1 Corinthians 15:44-45 A Life-giving Spirit

1 Corinthians 15:44-45  If there is a natural body, there is also a spiritual body.  So it is written: “The first man Adam became a living being”; the last Adam, a life-giving spirit.  The spiritual did not come first, but the natural, and after that the spiritual.  The first man was of the dust of the earth, the second man from heaven.  As was the earthly man, so are those who are of the earth; and as is the man from heaven, so also are those who are of heaven.  And just as we have borne the likeness of the earthly man, so shall we bear the likeness of the man from heaven. 

God created Adam from earthly dust.  The dust-Adam would die under the burden of sin.  Jesus said, Heaven and earth will pass away. . . (Mark 13:31) Our understanding of existence indicates that everything will get old and crumble to dust.  Every living thing has a time table set for its demise.  Nothing in this world will go on indefinitely.  Even the wonders of heaven have a time table prescribed for existence, but the second Adam, Jesus Christ, reveals an existence that is eternal, permanent--beyond our ability to comprehend.  He is timeless.  In Revelations it says, "Time will be no more."  Jesus as God is without end.  He says, I am the Alpha and the Omega, the First and the Last, the Beginning and the End.  (Revelation 22:13)  We who are alive IN CHRIST have that hope of eternity, of lasting permanence, in us.  For we who are alive IN CHRIST are alive in the great "I AM."  He WAS, IS, and EVER SHALL BE.   He is the Abba Father of all who are created anew into his family.  We who are IN CHRIST through faith in his name and his works have entered into an eternal realm.  We have "time will be no more" stamped on our existence.  We are the Father's adopted sons and daughters through the infusing of Christ's righteousness in us.  We are new creatures, acceptable to God, who will never walk alone in life or in death.  For the Father will not leave us or abandon us.  We will always have his abiding Spirit to comfort and to guide us through this life.  Once we were made up entirely of the earthly man, revealing only his likeness and attitude, now, because of Christ's transforming work in us, we bear the likeness of the man from heaven, Jesus Christ.  We are no longer an intimate relative of The first man of the dust of the earth; instead, we are blood-bought relatives of the second man from heaven. 

The first Adam was a living person--created by God in his own image, with unique capacities possessed by no other living creature.  God gave the created Adam the ability to know, to serve, to worship, and to relate with him.  God wanted Adam to interact intimately with him, to hear his voice, to unite with him as a close friend.  God said that his creation of Adam was "very good."  He gave Adam the authority and power to rule over everything on Earth.  As the apex of God's creation, Adam could control the environment around him through his god-given knowledge and wisdom.  He was second in command of God's creation.  Nothing else was as special to God as Adam and then Eve.  But Adam failed to obey God's commandment.  He broke his covenant with God, and through his disobedience came the prominence of self.  This anti-god spirit attempted to make him independent of God's authority: I will go my own way rather than God's way.  The consequences of that independence are sin and death.  Adam and Eve's decision to follow their own way affected all of creation in diverse ways, causing chaos in God's creation.  Even today, we see the effects of mankind's decisions on Earth, the contamination of the environment, the demise of species.  Sin lays waste to God's plans for life.  The Bible says all creation awaits the day when those who have placed their faith in Jesus Christ's and his work will be manifested as the sons and daughters of the Most High.  The creation waits in eager expectation for the sons of God to be revealed.  For the creation was subjected to frustration, not by its own choice, but by the will of the one who subjected it, in hope that the creation itself will be liberated from its bondage to decay and brought into the glorious freedom of the children of God.  (Romans 8:19-20)  At the present time, we who are IN CHRIST continue to live with a dead man, our old selves.  Although he was crucified at the cross with Christ, he is with us, reminding us of the characteristics of Adam that are embedded in us as we continue to live in these fleshly bodies.  But someday, we will be completely free from that Adam who is nothing more than a living being, finite, destined for oblivion.  Instead, we will possess the eternal Spirit of the last Adam, Jesus Christ, a life-giving spirit who will take us to glory.

