Confidence in the Resurrection
1 Corinthians 15:12-19 (NRSV) 12 Now if Christ is proclaimed as raised from the dead, how can some of you say there is no resurrection of the dead? 13 If there is no resurrection of the dead, then Christ has not been raised; 14 and if Christ has not been raised, then our proclamation has been in vain and your faith has been in vain. 15 We are even found to be misrepresenting God, because we testified of 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, then Christ has not been raised. 17 If Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile and you are still in your sins. 18 Then those also who have died in Christ have perished. 19 If for this life only we have hoped in Christ, we are of all people most to be pitied.
Paul says to consider this—if the dead have not been raised, then Christ has not been raised. If Christ has not been raised, then we are still dead in our sins. As Paul would say, God forbid.
We pick and choose vegetables and fruits at the grocery store, but not so with the gospel. We either believe all of the gospel, or we believe none of it. If we cannot believe the virgin birth, then how can we believe the resurrection?
We can believe the resurrection because the tomb was empty, Jesus appeared to His disciples along with 500 people following that first Sunday morning, the disciples’ lives were so dramatically changed that eleven of the twelve faced martyrdom rather than deny Jesus, and the church exploded in the number of believers in the first century.
May we allow the gospel to penetrate our very being so that we not only have the hope of eternity, but we can live in His Kingdom promises today. Jesus has risen, He has risen indeed.
In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
- Posted in: Blogs
Seeking Holiness 