June 16, 1 Corinthians 15
We’re who and where we are today as the culmination of everything that’s happened in the past. Choices and events that seemed mundane or insignificant in daily life become defining moments as we look back over our lives. While everything has affected us, sometimes we can point to one single thing that gave our lives context and direction.
For Paul, it was meeting the resurrected Jesus. The persecutor became the preacher after his Damascus road encounter with the risen Christ. The gospel message of Jesus’ death for our sins, his burial and resurrection, all according to the Scriptures, was the keynote of his preaching. The gospel of grace changed him, motivated him and humbled him.
Paul’s whole life and career was built on the validity of the resurrection. When someone suggested there was no such thing as the resurrection of the dead, it was an attack on the core of Paul’s life. Paul rejected the suggestion that his life was based on a fable. The fact of the resurrection was not some whimsical item in a curio collection to be examined; it was not an intellectual badminton shuttlecock to be batted back and forth. It was the foundation of all the confidence, hope and purpose that Paul knew and shared with others.
When the Corinthians were influenced by some false teachers to doubt the resurrection, Paul showed them the implications of that doctrine. If there was no resurrection, then: Jesus was not alive and was not who he claimed to be. Paul’s preaching and the Corinthians’ faith was empty. They were still lost in sin. The dead were lost without any hope, and the living had no hope of anything beyond this life. Whatever intellectual exercise led them to doubt the resurrection also robbed them of all the peace, joy, hope and meaning they had come to know in Christ.
Against that dismal prospect, Paul reaffirmed the resurrection of Jesus. All that went wrong in Adam was set right in Christ. Living for Jesus and suffering for him only makes sense in light of the resurrection. Skeptical questions about how it will happen and what kind of body the resurrected will have do not change the fact that it is real. Paul gave examples from the natural world to illustrate. The plant that comes from a sown seed doesn’t look like the seed. We see different kinds of bodies in the animal kingdom and the objects in the sky. Paul said our present flesh bodies were not suited for eternity, and that God would change everyone’s body immediately when Jesus came and the dead were raised.
From an earthly point of view, death is final. No one escapes its grasp. The grave wins every time. But Paul said the resurrection was our assurance of victory over death. In that promised victory, we should find strong incentive to hold onto our faith with unwavering determination. We should serve the Lord faithfully, trusting that our service is not an exercise in futility.
From The Abiding Companion: A Friendly Guide for Your Journey Through the New Testament,
Copyright © 2010 by Michael B. McElroy. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Today in God's Word—June 2024
East Tallassee Church of Christ
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