We who have the life-giving Holy Spirit involved in our daily lives know we are in God's hands.  We know that even in this body of Adam we are new creatures.  Adam's shell may remain with us, but inside us is the dynamism of the Holy Spirit.  Our confidence is in God's work, not our own works.  And we know that God causes everything to work together for the good of those who love God and are called according to his purpose for them.  For God knew his people in advance, and he chose them to become like his Son, so that his Son would be the firstborn, with many brothers and sisters.   And having chosen them, he called them to come to him.  And he gave them right standing with himself, and he promised them his glory.  (Romans 8:28-29)  Adam was a friend of God, but we have a familial relationship with God; we are part of his intimate family.  We will never be separated from his love, and no one can bring accusation against us for we are the Father's special creation, created IN HIS SON who gave up his life on the cross so that we might live.  Can anything ever separate us from Christ’s love?  Does it mean he no longer loves us if we have trouble or calamity, or are persecuted, or are hungry or cold or in danger or threatened with death?  (Roman's 8:35)  Many of us are experiencing the trials of life.  We know what it means to struggle and face hardships, but we must remember that we are more than conquerors through him who loved us.   Paul goes on to say, For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.  (Romans 8:37-39)  Before Jesus was taken up to heaven, the disciples asked when God would free Israel from the Romans.  Jesus deflected their question to their present lives, saying God would take care of them.  But He told them, you need to know you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.”  (Acts 1:8)  The apostles wanted to see something happen on this Earth that would satisfy the basic needs of the Jewish people.  But Jesus' concerns were not about the natural body, but about the spiritual body.  These eternal beings that He was talking to that day really did not need a restoration of Israel to its former days; they needed power to live the eternal life that was in them.  They needed the power of the last Adam to exist in this transitory life, power to testify of the Good News, power to live a victorious life IN CHRIST.  May that same power richly dwell in us!    

1 Corinthians 15:35-44 Raised in Glory and Power!

1 Corinthians 15:35-44  But someone may ask, “How are the dead raised?  With what kind of body will they come?”  How foolish!  What you sow does not come to life unless it dies.  When you sow, you do not plant the body that will be, but just a seed, perhaps of wheat or of something else.  But God gives it a body as he has determined, and to each kind of seed he gives its own body.  All flesh is not the same: Men have one kind of flesh, animals have another, birds another and fish another.  There are also heavenly bodies and there are earthly bodies; but the splendor of the heavenly bodies is one kind, and the splendor of the earthly bodies is another.  The sun has one kind of splendor, the moon another and the stars another; and star differs from star in splendor.  So will it be with the resurrection of the dead.  The body that is sown is perishable, it is raised imperishable;  it is sown in dishonor, it is raised in glory; it is sown in weakness, it is raised in power; it is sown a natural body, it is raised a spiritual body.

In the above passage, Paul expresses the magnitude of God by describing his creation.  God and his mighty works surpass our understanding.  God the Creator made everything with its own beauty, uniqueness, and quality.  Out of deadness can come life, life that differs greatly from the previous state of being.  We read about the state of the world before God created life: In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.  Now the earth was formless and empty, darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God was hovering over the waters.  (Genesis 1:1-2)  Yet this life as we see it now, with the identity and qualities that we are understand as a part of existence, will not continue indefinitely.  No, we will be changed.  We will have the eternal living nature of the living God in us.  As we discover in nature, the seed, the egg does not portend what it will be.  If we had no former experience with an egg or a seed, our wildest imaginations and speculations could not accurately determine the final product of either.  So it is with life after death, So will it be with the resurrection of the dead.  WE WILL BE CHANGED!  If not at our death, in the coming of the Lord, we will be transformed as Paul describes later in this letter: For the trumpet will sound, the dead will be raised imperishable, and we will be changed.  (1 Corinthians 15:52)  We will have all the splendor of God himself as his eternal children, his sons and daughters.  Of course, this understanding is beyond our ability to comprehend fully.  Just as we cannot comprehend the transition of the egg or seed into another form.  We cannot understand when Paul says, it (the body) is raised a spiritual body.  This body will be timeless, eternal, without decay or death.  How can we truly understand such a mystery in our present form?  We cannot grasp such a plan with our natural minds, but we do have faith that God made this world out of nothing.  By faith we understand that the universe was formed at God’s command, so that what is seen was not made out of what was visible.  (Hebrews 11:3)  This mighty God we serve abides in us.  Our hope of life forever in a new and different state is planted in Jesus Christ and his eternal life, for we are IN HIM and HE IS IN US.  With such a faith, we can place our lives in him, trusting in a sure eternity to come.

