City Life Starter

I. The Word: 1 Corinthians 15:12-19 (NIV)

The Resurrection of the Dead

12 But if it is preached that Christ has been raised from the dead, how can some of you say that there is no resurrection of the dead?

13 If there is no resurrection of the dead, then not even Christ has been raised.

14 And if Christ has not been raised, our preaching is useless and so is your faith.

15 More than that, we are then found to be false witnesses about God, for we have testified about God that he raised Christ from the dead. But he did not raise him if in fact the dead are not raised.

16 For if the dead are not raised, then Christ has not been raised either.

17 And if Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile; you are still in your sins.

18 Then those also who have fallen asleep in Christ are lost.

19 If only for this life we have hope in Christ, we are of all people most to be pitied.

By Stefan Johnsson

Logical proof statement by the Corinthians:

Premise A – There is no resurrection of the dead

Premise B – Jesus died

Conclusion – Jesus did not rise from the dead and thus your faith is futile

Logical proof statement by Paul:

Premise A – Christ rose from the dead

Premise B – You belong to Christ through your faith in him

Conclusion – You will rise from the dead

Paul had to deal with many theological issues in the Corinthian church and this included their false thinking as shown above. People started preaching that there is no resurrection from death and in essence making their own faith worthless. This issue had to be dealt with and Paul used Jesus as the example. He stated that if we were not raised from the dead, then not even Jesus rose from the dead. This argument could be made because, in the earlier part of the letter, Paul states that many saw Jesus after the resurrection and they are still alive to tell about it.

Paul knew, as a Jew, what the consequences would be if he preached falsely about Jesus. He persecuted and put to death dozens of Christians before seeing Jesus face to face. He was not the only Jew, but one of the thousands of converts who turned to follow The Way. To turn away from Judaism and be a false witness was a grave sin if proven to be wrong. So here Paul is explaining to the Gentiles that if we would not raise from the dead, then anything else that is preached is useless and futile. Their belief is all in vain. We live with eternity in mind due to Jesus dying for our sins and rising from the dead, so if this is taken away, then what is the point of being a Christian?

Jesus conquered sin and the devil of this world by raising from the dead. We live with this knowledge and belief that we too will rise from the dead in our resurrection bodies. John speaks of this in Revelation 20:5. This is where our hope lies and if this was never to happen, we should be pitied the most out of all people.

We need to remain steadfast and firm in our belief. It separates us from all other religions in the world, that the hope of Christ and the Spirit living inside of us will be the witnesses of our love for Christ. We have faith and hope to be resurrected from death as Jesus was before us.