Episode 217 - "Yes. Christ really was raised from the dead" - 1 Corinthians 15:12-19

1 Cor. 15:12 Now if Christ is proclaimed as raised from the dead, how can some of you say that there is no resurrection of the dead? 13 But 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 preaching is in vain and your faith is in vain. 15 We are even found to be misrepresenting God, because we testified about God that he raised Christ, whom he did not raise if it is true that 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 futile and you are still in your sins. 18 Then those also who have fallen asleep in Christ have perished. 19 If in Christ we have hope in this life only, we are of all people most to be pitied.

In the preceding eleven verses that we covered last week, I explained that I was seeing two fundamental elements to what is called “the gospel of Jesus Christ.” Both of them were prophesied in the Hebrew Scriptures (Old Testament). The first is that Christ died according to the Scriptures. Someone might say, “Big deal! Everyone dies.” That’s true. But the Christ or Messiah is prophesied in the scriptures to have an eternal kingdom. The Messiah will reign forever on that throne. That was the argument by the crowd to Jesus in John 12:34. How can he die if he will live and reign forever? The answer is that his death was necessary for our sins to be forgiven, as is foretold in Isaiah 52-53.

This leads us to the second part of the Good News of Jesus Christ. If you think about it, why does it matter that our sins are forgiven if we are going to die? The answer to that question is that God is eternal, and while we, unlike God, had a beginning, God has intended for us to be eternal as well. Because God is also Holy (pure and perfect), he cannot overlook sin. There must be a just response to injustice. The Scriptures speak of a terrible judgment for those who reject that and reject Jesus’ sacrifice on the cross as the perfect and sufficient justice he took upon himself for our sins. Jesus, the Christ, was raised from the dead, never to die again, and he promised to return to raise the dead back to life, and we will dwell in the presence of God forever.

After laying out the basic facts of the gospel, Paul addresses the fact that people at Corinth are saying there is no resurrection from the dead. Paul explains the egregious error in that thinking. He says if there is no resurrection from the dead, then Christ could not have been raised. (v. 13) He follows with the logical fallout from that if it were true. He points out that his preaching and their subsequent faith in the message that he preached is in vain. It’s useless, and we would still be in our sins. There would be no hope. He then says that if all our hope is just in this life, we are the most pitiable of all people. Why would he say that? Because we would be spending time and resources in the worship of a god that could do nothing for us.

The hope of a resurrection and eternal life is real. That’s why, in the preceding verses, Paul spoke of the many people who saw the risen Jesus. He was implying that they could go talk to the people themselves and compare notes. While we can’t go talk to those people directly, these accounts have been preserved for us, and there is the fact that Christianity became a world religion based upon the reality of the resurrection of Jesus Christ.

We can trust this great news!