All flesh is not the same:  Men have one kind of flesh,  animals have another, birds another and fish another.  Even though all fleshly beings are just biological entities, functioning in approximately the same way: eating, drinking, propagating, seeking shelter, and the like, God set the human specie apart from the rest in that people can choose to believe in God.  We have knowledge that there is something beyond our mere existence.  We have memories of the past, and we possess an awareness of a future beyond our present existence.  As Christians, we believe God made the heavens and earth and all living plants and animals.  We believe He made us in his own image, with a capacity to understand realities beyond our own existence of eating, drinking and being merry, an existence that our dogs and cats enjoy but cannot process or discuss with us.  As believers we have a place in us where God can abide, a place where He can communicate with us in an intimate way.  Since God will not dwell with sin, we must be cleansed within for God to accept us and to commune with us.  We needed a Savior, and God sent his precious son to die on a cross to make us holy and acceptable to the Father.  Since we are redeemed by Christ's blood, the Holy Spirit abides in us in a holy place, for we are the temples of God.  As Paul writes in his second letter to the church in Corinth, For we are the temple of the living God.  As God has said: “I will live with them and walk among them, and I will be their God, and they will be my people.”  (2 Corinthians 6:16)   We have this great privilege as we walk this earth.  When we face life's end, our flesh will die, but our spirits will live on.  Right now, the Holy Spirit abides in that holy place deep within us.  We can hear his still small voice, a tender voice, over the din of this noisome world.  Because of the cross, we who are alive in Christ can come boldly to the throne of God.  Christ has paid the price for us; the price He paid was enough.  

Christian friends, remember, we are alive IN CHRIST; we are eternal beings now.  Of course, the word "now" is the important word for us as Christians.  Now is the day of salvation.  Now is the day to express your love for Christ.  Now is the time to testify of Christ's redeeming work.  Now we should be living sacrifices to the world.  As we read: For he says, “In the time of my favor I heard you, and in the day of salvation I helped you.” I tell you, now is the time of God’s favor, now is the day of salvation.  (2 Corinthians 6:2)  Non-humans live to eat, drink, and find satisfaction in the day.  The fleshly, carnal human can live as the animals, birds, and fish, for self-preservation and needs fulfillment, but we who are IN CHRIST live for him and his perfect will.  We live in the now, not for ourselves but for God.  We are ambassadors for Christ today, soldiers in his army.  We are to represent him in such a way that people will know there is a resurrection ahead, a time when they will meet God, either boldly IN CHRIST or in their own filthy rags of the flesh.  They will either come in Christ's name or in their own names.  The Bible gives us an account of that day: All the nations will be gathered before him, and he will separate the people one from another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats.  He will put the sheep on his right and the goats on his left.  (Matthew 25:32-33)   To the blood-bought sheep, blameless and holy dressed in robes dripping with the blood of Christ, Jesus will say, ‘Come, you who are blessed by my Father; take your inheritance, the kingdom prepared for you since the creation of the world.  For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in, I needed clothes and you clothed me, I was sick and you looked after me, I was in prison and you came to visit me.’  (Matthew 25:34-36)  The price was paid in full for their sins.  But to the goats He will say they did not feed him or give him drink, shelter, or clothes, and they did not look after him.  "I tell you the truth, whatever you did not do for one of the least of these, you did not do for me." Then they will go away to eternal punishment, but the righteous to eternal life.  (Matthew 25:45-46)  Eternal life, heaven!  What will we be like in heaven?  We will be what Jesus said: lights, shining for him.  Often, when we describe seeing Jesus, we relate how brilliant the light was that we saw.  We too, will be brilliant.  As the stars are brilliant, so will we be.  Dear children around this breakfast table, remember God today and his works for you and in you.  He has redeemed you from a finite existence into an eternal one with him.  Praise him with your lips, with your songs.

1 Corinthians 15:1-33 Do We Eat, Drink and Die?

1 Corinthians 15:1-33  Now if there is no resurrection, what will those do who are baptized for the dead?  If the dead are not raised at all, why are people baptized for them?  And as for us, why do we endanger ourselves every hour?  I die every day — I mean that, brothers — just as surely as I glory over you in Christ Jesus our Lord.  If I fought wild beasts in Ephesus for merely human reasons, what have I gained?  If the dead are not raised, “Let us eat and drink, for tomorrow we die.”  Do not be misled: “Bad company corrupts good character.”  Come back to your senses as you ought, and stop sinning; for there are some who are ignorant of God — I say this to your shame.

