Series: The Resurrection of the Dead (1 Corinthians 15)

Part 2
What If There Is No Resurrection?

1 Corinthians 15.12-19

Introduction

Have you ever played “what if?” What if a certain event had never happened or had turned out differently? How would your life be different today? How would it be worse, or perhaps better? We all have regrets. But there are things that happened to us that changed everything for the better. I can’t imagine what my life would be like if I had not met my wife, for example.

And you could play “what if?” with certain historical events too. For example, what if Nazi Germany and its allies had won the Second World War? How would the world be different today?

It is almost too terrible to think about what life would be like today if certain things in the past had turned out differently. It makes a person thankful for the goodness and sovereignty of God over human history.

What if certain events in SALVATION HISTORY had never happened? Salvation history is how the plan of God unfolded, which brought salvation through Christ. But what if the Bible were just a myth and those things never really happened? It is unthinkable!

For example, what if the resurrection of Christ never actually happened? Where would that leave us?

In our text, 1 Corinthians 15.12-19, the Apostle Paul plays “what if?” with the resurrection of Christ. What if Jesus did not actually rise from the dead? In this great chapter, 1 Corinthians 15, Paul is giving his explanation and defense for the hope of the resurrection. Paul had to write these things to the Church in Corinth because there were some people in the Church there who doubted the resurrection (vs. 34-35). In Greek philosophical thought the body was not all that important. It was a prison for the soul. The Greeks did have a vague hope in the immortality of the soul, but the body was a hindrance. But the Jews had the hope that at the end of time God would raise the dead.

The surprising thing about the Gospel is that this resurrection has already begun and Jesus is the first-fruits of the dead. The future is now! Eventually all the dead will be raised.

But it all starts with the resurrection of Christ, which was Paul’s subject in the first section of the chapter (15.1-11). If Christ was not raised then there is no hope of resurrection. But the fact that Christ has been raised is a part of the Gospel message. We can’t be saved without believing the facts of the Gospel. And it is a serious thing that Paul could not ignore when people in the Church rejected an aspect of the Gospel. It is not acceptable for Christian people to embrace worldly wisdom over the truth of the Gospel. Paul wants the Corinthians to consider the implications of rejecting the resurrection of Christ. So he plays “what if?” It is important to consider the implications of rejecting the truth of the Gospel. Unbelief and/or false doctrine always have serious consequences.

1. IF THERE IS NO RESURRECTION THEN CHRIST WAS NOT RAISED.

Paul is simply following a logical thought through to its conclusion. (This is something many people fail to do!) IF there is no resurrection of the dead THEN Christ has not been raised either. The resurrection of Christ is the keystone of the Christian faith. It holds everything else together. If Christ was not raised then the Gospel is a lie and the Christian faith is pointless. There are some matters of opinion on which good Christians can disagree and still be Christians. But the resurrection of Christ is not an optional part of the Gospel or one of those disputable matters upon which we can indulge in private opinions and diverse interpretations. We do not have the option, for example, of making Jesus into just another moral teacher and religious leader. Neither can we just reinterpret the resurrection to mean something completely spiritual. If Jesus’ body is still in that tomb then there is no Christianity!

If Jesus did not rise from the dead, then death, the greatest enemy of humanity, was not defeated and still has power over us. This would mean that Satan’s head was not really bruised and Satan still holds the power of death (See Gen. 3.15; Heb. 2.14-15). If Christ Himself was not raised then we have no reason to believe that Jesus is the Resurrection and the Life (John 11.21-25).

Those who doubt the resurrection are really ignorant of God and His power (See Matt. 22.23-33). Resurrection is not impossible for God!

2. IF THERE IS NO RESURRECTION THEN PREACHING IS VAIN.

The first part of Paul’s argument in this section is that the resurrection is part of the Gospel message that was preached to the Christians in Corinth. Any preaching that does not include the resurrection is not a complete presentation of the Gospel. And a person who rejects and disbelieves the resurrection has rejected the Gospel and cannot be saved. Not only is the resurrection integral to the CONTENT of preaching, it is also vital to the ACT of preaching itself. In other words, if there is no resurrection then preaching lacks power because there is no living, exalted Christ behind it. 

