No Hope Without the Resurrection
1 Corinthians 15:12-14
In today's passage, we see the apostle Paul challenging people in the Corinthian church who denied a foundational truth of the faith.
Some Christians there rejected the idea that believers would one day experience a bodily resurrection.
Because they assumed there was no life beyond this earthly one, they sought as much pleasure as possible with no thought about eternity. "Death is the end, so live it up while you can" was their thinking.
Throughout the centuries, many individuals have embraced this shortsighted philosophy.
Paul's rebuke rings as true today as it did then: to deny the truth of resurrection means that one's faith is worthless. (1 Corinthians 15:17)
If the renewal of a body were impossible for God, then Jesus would be a dead man, not the living Lord.
Furthermore, His continued state of death would indicate He lacked sufficient power to conquer sin and evil—and we could never be certain that God wields the strength necessary to bring us eternal life.
Like the followers of other religions, we would journey through life, hoping our deity's words about eternity were true, but dreading that death might in fact be a meaningless end.
If Christ had remained in the grave 2,000 years ago, then He would have been nothing more than an itinerant preacher.
This religion we call Christianity would have died with Him because believers would have nothing in which to place their hope.
But He did triumph over the grave—we have eyewitnesses' testimonies and the assurance of the Holy Spirit to confirm it.
Our motto should be "Live for the glory of the risen Lord!"
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I want to continue on our faith in the resurrection:
A person's attitude about the resurrection is important any time of the year, not simply at Easter.
If we are going to accept or reject a scriptural truth, we should understand how that principle impacts not only our faith but also our witness.
The greatest implication of claiming Jesus remained in the grave is that we are left with no hope of salvation.
This, in turn, makes telling others about the Lord pointless. Jesus is the One who brings life-giving force to the Gospel message
. Without Him, sharing the Word would have as much effect on someone's life as reciting, "Mary Had a Little Lamb."
Further, we would be lying about God when we witnessed according to Scripture, saying He raised Jesus when He actually had not.
If the Father didn't resurrect the Son, then He must also be dishonest about the eternal nature of believers.
How could we ever hope to be "absent from the body and . . . at home with the Lord" upon death if the blameless Son Himself did not receive such treatment? (2 Corinthians 5:
Without Christ's resurrection, we have no saving Lord, no powerful Word, no hope of eternity, and a dead faith.
A religion with those characteristics hardly seems worth practicing.
Yet, church members embrace this and other fallacies without thought
.A wise believer studies Scripture and, therefore, recognizes how God's salvation plan fits together from Genesis to Revelation.
The only legitimate basis for eternal hope is receiving Jesus Christ's sacrifice for our transgressions and believing He conquered sin and death to rise again.
Hope this message brings peace for you as it has for me.
Take care and as always,
Love in Christ,
Joyce