Resurrection and Faith

All of these are phrases that you might hear today. And they all are basically saying the same thing: “Truth has more to do with perception or opinions than facts.”

Well, Christianity is not based upon opinions, but upon facts. Of course, anyone is free to believe whatever they want. However, there comes a point where clinging to a belief is done so in the face of the truth, rather than led by the truth. And when it comes to such a consequential matter as eternity, the truth matters.

And that’s why Paul starts his discussion in 1 Corinthians 15 with the facts of the gospel. You can turn there, 1 Corinthians 15; page 653 of the white pew Bible. Here are the facts of the gospel as laid forth by the teaching of the apostles: God took on flesh in the person of Christ Jesus. In the flesh he lived here a life of holiness and love, then he died on the cross for our sins according to God’s eternal plan revealed in the Scriptures. After dying, he was buried, but on the third day he rose again from the dead, and after a while he ascended to his Father’s throne where he now sits enthroned over all creation. Eventually, he will come to be our Judge, and in that day the dead in Christ shall rise by virtue of being united with him.

Now, in the Corinthian church, certain people began to question whether or not part of that gospel was true; namely, that Christ had actually been raised from the dead. To our knowledge they did not deny his perfect life or his sacrificial death, but whether or not he remained dead. And, rightly, we ought to shrink in horror at such a thought. Because as we will see today, Paul says that if Christ has not been raised, then there are horrible consequences for our faith. In fact, he says, our faith is worthless.

Remember our main idea from last week, and we carry it over to this week and next:

The resurrection of Jesus is a fundamental part of the gospel, our hope for the future, and our endurance in this life, so we must hold firmly to it!

Today we will focus on the second part of that idea: The resurrection is a fundamental part of our hope for the future, our faith, and so we must hold firmly to it. The resurrection was the teaching of the prophets of the Old Testament, the apostles of the New, and even Jesus himself.

The resurrection of Jesus is a fundamental part of the gospel, our hope for the future, and our endurance in this life, so we must hold firmly to it!

Let’s read the first part of our text, then I will show you the dire consequences St. Paul lays forth if there is no resurrection.

1 Corinthians 15:12–22 CSB

12 Now if Christ is proclaimed as raised from the dead, how can some of you say, “There is no resurrection of the dead”? 13 If there is no resurrection of the dead, then not even Christ has been raised; 14 and if Christ has not been raised, then our proclamation is in vain, and so is your faith. 15 Moreover, we are found to be false witnesses about God, because we have testified wrongly about God that he raised up Christ—whom he did not raise up, if in fact the dead are not raised. 16 For if the dead are not raised, not even Christ has been raised. 17 And if Christ has not been raised, your faith is worthless; you are still in your sins. 18 Those, then, who have fallen asleep in Christ have also perished. 19 If we have put our hope in Christ for this life only, we should be pitied more than anyone. 20 But as it is, Christ has been raised from the dead, the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep. 21 For since death came through a man, the resurrection of the dead also comes through a man. 22 For just as in Adam all die, so also in Christ all will be made alive.

PRAY

The resurrection of Jesus is a fundamental part of the gospel, our hope for the future, and our endurance in this life, so we must hold firmly to it!

And the first consequence Paul lays forth from a denial of resurrection is this:

If There is No Resurrection, then Christ Himself is Not Risen

If the resurrection of the dead is impossible, Christ cannot have risen from the dead. Now, the apostles all claimed that they had seen Christ after he had risen. They had met him, they had been with him, they had seen him eat. They had seen him perform acts which could not be performed by a spirit, but which required flesh and bones. One of them put his finger into the print of the nails, and was invited to thrust his hand into Christ’s side. He was known by two of them when he broke the bread in Emmaus. They heard him speak, they knew his voice; they were not deceived.

Paul says on one occasion, five hundred of them saw him at once. Folks, do you know how hard it is to corroborate witness testimony? From television, you might assume that eyewitness testimony is the most valuable thing in a courtroom. But, ask any attorney and they will tell you that, aside from the perception by the jury, eyewitness testimony is wildly unreliable.