Paul tells those Christians who are double-minded that he dies every day.  His life is all in for the gospel of Jesus Christ.  As surely as he glories in the Corinthians' new births in Christ Jesus our Lord, he glories in his total commitment to God.  Paul built his faith completely on the works of Jesus Christ.   He also understood that if Christ had not been resurrected, his life, belief, and zealousness for the Good News was for nothing.  If the resurrection had not happened, he had wasted his life.  If Christ did not come out of that grave, all of the apostles' lives would consist of nothing more than fighting windmills, based on an illusion of something real that was not real at all.  If the dead are not raised, then Peter's statement would be nothing more than illusionary, self-deceptive: Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ!  In his great mercy he has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, and into an inheritance that can never perish, spoil or fade — kept in heaven for you, who through faith are shielded by God’s power until the coming of the salvation that is ready to be revealed in the last time.  (1 Peter 1:3-5)  But Peter knew because of his experience with Jesus after the resurrection that his hope of eternal life rested in the fact that Jesus was raised from the dead.  Because of the resurrection, the apostles considered Jesus' words as God's words.  As Jesus promised, after his death and resurrection, the Holy Spirit supernaturally caused the apostles to recall all that Jesus had said and done.  As they reflected on his life and teaching, the apostles understood without a doubt that Jesus is the truth and the light.  When Jesus spoke again to the people, he said, “I am the light of the world.  Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.”  (John 8:12)  They would never abandon Jesus again as many of them did when Jesus was arrested.  All of them except John would be killed because of their affiliation with Jesus and his resurrection.  For them, dying daily was not just a statement of commitment to Jesus, but a physical possibility as they faced persecution and even death for the cause of Christ.

Some Corinthians probably disputed Paul's depiction of Christ's resurrection.  To them, the Good News may have meant following Jesus as a great teacher or maybe following him as an example of how one should live his or her life to earn God's favor.  But Paul resisted that attitude by saying, If the dead are not raised, “Let us eat and drink, for tomorrow we die."  He rejected the attitude that Christ's life was intended just as a reflection of God.  He claimed there is a new, supernatural life in every believer.  This life, this new creation, has resurrection power within it.  If Christians do not have this power, they must consider themselves mere humans with eternal death as their destination.  This teaching of goodness per se was an anathema to Paul.  He believed entirely in the supernatural works of Christ.  Paul understood what it meant to just believe that serving God was enough to get to heaven, for he considered his life good before he met Jesus on the road to Damascus.  He thought he was pleasing to God because of his good works as a Pharisee.  But he wasn't good.  As with the Pharisees that Jesus addressed when he was teaching, Paul was like them.  Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites!  You are like whitewashed tombs, which look beautiful on the outside but on the inside are full of dead men’s bones and everything unclean.  In the same way, on the outside you appear to people as righteous but on the inside you are full of hypocrisy and wickedness.  (Matthew 23:27-28)  Paul now understood that righteousness only came through the blood of Jesus Christ.  He also knew the resurrection separated those who believed in Jesus as a teacher or a prophet only from those who believe He is the Son of God.  For the latter, faith in Jesus and his shed blood brought supernatural life to them.  They were no longer alone in this life, for they had a Savior who cared for their souls.  Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy set before him endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.  Consider him who endured such opposition from sinful men, so that you will not grow weary and lose heart.  (Hebrews 12:1-3)

