Week of November 16

“The resurrection is the pivot on which all of Christianity turns and without which none of the other truths would much matter” (John MacArthur). Pastor MacArthur’s claim may seem to be rigid, especially in, what I call a “laissez faire age” for religious belief. You know, the mantra of this age is, “You believe what you want to believe, and I will believe what I choose to believe.” We sing about the resurrection, hear messages preached on it, but how does it touch us where we live each day? Paul provides us with an answer to this question, so let’s examine our focal passage today.

Some folks in the house church at Corinth were likely arguing that there was no physical bodily resurrection, which does not surprise me, with all the Greek philosophies that did not hold to the existence of such an afterlife (cf. Epicurus; see HNTC). Paul emphatically denied the Corinthian claim that Christ had not been raised bodily from the dead. He used a perfect tense verb seven times in chapter 15, meaning that Christ was raised in the past, and this was presently real (cf. 15:4, 12, 13, 14, 16, 27 & 20). When he writes of the resurrection of the dead, he used the present tense form of the same verb (15:15, 16). He also uses conditional sentences to indicate that the resurrection is an assumed fact (EBC). The Corinthian idle speculation was disturbing at the very least, and destructive at its worst. In this passage, Paul caused the sunshine of truth to melt away their speculative fog. Let’s see how he handled the heresy.

First, we must decide what we believe. Do we believe Paul’s claim that the resurrection is truth? Timothy Keller, the pastor-scholar who is now at home with the Lord, once said, “If Jesus rose from the dead, then you have to accept all that he said; if he didn’t rise from the dead, then why worry about any of what he said? The issue on which everything hangs is not whether or not you like his teaching, but whether or not he rose from the dead.”

Several false conclusions may be drawn from a denial of the foundational doctrine of the resurrection. First, this will mean that Jesus was never raised from the grave (5:13). The contemporary Christian apologist, Josh McDowell, says, “The first thing that stuck in the minds of the disciples was not the empty tomb, but rather the empty grave clothes—undisturbed in form and position.” Secondly, “no resurrection” renders as meaningless all the preaching that claimed otherwise (15:14a). Thirdly, this would mean that their faith was meaningless and useless (15:14b). Finally, this would also mean that Paul’s own testimony about Christ’s resurrection would be false, because it would claim that God did something He really had not done (15:15; EBC; HTNC). There is nothing more frustrating than claiming a belief with our lips and then denying it with our minds. Paul warned against such folly on the part of the Corinthians. His words challenge us as well.

We all have drawn silly conclusions, but Paul was not worried only about their mental errors. He warned them about the ultimate loss they would suffer if they jettisoned their belief in the resurrection. First, their faith would be futile. Secondly, they would still be in their sins. Thirdly, those believers who had preceded them in death would be lost forever. Finally, Christians should be pitied more than all other humans for such wasted lives (15:15-17; HTNC). 

“The risen life of Christ is the nourishment and strengthening and blessing and life of a Christian,” says the nineteenth century English pastor, Alexander MacLaren. It may seem silly, but why on earth would we attend church and live dedicated lives to a dead messiah named Jesus? Paul says the greatest horror would be that they (and we) would remain under God’s wrath! We know that Christ has been raised because He has radically changed our lives. He literally has brought new life into the dead-ness of our existence. Glory be to God for a resurrected Savior!

I recall being hired by my home church as a teenager to dig an exterior trench around two sides of our 2,500-seat sanctuary to stop a leak. Six of us, using only shovels, dug a trench around three sides of that building. It was deeper than my six-foot-one-inch frame! We then applied a sticky water sealant on the walls. We had nearly completed that difficult task, only to be informed that all our efforts were futile. The leak was coming from an entirely different source! We shoveled, sweated, and ached for weeks on a project that never had any meaning. That has messed with my mind all these years! I had not only believed the wrong thing, but all the effort brought me no fulfillment. I still have the baseball cap I wore, complete with black sealant stains, to remind me of the pointlessness of false belief. 

Here is a spiritual thought for our lives. Gladly, that work project did not have eternal implications. Thinking spiritually, Paul reminds us not to dig a meaningless grave with our lives, when Christ’s empty tomb is what we need. Joyfully, God’s Word, which is always true, plus our Christ-changed lives, bear out the validity of the bodily resurrection of Christ (Galatians 2:20). Live with joy in this truth!

1. Take a few minutes to jot down the ways that Christ’s resurrection gives you hope each day. Praise God for a “living hope” (1 Peter 1:3-5).

2. For Families: Spend this week, parents, helping your children to see “new life” examples in home, school, church, and play—especially in nature. Ask them to find 50 examples all around them of “resurrection.” Have a conversation over cookies and milk, at week’s end, sharing what you found. 

For example, when grass comes back to life after a rain; when the caterpillar wraps itself in a cocoon and comes out as a butterfly; when the acorn goes into the ground and comes out as an oak tree; when the bear goes into a cave to hibernate and then resurfaces at winter’s end; when the sun disappears below the horizon each night and reappears the following day; when we lie down to sleep and awaken each new morning; or when a baby is born into this world, it must emerge from the womb. All of these examples are from God’s creation and are pointing to one answer—resurrection. It is all around us! Congratulate your children for seeking, and finding, God’s examples of resurrection, and new life, in His world.

May your paths be straight,
Larry C. Ashlock