How Important is the Resurrection?

1 Corinthians 15: 12-23, CEB - So if the message that is preached says that Christ has been raised from the dead, then how can some of you say, “There’s no resurrection of the dead”? If there’s no resurrection of the dead, then Christ hasn’t been raised either. If Christ hasn’t been raised, then our preaching is useless and your faith is useless. We are found to be false witnesses about God, because we testified against God that he raised Christ, when he didn’t raise him if it’s the case that the dead aren’t raised. If the dead aren’t raised, then Christ hasn’t been raised either. If Christ hasn’t been raised, then your faith is worthless; you are still in your sins, and what’s more, those who have died in Christ are gone forever. If we have a hope in Christ only in this life, then we deserve to be pitied more than anyone else.

But in fact Christ has been raised from the dead. He’s the first crop of the harvest^[a] of those who have died. Since death came through a human being, the resurrection of the dead came through one too. In the same way that everyone dies in Adam, so also everyone will be given life in Christ. Each event will happen in the right order: Christ, the first crop of the harvest, then those who belong to Christ at his coming,

 

                The last of the five issues Paul wants to address in 1 Corinthians is some troubling ideas he has heard are being advocated in the community regarding the resurrection of Jesus.  There were those within the Corinthian church who were saying that the resurrection of Jesus is not necessary for one to be a follower of Christ.  The idea was that following Jesus’s teachings alone could achieve the desired relationship with God.  Paul vehemently rejects this idea and even labels it as dangerous. 

                I encourage you to read all of chapter 15 in order to see Paul’s full argument here, but I will simply sum it up here.  To reduce Jesus to simply a human teacher that teaches us how to achieve a proper relationship with God is to rob the Christian faith of its divine power.  Foundational to the Christian faith is the assertion that simply knowing how God wants us to live is not enough, because having that knowledge quickly illumines the fact that human beings are not capable of living out those teachings on their own.  It is an impossible undertaking to save ourselves.  We are physically and spiritually dead without God’s power.  We need the power of God – the power of God displayed in the resurrection of Jesus.  It is this power that works in us just as it did in Jesus to spiritually bring us back to life and assure us of physical life that extends into eternity. 

                It’s sometimes tempting to believe that we don’t need help of God and others.  But to the extent that one believes that is the extent to which that belief is not Christian belief.  At the core of the Christian faith is the conviction that we are utterly dependent on the grace, love, and power of God.  And the quintessential expression of that power is the resurrection of Jesus.  The same power shall raise us as well.

 

Question:  What are the core essential beliefs of your Christian faith?

 

Prayer:  God of all that is, thank you for sending Your son to reveal to us your character of love, grace, and power.  Show us our own need for that power to be at work in us.  Amen.

 

Prayer Focus:  Spend some time today praying for family members that you haven’t prayed for in a while.

 

Song:  Living Hope – Phil Wickham

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9f2FXxDVO6w