If-Thens
1 Corinthians 15: 12-24
He is risen! That statement is the
most wonderful, most liberating statement imaginable. He is risen! Think about
it. The statement is not past tense. It doesn’t say he rose. It’s not future
tense. It doesn’t say he will rise. He is risen! Then, now, forever!
Last Sunday, we celebrated a
triumphal entry of Jesus into the Holy City. On Maundy Thursday, we were
reminded of a night full of events starting with Jesus marking the Passover
feast with his own stamp of prophecy in the Last Supper. Good Friday, a day in
which the only good that came from it must be seen in the light of the
resurrection, saw Jesus in the greatest act of love for mankind, both as Son of
Man and Son of God. And now, it is Easter morning. We know that death could not
hold him any more than the tomb could contain him. He is risen.
But what is it from which he is
risen? Only from the burden of sin. Only from the grip of evil. Only from death
itself. Nothing much. Just everything that counts. What is it from which we
believe Jesus Christ is risen? We have dozens of hymns to proclaim the news. Christ the Lord is Risen Today, Christ
Arose, He Lives, Because He Lives, All Hail the Power of Jesus’ Name, and
the list goes on.
How important is the resurrection? If
it were not for our belief in the resurrection, we would not be here today.
What if Jesus was the greatest man of his time? Not enough. What if Jesus was
the greatest prophet of all the prophets of old? Not enough. What if Jesus made
Time magazine’s Man of the Year selection fifty times in a row? Not enough. How
important is the resurrection? It is ground zero of the Christian faith.
Without it, Jesus is still famous, a superstar, a giant of ethics, a great
storyteller and teacher. But without the resurrection, there is no reason for
Easter, no reason for the Church, no reason for this Christian movement that
has lasted now over two thousand years.
Here’s a statistic for you. I did
some research on Google, nothing very scientific. I just tried to find some
statistics on whether Americans as a whole or American Christians believe in
the resurrection. There’s almost nothing out there. There are plenty of surveys
on whether we believe in God, whether we believe in the Bible, whether we
believe in heaven. A quick search revealed a BBC survey that seems to indicate
that a fourth of Brits don’t believe in the resurrection. In America,
apparently that’s not an important question. But it should be, because if you
can’t answer that question affirmatively, then why bother to ask the other
questions?
Paul had a cantankerous church to
deal with in Corinth. He spent about eighteen months there, staying with Aquila
while he planted the church. Corinth later became the subject of two letters
with have survived, and at least one that has not. In Paul’s first letter,
which is really probably his second and written in response to a letter from
the Corinthian church, Paul is doing his literary best to pull in a group which
has gone its own way. There are many behavioral issues which Paul tries to
address. And there is one theological issue as well. That issue is about the
resurrection of the dead in general and Jesus Christ in particular.
Some of those in the church in
Corinth were saying that there is no resurrection of the dead. For Paul, they
may as well have been denying the faith itself. Why did Christ die? He died for
our sins. A just God could not accept us as we were, but the atonement of that
sin by the Son of God could wash us clean. The love of Christ, of God, for us
led Jesus up that road to Calvary, put him on that cross, and caused him to
stay there to the end. Nothing less than that could have paid for our sin. But
what good is payment in full if it only buys ransom for a life measured in
years. As good as that may sound, it pales in comparison to the purchase
actually made. For, as Paul and all the evangelists asserted, Jesus bodily rose
from that sacrifice. He rose not only as the Son of God but as a man.
That is what is at stake here for the
Corinthian church as well as for Christianity today, for either we thank Jesus
for being such a role model and prepare to die after our tenure on earth is
complete, or—we thank Jesus for his sacrifice and dare to believe his promises,
that he arose, that he ascended into heaven, that he will come again to close
the age, that he has paid our admission ticket to heaven itself if we believe—all
because of the resurrection! That is what is at stake.
Paul makes his argument:
IF THEN
Christ is proclaimed as raised How can you say that there is
from the dead no resurrection
from the dead?
No resurrection from the dead Not even Christ has been raised
Christ has not been raised Preaching
and faith are in vain
It is true that the dead are We misrepresent God
not raised
The dead are not raised Not even Christ has been raised
Christ not raised Your faith is futile and you
are
still
in your sins
In Christ we have hope in We are of all people most
to be
this life only pitied
Paul winds up his argument in verse 20: “But in fact, Christ has been raised from
the dead.” In the beginning of chapter 15, Paul does a summary of proofs,
Jesus appeared to Cephas (Peter), then to the twelve, then to more than five
hundred brothers at one time, then to James, then to all the apostles and
lastly, to Paul himself on the road to Damascus. He left out Mary Magdalene and
the other women who accompanied her to the tomb of Jesus, an omission to be
expected when making an argument to a society which gave little status to
women. But Jesus also appeared to them and he did so first among all others.
Look at what Paul is
saying. If it’s true that the dead are
not raised, then we misrepresent God. If all Christ did for us was to give us
hope for this life only, then of all people, we are the most to be pitied. If
we live for a future that is not there, then our past and our present have ben
lived in a lie as well. We have an empty faith, a silly obsession with a dead
man, and the world won’t even find us laughable; it will find us pitiful,
following our savior of a pious lifestyle rather that the Savior of mankind and
the giver of eternal life.
Where are you with
this? You are here. That’s a good sign. But make sure on this day that you are
not just here to pacify your spouse or your parents. Make sure this day that
you are not one of those who thinks that being good, or that good works, will
get you to heaven. Many Americans who profess to be Christians believe just
that. They are wrong.
Paul calls these
things of first importance:
Christ died for our
sins
He was raised on
the third day,
both according to
scripture.
He appeared
multiple times to many
For Paul, not only is
there no doubt of the truth of these matters; there is neither any doubt of the
importance of them. It should be the same for each of us. The resurrection of
Christ is the common ground of all Christian preaching and faith.[1] It is the cornerstone
of why we are here.
He is risen. In that
we take not only our comfort but our hope. He is risen. This is not a relative
truth. It is not a convenient or inconvenient truth. It is the absolute truth.
In a world where many now speak in terms of what is relative, this truth stands
out as the preeminent truth of creation.
He is risen!
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