Put four people at the intersection of Hwy 8 and Hwy 51 in Grenada and let them see a car crash; you will get 4 different testimonies about what exactly happened. Yes, the red car was speeding, ran the red light, and T-boned the green car. Go back tomorrow and ask that same witness: Yeah, the red car wasn’t paying attention and rear-ended that gray car right there on 51. Go back two weeks later: Yeah, I saw that crash, we were right at that intersection over by Gateway tire and the blue truck lost control and ran the convertible right off the road. Do you know how hard it is to get witnesses to all declare the same thing?

And yet Paul says, go ask any of those 500 who were there, most of them are still alive and they will all tell you the same thing: we saw Jesus, not dead but alive, right there in the flesh.

“Now,” he says, “if there is no resurrection of the dead, if that is impossible, then, of course, Christ did not rise; and yet we all assure you that we saw him, and that we were with him, and you have to believe that we are all liars, and that the Christian religion is a lie, or else you must believe that there is a resurrection of the dead.”

But someone might say, “OK, sure Christ might have been raised, but that doesn’t his people will be raised.”

No, that cannot be, he says because according to our faith Christ is one with his people. And he is the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep. When Adam sinned, the whole human race fell in him, for they were one with him; in Adam all died. In other places Paul says that even those that have not sinned in the same way Adam did still died. Because all humanity is in Adam. His work counted for us and all are in him. We rightly say that life begins at conception. Yet we must equally say that death begins at conception, because there is no separating Adam from those who comes from him. The death-sentence of Adam is on us all.

Now, Christ is the second Adam, and he has a posterity. Just as all humanity are on with Adam, so all believers are one with Christ, and none can separate them from him. If they do not live, then he did not live; and if he did not rise, then they will not rise. But whatever happened to Christ must also happen unto them because they are in Him fully. He is the Head and we the members; there is no division.

This is Paul’s first point: if there is no resurrection, then Christ himself did not rise. But, he says, we know that Christ has been raised, therefore we know that all who are in him must be raised as well.

The second consequence of denying the resurrection:

If There is No Resurrection, Then Faith is a Delusion

Now, right off the bat, we know that there are many who deny Christ who might say: “Yes, faith is a delusion.”

And Paul says, “You know what? If Christ is still dead then they are absolutely right.”

If Christ was not raised from the dead then every disciple of Christ has believed a lie. “Your faith is also vain.”

Let me say something to the Christian in here who is the most secure in their faith, who has walked with Jesus through trials and come out on the other side with comfort and peace, who has experienced a dramatic change of heart and life in Jesus: If Jesus was not raised from the dead, you are believing a lie. If he did not literally rise from the dead on the third day, then your faith that gives you comfort, your faith which has renewed you, your faith which you believe is leading you home to heaven, is nothing but a delusion; your faith is worthless. What a dreadful thought. What an especially dreadful thought for those of us who often experience that plague of doubt. What hope do we have, if the most secure’s faith is in vain, what about my little ole faith?

If Jesus Christ did not die for me, and did not rise again for me, I am lost.

Why?

What is so important about the resurrection that our faith is pointless without it?

Let’s see Paul’s third consequence of denying the resurrection:

If There is No Resurrection, Then You Are Still in Your Sins

If Christ has not been raised, then you are still in your sins, the gospel is not effective, and you still stand condemned.

That ought to make our blood run cold. Without the resurrection, our sins still lay upon us because the atoning sacrifice of Christ was not accepted.

If the atonement of Christ for sin had been unsatisfactory, he would have remained in the grave. He went there on our behalf, held hostage by death for us; and if his work on the cross had not satisfied the justice of God in full, then he would never have come out of the grave again.

Here is the truth of the gospel in the death of Christ: He took upon himself the sum total of the guilt of all his people.

Isaiah 53:6 CSB

6 We all went astray like sheep; we all have turned to our own way; and the Lord has punished him for the iniquity of us all.

Jesus the Christ died, and by his death obtained the full discharge of all our obligations.

Colossians 2:14 CSB

14 He erased the certificate of debt, with its obligations, that was against us and opposed to us, and has taken it away by nailing it to the cross.