Furthermore, Christ promised that He would return to heaven and send the Holy Spirit to empower the witness of the Church in the world (Acts 1.8). But if there is no resurrection then Christ could not have ascended into heaven and sent the Spirit. So the Day of Pentecost could never have really happened and the witness of the Church is without any Divine sanction.

Preachers are Christ’s ambassadors (See 2 Cor. 5.20). True preachers are sent by the living Christ and their ministry is empowered by Him. But if there is no resurrection then Christ could not be sending out His ambassadors and the Church would never have been started in the first place. The power of the Gospel does not come only from those who preach it, but comes from the living, exalted Christ. If Christ was not raised then the preaching is only a human enterprise.

3. IF THERE IS NO RESURRECTION THEN FAITH IS ALSO VAIN.

Faith must always be based on facts. If there is no fact, no reality, then faith is pointless. It does no good to believe something that is not real. That would be a terrible disappointment to find out that what you believed is a lie.

If we place our faith in God but God cannot raise the dead, then that would mean death is more powerful than God. Faith in an impotent God is pointless.

We do not have faith in faith, we have faith in an objective reality outside of ourselves. Faith is not a subjective feeling, although many people in our culture feel that they are free to believe whatever feels right to them personally, regardless of the truth. Faith does have a subjective aspect because each one of us must actually believe for ourselves. But we do not make up what we want to believe.

We are interested in truth not a subjective feeling, experience, or psychological crutch. Some people’s pseudo-faith will actually prove to be like a staff that breaks when they lean on it. We can lean the weight of our souls only on what is really real and truly true.

If Christ was not raised then He cannot support the full weight of our lives and should not be trusted as a savior or surrendered to as Lord. There is no special reason we should worship, obey, or live for a dead Jesus. And there is certainly no reason to suffer for him because he could not reward you if you did. All hope of future glory and of being with Christ is vain if He is not alive.

4. IF THERE IS NO RESURRECTION THEN THE APOSTLES MISREPRESENTED GOD.

The Apostles of Christ were His chosen witnesses. They witnessed Christ being alive after His resurrection. In fact, that was one of the necessary credentials for being an Apostle. And these same Apostles were then sent out to preach the resurrection of Christ.

But if there is no resurrection then they could not have seen Christ raised from the dead and all of their preaching about His resurrection was inaccurate or even deceitful. The Apostles were the living foundation of the Church. That is, their message is what the Church was built upon. But if their message was inaccurate or an outright lie, then the Church’s foundation is not sound.

If the Apostles got it wrong then we have to ask WHY there were mistaken. Did they just tell an outright lie? That seems impossible because they all died for their faith and no one would die for something they knew to be a lie. The Apostles were convinced that Jesus was alive and something had to convince them. Did they all hallucinate? People don’t all have the same hallucinations.

These men were radically transformed by something and the resurrection is the best explanation. We have to either accept or reject the testimony of the Apostles. Faith is based on the testimony of witnesses. God has always sent human messengers to speak His word. Reject them and we reject God Himself.

5. IF THERE IS NO RESURRECTION THEN WE ARE STILL IN SIN.

Atonement was not really made if there was no resurrection. The Cross is validated by the resurrection. The resurrection proves that Jesus was an innocent victim. Jesus did not die for His own sins and that is why He could rise from the dead. Death had no claim on Jesus because He had no sin of His own. Jesus bore our sins in His body on the Tree. When that transaction was finished sin had been put away. But Jesus then had to come back from the realm of the dead to show that all of the effects of sin had been vanquished. What good would it have been if sin had been put away but death had been able to hold Jesus in its clutches? “The wages of sin is death.” So Jesus had to come back from the dead to prove that sin had been paid for in its entirety. So the resurrection sealed our total deliverance from sin and all its effects, especially death.

