Does Resurrection Matter?
This is a transcript. It may contain small inaccuracies.
If you were to take a comparative religions course at one of the universities or colleges, you would discover quickly that there are only four world religions that are based primarily on their founders: Judaism, Buddhism, Islam, and Christianity. And those founders—all of them—died. They died. Abraham died in the year 1991 B.C. His body was buried in Hebron. Buddha died in the 5th or 6th century B.C. His body was cremated. Muhammad died on June 8, 632 A.D., and his body was buried in Medina. Millions visit his grave every year on their pilgrimage to Mecca.
Jesus Christ also died 2,000 years ago, and He was buried in a borrowed tomb just outside the city of Jerusalem. They all died. However, the Christian faith is unique in that it alone boasts of an empty tomb. It alone claims that its Founder, Jesus Christ, Jesus the Nazarene, was raised victoriously, permanently, eternally from the dead. Make no mistake about it. That is the foundation of the Christian faith. That is the foundation upon which the Christian faith stands.
One of the great Protestant reformers, John Calvin, wrote the following concerning the resurrection, and I quote, "The resurrection of Christ is the most important article of our faith, the chief point of the gospel." B. B. Warfield, that great Princeton theologian, wrote this, and I quote, "Christ Himself deliberately staked His whole claim upon His resurrection when asked for a sign, He pointed to this sign as His single and sufficient credential." End of quote. No article of the Christian faith is more essential, more foundational than the resurrection of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, and no passage more clearly articulates its importance to our faith than this passage here before us in 1 Corinthians 15.
Now Paul wrote this chapter to respond to something he had heard. The report that came to him concerning the Corinthian church—verse 12—"How do some among you say that there is no resurrection of the dead?" The believers there in Corinth were primarily Greek in their background, and many in the Greek culture believed in the immortality of the soul. Plato, for example, taught that the soul is immortal, but he also taught that the body, the flesh, basically is a prison from which death really releases the soul, sets it free.
And so in their Greek dualistic thinking mindset, they found the idea of the resurrection of the body absolutely absurd, absolutely ridiculous. Why would you want to stay in the prison of the body, the prison of the flesh? Tragically, that form of dualism seeped into the church, found its way into the church, and Paul heard that some in the Corinthian church denied that the bodies of believers would be raised. They were apparently in that church also teaching Greek dualism—that once a believer dies, he or she continues to exist forever as a spirit, a soul—and that's the false teaching Paul is correcting here in 1 Corinthians 15.
But notice with me the flow of the argument. In the first 11 verses of this chapter, Paul reminds them that the bodily resurrection of Jesus Christ is a central tenet of the Christian faith, a central tenet of the Christian gospel. That is, the good news—when we say the gospel, it's the good news that sinners who deserve God's judgment for their sins can be reconciled to God, can have their sins forgiven because of the life, death, and the resurrection of Jesus Christ. He here reduces the gospel, the core message of the Christian faith, to four basic prepositions.
Notice them with me as we introduce this text together. First of all, in verse 3, here's the first one, the first preposition. He says that "Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures." So that's the first one: Christ died. And He died for our sins, and it was according to Scripture. The second preposition is in verse 4: "He was buried," proving that He was in fact truly dead. He died. He was buried in a real tomb, in a borrowed tomb, but He was buried in a real tomb. The third one is found in verse 4: "That He was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures." He was raised victorious from the grave. And the fourth one is in verse 5: "That He appeared."
And then the rest of the verses through verse 10, "that He appeared to many, many witnesses." That, beloved, is the heart of the Christian good news, the Christian gospel, the Evangelion, the good news of Jesus Christ—that we can be reconciled to a holy God through the doing and the dying of another, the work of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Then in verses 12 to 19, Paul sets out to show the contradiction that existed in the Corinthians' thinking. And it was completely illogical for them to believe in Christ's resurrection, yet deny their own.
Now the foundation for understanding this portion of God's Word here, this passage, comes in Paul's argument in verses 12 and 13. Look at them with me together. He says, "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, not even Christ has been raised." In other words, he's saying, listen, if you deny the resurrection of believers, logically no one has ever risen from the dead. That means Christ has not been raised. And the results of that are absolutely staggering. The consequences are absolutely disastrous. Disastrous.
In verses 14 to 19, Paul then catalogs the frightening, the frightening consequences of their position. And he does so to prove the absolute centrality of the resurrection of Jesus Christ, our Lord, to the Christian faith. In fact, he argues that if this keystone—and the resurrection of Jesus Christ is the keystone—if this keystone is removed, Christianity collapses in a heap of rubble. All of it. If Jesus' body still lies buried somewhere in Israel, the consequences are beyond calculation. They're beyond imagination. It's horrible. It's disastrous.
In this passage, Paul outlines for us five very tragic, disastrous consequences. Disastrous consequences if Christ has not been raised from the dead. Let us look at them together as we take our minds to all, focus our minds to all of the marvelous truth that Christ has done for us in His resurrection. But note with me the first consequence if Christ is not raised from the dead. The first consequence is that there is no valid gospel. There is no valid gospel. There isn't.
Look at it. Verse 14: "And if Christ has not been raised, then our preaching is vain." Preaching. That word in the Greek, kērygma—message, sermon, proclamation, that which is cried by a herald, announced by a herald, proclaimed by a herald—refers to the content of what Paul officially proclaimed on behalf of the Lord Jesus Christ. The message of the gospel. Paul has already explained that. We just saw it in verses 3 through 5. The core of his preaching is that gospel message with those four basic propositions. And he says if Christ has not been raised, then the Evangelion, the gospel, the kērygma is vain. It is—he uses this word— kenos, vain, empty, without substance, void of spiritual value. It has no value whatsoever. Beloved, it comes down to this. Either the tomb is empty or the gospel is empty. Either the tomb is empty or the gospel is empty.
If Christ has not been raised, then the gospel is a worthless, worthless message, and the entire structure of Christianity collapses because it stands on a flawed foundation. Pastor MacArthur put it this way, and I quote, "Without the resurrection, the good news would be bad news and there would be nothing worth preaching. Without the resurrection, the gospel would be an empty, hopeless message of meaningless nonsense." And he ends with this: "Unless our Lord conquered sin and death, making a way for men to follow in that victory, there is no gospel to proclaim." End of quote.
One of the great disasters in American history was the Johnstown flood. After several days of flooding rain, on May 31, 1889, the South Fork Dam experienced what they call a catastrophic failure. Catastrophic failure. It was 23 kilometers upstream of Johnstown, Pennsylvania, and when the dam broke, it released 20 million tons of water. 20 million tons of water. Within just a few minutes, a wall of water and debris, 35 to 40 feet high, traveling at 60 kilometers an hour, slammed into the town. Ten and a half square kilometers of downtown were destroyed. Over 2,230 people died. And 99 entire families were just wiped out. It failed because its structural integrity was flawed.
The same thing, beloved, is true with the Christian faith. The resurrection of Jesus Christ is the foundation. It is the foundation of the gospel and ultimately supports the entire Christian faith. If it is not true, then the entire structure collapses, just like the South Fork Dam, and it destroys all of those who have trusted in it. If Christ's body has not been raised from the dead, but remains in some obscure Jewish grave to this day, the good news is that it is still there. It is to this day the good news that Paul and the apostles proclaimed—that you and I could be reconciled to our Creator, that our sins could be forgiven, that we could be restored to God—is an ancient fiction that deserves to be forgotten, to be discarded. And there is no valid gospel. There is no gospel to proclaim.
Well, that brings us to the second consequence if Christ has not been raised. Secondly, there is no legitimate faith. There's no legitimate faith. Look at the text, verse 14: "If Christ has not been raised, then your faith is also," not only the gospel, "but your faith is also vain." He said to the Corinthians, Paul, listen, you believe the message of the gospel we preached, but if Christ is not raised, not only the gospel message is worthless, so is your faith. And so is your faith. It's vain. It's empty. It's without content. It's without reality. You may believe it, but your faith is worthless. It's completely void of all spiritual value. It has no value whatsoever in it.
You see, the resurrection of Jesus Christ and His substitutionary death stand and fall together. Both, both are historical events. Both. Events that happen the way the apostles described. And our faith is therefore legitimate, sensible, or they're both fabrications and our faith is illegitimate and unreasonable. We live in the day of postmodernism. That's the climate all around us. This is the mindset of the age, where you could just shape and form reality to whatever shape you want. You can make your own reality. That's what's being proclaimed out there. You can make your own reality. You can believe it, and if you believe it, then it's true for you. So, well, something might be true for you, may not be true for somebody else, but that's your own reality.
Well, that is not just how it works in the real world. Contrary to postmodernism, reality is not whatever you want it to be. What you believe actually matters. It matters.
Back in 2017, there was a sad story in the news about kids with cancer who were treated with fake chemotherapy in Mexico. A government official reported it this way, and I quote, "We have results from a laboratory that pointed out that chemotherapy that was given to children was not really a drug, but an inert compound, chemically inactive. It was practically distilled water," end of quote. Think about this. Truly tragic. Very tragic.
Those families believed those drugs were real. They put their faith and confidence in those drugs. They believed those drugs were helping their kids who were having to deal with cancer. They're terribly ill kids. They thought they could be helped by this, but sadly, several of those kids died as a result. And that is heartbreaking, a heartbreaking illustration of the fact that no amount of faith helps if the object of your faith is wrong. No amount of faith helps if the object of your faith is wrong. Believe it all you want, but it's not going to help you if the object of your faith is wrong.
