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Today we are picking up our study in 1 Corinthians 15.
Paul opened this chapter reminding the believers in Corinth of the true gospel.
He needed to remind them of the true gospel because there were some who claimed to be spiritual, that were denying the resurrection of the dead.
As I mentioned back when we were studying 1 Corinthians 6, there was a Greek philosophy which greatly influenced the culture, and crept into the church.
This philosophy viewed the body as evil, and the spirit as good.
When this philosophy influenced the church, there were some who went the way of hedonism, saying that we can do anything we want in the body.
It won’t matter.
The body is just going to be destroyed anyway.
Only the spirit matters.
Therefore, they lived and taught others to live in immorality.
“I have the right to do anything.”
1 Corinthians 6:12.
While some taught the body is evil, only the spirit matters when to hedonism, others went the direction of asceticism.
They wanted to avoid anything to do with the body and physical defilement.
Those even went so far as to abandon relations with their spouses.
Paul addressed that in 1 Corinthians 7.
Now, in 1 Corinthians 15, Paul is going to address the root of this issue.
Those who followed this Greek philosophy—teaching that the body is evil and does not matter, only the spirit matters—denied the resurrection of the dead.
For if the body is evil, there is no way God is going to raise it back up from the dead.
Only the spirit goes on into eternity.
Denying the resurrection was denying the true gospel, and was leading them into all of the false practices of Christianity that Paul addressed up to this point in the letter.
After reminding them of the true gospel which he preached to them, and which the believers in Corinth first believed, he goes on to address this false teaching that there is no resurrection.
Ramification of No Resurrection - Christ is not Raised
Paul repeats this ramification in verses 13, 14, 16 and 17.
If there is no resurrection, because the body is evil, then even Christ is not raised from the dead.
As we saw last week, this is an essential part of the gospel.
God wanted us to know beyond the shadow of a doubt that Jesus was raised.
That is why he was seen by Cephas (Peter), then the twelve, than more that five hundred other believers, then James, and then to all the apostles, and lastly to Paul.
So many witnesses were used because God wanted us to know that Christ was surely resurrected, as foretold in the scriptures.
Paul goes on to give other logical conclusions based upon this ramification of Christ not being resurrected if indeed there were no resurrection.
If Christ is not raised, we preach in vain
What does Paul mean we preach in vain, meaningless, or empty?
Even if Christ was not raised, and only the spirit mattered, at least they were doing a good thing in sharing about Jesus dying for our sins, right?
Paul explains this further in verse 15.
If Christ is not raised, then he is a false witness.
A false witness is a liar.
How does God feel about liars?
Not only that, but as Paul says, we are false witnesses of God.
Not only is he lying if there is no resurrection, but he is spreading falsehoods about God.
How do you think God feels about people who spread falsehoods about him?
Therefore, if Christ is not raised, we preach in vain.
We are not gaining anything by going around to tell others about Jesus.
It is worthless.
Not only that, but...
If Christ is not raised, your faith is in vain
Why would their faith be useless?
Jesus still died for our sins.
So why would their faith be useless?
Paul says in verse 17,
If Christ is not raised, we have no justification.
We are not declared righteous.
As Paul wrote in Romans 4:25
Jesus died on account of our sins.
He was raised on account of our justification, or our being declared righteous.
If there is no resurrection, then there is no justification.
We are still not righteous.
What separates us from God?
He is righteous.
We are not.
We cannot have peace with God if we are not righteous.
We not only need the punishment taken care of, we need righteousness applied to us.
We need that new righteous life, which Christ gives us through the resurrection, as we saw last week.
This is true Christianity.
When we believe in Christ, we are crucified with him, and raised to new life.
2 Cor 5.17
This new righteous life is what comes from the resurrection.
Without the resurrection, we are still the same unrighteous, self-centered sinners that we were.
We are still the same person.
Example of the alcoholic or drug-addict who has their penalty paid.
they are bailed out, but they are still the same person.
With no change, no new life, they will continue on in the same unrighteous living.
That is not true Christianity.
Christ did not just die to bail us out of the penalty.
He rose again to remove us from the sinful life, and give us a new life, a righteous life.
Denying the resurrection leaves us in our sin.
It leaves us in unrighteousness.
Denying the resurrection is crippling to a believer.
What is more, denying the resurrection removes all hope for those who have already fallen asleep in Christ.
If Christ is not raised, there is no hope after death
We see this in verses 18 and 19.
If there is no resurrection, and Christ is not raised, then there is no hope for those who have fallen asleep in Christ.
I love this imagery for death, fallen asleep in Christ.
This goes back to Matthew 9, when Jesus raised a little girl who had died back to life.
He told her parents that she was just asleep.
In our culture’s way of thinking, death is the end.
It is final.
How different if we would wrap our heads around the way Jesus described it, or as Paul describes it for believers… fallen asleep.
Sleep is not permanent.
Sleep is not final.
Sleep is not the end.
Sleep is temporary, because in the morning, we rise again.
The resurrection is our hope as believers, that we will rise again.
We will be reunited with our loved ones!
Death is not final, it is temporary.
It is not goodbye.
It is ‘see you later’!
And so, Paul, concluding this section on the Ramifications of no resurrection, meaning even Christ was not raised, now goes on to teach the truth, there is indeed a resurrection!
Ramification of the Resurrection - Christ has been raised!
Paul is contrasting what ‘they say’ with the facts.
How often does this happen in our lives.
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