If we think of Jesus as a man who did admirable deeds, with no resurrection, we might lose heart when our goodness is not accepted by people.  Life is often difficult: goodness in stressful times tends to fail us.  Instead of acting the way we should behave under pressure, we find ourselves doing and saying sinful things.  Our righteousness ceases, and the flesh promotes self: a me-first attitude.  We all experience many trials.  Paul ministered in troubles, hardships and distresses; in beatings, imprisonments and riots; in hard work, sleepless nights and hunger.  (2 Corinthians 6:4-5)  If we do not have the power and authority of God in our lives, how will we survive as believers or please God?  The difference between life and death is the righteousness of Christ in us.  Those who are righteous by God's saving grace will inherit his kingdom and go to be with God after death.  Mere human goodness will fail you.  Right living will fail you.  Even your love for God will fail you if it is not divine love from a heart cleansed by Christ's blood.  Your righteousness has to be complete, pure, holy.  There is only one who met God's standard: Jesus Christ on the cross.  His resurrection reveals that truth: He paid the price for our sins.  Where is your trust when you face the difficulties of the world?  Is it in you and your works, or is it in Christ and his works?  If it is in the latter, Consider it pure joy, my brothers, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith develops perseverance.  Perseverance must finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything.  (James 1:2-4)  We are to walk this world with a disciplined mind, for we will experience life as it is.  Yet we will not face life as we were before we met Jesus.  In all circumstances, we should stay faithful to the Resurrected One through the power of the Holy Spirit.  If we do not, if we follow any others, we will experience what Paul says, bad company corrupts good character.  If we wander astray, our lives will express the sinful nature of the world.  No, dear breakfast companions, we believe in the Resurrected One.  As Paul encourages us to do, Endure hardship as discipline; God is treating you as sons.  (Hebrews 12:7)  Do not fall away: Christ has risen.  He has risen indeed!  Remember, A double-minded man, is unstable in all he does.  (James 1:8)  Stand strong!

1 Corinthians 15:20-28 Hope in Christ!

1 Corinthians 15:20-28  But Christ has indeed been raised from the dead, the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep.  For since death came through a man, the resurrection of the dead comes also through a man.  For as in Adam all die, so in Christ all will be made alive.  But each in his own turn: Christ, the firstfruits; then, when he comes, those who belong to him.  Then the end will come, when he hands over the kingdom to God the Father after he has destroyed all dominion, authority and power.  For he must reign until he has put all his enemies under his feet.  The last enemy to be destroyed is death.  For he “has put everything under his feet.”  Now when it says that “everything” has been put under him, it is clear that this does not include God himself, who put everything under Christ.  When he has done this, then the Son himself will be made subject to him who put everything under him, so that God may be all in all. 

Jesus' birth, life, death, and resurrection on Earth were for the purpose of making sons and daughters who can enter into the very presence of God.  We who are bought by the blood of Jesus are transformed into new creatures with the Holy Spirit abiding in us.  As surely as Jesus was raised from the grave so will we be raised.  And if the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead is living in you, he who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through his Spirit, who lives in you.  (Romans 8:11)  Christ, the first of the first fruits, freed from the grave, broke through the veil of tears, to be present with God.  We who are IN CHRIST BY FAITH WILL FOLLOW IN THAT TRANSITION FROM DEATH TO LIFE.  This wonderful plan, conceived in the heart of God eons ago, is now implemented on Earth.  A wonderful plan, but it is a plan that can be fulfilled only through an act of faith in Christ's death on the cross and his victory over the grave.  God will not allow us to go the visceral way, a way of the senses, a way of proofs that please the intellect.  No, He asks us to stand by faith, to believe something that the carnal world cannot believe, for this plan cannot be perceived by the natural mind, on which we depend in this world.  Now faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see.  This is what the ancients were commended for.  By faith we understand that the universe was formed at God’s command, so that what is seen was not made out of what was visible.  To believe that He is and that He is a good God.  (Hebrews 11:1-3)  The ancients were commended for believing in something they could not see.  God will also honor our faith in what we cannot experience through our senses.  Not one person around this breakfast table can explain adequately to us what heaven is like, giving the details that will make it come alive.  Yet, we believe in such a land, a place called home for all who are new creatures in Christ.  Of course heaven is God's holy dwelling place.  As the Word says, The LORD has established his throne in heaven, and his kingdom rules over all.  (Psalm 103:19)  As with the levitical priests, God is our inheritance.  They shall have no inheritance among their brothers; the LORD is their inheritance, as he promised them.  (Deuteronomy 18:1)  