Our faith is in the risen, exalted Savior, and if He is still dead, if He is still in the grave, if He is still in that tomb, our faith is absolutely worthless. Our confidence in the gospel is absolutely unreasonable. Paul says if Christ has not been raised, number one, there is no valid gospel, number two, there is no legitimate faith, and thirdly, there is no trustworthy revelation.
There's no trustworthy revelation. Verse 15, "Moreover we are even found to be false witnesses of God, because we bore witness against God that He has raised Christ, whom He did not raise, if in fact the dead are not raised." Notice with me the expression here. We are found.Heurískō. The Greek verb is often this verb used of discovering someone's true character. That's the verb. Someone who walks around with a facade, a pretense, a veneer, and then they are found out. They are found out for what they really are. Hypocrites.
Paul says if some of the Corinthians were right, and the dead are not raised, then Christ has not been raised. And that means everyone who has taught the resurrection has been found what? A false witness of God. And Paul says, pretty much, we're all liars. We're all liars. We falsely accused God of doing what He didn't do if He didn't raise Jesus from the dead. It means that all that we have learned has come to what? Nothing. Absolutely nothing.
And I had to pause, and as I thought about this in preparation, it came to me like this. Going to Bible college, going to seminary, attending all these seminars, spending all the money on the seminary, Bible school, and all of this, Bible studies, books and books and books, and all the time spent invested. No amount of education can compensate if at the heart of what you believe there is a gigantic falsehood. If Christ has not been raised from the dead, then all the education in the world cannot overcome that one fact. And all the Christian scholars, and all the Christian colleges and seminaries, and all the books of all of the learned Christians across all the years, it all, including the 63 volumes of Spurgeon, it all amounts to nothing. Zero. Zip. Nada. That's what Paul means. String all the degrees you want after your name, write all the books you want, preach until you pass out, build the biggest church building in the world, fill huge stadiums with great throngs of people coming. If the tomb is not empty, you are wasting your time. Go do something else useful.
Now notice, he adds, we bore witness against God. If Christ has not been raised, all you've taught, all who've taught that God raised the dead are liars. They're false teachers. They're not to be trusted. They can't be trusted. They're speaking contrary to God's Word. They're like the prophets of Jeremiah's time who were not sent, in whose mouth God did not put His words. Therefore, they are under the judgment of God.
And so, who does this include? Who does it include? Who are the false witnesses of the resurrection if Christ has not been raised from the dead? Look at the text. Well, first of all, it's all the eyewitnesses of verses 5 through 7. All of them. All of them, they're liars. They didn't see the resurrected Christ. Paul himself, verse 8, "And last of all, as to one untimely born, He appeared to me also." That includes Paul. Paul as well. Paul was a deceiver, a liar, a false teacher, as are all the apostles.
Verse 5, "He appeared to Cephas," Peter. "And the twelve." Verse 7, "To James, then to all the apostles." And according to verse 11, the apostles not only witnessed the resurrection, but they proclaimed it. They preached it. They proclaimed it to others. So all of the apostles are false teachers. Everywhere they taught, the entire New Testament is actually false.
But Paul's indictment doesn't stop there. It goes all the way back and includes the Old Testament. Look back at verse 4: "He," Christ, "was raised on the third day," here it is, "according to the Scriptures." What Scriptures? The Old Testament Scriptures. Scriptures. That means the Old Testament, the Hebrew Scriptures, they're also a lie. They're also a lie.
His indictment even includes Christ Himself. Remember, this Gospel originated with Christ.
Mark 1 says Christ came as He began His ministry, preaching the Gospel, preaching the Evangelion, proclaiming the good news. Make no mistake, if there's no resurrection, you can trust absolutely nothing Christ said. Nothing. Paul and the apostles, who were under inspiration, they wrote or supervised the writing of the entire New Testament. Well, if that's so, then they're all liars. And the Old Testament can't be trusted either. None of it can. If Christ has not been raised, the Bible you hold in your hand right now, well, is no more reliable than the writings of Confucius, Muhammad, or Joseph Smith. There's no trustworthy message from God. There's no reliable revelation from God.
And a fourth tragic consequence in verses 16 and 17 that Paul tells us that means there is no real forgiveness. There is no real forgiveness. "For if the dead are not raised," verse 16, "not even Christ has been raised. And if Christ has not been raised, your faith is worthless;” and here it is, “you are still in your sin." Wow. Again, Paul reminds his readers of the flow of his argument here. He says, if dead people aren't raised, then Christ hasn't been raised. And if Christ hasn't been raised, your faith is mataios, worthless—literally to no purpose, in vain, empty, fruitless, aimless, rudderless. It's building houses on sand, chasing the wind, shooting at the stars, pursuing one's own shadow. Mataios. It's a promise with no fulfillment, a trip with no destination, a story with no end, a seed that produces no crop, a dream that never comes true, a game with no winners, a company with no product. It is mataios, useless. It doesn't produce any results.
And then he specifically says what results. Look at the text. It doesn't produce forgiveness. You are still in your sin. So, the death of Christ accomplished nothing in regard to our sin, if Christ has not been raised from the dead. The New Testament often connects Christ's resurrection with both—and this is important—forgiveness and justification. They're always connected.
The word justification simply means that legal declaration of God, by which He declares a believing sinner, a sinner who believes in the Lord Jesus Christ, to be right with Him—not based on that person's righteousness, but based on the finished work of Jesus Christ on Calvary's cross, Christ's righteousness. Paul connects the resurrection to that reality. For example, in Romans 4 and verse 25, he says, "Jesus," Paul says, "Jesus was delivered over on account of our transgressions"—there's His death, right?—"and was raised on account of our justification." Jesus' resurrection was necessary to secure our justification, our being declared right with God. But Paul doesn't mean that Christ secured our justification solely through His resurrection. Jesus' death was also crucial in securing our justification. In Romans 5, verse 9, he says we are justified. We are declared right with God by the blood of Jesus, that is, by His death in our place as our substitute.
So, how is the resurrection then related to justification and forgiveness? Here it is. Primarily, the resurrection of Jesus proved that the Father had accepted Jesus' sacrifice for sins and that forgiveness was now truly possible. You see, if the Father had not raised Christ from the dead, it would have been a public statement that Jesus was not who He claimed to be and therefore could not bring forgiveness. He could not purchase our redemption. If Christ has not been raised, you are still in your sins, Paul says. Martin Lloyd-Jones put it this way, and I quote, "The resurrection is the proclamation of the fact that God is fully and completely satisfied with the work that His Son did on the cross. In raising Him up, God the Father was proclaiming that His Son had completed the work, that He is propitiated, that is, that His justice is completely satisfied. The resurrection proved that the Father had accepted the sacrifice of His Son," end of quote.
The resurrection was God's official seal of approval on the sacrifice of Jesus Christ. It was God's way of saying that He had accepted the death of His Son, the sacrifice of His Son, as full payment for the sins of all of those who would ever believe in Him. God declaring that the debt was paid. God could be just and still forgive us. Someone had died for sin, which God's justice demanded. Rather than the guilty, it was the innocent One in our place.
And it worked like this. You remember Good Friday, right? It worked like this. On Friday afternoon, at 3 o'clock, after six hours on the cross, Jesus cried out with a loud voice, out of the darkness. Having uttered that cry of dereliction, that cry of abandonment, finally, He cried, Tetelestai. Tetelestai, it is finished. It stands accomplished, forever accomplished. And then He said, "Father, into Your hands, I commit My spirit." And then the Scripture says, “He yielded up His spirit.” He chose to die. No one took His life away from Him. He yielded up the spirit. He chose to die at that exact moment, at 3 o'clock in the afternoon.
Why? Because nearby, on the temple grounds, it's when the Passover lambs were being sacrificed, and He was the perfect fulfillment of that entire sacrificial system. "Behold, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world." He was the perfect Passover lamb. He was the One who died so that His blood, shed for us, sprinkled on us, means that we are exempt from the death that you and I deserve.
And Jesus said, "It is finished." It stands completely finished. But Heaven waited to see if the Father agreed. And on Sunday morning, sometime before sunrise, the Father said, It is finished indeed. It is finished indeed by raising Him from the dead. It was God's own approval on the sacrifice of Christ. He put His stamp of approval by raising Him from the dead. Charles Spurgeon said it more powerfully and profoundly than I ever could when he said this, and I quote, "The blood of Jesus Christ is blood that has been accepted. Christ died. He was buried. But neither Heaven nor earth could tell whether God had accepted the ransom. There was needed God's seal upon the great Magna Carta of man's salvation. When Christ came out, rising from the dead in the glory of His Father's power, then was the seal put upon our redemption. The blood was accepted. The sin was forgiven."
He goes on to say, bringing out the implication, he says, “and now, soul, it is not possible for God to reject you if you come this day to Him pleading the blood of Christ. The everlasting God cannot reject a sinner who pleads the blood of Christ, for if He did so, it were to deny Himself. He can never revoke that divine acceptance of the resurrection. And if you go to God pleading simply and only the blood of Him that did hang upon the tree, God must un-God Himself before He can reject you or reject that blood.” End of quote. Isn't that amazing? Isn't that encouraging? Isn't that assuring? This is amazing. And if you go to God, he says, pleading simply and only the blood of Him that did hang upon the tree, God must un-God Himself before He can reject you or reject that blood. But God is immutable. God will receive you.
