1 Corinthians 15:12-20

 

In the opening verses of 1 Corinthians 15, Paul reiterates the main pillar of the gospel—which is the death and resurrection of Jesus as an atonement for sin. This is the main pillar of the gospel, and, as is the case with main pillars, if you try to remove it, things don't go well.

But for all the other problems at Corinth, it doesn't seem that anyone was actively trying to deny these facts; that is not the point of this chapter. The Corinthians (as far as we can tell) did affirm the facts that Paul had told them. The problem was another doctrine that had infected the church, which was at odds with this one.

We now come to the main subject of this chapter: the problem of the resurrection.

There's a song of the world that talks about overcoming difficult situations, and it's titled: “I Will Survive.” And I saw someone online commenting that this was the song they wanted played at their funeral, just because of how ironic and inappropriate it would be. Because the truth is that ultimately, no one survives. The ultimate statistic is that 10 out of 10 people die. Life is the most dangerous situation because nobody gets out of it alive.

The fact of death is one of the facts of life and is a fact everyone must deal with sooner or later. But up against this fact, the Christian gospel places another fact—the fact of the resurrection. This is the answer to the dark question of death.

But it was this fact that was under attack by some within the Corinthian church. (Was this perhaps one of the issues that led to the sectarian divisions?) And so we have this chapter; Paul's great treatise on the resurrection.

But we must be clear about this issue since the word 'resurrection' can mean a lot of different things.

During Jesus' ministry, there were several times when he raised people who had died—Lazarus being the most famous example. But these people (seemingly) returned to life as it had been before they died. Though it was miraculous, in some ways it was not that different from the resuscitation that can be performed by modern medicine. That is not what this passage is about. (There are also the resurrections which happened around Jesus' death, which are mentioned by Matthew and about which we know nothing beyond that.)

Then there is Christ's resurrection, which happened on Easter Sunday, somewhere around AD 30. This is the resurrection which was at the heart of the gospel; it was something Paul had preached to the Corinthians and which they had believed.  J. S. Whale said: "Belief in the resurrection is not an appendage to the Christian faith; it is the Christian faith." This resurrection is different from the resurrection of those like Lazarus for two reasons. First, it had no agent. Jesus raised Lazarus. But nobody raised Jesus. No one stood outside His tomb to say: “Jesus, come forth.” Second, it was not merely a return but a transformation. Jesus did not return to His old life. In Romans 6:9, Paul says: “Knowing that Christ being raised from the dead dieth no more; death hath no more dominion over him.” Jesus was raised to a new kind of life, a glorious, never-ending life. Lazarus, assumably, died a second time; Jesus lives forever.

That is Christ's resurrection. That happened in the past. But then we look to the future. “For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first: Then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord.” (1 THESSALONIANS 4:16-17) At some point in the future, when Christ returns, there will be a resurrection for the Christian. And here is where things get a little confusing—because we usually think of resurrection being for the dead; obviously. Lazarus had a resurrection after he died, not before. But at the Christian's resurrection, both the dead and the living will be resurrected—because this is not a simple return to life, but a transformation. (This future resurrection is more commonly referred to as the 'rapture' in modern Christian language.)

The Bible also teaches that there will be another resurrection, a resurrection of the dead who are not in Christ, the resurrection of the wicked. (e.g., Acts 24:14-15) But this resurrection is not part of the discussion in 1 Corinthians 15. Here, when Paul speaks of the Resurrection, he is speaking of either Christ's resurrection or the Christian's resurrection.

We should mention that timing and sequence are not important here. The debate here was not when the resurrection happens--not when it comes in relation to the tribulation or the millennium. Those are the points most debated in modern discussions on eschatology. But the debate here was simply whether or not there is a resurrection at all. Will it actually happen?

We don't know why this debate was happening. The idea of a resurrection was foreign to Greek thought and philosophy. N. T. Wright said that in Greek, 'resurrection' meant one thing, and it was a thing that didn't happen. The Jews did generally believe in a resurrection, because it's taught in the Old Testament, but there were sections within Judaism—specifically, the Sadducees—who denied the resurrection. And just in general, the idea of a resurrection is hard to imagine or believe.

We don't know the history of this debate at Corinth or how widespread it was. We just know that some within the church were denying the resurrection—specifically the Christian's resurrection. And Paul wrote this entire chapter to counter this heresy.

It would be easy to think that this issue didn't matter. After all, surely what matters is how we live right now—not what we believe about the future. Does this matter? Does it make any difference? Is this doctrine important?

Yes; yes it is. The resurrection is important because it is the heart of the gospel. 

Here's where our previous discussion is important—we have Christ's resurrection and the Christian's resurrections. And, from what we can tell, the Corinthians were not denying Christ's resurrection, only the Christian's resurrection. But Paul's main argument is that these two things stand or fall together. In verse 12, he asks how anyone can deny the resurrection when Christ's resurrection had been preached among them. In verse 13, he says that if there is no resurrection, then Christ is not risen. Verse 15 says that Christ was not raised up if the died rise not; verse 16 repeats that same phrase in a different order. 

