism was a term used synonymously with salvation.

Now we go to the next word, for and then the dead.

Now could somebody get saved for the dead?

Well, let’s look again at the next word for. And this becomes arbitrary all the way along the line, but I want you to see how this one view seems to hang together. The word for here is hupare in the Greek. Now that word can be translated by no less than probably 12 different words.

It could be translated over the dead, above the dead, across the dead, beyond the dead, on behalf of the dead, instead of the dead, in the name of the dead, because of the dead, in reference to the dead, or with regard to the dead. And we see a little of the problem. And all of those translations would be if the context permits and the case permits accurate.

So what you really find out is you have to pick one. And as I look at it, I think perhaps the best one would be a causal use and that we could translate it because of. Hupare can be translated because of and it would read this way, some people, unbelieving people are being saved because of the dead. Now it is most likely that the dead have reference to Christians. The dead.

Now, why would they do that if the dead don’t rise? Now let me give it to you simply. There are some people who come to Christ and are saved because of some dead person or persons. What do I mean by that? Just this. There are two things I think in this particular area that draw people to Christ. One is this, an unbeliever sees a Christian and he watches that Christian face death. And that Christian has hope and confidence. He is encouraged. He anticipates being with Jesus. For example, Mike McKillip was told that he would just have a little while to live. Now they really don’t know how long, but originally he had a little while to live. He … his response was oh, then I get to be with Jesus all the sooner.

Mike’s a young man in our church. Then I get to be with Jesus all the sooner. As a result of that, hearing that, and knowing that somebody came to Christ. In other words, the hope of the Christian in the face of death becomes an incentive for other people who look at death so fearfully so blackly and so bleakly.

Hope of Salvation in Believer’s Death

If there is no resurrection, then why are some unbelievers being baptized because of the great hope they see in those that have died? See, if there’s no resurrection, why?

Hope of Reunion

Paul is saying look, if there’s no reunions, if there’s no fulfillment to hope, why are people getting saved?

Incentive of Service

1 Corinthians 15:30 KJV 1900

30 And why stand we in jeopardy every hour?

I really believe that if you remove the hope of resurrection you will tear the motivation right out of all service to Jesus Christ. Why? Because the only thing that makes people willing to suffer, willing to endure, willing to go through all kinds of hardship to do the work of Christ at any cost is the fact that some day that work is going to have eternal results. That some day there’s going to be fruit in heaven that they’re going to see. That Jesus said would remain. That some day they’re going to stand before Jesus and say here I am and I gave the best I had and they’re going to hear well done. And that’s going to make it worth it.

Service is predicated on the hope of resurrection.

Paul says, every hour he was in danger. Now somebody’s going to say well, Paul … now … now Paul you’re speaking a little evangelistically. Paul, you … I realize that’s part of the profession to speak in hyperbole like that, but after all every hour Paul? I mean, you do now and then have a little break from jeopardy. So he just get very vehement in verse 31 and he says literally, “I swear I do.”

1 Corinthians 15:31 KJV 1900

31 I protest by your rejoicing which I have in Christ Jesus our Lord, I die daily.

And at the end of the verse, the verse really says, I can read it this, “I swear that I die daily.” And he’s not talking about some great spiritual crucifixion of self. This is not dying daily in the terms of devotion to Christ.

He’s saying I swear that every day I’m one step away from dying physically, every day, this is no exaggeration. And he swears … it’s interesting that he would be so vehement as to make an oath out of it. The term I swear, which your Bible may say I protest, the Greek particle here that is used to introduce an oath. He’s … he wants to really solemnize his point.

And he swears, and it’s interesting the way he does it, it’s not translated perhaps the best way in the authorized. It should read this way, “I swear by the pride I have in you in Christ.” In other words, “I swear it by the pride I have in you in Christ.” Now what does this mean? Well, to swear by something means that you’re willing to forfeit that something if the word isn’t true. So you’re really making an equalization.

Now don’t you come along say to me well Paul by the way there’s no resurrection. Then he’s going to say in verse 32,

1 Corinthians 15:32 KJV 1900

32 If after the manner of men I have fought with beasts at Ephesus, what advantageth it me, if the dead rise not? let us eat and drink; for to morrow we die.

“If then only in a human way, only from a human viewpoint, only humanly, only after the manner of men I fought with beasts at Ephesus, what does that profit me? I should fight beasts for this if there’s no resurrection. What a waste.” Paul put his life on the line every day, every day.

It came to the end of his life, he said, “I fought the good fight.” Every day, every day, read 2 Corinthians 4 and see all the things he says there.

2 Corinthians 4:8–10 KJV 1900

8 We are troubled on every side, yet not distressed; we are perplexed, but not in despair; 9 Persecuted, but not forsaken; cast down, but not destroyed; 10 Always bearing about in the body the dying of the Lord Jesus, that the life also of Jesus might be made manifest in our body.

Incentive of Sanctification

1 Corinthians 15:33 KJV 1900

33 Be not deceived: evil communications corrupt good manners.

Present tense stop staying in the deceit you’re in. Stop following this mistake and notion. You’ve got to get rid of this heresy about the resurrection. Stop being deceived. You know why? Because, now watch this, evil, and then you have a word here that’s most interesting, evil blank corrupts good morals. Now the word hamilia basically means association. Evil association, however, according to some lexicons, it also carries the meaning of a sermon or a lecture.

Now if we combine those two meanings, this is kind of what we get, stop being deceived. Hanging around evil people giving evil messages will lead to evil morals. Or if you wanted to just squish it all together, bad theology corrupts good morals.

The idea here is associating with somebody who’s teaching bad theology. Hanging around and evil lecture. And evil association with an evil individual giving an evil lecture would be the … the combination of significances of the term in Greek.

1 Corinthians 15:34 (KJV 1900)

34 Awake to righteousness, and sin not; for some have not the knowledge of God: I speak this to your shame.

And verse 34 note it says in the middle of the verse, “some have not the knowledge of God.” See some in the church didn’t know God truly, didn’t know God’s teaching truly and so they were espousing heresy and listen to this, now here’s our point that we made at the beginning of the message, bad theology leads to bad behavior just like good theology leads to good behavior.

Just like because of all God has done because of this truth, you are to so live, so if you introduce error, you’re going to have corrupt morals. So he says stop being deceived. Bad theology will corrupt your good morals. You’ve got to break the association with these people teaching this heresy.

You can’t run around with heretics without it having a corrupting influence. In other words, what he’s saying is look, holiness is predicated on association with good teaching. If you deny the truth of the resurrection you have removed an incentive to good living.

And so he’s saying look the resurrection, confidence in that resurrection will draw your heart to holiness. And he says in 34, “awake to righteousness and stop sinning.” But if … but you won’t be able to do that if you run around people who don’t know God, who teach bad theology, you’re going to come up with bad living. You tell a guy there’s no resurrection, there’s no life after death and watch the way he lives.

And he says it at the end of the 34th verse, “I’m ashamed that I have to remind you because you should have known.” You should have known. You see beloved the resurrection has tremendous implications. If Jesus rises from the dead, if He is alive, and we shall live also, then there is an incentive for people to be saved because there’s hope after death and there’s reunion.

There is an incentive for people to serve Jesus Christ because you can throw this life away and know that you’re going to get it a million fold in the life to come. There is an incentive to sanctification because morality will be honored and rewarded in the days to come. And anything less than that is shameful heresy and will corrupt the truth. And so Paul says, hold to the resurrection.

Hold on to the Resurrection.

The Resurrection should be a source of Salvation.

The Resurrection should be a source of Service.

The Resurrection should be a source of Sanctification.