But if the Father didn't raise Christ, there was no seal in the work of Christ. It means that He rejected His sacrifice, and you and I still bear the guilt for our sins, and there's no real forgiveness. And then there's final consequence. If Jesus has not been raised from the dead, Paul says, then there's no eternal life. Forget it. There's no eternal life. Verse 18, “Then those who have fallen asleep in Christ have perished." They've perished. See the word, little word, then in English? It's the Greek word, ara. It implies that this is the inevitable conclusion, the inevitable consequence of what he just said. If we who are living are still in our sins, the same must be true of those who have fallen asleep in Christ. If those Corinthians were right about the resurrection, then those who have died believing in Christ died still in their sins. And to use Paul's words, they have perished. See the word perish, apōlonto, is Paul's normal word to describe the condition of those who die forever separated from God, cut off from God, apart from God. He defines it in "2 Thessalonians 2:10" like this. He says, “those who perish,” the same word, “because they did not receive the love of the truth so as to be saved.”
Now be clear about this, beloved. We live in a day when it's becoming increasingly popular to embrace the idea that when we die, we just simply cease to exist. That's the annihilation of the individual. Live your life. Do your best. When you die, it's gone. It's just you don't, you don't exist anymore. And people like that, like this idea because it means, you know why it's popular? Because it means that there is no God to give an account to. Live the way you want. When you die, it's over. You don't have to give an account.
Friend, let me tell you if that's how you're thinking. It's not over. It's not over when you die. You can hold that view if you want, but you stand squarely against what Christ taught clearly in Scripture. Matthew 25:46, He says this, listen to His words. Unbelievers, the unrighteous, the unbelievers “will go away into eternal punishment, but the righteous into eternal life.” And He used exactly the same words, eternal, on both sides of the equation, eternal. For those who are believers, there is eternal life. For those who are not, there is eternal punishment. The duration is exactly the same. There is no annihilation of the soul, no, none whatsoever. Christ taught that those who die without believing in Him will exist as long as those who have eternal life and they will do so in hell, in punishment.
So Paul doesn't mean here that those who died believing in Christ have ceased to exist. They will still live forever. When he says they have perished, he means lost for good forever, separated from God, away from Heaven in a place of torment. For them, if there's really no forgiveness, then there's no eternal life. There's only eternal punishment. And Paul summarizes the tragic consequences if Christ has not been raised from the dead with these sobering words in verse 19: "If we have hoped in Christ in this life only, we are of all men most to be pitied."
He says, listen, if there's no resurrection, then we deserve the pity of humanity more than any other people on the planet. Why? Because the gospel has absolutely no substance whatsoever. Faith in Christ is worthless. God's Word is a lie. We still live under the penalty of sin. All believers who died before us are irretrievably lost, and when we die, we too will be forever separated from God at death.
Therefore, we are the most deserving of pity because all of our hope is hung on a lie, spilled on a flawed foundation. What a tragic consequence. If there's no foundation to our faith, then we are nothing but self-deluded fools. If Christ is not raised, then we have no message to proclaim. If Christ is not raised, then there is no God to hear our prayers. If Christ is not raised, then we are not saved. If Christ is not raised, then let's bring the missionaries home. If Christ is not raised, let's shut down every church and sell the property. If Christ is not raised, then every Christian for 2,000 years has been dead wrong. If He is still in the grave, you don't have Him in your heart. If He is still in the tomb, you are just playing religious games. If He is still in the tomb, it's not better to be a Christian.
And so we come to the end of Paul's ifs. If Christ has not been raised, if Christ has not been raised, our preaching is without purpose, our faith is without forgiveness, our death is without deliverance, our service is without significance. If, if, if. Is there an answer? Any hope, any reason to believe in the resurrection of Jesus from the dead and in the resurrection of the dead?
But this is one, this is another great "but" in the Bible. Verse 20, look at verse 20: "But now,” “But now Christ has been raised from the dead." But now up from the grave He arose. But now with a mighty triumph over His foes. But now He arose a victor over the dark domain. But now He lives forever with the saints to reign. But now He arose. He arose, hallelujah, Christ arose.
Now, but now—and this word "now" is not chronological, it is logical. For the purpose of argument, Paul has assumed for one long dark moment that Christ has not been raised. But with that word "now," he brings us back to reality. Ever had a nightmare? Think of a nightmare you had recently or a recurring nightmare that you've had. And think how disturbed you felt and how unsettling it is.
But what's it like when you wake up from that nightmare? When you wake up from a nightmare and you realize, no, no, it's not true—thank God, it's a dream, it didn't happen. And when you come to that realization, there is this huge sense of—what an amazing feeling, by the way—relief. Relief that comes sweeping over your soul. That's what should happen when you get to verse 20: "But now." Relief. “Christ has been raised.” Welcome back to reality.
And because “Christ has been raised from the dead,” all of those tragic, disastrous consequences—praise God—they're not true. In fact, not only are they not true, but they're the exact opposite. They're true.
The Gospel is indeed a valid message of grace and hope. Our faith is indeed legitimate. Our confidence in the Gospel is thoroughly justified because Jesus our Lord lives. And all who witness Christ's resurrection are indeed trustworthy. And the Scripture is God's reliable revelation. We have the more sure Word of God. Christ's death accomplished genuine, permanent forgiveness. Your sins are gone forever. Believer, believer, you will never ever stand before God in judgment for your sins again. Because God dealt with sin severely at Calvary's cross. Christ that day absorbed the full, the complete fury, the torrents of God's justice your sins and mine deserve. He paid it all. The debt is gone. The price was paid in full, and He drank that cup to the last drop. Not a one drop left for you, child of God. Yours and mine is only a cup of mercy.
That is why we are commanded, invited to draw near before the throne of grace. It is a throne of grace, not a throne of judgment. No Christian ever, ever really, in the ultimate, final sense, dies. There in the presence of Christ, to be absent in the body is to be in the presence of the Lord, to be at home with the Lord, as Paul puts it. And someday, believers will experience the resurrection of their bodies, and we can have great confidence in all of those truths because of the resurrection of Jesus Christ.
I must hasten to bring this message to conclusion today. How should we respond? How should you and I respond to this glorious passage that we consider together this morning? I wanna share with you several implications of Christ's resurrection, but I wanna begin with those who might be here this morning who are not believers in Jesus Christ. Maybe you're here because it's Easter. Maybe you're here because you're invited by someone else. Maybe you're here, you came knowing that you're not in Christ. Maybe you're here with family or friends. Maybe you're even part of this church, and you know good and well in your heart that you are not a genuine follower of the Lord Jesus Christ.
Or perhaps you're deceived. You claim to be a Christian, but there isn't enough evidence in your life to convict you of that. Maybe perhaps you made a childhood profession of faith, but frankly, you don't live in obedience to Christ whatsoever. The pattern of your life is one of disobedience. You have a very nominal commitment to Jesus. And if you're not a Christian, if those things describe you, here are the implications for you if you've never repented and believed in the Lord Jesus Christ.
Number one, the resurrection of Jesus proves His claim to be the Son of God. God the Son. Jesus Himself staked His claims on His own resurrection. You remember early in His ministry in John chapter two, He cleansed the temple, and the Jewish leaders said, wait a minute, what are You doing? Who gave You the authority to do this? And Jesus says, you want My authority? You wanna know what authority I'm doing this, here it is: "Destroy the temple of My body, and in three days, I will raise it up."
Jesus said, if you wanna know that I'm everything I claim to be, and I have the right and authority to do what I'm doing, then wait and see. When I'm raised from the dead after three days, you will know that everything I said and everything I taught is absolutely true. And the resurrection proved His claim was absolutely true. And this is what Peter said in Acts chapter two in verse 36 on the day of Pentecost. This is how he concludes his sermon. There he says, therefore, in light of the resurrection, “God has made Him”—Christ Jesus—“both Kyrios and Christos,” Lord and Messiah. “This Jesus whom you crucified.” He's everything He claimed. And in Romans one, verse four, God declared Jesus to be the Son of God with power. How? "By the resurrection from the dead." The resurrection forever proved Jesus' claims.
And listen, listen carefully. If you're here this morning and you are not in Christ, you are not a follower of Jesus Christ, God has given you all the evidences, all the evidence you need. You don't need more evidence. That's not the issue. The issue is, like all of us here before we come to Jesus Christ, you will not have Him to rule over you because you want your life your way and you want to continue to cling to your darling sins. There's plenty of evidence. It's not an issue of evidence.
Secondly, Jesus' resurrection is essential to be saved from your sins. It's absolutely essential, indispensable, for you to be saved from your sins. Look back in verse four, 1 Corinthians 15. Paul says there that the resurrection was a key proposition, a key tenet of the gospel that he and the apostles proclaimed. That means that to be a Christian, you must believe in the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead. Real, physical, bodily resurrection of Jesus from the dead. This was the gospel that he proclaimed.
