Resurrection

Chapter 15 (of 1 Corinthians) opens with Paul defending his position and authority as an apostle. Crucial to his argument is his personal encounter with the risen Lord Jesus. Acknowledging the unusual nature of the circumstances, Paul nevertheless points out that he share a common authority with the other apostles because he too has seen the risen Jesus.

However this authority is meaningless if the resurrection didn't happen. The resurrection of Jesus is not only pivotal for Paul's apostleship, but it is also pivotal for the foundations of the faith of the Christians in Corinth and of course for the foundations of our faith too.

Resurrection and faith

The resurrection is crucial to Christian faith. As one writer puts it: The resurrection is God's Amen to Christ's statement that, "It is finished!"

Without the resurrection, none of the rest makes sense. So it is that while Paul asserts we preach (and know) nothing but Christ crucified, he is also determined that the early church in Corinth should understand the importance and significance of the resurrection to the faith.
That some were suggesting that whilst Christ had been raised that there was no general resurrection awaiting humanity, Paul defends the principle of the resurrection for all as central to faith alongside the cross.

#1 No resurrection; no faith

Without the resurrection, Christian faith crumbles and falls apart. We are to be pitied above all people. But it is true. And it's not just true because we say it is, it's true because the testimony of history tells us it is true.

a. The testimony of the early believers, what they saw and experienced. (Acts 1), 1 Cor.15:5ff Peter, the twelve, and then 500, then James, then Paul.

b. The implication of their changed attitude: Afraid and in hiding, boldly proclaiming the message on the streets.

c. Their willingness to die for it: Would you die for a lie? If the disciples had stolen the body as some have said, would they have died to perpetuate the lie?

d. the lack of evidence to the contrary. Where is the body of Jesus if he died?

e. The unusual lengths that the authorities went to to cover up what had happened.

#2 The importance of the resurrection

Therefore, the resurrection of Jesus is not some “add on” to a “more important” work on the cross. If the cross is the payment for our sins, the empty tomb is the receipt, showing that the perfect Son of God made perfect payment for our sins. The payment itself is of little good without the receipt! This is why the resurrection of Jesus was such a prominent theme in the evangelistic preaching of the early church (Acts 2:24, 3:15, 4:10, 13:30-39).

The importance of the resurrection is that, although Jesus "became sin for us" he did not succumb to the ultimate consequence of sin, death. In fact, because the "sinless one" died he fully dealt with sin, and the resurrection proves it.

When you know what rests on the resurrection, you know why if for this life only we have hope in Christ, we are of all men the most pitiable.

Five core beliefs that rest on the resurrection

One writer identifies the following five core beleifs that rest on the resurrection.

i. The divinity of Jesus rests on the resurrection of Jesus (Romans 1:4).
and who through the Spirit of holiness was declared with power to be the Son of God by his resurrection from the dead: Jesus Christ our Lord.
ii. The sovereignty of Jesus rests on the resurrection of Jesus (Romans 14:9).
For this very reason, Christ died and returned to life so that he might be the Lord of both the dead and the living.
iii. Our justification rests on the resurrection of Jesus (Romans 4:25).
He was delivered over to death for our sins and was raised to life for our justification.
iv. Our regeneration rests on the resurrection of Jesus (1 Peter 1:3).
Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! In his great mercy he has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead,
v. Our ultimate resurrection rests on the resurrection of Jesus (Romans 8:11).
And if the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead is living in you, he who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through his Spirit, who lives in you.

“The fact is, that the silver thread of resurrection runs through all the blessings, from regeneration onward to our eternal glory, and binds them together.” (Spurgeon)

The significance of the resurrection

a. Gives a reason and basis for a committed life. In other words, because we have a resurrection life to forward to, we have a reason to live out that resurrection life in the present.
Death is no longer the end, this life has implications for eternity.

b. We bear the likeness of Christ.

What does this mean?

A sacrificial life

An obedient life.

The resurrection encourages us to persevere. This life is not all there is, there is a life beyond it.

c. We have an inheritance (the Kingdom of God)

The resurrection body

1. 15:38 it is of divine origin.

In answer to the question "someone may ask": What kind of body? Paul answers:

God gives it [the seed] a body, just as he has determined.

2. 15:44 it is spiritual.

This does not mean a spirit in the way we tend to see the word used today, but spiritual in the sense that it is "animated and guided by the spirit". It is a physical body. Jesus had a physical body, he has a physical body in heaven.

The resurrection body of the believer is therefore a physical body subject to the perfected spirit of the believer.

3. 15:42-44 it won't perish.

So will it be with the resurrection of the dead. The body that is sown is perishable, it is raised imperishable; it is sown in dishonor, it is raised in glory; it is sown in weakness, it is raised in power; it is sown a natural body, it is raised a spiritual body.

So what does this mean for you and me? How do we live in the light of the resurrection that Jesus has experienced and in the light of the resurrection that is to come?

This life is not the only life.

If we live as if this life doesn’t matter, as if we can do exactly what we please, then we are denying the work of Jesus on the cross and the resurrection because we are living as if the future doesn’t exist.

That is Paul’s point.

You cannot life this life without reference to the future life to come. You cannot live this life as if there are no eternal consequences. To paraphrase Paul elsewhere, there are those who will get into heaven by the skin of their teeth.

We live life with hope

If we only lived our present lives in fear of what it might mean for the future, we’re as bad a place as those who live as if it doesn’t matter.

We’re in danger of being sucked into a pattern of life were we need always to do the exact right thing with no room for error. In the end we become bound by rules and regulations because we’re afraid that we’ll miss the mark if we don’t behave.

The flip side of this is that we give up trying to live a fully devoted life because it’s just to hard and we’ve messed up our eternity anyway through the last thing we did wrong!

But the resurrection brings hope into our present lives.

The hope that things will not always be this way, that this life won’t always set the agenda for our lives.

It’s a hope too that is rooted in the forgiveness won for us through the cross. Remember the resurrection as the amen to the finished work of the cross.

All of a sudden it’s worth the effort. It’s worth living a God-honouring life this side of eternity because it’s all going to be worth it in the end.

We’ll have a new body that is no longer torn apart by sickness, no longer driven by sinful desire, but a body that responds to our deepest desire to live for God.