The work was done on the cross and the surety of its completion and acceptance was given in the resurrection. The cross was the payment, the resurrection was the receipt. And now, since Christ is risen, you who believe in him are not in your sins. But, if there is no resurrection, then it would have been true what Paul says, “you are still in your sins.”

One more consequence of the denial of the resurrection:

If There is No Resurrection, Then We Have No Source of Joy

Look at what Paul says against in verse 19:

1 Corinthians 15:19 CSB

19 If we have put our hope in Christ for this life only, we should be pitied more than anyone.

If Jesus was not raised from the dead, we, who believe that he did, are the most pitiful of all people.

What does Paul mean by that exactly?

Does he mean that disciples of Jesus are more miserable than others, if they are mistaken? No, he can’t mean that; the placebo effect would still come into play. We could still believe and find comfort even if it were not true. But knowing that it’s an error and trying to believe anyway? All comfort is gone and we are to be pitied.

If Christ is just something we cling to for peace in this life, then everyone ought to feel sorry for us, because we hitched our team to the wrong wagon, as it were.

The life of a disciple of Jesus is not easy, or rather, it ought not be.

Matthew 16:24 CSB

24 Then Jesus said to his disciples, “If anyone wants to follow after me, let him deny himself, take up his cross, and follow me.

This Christian life is daily choosing to die instead of harming another. The Christian life is daily choosing to die if it means protecting someone else. The Christian life is daily choosing to die rather than deny our Lord. The Christian life is daily choosing to die ?????

And if you have not chosen to die, then the likelihood is that you have not taken on the cross Christ told you that you would bear.

And if you have rightly chosen to die, you ought to be pitied more than any other, if in fact, your death means nothing, as it does if there is no resurrection.

Our source of joy in the daily face of death is this: to live is Christ, and to die is gain. There is no gain if there is no resurrection. There is no gain if the end is dirt.

If there is no resurrection, then we have no source of joy.

All of those sound pretty bad. I, for one, am glad of the surety of the resurrection.

And maybe…just maybe, you are asking yourself, “What does this have to do with me? I believe in the resurrection! I know that it is true! I know that without it my faith is a shipwreck. What exactly does this mean for me.”

Well, good questioner, I would ask you this counter-question:

How many of us, knowing the reality of the resurrection and believing fully on the finished work of Jesus, now live as though there is no resurrection?

How many of us, knowing full-well that this is not our home, live as though this is our forever home?

How many of us have put our hope in Christ for this life only, and thereby ought to be pitied more than anyone?

Which are you listening to more often, One America News Network or the preaching of the Word? Are you reading Breitbart or your Bible?

Why are we getting so worked up in the political process when it does not have ultimate meaning? Paul is going to write later that Jesus will hand the kingdom over to the Father when he abolishes all rule and all authority and all power. There is not going to be a political process one day, so why are we so worried about it? Is it possible that we’ve missed what Jesus’ kingdom looks like? Jesus didn’t try to turn Rome into a Christian nation. He did charge the Temple and start turning over tables, but that was because the money changers were filling up the Gentile, keeping the foreigners out and preventing them from being able to worship God.

Jesus came to pursue the hearts of men, not positions of power.

Why are we so engrossed in our entertainment? Why do we lock our eyes onto our social media channels? Why do we throw our lives into our work and ignore our families? Why do we throw adult temper tantrums when we don’t get our way? Why do we overeat? Why do we over drink? Is it because, deep in our hearts, we are saying, verse 32, “Let us eat and drink for tomorrow we die?”

Is it possible that we have moved our focus from the eternal life to come to the temporary life we have now? Is it possible that we are functionally denying the resurrection by being so concerned with what is happening here and now?

I dare say it’s more than possible.

Jesus is alive, and that changes everything about today. Because today is no longer the main event. Today is a step on the way to eternity. Tomorrow is a step on the way to eternity. Don’t waste today, but don’t prize today either. Seize today, by remembering the resurrection. Seize today by remembering your baptism. Seize today by remembering, Christian, that you have died with Christ and to yourself. Seize today by serving to the point of death because you know that to die is gain. Seize today by remembering the resurrection and that all of this will one day pass.

The resurrection of Jesus is a fundamental part of the gospel, our hope for the future, and our endurance in this life, so we must hold firmly to it!