Look back at verse one: "Now I make known to you, brothers, the gospel which I proclaimed as good news to you, which also you received, in which also you stand." Verse two: "By which also you are"—what?—"saved." That is, you are rescued from your sins and the penalty of your sins, which is death, eternity in Hell. "If you hold fast the word which I proclaimed to you as good news, unless you believed for nothing." Paul puts it this way in Romans 10, verse nine: "If you confess with your mouth Jesus as Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be"—same language—"saved." You'll be rescued from your sins and the penalty that your sins deserve.
And there's a third implication for you if you're outside of Christ. If you're here and you're not in Christ, Jesus' resurrection—and listen carefully at this point, please hear me, I beg you, don't tune this out—it means that Jesus' resurrection, He will be, because of His resurrection, He will be your Judge if you refuse to turn from your sins and believe in Him. That's what Paul said in Acts 17:30 on Mars Hill. He says this: "God is now commanding men that everyone everywhere"—that's you—"everyone everywhere"—that's you here—"should repent, because He has fixed a day." God has fixed a day. There's a day coming. It's fixed. It's fixed. It's not ifs, buts, maybe, it might come, might not come. No, no—fixed—"in which He will judge the world in righteousness through a Man whom He determined, having furnished proof to all." How? What's the proof? "By raising Him from the dead." "By raising Him from the dead."
And if you're not a follower of Jesus Christ, if you're in this building but not in Christ, there's only one simple implication of the resurrection for you, and that is: repent and trust in Jesus Christ as your Savior and your Lord right now, today. In the resurrection, God gave you all the proof you need to believe. And listen carefully, I don't say this lightly—I say it with a heavy heart. I say it with a burdened heart, but you need to understand, this is exactly what the New Testament says. If you refuse this invitation today, if you refuse His overtures, if you refuse His wide open arms inviting you to come and believe in the Savior—the risen, exalted Savior—if you refuse the gospel, if you refuse the invitation to repent and believe and receive forgiveness, someday, someday, Jesus Christ will be your Judge, not your Savior.
And you will stand before Him as your Judge, and it will not go well. It will not go well. In "Romans 2," Paul says that will be a day of—listen to the language carefully—justice and wrath. You don't want what you deserve. That will be pure justice, and it won't go well. You want God to do what? Give you what you don't deserve—grace and mercy. That day will be a day of justice and wrath—no mercy, no grace. Oh, you don't, but I, but I do. Nothing but justice, pure, straight justice. God will give you, Christ will give you exactly what your sins deserve, and only that. It comes down to this, and you have two choices. You can either repent and believe in Jesus Christ, or you can stand before Him someday as your Judge and absorb the full fury of His justice and anger against your refusal and your rebellion. Those are the only two choices. And so I beg you, I beg you, I plead with you, I plead with you—please, repent and believe. Turn to Him. Don't flee from Him, but flee to Him. He invites you. He invites you to come. Today is the day. The moment you die, that day is done, and then He will only be your Judge. And so I plead with you: "Today, if you hear His voice, do not harden your heart."
And if you're already a follower of Jesus Christ, as are many of us here, there are some wonderfully encouraging implications. Let me just bring out a couple in closing. Number one: the resurrection of Jesus secured and guarantees all He purchased in His death. His resurrection secured and guarantees all that He purchased in His death. The fact that He was raised from the grave, raised from the dead, means everything He purchased from the dead—means everything He promised—is yours, child of God.
Romans 5:10: "For if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God through the death of His Son, much more..." Is there anything much more than being reconciled? But he says, "much more, having been reconciled, we shall be saved," that is, delivered, rescued from God's future wrath—how? “By His life." Literally, in the Greek text, en His life. There's that little Greek word, en—in His life. That is, by our connection with the life of our resurrected Lord, we benefit from His always living, because that will secure our everlasting salvation.
Hebrews puts it this way, Hebrews 7:25: "Therefore He is able to save forever those who draw near to God." This morning, have you drawn near to God through Jesus Christ? Is that where you live? Is that the hope in which you place your eternal rest? Christ Jesus, the risen, exalted Lord—have you drawn near to God through Jesus Christ? Then He is able to save those who draw near to God through Him, since He always lives to make intercession for them. He always lives to make intercession for them. You are kept by the power of God. Your faith will not, never, ever implode. He who began a work in you will bring it to completion. He will carry you through all this life, all the way to glory. No height, no depth, no principalities, no power. Nothing, absolutely nothing can separate you from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus. It is His eternal, incorruptible, imperishable life that ensures that every promise He's made to you will be eternally true. Cling to it. When you are in doubt, cling to the promises of God and remind yourself of the resurrection.
Implication number two. Jesus' resurrection means that you and all who die in Christ will be raised from the dead. Will be raised from the dead. Death is a constant reality. Our lives are filled with the death of people we love, loved ones. But when you weep, Christian, over the grave of a loved one, as they lower that casket down, those who died in Christ, remind yourself that Christ has defeated death. Christ has removed its sting. We no longer have to fear it. Look down at verse 55 in the same chapter: "O DEATH, WHERE IS YOUR VICTORY? O DEATH, WHERE IS YOUR STING?" Christ removed the sting of death for us who trust in Him. How? By taking the stinger Himself on Calvary's cross. And now you and I can face death with joy and with confidence.
Look at verse 57: "But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory." What victory? What's the context? Over death. Over death. Over the grave. Victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. Look for a moment at verse 20: "But now Christ has been raised from the dead." And look at those precious words: "The first fruits of those who have fallen asleep." Aparchē. The first fruits, aparchē. The first of the ripe fruits.
This refers to the first part of any harvest. For the Israelites, it meant the first part of the barley harvest that was offered to the Lord. And it was a joyful day, it was a happy day when you offered the first fruits. Why, you know why? Because it meant that there was a bigger harvest to come. It was pointing to a bigger harvest to follow. Even so, the resurrection of Jesus 2,000 years ago is God's way of saying one day, one day, all of My children, all of them will rise from the dead. Not one of them will be left in the grave. Not a single one will be left. Every single one of them will be raised from the dead. Every single one will be raised one day. And if you're a child of Christ, you will be raised one day.
Raised immortal. Raised incorruptible. Raised perfected. Raised completely and completed, completed. Raised glorified. Raised free from sickness. Raised delivered from death. With sin gone forever and ever. Raised from human frailty. All of that will be disappeared. Personality retained, eternally endowed. Supernaturally stored. Made unto the likeness of Jesus.
All of the defects finally gone. All that is under construction finally completed. With healthy, perfect bodies like the bodies of our Lord Jesus Christ. With clear minds, undivided hearts. In the company with all the saints of all of the ages, of the redeemed of all of the ages. In a multitude that no man can number.
And we will gather around the throne of God. And we will rejoice and sing and laugh and praise and worship. And we will know each other more deeply. And we will love more completely. And we will think more clearly. And we will still be who we are. We will be more than we have ever been. And we will become what we always wanted to be. And we will finally see our loved ones who died in the Lord. And we will meet those who went before us. And we will see the saints of old. And we will know Abraham and Esther and Luther and Spurgeon. And we will marvel at the grace of God forever. And best of all, we will see Jesus. And we will bow before Him. And we will adore Him and worship Him. And we will dwell in the house of the Lord forever.
This is our hope, beloved. This is our confidence. This is our faith. And there's finally one last implication by way of conclusion here. The third implication for us as believers is this: Jesus' resurrection, and therefore our future resurrection in Him—listen carefully, I wanna leave us with this today—inspires a life of faithful service to Him. At the end of this chapter, at the end of this glorious chapter, Paul gives one last implication of the resurrection of Jesus and our future resurrection in Christ. Verse 58, "Therefore." That's an important word. In light of the resurrection of Christ, "therefore." When you come to a "therefore" in the Bible, ask yourself, what's it there for? In light of the resurrection of Christ and in light of your own coming resurrection, Paul says, "Therefore,” therefore, with all the glorious implications, “my beloved brothers,” oh, “be steadfast, immovable."
Don't let anything shake you. Don't let the world's worries and cares shake you. Don't let the problems that you face every day shake you. Be steadfast, immovable. Don't lose heart, don't lose heart. Keep going. Keep serving. Keep worshiping. Keep your eyes on Christ. Always abounding in the work of the Lord. Why, Paul? Knowing that your labor is not in vain in the Lord, because He's risen and you will rise again. It's not useless, it's not worthless. In the Lord, it's not worthless. Why? Because He lives and you will also live. But now, Christ has been raised from the dead. He's risen. He's risen. He's risen indeed. Christos anesti.
Let's pray.
Father, thank You for this passage, the beautiful clarity of Your Word. Thank You for the
resurrection. Thank You for the reality of the resurrection. And Lord, thank You for its foundational importance to our faith. Thank You that all of those terrible, disastrous, tragic consequences that Paul outlines are not true. They're not true. They're not true because Christ has been raised from the dead. He's alive and He's alive forevermore.
Lord, help us today to live in the light of that truth. Help us to live in confidence that what He secured for us in His life and death and resurrection is guaranteed to us eternally because He ever lives on our behalf. Help us to hope even as we face death and the death of those we love who are in Christ. Father, I pray that You would help us to live lives of faithful obedience until You take us in death or until our Lord returns to take us home. And it's all because of the resurrection.
And I pray, Father, this morning for those who are here this morning, either fully aware that they are not Christians or, Lord, perhaps who came in self-deceived, clinging to some worthless hope and they're not really Your disciples, not really followers of Jesus. Lord, oh Lord, I beg of You, remove the deception. Help them to see the reality, both of their sin, their state, and the beauty of Jesus. May You make them willing today to give everything else in life up, to have Him, to repent and to believe in Him.