If there is no resurrection, then neither of these resurrections is real. If your argument is that resurrection can't happen—the dead cannot rise again because that's simply impossible—then those arguments apply to Christ's resurrection just as much as ours. The Corinthians may not have been deliberately trying to compromise the doctrine of Christ's resurrection, but that was what they were doing. You cannot undermine the second floor of a building without also undermining the first floor. And Christ's resurrection is the foundation—not just for our resurrection—but for the entire towering skyscraper of Christianity. If the resurrection (the resurrection of Christ) is not real, then none of Christianity is real. That's why Paul says that without resurrection, their faith was vain and they were yet in their sins.

Remember what we know about the people in the Corinthian church. “Know ye not that the unrighteous shall not inherit the kingdom of God? Be not deceived: neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor abusers of themselves with mankind, nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners, shall inherit the kingdom of God. And such were some of you: but ye are washed, but ye are sanctified, but ye are justified in the name of the Lord Jesus, and by the Spirit of our God.” (1 Corinthians 6:9-11) Many of these people had once lived in deep sin. And now they had changed. But what had made the change?

It was Jesus. In Romans 6, Paul paints a parallel between the Christian and Christ, saying that we share in His death and also share in His resurrection. But this isn't just about the future. “For in that he died, he died unto sin once: but in that he liveth, he liveth unto God. Likewise reckon ye also yourselves to be dead indeed unto sin, but alive unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord.” (Romans 6:10-11) He says almost the same thing to the Galatians: “For I through the law am dead to the law, that I might live unto God. I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me.” (Galatians 2:19-20) In other words, as Christians, our life, the new life we have, the life which is free from sin, the life which is distinct from our old life before salvation—that life is only possible through the Resurrection of Jesus.

That's what I meant by saying the resurrection is the heart of the gospel. Jesus said: “The thief cometh not, but for to steal, and to kill, and to destroy: I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly.” (John 10:10) That was the central reason why Jesus came; this was the good news which the early church proclaimed; this is the central idea of the Bible—that while we were once dead in trespasses and sins, we may have a new life—but that new life comes by a union with Christ. And therefore, it can only come if Christ is alive.

That is why this issue was so important. The issue of the resurrection is a watershed issue that determines the very nature of what it means to be a Christian.

Whenever the church gathers, there are other people meeting in other places—there are other organizations that meet to discuss what they believe; even organizations that try to help people live a new and better life. There are other religions, social clubs, secret societies, political parties—there is everything from Alcoholics Anonymous to Weight Watchers. These are all places where people meet to try to improve their lives.

But the Christian Church claims to be something unique—something different from all these others, because what we do here is not being done in our own strength or as part of our own life—but through the power of Christ. That was the power that had transformed the lives of the Corinthians. But if Christ is not alive, if Jesus never rose from the dead, then we are no different from any other club. If Jesus is still in the grave, then the new life we have is nothing more than self-help and self-discipline. Without the resurrection, then all we are doing is fooling ourselves.

And bound up with this is the fact that the resurrection is the test of the gospel. 

At the center of the early church, you had the apostles—they were the ones leading the church. And the apostles were, specifically, witnesses of the resurrection. This includes even Paul, though as one born out of time. But if Christ had not been raised from the dead, then Paul was wrong, and all the apostles were wrong, and the Scriptures were wrong, and every preacher today who preaches it is wrong. Either they were all mistaken or were deliberately deceiving people.

That's why this issue mattered so much—because the whole basis of the gospel, the whole reason why anybody believed the apostles, was because of the Resurrection. If they were wrong about that, there was no reason to trust anything else they said. And even more than that, the Old Testament had prophesied Christ's resurrection. Therefore, if Jesus was not risen from the dead, then even the Old Testament could not be trusted. This issue was the touchstone that determined the accuracy and reliability of the gospel.

But there is something even more. Look at verse 18, where Paul says that if Jesus was not risen from the dead, “Then they also which are fallen asleep in Christ are perished.” As Christians, we believe that those who die in the faith are not lost; we have a hope beyond the grave. But obviously, there is no hard and fast evidence of that. Death is objectively the same for the Christian and the sinner alike. There is no way to prove any sort of life after death; still less to prove the hope and reward of the Christian. So what kind of evidence or confidence do we have? Only the word of the Gospel and the foundation of that word is the resurrection of Jesus.

Suppose you were selling something and a man gave you a check as down payment and promised the rest of the money later—and then you discovered that his check was forged and worthless. Would you be especially confident about his paying you the rest of the money? Probably not. And if we cannot rely on God's word when it comes to Christ's resurrection, then we cannot rely on the rest of it. If God did not keep his promise of raising Christ, then we cannot have confidence that He will keep any of his promises to us. And if we cannot have confidence in God's promises, then what hope do we have?

Let's imagine an orphanage in a poor area. In this orphanage, there is one boy who is unlike the others. Unlike them, his real parents are still alive and are coming soon to take him home. And not only are they alive, but they are quite wealthy, meaning that when they come, he will go from the drab halls of an orphanage to a life of luxury. The knowledge makes him the happiest child in the orphanage, even though he faces a lot of bullying from the other children because of it.

