“Now if Christ be preached that He
rose from the dead, how say some among you that there is no resurrection of the
dead? But if there be no resurrection of the dead, then is Christ not risen:
And if Christ be not risen, then is our preaching vain, and your faith is also
vain” (1 Corinthians 15: 12-14).
Once again I am drawn to 1
Corinthians chapter 15. The first ten verses of this chapter are often called “the
gospel in a nutshell”. Because Easter Sunday is near, we are hearing
many things in the media and elsewhere regarding the subject of the
resurrection. I recall that in 2006, one of the things that caught my ear was a
radio skit on the PBS program, Prairie Home Companion. In the
comedy skit, a man and wife were talking. He brought up going to church
tomorrow, since it was Easter. He said “after all, that’s when He rose from the
grave”. Her answer was “Well, I have my doubts.” While this was a radio play, this is the
position so many take on this subject - “I
have my doubts.” I or no one else can convince you, only God can. May He do
so!
If you doubt He arose, you
doubt the core of the Christian faith. You might as well not
claim to be a Christian if you haven’t settled this issue. I am not speaking here of someone that is
very new, as an inquirer in the
faith, or one who has never heard the gospel. But there are some, who have attended
church for years, and been involved in many church activities and events,
may have graduated from a Christian school, got married in the church, and even
professed faith, still attend church, yet doubt the resurrection!
Well, you are not alone. The apostle
Paul, who wrote the letters to the Corinthians to help them with the same
problem, spoke from experience. He had doubted. As Saul of Tarsus, had even hated Christians and persecuted
them for teaching that Jesus was alive again. He thought he was serving God by
doing so. Yet God revealed the truth to
him! On the Damascus road he was knocked down and blinded for a time. He
knew it was the Lord whom he had fought against that brought him to his knees.
The same Jesus he persecuted had been crucified, dead and buried. At first, he
wasn’t buying into “the myth” some Jews were preaching
that Christ was raised. Now he knew He
was alive! Later when his eyes were opened he became the mighty apostle
Paul. Now he is writing to the people of Corinth, and all of us, in this magnificent chapter on the resurrection. I might add that no one could show
the resurrection like Paul
He questions particularly why some
in the church say there is no resurrection of the dead. We could ask this
today. One of the doctrines that all
Christendom claims to believe in their various creeds is the resurrection
of Christ. Catholic and Protestant, Orthodox and Coptic, Fundamentalists,
Evangelicals and Liberals, Calvinists and Arminians -- All claim to believe this! Yet like the wife in the skit, many
doubt it!
You see the doctrine of the
resurrection is not a ritual
just to be remembered at Easter time. We observe the resurrection every Sunday,
really every time the local church meets to
worship Christ, who is risen from among the dead. When I was in Russia, I saw some of the
colorful ceremonies of the Russian Orthodox Church, which generally does not
preach the true gospel, but has a formality. One of their rituals on Easter is
when the priest says several times “Christ
is risen”; the people give a response “Christ is risen indeed!” It is their ritual. Yet this must be our heart response if we are
real Christians!
Paul says in verse 13-14, “But
if there be no resurrection of the dead, then Christ is not risen: and if
Christ be not risen, then our preaching is vain, and your faith is also vain.”
(KJV with phrasing modified). Can you grasp what he is saying? If the
teaching of the resurrection is untrue, Christ is not risen, and He is still
dead! That also means that all the apostles preaching and all the preaching before and since is vain! In other words, as
it says in the Amplified Bible, it amounts to nothing! For those who were preaching in the Old
Testament times who were looking for Messiah, and Christ and his disciples who
preached with Him while He walked on the earth, as well as those who now preach
of his saving grace and his glorious return in the future, are all deluded if He is not risen.
To summarize: Paul goes on to say in
verse 15 we are false witnesses because we testified that He lives. He says in verse16: if the dead
stay dead forever, Christ is still dead!
In verse 17: if that is so, you are
still dead sinners. In verse 18: all those who have died before now, believing
in Christ are deluded too- they are still dead!
He sums up this line of thought so
marvelously that we ought to remember the following verse every day! “If
in this life only we have hope in Christ, we are of all men most miserable” (1
Corinthians 15:19). Most miserable! Jean Valjean in
the great Victor Hugo novel Les Miserables was not as miserable
in all he went through as the apostle would be, or as you and I would be, if there was no resurrection.
But, thank God, Hallelujah! There is
a resurrection. Christ is risen, and we who have been born again will
also be raised from the dead (If indeed we must keep our appointment with
death). “And as it is appointed unto man once to die, but after this the
judgment” (Hebrews 9:27). Some will not have to die, but will be alive
when He comes as Paul points out in verses 51-55 of this glorious 15th
chapter of 1st Corinthians. I urge you to read it all. I trust and pray it will bless you.
To sum up
what is taught here, we must say that without a doubt Jesus Christ lived, was
judged and crucified for our sins, and most importantly, He rose from the
dead. If He did not, all we have is a dead, formal, lifeless religion,
which is unable to save anyone. Without the risen Christ, we have nothing! How
wonderful that it is, that indeed He is risen from among the dead, and now
lives and makes intercession for us. He is the only Lord and savior, for
all time. Hallelujah!
“But now is Christ risen from the
dead, and became the firstfruits of them that slept” (1 Corinthians 15:20).
“Neither is there salvation in any other: for there is none
other name under heaven among men, whereby we must be saved.” (Acts 4:12)
Published by Charles Woodruff- email: oursong2000@yahoo.com
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