Oh God, we pray this for His sake, who deserves to be worshiped, adored, followed, and honored—our risen, exalted Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.
Jesus Christ also died 2,000 years ago, and He was buried in a borrowed tomb just outside the city of Jerusalem. They all died. However, the Christian faith is unique in that it alone boasts of an empty tomb. It alone claims that its Founder, Jesus Christ, Jesus the Nazarene, was raised victoriously, permanently, eternally from the dead. Make no mistake about it. That is the foundation of the Christian faith. That is the foundation upon which the Christian faith stands.
One of the great Protestant reformers, John Calvin, wrote the following concerning the resurrection, and I quote, "The resurrection of Christ is the most important article of our faith, the chief point of the gospel." B. B. Warfield, that great Princeton theologian, wrote this, and I quote, "Christ Himself deliberately staked His whole claim upon His resurrection when asked for a sign, He pointed to this sign as His single and sufficient credential." End of quote. No article of the Christian faith is more essential, more foundational than the resurrection of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, and no passage more clearly articulates its importance to our faith than this passage here before us in 1 Corinthians 15.
Now Paul wrote this chapter to respond to something he had heard. The report that came to him concerning the Corinthian church—verse 12—"How do some among you say that there is no resurrection of the dead?" The believers there in Corinth were primarily Greek in their background, and many in the Greek culture believed in the immortality of the soul. Plato, for example, taught that the soul is immortal, but he also taught that the body, the flesh, basically is a prison from which death really releases the soul, sets it free.
And so in their Greek dualistic thinking mindset, they found the idea of the resurrection of the body absolutely absurd, absolutely ridiculous. Why would you want to stay in the prison of the body, the prison of the flesh? Tragically, that form of dualism seeped into the church, found its way into the church, and Paul heard that some in the Corinthian church denied that the bodies of believers would be raised. They were apparently in that church also teaching Greek dualism—that once a believer dies, he or she continues to exist forever as a spirit, a soul—and that's the false teaching Paul is correcting here in 1 Corinthians 15.
But notice with me the flow of the argument. In the first 11 verses of this chapter, Paul reminds them that the bodily resurrection of Jesus Christ is a central tenet of the Christian faith, a central tenet of the Christian gospel. That is, the good news—when we say the gospel, it's the good news that sinners who deserve God's judgment for their sins can be reconciled to God, can have their sins forgiven because of the life, death, and the resurrection of Jesus Christ. He here reduces the gospel, the core message of the Christian faith, to four basic prepositions.
Notice them with me as we introduce this text together. First of all, in verse 3, here's the first one, the first preposition. He says that "Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures." So that's the first one: Christ died. And He died for our sins, and it was according to Scripture. The second preposition is in verse 4: "He was buried," proving that He was in fact truly dead. He died. He was buried in a real tomb, in a borrowed tomb, but He was buried in a real tomb. The third one is found in verse 4: "That He was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures." He was raised victorious from the grave. And the fourth one is in verse 5: "That He appeared."
And then the rest of the verses through verse 10, "that He appeared to many, many witnesses." That, beloved, is the heart of the Christian good news, the Christian gospel, the Evangelion, the good news of Jesus Christ—that we can be reconciled to a holy God through the doing and the dying of another, the work of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Then in verses 12 to 19, Paul sets out to show the contradiction that existed in the Corinthians' thinking. And it was completely illogical for them to believe in Christ's resurrection, yet deny their own.
Now the foundation for understanding this portion of God's Word here, this passage, comes in Paul's argument in verses 12 and 13. Look at them with me together. He says, "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, not even Christ has been raised." In other words, he's saying, listen, if you deny the resurrection of believers, logically no one has ever risen from the dead. That means Christ has not been raised. And the results of that are absolutely staggering. The consequences are absolutely disastrous. Disastrous.
In verses 14 to 19, Paul then catalogs the frightening, the frightening consequences of their position. And he does so to prove the absolute centrality of the resurrection of Jesus Christ, our Lord, to the Christian faith. In fact, he argues that if this keystone—and the resurrection of Jesus Christ is the keystone—if this keystone is removed, Christianity collapses in a heap of rubble. All of it. If Jesus' body still lies buried somewhere in Israel, the consequences are beyond calculation. They're beyond imagination. It's horrible. It's disastrous.
In this passage, Paul outlines for us five very tragic, disastrous consequences. Disastrous consequences if Christ has not been raised from the dead. Let us look at them together as we take our minds to all, focus our minds to all of the marvelous truth that Christ has done for us in His resurrection. But note with me the first consequence if Christ is not raised from the dead. The first consequence is that there is no valid gospel. There is no valid gospel. There isn't.
Look at it. Verse 14: "And if Christ has not been raised, then our preaching is vain." Preaching. That word in the Greek, kērygma—message, sermon, proclamation, that which is cried by a herald, announced by a herald, proclaimed by a herald—refers to the content of what Paul officially proclaimed on behalf of the Lord Jesus Christ. The message of the gospel. Paul has already explained that. We just saw it in verses 3 through 5. The core of his preaching is that gospel message with those four basic propositions. And he says if Christ has not been raised, then the Evangelion, the gospel, the kērygma is vain. It is—he uses this word— kenos, vain, empty, without substance, void of spiritual value. It has no value whatsoever. Beloved, it comes down to this. Either the tomb is empty or the gospel is empty. Either the tomb is empty or the gospel is empty.
If Christ has not been raised, then the gospel is a worthless, worthless message, and the entire structure of Christianity collapses because it stands on a flawed foundation. Pastor MacArthur put it this way, and I quote, "Without the resurrection, the good news would be bad news and there would be nothing worth preaching. Without the resurrection, the gospel would be an empty, hopeless message of meaningless nonsense." And he ends with this: "Unless our Lord conquered sin and death, making a way for men to follow in that victory, there is no gospel to proclaim." End of quote.
One of the great disasters in American history was the Johnstown flood. After several days of flooding rain, on May 31, 1889, the South Fork Dam experienced what they call a catastrophic failure. Catastrophic failure. It was 23 kilometers upstream of Johnstown, Pennsylvania, and when the dam broke, it released 20 million tons of water. 20 million tons of water. Within just a few minutes, a wall of water and debris, 35 to 40 feet high, traveling at 60 kilometers an hour, slammed into the town. Ten and a half square kilometers of downtown were destroyed. Over 2,230 people died. And 99 entire families were just wiped out. It failed because its structural integrity was flawed.
The same thing, beloved, is true with the Christian faith. The resurrection of Jesus Christ is the foundation. It is the foundation of the gospel and ultimately supports the entire Christian faith. If it is not true, then the entire structure collapses, just like the South Fork Dam, and it destroys all of those who have trusted in it. If Christ's body has not been raised from the dead, but remains in some obscure Jewish grave to this day, the good news is that it is still there. It is to this day the good news that Paul and the apostles proclaimed—that you and I could be reconciled to our Creator, that our sins could be forgiven, that we could be restored to God—is an ancient fiction that deserves to be forgotten, to be discarded. And there is no valid gospel. There is no gospel to proclaim.
Well, that brings us to the second consequence if Christ has not been raised. Secondly, there is no legitimate faith. There's no legitimate faith. Look at the text, verse 14: "If Christ has not been raised, then your faith is also," not only the gospel, "but your faith is also vain." He said to the Corinthians, Paul, listen, you believe the message of the gospel we preached, but if Christ is not raised, not only the gospel message is worthless, so is your faith. And so is your faith. It's vain. It's empty. It's without content. It's without reality. You may believe it, but your faith is worthless. It's completely void of all spiritual value. It has no value whatsoever in it.
You see, the resurrection of Jesus Christ and His substitutionary death stand and fall together. Both, both are historical events. Both. Events that happen the way the apostles described. And our faith is therefore legitimate, sensible, or they're both fabrications and our faith is illegitimate and unreasonable. We live in the day of postmodernism. That's the climate all around us. This is the mindset of the age, where you could just shape and form reality to whatever shape you want. You can make your own reality. That's what's being proclaimed out there. You can make your own reality. You can believe it, and if you believe it, then it's true for you. So, well, something might be true for you, may not be true for somebody else, but that's your own reality.
Well, that is not just how it works in the real world. Contrary to postmodernism, reality is not whatever you want it to be. What you believe actually matters. It matters.
Back in 2017, there was a sad story in the news about kids with cancer who were treated with fake chemotherapy in Mexico. A government official reported it this way, and I quote, "We have results from a laboratory that pointed out that chemotherapy that was given to children was not really a drug, but an inert compound, chemically inactive. It was practically distilled water," end of quote. Think about this. Truly tragic. Very tragic.
Those families believed those drugs were real. They put their faith and confidence in those drugs. They believed those drugs were helping their kids who were having to deal with cancer. They're terribly ill kids. They thought they could be helped by this, but sadly, several of those kids died as a result. And that is heartbreaking, a heartbreaking illustration of the fact that no amount of faith helps if the object of your faith is wrong. No amount of faith helps if the object of your faith is wrong. Believe it all you want, but it's not going to help you if the object of your faith is wrong.