Now, suppose that we know that all of this is just a delusion, a fantasy conjured up in his own mind. This delusion makes him happy—but would you say that his position is enviable or pitiable? It is pitiable because his happiness is based on a lie and his hopes are doomed to be disappointed.

And if there is no resurrection, then that is the position of the Christian. Our hope is based on a lie about the past and a fantasy about the future. That's why in verse 19, Paul says: “If in this life only we have hope in Christ, we are of all men most miserable.” The Greek word translated 'miserable' would be more accurately translated as 'pitiable.' The Christian is pitiable, because they are basing their whole life around a lie. 

,But that's why I say that the resurrection is the test of the gospel. Because remember what we talked about earlier, regarding the resurrection of Christ. Several of the apostles saw Jesus multiple times under various circumstances, and he was seen once by over 500 people, most of whom were still alive when Paul was writing. These were men who had clearly, in broad daylight, seen the resurrected Christ; had talked with him, eaten with him. And these witnesses were (mostly) still alive when Paul wrote, meaning they could be appealed to. The sight of Jesus' tomb was presumably still known, and people could go there and look at it if they wanted, and could see it was empty. Even Jesus' own enemies couldn't pretend his body was there—instead spreading the story that the disciples had stolen the body.

In other words, the Corinthians had every reason to know that Jesus had been raised from the dead, and we have every reason to know it. And because we have confidence that Jesus was raised from the dead, we can have confidence in the rest of God's promises. Because Christ came back from the dead, we have hope beyond death. That is the final words of our passage--“But now is Christ risen from the dead, and become the firstfruits of them that slept.”

The first-fruits, in Jewish tradition, were the beginning of the harvest, the first crops gathered from the field, which were offered in the temple as a sacrifice, as a sign of thanksgiving to God. But the point is that the first-fruits represented the whole harvest. They were the symbol of everything that was to follow. Those first few sheaves of grain represented the entire harvest.  To say that Jesus is the first-fruits of the resurrection means that He stands for and represents the entire resurrection. He stands for all that is to follow. I mentioned before the idea of a down payment. If a man gave you a forged check as a down payment, you would be skeptical of the rest of his money. But if the down payment is valid, there is at least a good chance the final payment will be as well.

Because that is the point—the resurrection is the hope of the gospel. We have a hope in this life. Because we know that Jesus is alive, we know that there is a power at work in us which able to give us victory in life. Remember we talked about verse 17 earlier: “if Christ be not raised, your faith is vain; ye are yet in your sins.” But the logical consequence of that is that if Christ is raised then our faith is not in vain and we can be delivered from our sins. Being a Christian does not merely mean going to church or agreeing to a list of doctrines (though it does include that)--it means having a relationship with a living, reigning Christ. We have hope for this life because we know that Christ is alive—right here—right now—and that He is at work, in us, in the church, and in the world around us.

And because we have hope in this life, we also have a hope that goes beyond this life. Paul will go more into detail about this hope later in 1 Corinthians 15, but the most important point is that we do have hope. Later in his life, Paul was in prison and awaiting probable death but even in the midst of such a situation, he wrote to Timothy and said: “I know whom I have believed, and am persuaded that he is able to keep that which I have committed unto him against that day.” (2 Timothy 1:12) 

Paul knew who he believed—for he believed in the living Christ whom he had met on the road to Damascus. And because Jesus was alive, Paul knew he had hope—that no matter what the Roman authorities did to him, no matter what happened to him, even if his head was removed from his body (as tradition says it was), that Jesus was still in control and would set things right in the end.

In 1987, a British artist named Martin Handford produced an iconic book which became the first of a long-running series. We know it in North America as Where's Waldo. These books feature detailed illustrations of large crowds, often involved in some crazy and chaotic activity. And somewhere amidst all that chaos is a man in a red-and-white striped shirt—Waldo. And the goal is always to find Waldo among all the other strange and colorful figures in this book.

And there is a serious reality behind this—the reality that, as humans, we so often miss what is important. In the vast and busy scenes of life, we are likely to miss what really matters; put too much importance on trivial things, and trivialize the important things.

Waldo is important because he is the person the whole book is about. And the resurrection is important because it is the thing the whole book is about. Christ's resurrection is the heart of the gospel, the empowerment of our lives, and the center of the plan of God. It is also the test of the gospel, the thing that anchors our faith in reality. And it is the hope of the gospel, the promise and first-fruit of all that is yet to come.

Some people never find Waldo, because they are looking in the wrong place. And some people never find Christ, because they are looking in the wrong place—they are looking for him in his tomb, in the dead past among the graves of yesterday, as something splendid but static. But as on that first Easter, the message is still: “He is not here; He is risen.” And because He is risen, nothing can ever be the same. The world has turned on its axis, and a new age has begun. The gospel has come with a new power, a new assurance, and a new hope, all because Jesus rose from the dead.