The resurrection proved that God accepted Jesus’ offering for sin. And since God has accepted Jesus, God will also accept us in Christ.

Furthermore, the resurrection of Jesus makes it possible for people who are dead in trespasses and sins to be raised to walk in newness of life. There is resurrection power and life at work in the believer in Christ. But that could not be the case if Jesus did not actually rise from the dead. The Christian life is resurrection life (See Eph. 2.1-6; Rom. 6.1-4).

6. IF THERE IS NO RESURRECTION THEN THE DEAD IN CHRIST HAVE NO HOPE.

If there is no hope of a resurrection then those who have died are gone and lost forever. Not only that, those who have died will miss the second coming of Christ if there is no resurrection (See 1 Thess. 4.13-18).

But the dead in Christ will be raised first when He comes again, and then we will all be caught up to meet the Lord together. And we will be with the Lord forever. No one will miss out or be left behind at His coming. But if there is no resurrection then we have no hope for those who have died to ever return to us again. We would be separated from them forever, if that were the case. Will we see are departed brethren again? Yes! And what a reunion it will be when all of God’s people are gathered together.

Jesus is not going to lose any of His people, but He will raise them up at the last day (John 6.39-40).

Those who die before the coming of the Lord are with the Lord now in heaven and are being kept until the time of the resurrection. But if there is no resurrection then we have no way of knowing what will become of those who died! Death seems final. But it is actually just a temporary separation from our departed brethren. Christians bury their dead in hope of the resurrection. We say that those who died just fell asleep, but in the hope of waking up again!

7. IF THERE IS NO RESURRECTION THEN CHRISTIANS SHOULD BE PITIED AS HOPELESS FOOLS.

Everyone is motivated by some kind of reward or goal. We often ask ourselves if our hard work is going to be worth it in the end. If we don’t think there will be a worthwhile payoff, then we are not going to waste our time and energy. No one buys a ticket for a sinking ship. No one invests in a failing enterprise. If there is no resurrection then Christians are fools for giving up their lives in this present world for a future that will never come. We are called to take up our cross and follow Jesus. That means we have to die to whatever agenda we might have followed of our own making in this world if we want to have Jesus and be a part of His Kingdom. If there is no resurrection then we are making a mistake and we might as well hang on to whatever we can get in this world before we die.

Some people have accused Christians of being mercenaries. That is, we just serve God for some kind of personal benefit. But the reward is not found in this world. We have to die to get it! If we are mercenary then we are opting for a kind of delayed satisfaction. Like the Patriarchs we are living in tents while we wait for a city with foundations (Heb. 11.9-10). If there is no resurrection then we are waiting for nothing. But those who wait on the Lord have never been disappointed.

CONCLUSION

Now we come back to playing that game of “what if?” This time we should think about the very worst scenarios that could befall us. What would that be? What if something terrible happened to you or to a loved one? What if there was a serious illness? A crippling accident. Extreme poverty and deprivation. Some form of persecution or violent crime. The list could go on and on. These are things we would rather not think about.

But these things are not out of the realm of possibility in a world like ours.

Now think about the fact that if Christ has been raised from the dead then even the very worst scenarios we can imagine cannot ultimately hurt us or separate us from the love of God (See Rom. 8.31-39). If there is a resurrection of the dead then we should do whatever it takes in this world to enter God’s eternal Kingdom. Any amount of suffering and sacrifice is ultimately worth it.

On the other hand, we can play another form of “what if?” What if we got everything we always wanted in this world? What would that look like? For most people it would probably start with a lot of money. Perhaps power, fame, or beauty. But even if we got all of those things in this world we would still have to lose all of it because of that great enemy of the human race: death. And if Christ was not raised, and if this life is all we have, then we don’t have very much and we won’t have it for very long!