Our faith is in the risen, exalted Savior, and if He is still dead, if He is still in the grave, if He is still in that tomb, our faith is absolutely worthless. Our confidence in the gospel is absolutely unreasonable. Paul says if Christ has not been raised, number one, there is no valid gospel, number two, there is no legitimate faith, and thirdly, there is no trustworthy revelation.
There's no trustworthy revelation. Verse 15, "Moreover we are even found to be false witnesses of God, because we bore witness against God that He has raised Christ, whom He did not raise, if in fact the dead are not raised." Notice with me the expression here. We are found.Heurískō. The Greek verb is often this verb used of discovering someone's true character. That's the verb. Someone who walks around with a facade, a pretense, a veneer, and then they are found out. They are found out for what they really are. Hypocrites.
Paul says if some of the Corinthians were right, and the dead are not raised, then Christ has not been raised. And that means everyone who has taught the resurrection has been found what? A false witness of God. And Paul says, pretty much, we're all liars. We're all liars. We falsely accused God of doing what He didn't do if He didn't raise Jesus from the dead. It means that all that we have learned has come to what? Nothing. Absolutely nothing.
And I had to pause, and as I thought about this in preparation, it came to me like this. Going to Bible college, going to seminary, attending all these seminars, spending all the money on the seminary, Bible school, and all of this, Bible studies, books and books and books, and all the time spent invested. No amount of education can compensate if at the heart of what you believe there is a gigantic falsehood. If Christ has not been raised from the dead, then all the education in the world cannot overcome that one fact. And all the Christian scholars, and all the Christian colleges and seminaries, and all the books of all of the learned Christians across all the years, it all, including the 63 volumes of Spurgeon, it all amounts to nothing. Zero. Zip. Nada. That's what Paul means. String all the degrees you want after your name, write all the books you want, preach until you pass out, build the biggest church building in the world, fill huge stadiums with great throngs of people coming. If the tomb is not empty, you are wasting your time. Go do something else useful.
Now notice, he adds, we bore witness against God. If Christ has not been raised, all you've taught, all who've taught that God raised the dead are liars. They're false teachers. They're not to be trusted. They can't be trusted. They're speaking contrary to God's Word. They're like the prophets of Jeremiah's time who were not sent, in whose mouth God did not put His words. Therefore, they are under the judgment of God.
And so, who does this include? Who does it include? Who are the false witnesses of the resurrection if Christ has not been raised from the dead? Look at the text. Well, first of all, it's all the eyewitnesses of verses 5 through 7. All of them. All of them, they're liars. They didn't see the resurrected Christ. Paul himself, verse 8, "And last of all, as to one untimely born, He appeared to me also." That includes Paul. Paul as well. Paul was a deceiver, a liar, a false teacher, as are all the apostles.
Verse 5, "He appeared to Cephas," Peter. "And the twelve." Verse 7, "To James, then to all the apostles." And according to verse 11, the apostles not only witnessed the resurrection, but they proclaimed it. They preached it. They proclaimed it to others. So all of the apostles are false teachers. Everywhere they taught, the entire New Testament is actually false.
But Paul's indictment doesn't stop there. It goes all the way back and includes the Old Testament. Look back at verse 4: "He," Christ, "was raised on the third day," here it is, "according to the Scriptures." What Scriptures? The Old Testament Scriptures. Scriptures. That means the Old Testament, the Hebrew Scriptures, they're also a lie. They're also a lie.
His indictment even includes Christ Himself. Remember, this Gospel originated with Christ.
Mark 1 says Christ came as He began His ministry, preaching the Gospel, preaching the Evangelion, proclaiming the good news. Make no mistake, if there's no resurrection, you can trust absolutely nothing Christ said. Nothing. Paul and the apostles, who were under inspiration, they wrote or supervised the writing of the entire New Testament. Well, if that's so, then they're all liars. And the Old Testament can't be trusted either. None of it can. If Christ has not been raised, the Bible you hold in your hand right now, well, is no more reliable than the writings of Confucius, Muhammad, or Joseph Smith. There's no trustworthy message from God. There's no reliable revelation from God.
And a fourth tragic consequence in verses 16 and 17 that Paul tells us that means there is no real forgiveness. There is no real forgiveness. "For if the dead are not raised," verse 16, "not even Christ has been raised. And if Christ has not been raised, your faith is worthless;” and here it is, “you are still in your sin." Wow. Again, Paul reminds his readers of the flow of his argument here. He says, if dead people aren't raised, then Christ hasn't been raised. And if Christ hasn't been raised, your faith is mataios, worthless—literally to no purpose, in vain, empty, fruitless, aimless, rudderless. It's building houses on sand, chasing the wind, shooting at the stars, pursuing one's own shadow. Mataios. It's a promise with no fulfillment, a trip with no destination, a story with no end, a seed that produces no crop, a dream that never comes true, a game with no winners, a company with no product. It is mataios, useless. It doesn't produce any results.
And then he specifically says what results. Look at the text. It doesn't produce forgiveness. You are still in your sin. So, the death of Christ accomplished nothing in regard to our sin, if Christ has not been raised from the dead. The New Testament often connects Christ's resurrection with both—and this is important—forgiveness and justification. They're always connected.
The word justification simply means that legal declaration of God, by which He declares a believing sinner, a sinner who believes in the Lord Jesus Christ, to be right with Him—not based on that person's righteousness, but based on the finished work of Jesus Christ on Calvary's cross, Christ's righteousness. Paul connects the resurrection to that reality. For example, in Romans 4 and verse 25, he says, "Jesus," Paul says, "Jesus was delivered over on account of our transgressions"—there's His death, right?—"and was raised on account of our justification." Jesus' resurrection was necessary to secure our justification, our being declared right with God. But Paul doesn't mean that Christ secured our justification solely through His resurrection. Jesus' death was also crucial in securing our justification. In Romans 5, verse 9, he says we are justified. We are declared right with God by the blood of Jesus, that is, by His death in our place as our substitute.
So, how is the resurrection then related to justification and forgiveness? Here it is. Primarily, the resurrection of Jesus proved that the Father had accepted Jesus' sacrifice for sins and that forgiveness was now truly possible. You see, if the Father had not raised Christ from the dead, it would have been a public statement that Jesus was not who He claimed to be and therefore could not bring forgiveness. He could not purchase our redemption. If Christ has not been raised, you are still in your sins, Paul says. Martin Lloyd-Jones put it this way, and I quote, "The resurrection is the proclamation of the fact that God is fully and completely satisfied with the work that His Son did on the cross. In raising Him up, God the Father was proclaiming that His Son had completed the work, that He is propitiated, that is, that His justice is completely satisfied. The resurrection proved that the Father had accepted the sacrifice of His Son," end of quote.
The resurrection was God's official seal of approval on the sacrifice of Jesus Christ. It was God's way of saying that He had accepted the death of His Son, the sacrifice of His Son, as full payment for the sins of all of those who would ever believe in Him. God declaring that the debt was paid. God could be just and still forgive us. Someone had died for sin, which God's justice demanded. Rather than the guilty, it was the innocent One in our place.
And it worked like this. You remember Good Friday, right? It worked like this. On Friday afternoon, at 3 o'clock, after six hours on the cross, Jesus cried out with a loud voice, out of the darkness. Having uttered that cry of dereliction, that cry of abandonment, finally, He cried, Tetelestai. Tetelestai, it is finished. It stands accomplished, forever accomplished. And then He said, "Father, into Your hands, I commit My spirit." And then the Scripture says, “He yielded up His spirit.” He chose to die. No one took His life away from Him. He yielded up the spirit. He chose to die at that exact moment, at 3 o'clock in the afternoon.
Why? Because nearby, on the temple grounds, it's when the Passover lambs were being sacrificed, and He was the perfect fulfillment of that entire sacrificial system. "Behold, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world." He was the perfect Passover lamb. He was the One who died so that His blood, shed for us, sprinkled on us, means that we are exempt from the death that you and I deserve.
And Jesus said, "It is finished." It stands completely finished. But Heaven waited to see if the Father agreed. And on Sunday morning, sometime before sunrise, the Father said, It is finished indeed. It is finished indeed by raising Him from the dead. It was God's own approval on the sacrifice of Christ. He put His stamp of approval by raising Him from the dead. Charles Spurgeon said it more powerfully and profoundly than I ever could when he said this, and I quote, "The blood of Jesus Christ is blood that has been accepted. Christ died. He was buried. But neither Heaven nor earth could tell whether God had accepted the ransom. There was needed God's seal upon the great Magna Carta of man's salvation. When Christ came out, rising from the dead in the glory of His Father's power, then was the seal put upon our redemption. The blood was accepted. The sin was forgiven."
He goes on to say, bringing out the implication, he says, “and now, soul, it is not possible for God to reject you if you come this day to Him pleading the blood of Christ. The everlasting God cannot reject a sinner who pleads the blood of Christ, for if He did so, it were to deny Himself. He can never revoke that divine acceptance of the resurrection. And if you go to God pleading simply and only the blood of Him that did hang upon the tree, God must un-God Himself before He can reject you or reject that blood.” End of quote. Isn't that amazing? Isn't that encouraging? Isn't that assuring? This is amazing. And if you go to God, he says, pleading simply and only the blood of Him that did hang upon the tree, God must un-God Himself before He can reject you or reject that blood. But God is immutable. God will receive you.