Life for all of us will be played out in the wilderness.  We believe there is a Promised Land in front of us, but we do not partake of it now.  We cannot conceive of it fully with our human limitations.  As we read earlier in our study, we do not have clear spiritual sight with our earthly vision, but we look to a time when we will see the Lord face to face and know him and ourselves completely: For now we see through a glass, darkly; but then face to face: now I know in part; but then shall I know even as also I am known.  (1 Corinthians 13:12)  But, we do have the blessed Holy Spirit present in us who constantly encourages us to keep going, to endure to the end.  He reminds us often that we are God's beloved children.  Therefore, God will never abandon us in the wilderness of life, in this finite existence.  When we struggle with trials and problems, He will provide living water for our parched souls, spiritual manna from his storehouse when we are weak and desperate.  The reality of the Holy Spirit in our lives ensures our spiritual well-being.  But our ears must be continuously tuned to his voice, for we are traversing a sparse land, that is not conducive to our spiritual survival.  If we listen to the Holy Spirit, He will remind us of God's great love for us and tell us about our inheritance of eternal life.  This world will pass away when all things have been put under his authority.  For he must reign until he has put all his enemies under his feet.  The last enemy to be destroyed is death.  Brothers and sisters, remember we are greatly cherished, even as Jesus Christ is cherished by God.  Yet, unless Christ comes soon, we will not escape death.  Nonetheless, we should not fear death, for it is not the end for believers, but the beginning of our life in heaven with God.  Our spirits will rise to be present in the family of God.  All of our enemies, all of our struggles, all of our tears will cease when we are present with the ETERNAL GOD.  We know this is true from various scriptures such as Paul's words: We are confident, yes, well pleased rather to be absent from the body and to be present with the Lord.  (2 Corinthians 5:8)

In the beginning God created everything!  In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.  Now the earth was formless and empty, darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God was hovering over the waters.  And God said, “Let there be light,” and there was light.  God saw that the light was good, and he separated the light from the darkness.  (Genesis 1:1-3)  God separated the light from darkness.  He made a distinction, declaring the light as good.  He brought life to this planet when it was merely formless and empty.  Even then his heart held a plan that exceeded making men and women and walking with them in the cool of the evening.  He planned to bring such light into the human form that the darkness would flee from their souls.  Adam and then Eve was a very good work, but they could and did fall away from God.  They could not achieve the position of adoption into God's family.  They were created creatures, but God desired sons and daughters in his intimate family, always present with him.  Of course, this all goes beyond man's imagination.  We are BUT HUMAN; how can we envision such a reality?  Faith alone opens our eyes to God's purposes.  Jesus came, performing one miracle after another, doing things that no other person from the beginning of time could do.  He performed these miracles to substantiate He was God, that He came from the Father's house.  His claim was that He would provide eternal life to finite men and women.  He came to present God's salvation plan to the world.  For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.  (John 3:16)  We will not perish for the resurrection reveals there is life eternal.  Jesus experienced that transition first.  He walked this earth, experiencing all the difficulties of man in the flesh: anxieties, pain, sorrow, bewilderment.  He experienced life as it is.  He went to the grave with a cry: From the sixth hour until the ninth hour darkness came over all the land.  About the ninth hour Jesus cried out in a loud voice, “Eloi, Eloi, lama sabachthani?” — which means, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?”  (Matthew 27:45-46)  But as Paul says, Christ has indeed been raised from the dead.  Christ arose, and so will we all be raised from the dead if we have trusted in the risen Lord.  We are not without hope, for hope is our inheritance, won by the blood of Jesus.

1 Corinthians 15:12-19 Resurrection Our Hope!

1 Corinthians 15:12-19  But if it is preached that Christ has been raised from the dead, how can some of you say that there is no resurrection of the dead?  If there is no resurrection of the dead, then not even Christ has been raised.  And if Christ has not been raised, our preaching is useless and so is your faith.  More than that, we are then found to be false witnesses about God, for we have testified about God that he raised Christ from the dead. But he did not raise him if in fact the dead are not raised.  For if the dead are not raised, then Christ has not been raised either.  And if Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile; you are still in your sins.  Then those also who have fallen asleep in Christ are lost.  If only for this life we have hope in Christ, we are to be pitied more than all men.

