S135P4 – The promise of hope: resurrection with Christ

1 Cor. 15: 12-19

Now if Christ is preached that He has been raised from the dead, how do some among you say that there is no resurrection of the dead?  But if there is no resurrection of the dead, then Christ is not risen.  And if Christ is not risen, then our preaching is empty and your faith is also empty.  Yes, and we are found false witnesses of God, because we have testified of God that He raised up Christ, whom He did not raise up—if in fact the dead do not rise.  For if the dead do not rise, then Christ is not risen.  And if Christ is not risen, your faith is futile; you are still in your sins!  Then also those who have fallen asleep in Christ have perished.  If in this life only we have hope in Christ, we are of all men the most pitiable.

Some people try to paint Jesus Christ as a man who was noble or good in one way or another but not divine.  They do not believe that He was the Son of God, the incarnation of God himself.  They might say that He was a knowledgeable teacher.  They might say that He was a wise prophet or a good man.  They will try to give him some kind of credit as a historical person worth remembering for some reason other than what He actually professed to be.  The issue is that we cannot take some of what Christ said and reject the rest yet expect to gain anything.  As Paul states here, if we miss the point of the resurrection and ignore its truth, any good we find in the rest of Christ’s story is worthless.

Our resurrection from death to life depends on the resurrection of Jesus Christ.  The hope that we have in him takes us beyond this imperfect and finite life.  That really is the point of our faith.  Yes, through Christ we receive many gifts to help carry us through our mortal time here.  We receive blessings and favor, and the Holy Spirit himself directs us.  Yet, if that is all we gain from our faith, and there is no prospect of life beyond this, then our faith profits us nothing.  There is no benefit to living the sacrificial life of self-denial and service if all that awaits us is the same death regardless of how we live.  The hope we have in Christ is anchored in his resurrection, without which we have no hope of eternal life and no reason to even believe in him.

Peter instructs us to be prepared to defend this great hope we have. [1 Pet. 3:15]  In essence, when challenged to articulate the whole point of our faith, we must know why we believe.  Paul gives us the answer in this passage.  We have hope and faith in Christ because He was raised from the dead.  Without that, He offers nothing for us beyond this life.  His body was broken, He bled, He died, and He was raised to life.  That last part is why we believe.  Without the resurrection of the dead, He could not be who He claimed to be, and we could not have hope of life beyond here.  Father, keep this simple truth fresh in our minds so that we always will be prepared to defend this great hope.