But if the Father didn't raise Christ, there was no seal in the work of Christ. It means that He rejected His sacrifice, and you and I still bear the guilt for our sins, and there's no real forgiveness. And then there's final consequence. If Jesus has not been raised from the dead, Paul says, then there's no eternal life. Forget it. There's no eternal life. Verse 18, “Then those who have fallen asleep in Christ have perished." They've perished. See the word, little word, then in English? It's the Greek word, ara. It implies that this is the inevitable conclusion, the inevitable consequence of what he just said. If we who are living are still in our sins, the same must be true of those who have fallen asleep in Christ. If those Corinthians were right about the resurrection, then those who have died believing in Christ died still in their sins. And to use Paul's words, they have perished. See the word perish, apōlonto, is Paul's normal word to describe the condition of those who die forever separated from God, cut off from God, apart from God. He defines it in "2 Thessalonians 2:10" like this. He says, “those who perish,” the same word, “because they did not receive the love of the truth so as to be saved.”
Now be clear about this, beloved. We live in a day when it's becoming increasingly popular to embrace the idea that when we die, we just simply cease to exist. That's the annihilation of the individual. Live your life. Do your best. When you die, it's gone. It's just you don't, you don't exist anymore. And people like that, like this idea because it means, you know why it's popular? Because it means that there is no God to give an account to. Live the way you want. When you die, it's over. You don't have to give an account.
Friend, let me tell you if that's how you're thinking. It's not over. It's not over when you die. You can hold that view if you want, but you stand squarely against what Christ taught clearly in Scripture. Matthew 25:46, He says this, listen to His words. Unbelievers, the unrighteous, the unbelievers “will go away into eternal punishment, but the righteous into eternal life.” And He used exactly the same words, eternal, on both sides of the equation, eternal. For those who are believers, there is eternal life. For those who are not, there is eternal punishment. The duration is exactly the same. There is no annihilation of the soul, no, none whatsoever. Christ taught that those who die without believing in Him will exist as long as those who have eternal life and they will do so in hell, in punishment.
So Paul doesn't mean here that those who died believing in Christ have ceased to exist. They will still live forever. When he says they have perished, he means lost for good forever, separated from God, away from Heaven in a place of torment. For them, if there's really no forgiveness, then there's no eternal life. There's only eternal punishment. And Paul summarizes the tragic consequences if Christ has not been raised from the dead with these sobering words in verse 19: "If we have hoped in Christ in this life only, we are of all men most to be pitied."
He says, listen, if there's no resurrection, then we deserve the pity of humanity more than any other people on the planet. Why? Because the gospel has absolutely no substance whatsoever. Faith in Christ is worthless. God's Word is a lie. We still live under the penalty of sin. All believers who died before us are irretrievably lost, and when we die, we too will be forever separated from God at death.
Therefore, we are the most deserving of pity because all of our hope is hung on a lie, spilled on a flawed foundation. What a tragic consequence. If there's no foundation to our faith, then we are nothing but self-deluded fools. If Christ is not raised, then we have no message to proclaim. If Christ is not raised, then there is no God to hear our prayers. If Christ is not raised, then we are not saved. If Christ is not raised, then let's bring the missionaries home. If Christ is not raised, let's shut down every church and sell the property. If Christ is not raised, then every Christian for 2,000 years has been dead wrong. If He is still in the grave, you don't have Him in your heart. If He is still in the tomb, you are just playing religious games. If He is still in the tomb, it's not better to be a Christian.
And so we come to the end of Paul's ifs. If Christ has not been raised, if Christ has not been raised, our preaching is without purpose, our faith is without forgiveness, our death is without deliverance, our service is without significance. If, if, if. Is there an answer? Any hope, any reason to believe in the resurrection of Jesus from the dead and in the resurrection of the dead?
But this is one, this is another great "but" in the Bible. Verse 20, look at verse 20: "But now,” “But now Christ has been raised from the dead." But now up from the grave He arose. But now with a mighty triumph over His foes. But now He arose a victor over the dark domain. But now He lives forever with the saints to reign. But now He arose. He arose, hallelujah, Christ arose.
Now, but now—and this word "now" is not chronological, it is logical. For the purpose of argument, Paul has assumed for one long dark moment that Christ has not been raised. But with that word "now," he brings us back to reality. Ever had a nightmare? Think of a nightmare you had recently or a recurring nightmare that you've had. And think how disturbed you felt and how unsettling it is.
But what's it like when you wake up from that nightmare? When you wake up from a nightmare and you realize, no, no, it's not true—thank God, it's a dream, it didn't happen. And when you come to that realization, there is this huge sense of—what an amazing feeling, by the way—relief. Relief that comes sweeping over your soul. That's what should happen when you get to verse 20: "But now." Relief. “Christ has been raised.” Welcome back to reality.
And because “Christ has been raised from the dead,” all of those tragic, disastrous consequences—praise God—they're not true. In fact, not only are they not true, but they're the exact opposite. They're true.
The Gospel is indeed a valid message of grace and hope. Our faith is indeed legitimate. Our confidence in the Gospel is thoroughly justified because Jesus our Lord lives. And all who witness Christ's resurrection are indeed trustworthy. And the Scripture is God's reliable revelation. We have the more sure Word of God. Christ's death accomplished genuine, permanent forgiveness. Your sins are gone forever. Believer, believer, you will never ever stand before God in judgment for your sins again. Because God dealt with sin severely at Calvary's cross. Christ that day absorbed the full, the complete fury, the torrents of God's justice your sins and mine deserve. He paid it all. The debt is gone. The price was paid in full, and He drank that cup to the last drop. Not a one drop left for you, child of God. Yours and mine is only a cup of mercy.
That is why we are commanded, invited to draw near before the throne of grace. It is a throne of grace, not a throne of judgment. No Christian ever, ever really, in the ultimate, final sense, dies. There in the presence of Christ, to be absent in the body is to be in the presence of the Lord, to be at home with the Lord, as Paul puts it. And someday, believers will experience the resurrection of their bodies, and we can have great confidence in all of those truths because of the resurrection of Jesus Christ.
I must hasten to bring this message to conclusion today. How should we respond? How should you and I respond to this glorious passage that we consider together this morning? I wanna share with you several implications of Christ's resurrection, but I wanna begin with those who might be here this morning who are not believers in Jesus Christ. Maybe you're here because it's Easter. Maybe you're here because you're invited by someone else. Maybe you're here, you came knowing that you're not in Christ. Maybe you're here with family or friends. Maybe you're even part of this church, and you know good and well in your heart that you are not a genuine follower of the Lord Jesus Christ.
Or perhaps you're deceived. You claim to be a Christian, but there isn't enough evidence in your life to convict you of that. Maybe perhaps you made a childhood profession of faith, but frankly, you don't live in obedience to Christ whatsoever. The pattern of your life is one of disobedience. You have a very nominal commitment to Jesus. And if you're not a Christian, if those things describe you, here are the implications for you if you've never repented and believed in the Lord Jesus Christ.
Number one, the resurrection of Jesus proves His claim to be the Son of God. God the Son. Jesus Himself staked His claims on His own resurrection. You remember early in His ministry in John chapter two, He cleansed the temple, and the Jewish leaders said, wait a minute, what are You doing? Who gave You the authority to do this? And Jesus says, you want My authority? You wanna know what authority I'm doing this, here it is: "Destroy the temple of My body, and in three days, I will raise it up."
Jesus said, if you wanna know that I'm everything I claim to be, and I have the right and authority to do what I'm doing, then wait and see. When I'm raised from the dead after three days, you will know that everything I said and everything I taught is absolutely true. And the resurrection proved His claim was absolutely true. And this is what Peter said in Acts chapter two in verse 36 on the day of Pentecost. This is how he concludes his sermon. There he says, therefore, in light of the resurrection, “God has made Him”—Christ Jesus—“both Kyrios and Christos,” Lord and Messiah. “This Jesus whom you crucified.” He's everything He claimed. And in Romans one, verse four, God declared Jesus to be the Son of God with power. How? "By the resurrection from the dead." The resurrection forever proved Jesus' claims.
And listen, listen carefully. If you're here this morning and you are not in Christ, you are not a follower of Jesus Christ, God has given you all the evidences, all the evidence you need. You don't need more evidence. That's not the issue. The issue is, like all of us here before we come to Jesus Christ, you will not have Him to rule over you because you want your life your way and you want to continue to cling to your darling sins. There's plenty of evidence. It's not an issue of evidence.
Secondly, Jesus' resurrection is essential to be saved from your sins. It's absolutely essential, indispensable, for you to be saved from your sins. Look back in verse four, 1 Corinthians 15. Paul says there that the resurrection was a key proposition, a key tenet of the gospel that he and the apostles proclaimed. That means that to be a Christian, you must believe in the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead. Real, physical, bodily resurrection of Jesus from the dead. This was the gospel that he proclaimed.
Look back at verse one: "Now I make known to you, brothers, the gospel which I proclaimed as good news to you, which also you received, in which also you stand." Verse two: "By which also you are"—what?—"saved." That is, you are rescued from your sins and the penalty of your sins, which is death, eternity in Hell. "If you hold fast the word which I proclaimed to you as good news, unless you believed for nothing." Paul puts it this way in Romans 10, verse nine: "If you confess with your mouth Jesus as Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be"—same language—"saved." You'll be rescued from your sins and the penalty that your sins deserve.