Without the supernatural reality of Jesus being raised from the dead, we who believe in Jesus and his teachings, we who follow him, who worship him, are to be pitied.  The King James version of the Bible ends today's passage with: If in this life only we have hope in Christ, we are of all men most miserable.  As Paul concludes, And if Christ has not been raised, our preaching is useless and so is your faith.  We are more to be pitied than any other people who inhabit this world because our faith is in vain.  Without the resurrection of Christ, Christians are believing in something no more special or worthy than the most absurd philosophy or ideology that man can construct.  If Jesus Christ had not performed all the miracles written in scripture, if He had not accomplished more in human form than any other person that has ever existed; by now, He would have blended nondescriptly into the historical account of human existence.  But Jesus did perform one miracle after another; He did control nature.  Through his walk and teaching, He revealed himself as far superior than just an ordinary man.  When John attests to the authority of his account of the gospel, he says, Jesus did many other things as well.  If every one of them were written down, I suppose that even the whole world would not have room for the books that would be written.  (John 21:25)  Without a doubt, Jesus' supernatural acts impressed men, caused many to follow him and some to take up the cross and become his disciples.  But the culmination of his life as more than just a man came at the resurrection.  After his resurrection, people knew that God came down in human form to visit this earth.  He placed his plan of redemption on the table for all to partake.  Jesus performed wonderful acts in his life: performed marvelous miracles, taught many people.  But the resurrection truly separates him from all men who have ever lived.  He is the first to be resurrected from the grave, allowing many to follow after him because He won the victory over death and the grave.  When Paul says we are to be pitied if there is no resurrection, He implies that Christ's resurrection is the blessed hope of every believer.

Jesus became the first born from death to life when resurrected from the grave.  He first passed through the veil of tears into eternal life with God.  Yes, Jesus was God, but he paid the price of death for the sins of the world.  He was hidden in the grave away from the intimate presence of God.  He cried out to his Father on the cross. About the ninth hour Jesus cried out in a loud voice, “Eloi, Eloi, lama sabachthani?” — which means, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?”  (Matthew 27:45-46)   Crucifixion day was dark, for God had turned away from the curse on the cross: Christ his Son bearing the sin of mankind.  God abhors sin; He will not look upon it with favor; He will always judge it with death.  Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us, for it is written: “Cursed is everyone who is hung on a tree.”  He redeemed us in order that the blessing given to Abraham might come to the Gentiles through Christ Jesus, so that by faith we might receive the promise of the Spirit.  (Galatians 3:13-14)   Jesus went to the grave totally dependent upon the grace of his Father to send the Spirit to lift him up again.  The Spirit raised him after three days in the belly of whale, the only sign given to man that He is truly God.  He answered, “A wicked and adulterous generation asks for a miraculous sign!  But none will be given it except the sign of the prophet Jonah.  For as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of a huge fish, so the Son of Man will be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth.  (Matthew 12:39-40)  This sign of being in the grave three days was the ultimate signature of Jesus being God and his plan for redemption of all people who would call upon his name.  And if the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead is living in you, he who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through his Spirit, who lives in you.  (Romans 8:11)  Our hope in this life is to be raised into eternal life with God after our physical demise.  Because Jesus was raised from the dead, we too will someday be raised from our sleep to eternal life.  We will no longer be away from God on this island we call Earth, we will be with him.  What a glorious hope!

Since our hope is in the resurrection, we should live as those who are experiencing eternal life.  Our eyes should not be fixed on these earthly matters to the point the we lose this hope.  Our hope will soon fade if we count the things of this world to be too important: our eating, drinking, and merry-making activities.  If the resurrection is not in our eyes, we are as Paul said, to be pitied, for we are living a lie, and we are miserable, for we have lost our way.  On one hand, we tell the world that Christ lives; on the other hand, we live as if Christ is dead.  If our main interests are embedded in this world, the people we come into contact with will know what we think is important.  For we identify the important elements of our lives by the way we spend our time and our resources.  When Jesus tells his disciples to take no thought for tomorrow about what they will wear or what they will eat and to seek the kingdom of God, He also says, For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.  (Luke 12:34)  Our hearts will betray us, for we cannot hide our motives and intentions for long.  It is not our words that define us but our actions.  We can say, "I love you!" to a family member or a friend, but if our actions do not bear out our words, then we are as a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal.  (1 Corinthians 13:1)  If we stopped to think, could each of us recall loved ones we have neglected, good friends we have let fall by the wayside, hurting people we have ignored?  We know that we have a glorious hope in our precious Lord and Savior who paved the way for us by giving everything that we might live eternally.  When Paul closed his letter to Titus, he reminded him of how he should live.  Given our hope of resurrection in Christ, we do well to remember this admonition: For the grace of God that brings salvation has appeared to all men.  It teaches us to say “No” to ungodliness and worldly passions, and to live self-controlled, upright and godly lives in this present age, while we wait for the blessed hope — the glorious appearing of our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ, who gave himself for us to redeem us from all wickedness and to purify for himself a people that are his very own, eager to do what is good. (Titus 2:11-14)