And there's a third implication for you if you're outside of Christ. If you're here and you're not in Christ, Jesus' resurrection—and listen carefully at this point, please hear me, I beg you, don't tune this out—it means that Jesus' resurrection, He will be, because of His resurrection, He will be your Judge if you refuse to turn from your sins and believe in Him. That's what Paul said in Acts 17:30 on Mars Hill. He says this: "God is now commanding men that everyone everywhere"—that's you—"everyone everywhere"—that's you here—"should repent, because He has fixed a day." God has fixed a day. There's a day coming. It's fixed. It's fixed. It's not ifs, buts, maybe, it might come, might not come. No, no—fixed—"in which He will judge the world in righteousness through a Man whom He determined, having furnished proof to all." How? What's the proof? "By raising Him from the dead." "By raising Him from the dead."
And if you're not a follower of Jesus Christ, if you're in this building but not in Christ, there's only one simple implication of the resurrection for you, and that is: repent and trust in Jesus Christ as your Savior and your Lord right now, today. In the resurrection, God gave you all the proof you need to believe. And listen carefully, I don't say this lightly—I say it with a heavy heart. I say it with a burdened heart, but you need to understand, this is exactly what the New Testament says. If you refuse this invitation today, if you refuse His overtures, if you refuse His wide open arms inviting you to come and believe in the Savior—the risen, exalted Savior—if you refuse the gospel, if you refuse the invitation to repent and believe and receive forgiveness, someday, someday, Jesus Christ will be your Judge, not your Savior.
And you will stand before Him as your Judge, and it will not go well. It will not go well. In "Romans 2," Paul says that will be a day of—listen to the language carefully—justice and wrath. You don't want what you deserve. That will be pure justice, and it won't go well. You want God to do what? Give you what you don't deserve—grace and mercy. That day will be a day of justice and wrath—no mercy, no grace. Oh, you don't, but I, but I do. Nothing but justice, pure, straight justice. God will give you, Christ will give you exactly what your sins deserve, and only that. It comes down to this, and you have two choices. You can either repent and believe in Jesus Christ, or you can stand before Him someday as your Judge and absorb the full fury of His justice and anger against your refusal and your rebellion. Those are the only two choices. And so I beg you, I beg you, I plead with you, I plead with you—please, repent and believe. Turn to Him. Don't flee from Him, but flee to Him. He invites you. He invites you to come. Today is the day. The moment you die, that day is done, and then He will only be your Judge. And so I plead with you: "Today, if you hear His voice, do not harden your heart."
And if you're already a follower of Jesus Christ, as are many of us here, there are some wonderfully encouraging implications. Let me just bring out a couple in closing. Number one: the resurrection of Jesus secured and guarantees all He purchased in His death. His resurrection secured and guarantees all that He purchased in His death. The fact that He was raised from the grave, raised from the dead, means everything He purchased from the dead—means everything He promised—is yours, child of God.
Romans 5:10: "For if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God through the death of His Son, much more..." Is there anything much more than being reconciled? But he says, "much more, having been reconciled, we shall be saved," that is, delivered, rescued from God's future wrath—how? “By His life." Literally, in the Greek text, en His life. There's that little Greek word, en—in His life. That is, by our connection with the life of our resurrected Lord, we benefit from His always living, because that will secure our everlasting salvation.
Hebrews puts it this way, Hebrews 7:25: "Therefore He is able to save forever those who draw near to God." This morning, have you drawn near to God through Jesus Christ? Is that where you live? Is that the hope in which you place your eternal rest? Christ Jesus, the risen, exalted Lord—have you drawn near to God through Jesus Christ? Then He is able to save those who draw near to God through Him, since He always lives to make intercession for them. He always lives to make intercession for them. You are kept by the power of God. Your faith will not, never, ever implode. He who began a work in you will bring it to completion. He will carry you through all this life, all the way to glory. No height, no depth, no principalities, no power. Nothing, absolutely nothing can separate you from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus. It is His eternal, incorruptible, imperishable life that ensures that every promise He's made to you will be eternally true. Cling to it. When you are in doubt, cling to the promises of God and remind yourself of the resurrection.
Implication number two. Jesus' resurrection means that you and all who die in Christ will be raised from the dead. Will be raised from the dead. Death is a constant reality. Our lives are filled with the death of people we love, loved ones. But when you weep, Christian, over the grave of a loved one, as they lower that casket down, those who died in Christ, remind yourself that Christ has defeated death. Christ has removed its sting. We no longer have to fear it. Look down at verse 55 in the same chapter: "O DEATH, WHERE IS YOUR VICTORY? O DEATH, WHERE IS YOUR STING?" Christ removed the sting of death for us who trust in Him. How? By taking the stinger Himself on Calvary's cross. And now you and I can face death with joy and with confidence.
Look at verse 57: "But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory." What victory? What's the context? Over death. Over death. Over the grave. Victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. Look for a moment at verse 20: "But now Christ has been raised from the dead." And look at those precious words: "The first fruits of those who have fallen asleep." Aparchē. The first fruits, aparchē. The first of the ripe fruits.
This refers to the first part of any harvest. For the Israelites, it meant the first part of the barley harvest that was offered to the Lord. And it was a joyful day, it was a happy day when you offered the first fruits. Why, you know why? Because it meant that there was a bigger harvest to come. It was pointing to a bigger harvest to follow. Even so, the resurrection of Jesus 2,000 years ago is God's way of saying one day, one day, all of My children, all of them will rise from the dead. Not one of them will be left in the grave. Not a single one will be left. Every single one of them will be raised from the dead. Every single one will be raised one day. And if you're a child of Christ, you will be raised one day.
Raised immortal. Raised incorruptible. Raised perfected. Raised completely and completed, completed. Raised glorified. Raised free from sickness. Raised delivered from death. With sin gone forever and ever. Raised from human frailty. All of that will be disappeared. Personality retained, eternally endowed. Supernaturally stored. Made unto the likeness of Jesus.
All of the defects finally gone. All that is under construction finally completed. With healthy, perfect bodies like the bodies of our Lord Jesus Christ. With clear minds, undivided hearts. In the company with all the saints of all of the ages, of the redeemed of all of the ages. In a multitude that no man can number.
And we will gather around the throne of God. And we will rejoice and sing and laugh and praise and worship. And we will know each other more deeply. And we will love more completely. And we will think more clearly. And we will still be who we are. We will be more than we have ever been. And we will become what we always wanted to be. And we will finally see our loved ones who died in the Lord. And we will meet those who went before us. And we will see the saints of old. And we will know Abraham and Esther and Luther and Spurgeon. And we will marvel at the grace of God forever. And best of all, we will see Jesus. And we will bow before Him. And we will adore Him and worship Him. And we will dwell in the house of the Lord forever.
This is our hope, beloved. This is our confidence. This is our faith. And there's finally one last implication by way of conclusion here. The third implication for us as believers is this: Jesus' resurrection, and therefore our future resurrection in Him—listen carefully, I wanna leave us with this today—inspires a life of faithful service to Him. At the end of this chapter, at the end of this glorious chapter, Paul gives one last implication of the resurrection of Jesus and our future resurrection in Christ. Verse 58, "Therefore." That's an important word. In light of the resurrection of Christ, "therefore." When you come to a "therefore" in the Bible, ask yourself, what's it there for? In light of the resurrection of Christ and in light of your own coming resurrection, Paul says, "Therefore,” therefore, with all the glorious implications, “my beloved brothers,” oh, “be steadfast, immovable."
Don't let anything shake you. Don't let the world's worries and cares shake you. Don't let the problems that you face every day shake you. Be steadfast, immovable. Don't lose heart, don't lose heart. Keep going. Keep serving. Keep worshiping. Keep your eyes on Christ. Always abounding in the work of the Lord. Why, Paul? Knowing that your labor is not in vain in the Lord, because He's risen and you will rise again. It's not useless, it's not worthless. In the Lord, it's not worthless. Why? Because He lives and you will also live. But now, Christ has been raised from the dead. He's risen. He's risen. He's risen indeed. Christos anesti.
Let's pray.
Father, thank You for this passage, the beautiful clarity of Your Word. Thank You for the
resurrection. Thank You for the reality of the resurrection. And Lord, thank You for its foundational importance to our faith. Thank You that all of those terrible, disastrous, tragic consequences that Paul outlines are not true. They're not true. They're not true because Christ has been raised from the dead. He's alive and He's alive forevermore.
Lord, help us today to live in the light of that truth. Help us to live in confidence that what He secured for us in His life and death and resurrection is guaranteed to us eternally because He ever lives on our behalf. Help us to hope even as we face death and the death of those we love who are in Christ. Father, I pray that You would help us to live lives of faithful obedience until You take us in death or until our Lord returns to take us home. And it's all because of the resurrection.
And I pray, Father, this morning for those who are here this morning, either fully aware that they are not Christians or, Lord, perhaps who came in self-deceived, clinging to some worthless hope and they're not really Your disciples, not really followers of Jesus. Lord, oh Lord, I beg of You, remove the deception. Help them to see the reality, both of their sin, their state, and the beauty of Jesus. May You make them willing today to give everything else in life up, to have Him, to repent and to believe in Him.
Oh God, we pray this for His sake, who deserves to be worshiped, adored, followed, and honored—our risen, exalted Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.
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