Sunday Devotional: 1 Corinthians 15:16-20
16 For if the dead are not raised, not even Christ has been raised. 17 And if Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile and you are still in your sins. 18 Then those also who have fallen asleep in Christ have perished. 19 If in Christ we have hope in this life only, we are of all people most to be pitied. 20 But in fact Christ has been raised from the dead, the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep. [ESV]
This Easter Sunday morning, or Resurrection Day as some prefer to say, as we contemplate (and celebrate) the empty tomb, I want to reflect for a moment on what Christianity is all about. What exactly was Christ’s message, and why is the empty tomb so important to us?
Many in our culture look at the life of Christ and see a man who did good things, cared for the poor, stood up for social injustice, and was the friend of the friendless and outcast. For them, the sum total of Jesus’s mission was to spread love, and show people that this is a better way; to call people to himself that they may follow in his footsteps of “righteous” behavior. In particular, those who want to try to understand Christ and Christianity from a purely historical point of view, avoiding all the so-called disputable theological stuff, would say that Jesus was crucified by the Romans as a potential political insurrectionist, and there’s nothing more to it.
However, in order to draw this conclusion, these historians have to ignore the main testimony to the life of Christ: the New Testament, and in particular the Gospels and the writings of Paul. These are not spurious, third or fourth-hand ramblings of fanatical devotees. They are largely accounts of eye-witnesses to the things that were said and done by Jesus (this is not the right occasion to lay out the arguments for this, but I recommend to the interested reader Richard Baucham’s book JESUS AND THE EYEWITNESSES for further study). Yes, Jesus lived a righteous life, one he expected his followers to emulate. But time and again he reminded them that his mission was to go to Jerusalem where he would be tried and executed, and then raised on the third day. And if you need a more plain demonstration of Jesus’s own view of his mission, just read the story of the raising of Lazarus in John 11, the last miracle, or “sign,” John records before Passion Week. “I am the resurrection and the life,” Jesus says. “Whoever believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live.”
Which brings us back to our passage this morning from 1 Corinthians 15. Mankind is at enmity with God. If God was to deal justly with all mankind, He would send us all to hell immediately for our sin and rebellion. However, He has ordained a means by which He will save those He chooses to, and to do so in such a way that satisfies both His grace and His justice. In His grace, He chooses some for salvation out of all those rightly condemned. And He satisfies His justice by paying for their sins though the death of His Son, Jesus Christ. It is through Jesus’s death that our sins are atoned for, and it is through his resurrection that we are given new life, and we are adopted as sons into God’s family. It is because Jesus was raised from the dead that we walk in newness of life, and the wrath of God is no longer against us.
Consider this: if Jesus had just been born in a manger, we would still be in our sins and condemned before God. If Jesus had just lived a “righteous” life, we would still be in our sins and condemned before God. If Jesus had simply done miracles and shown us a better way of life, we would still be in our sins and condemned before God. But because Jesus died on a cross, was buried, and rose three days later, those who are his are no longer slaves to sin, and no longer stand condemned before God. Rather, we stand as God’s adopted children, with all the blessings of God, not least of which is new life, both now, and in the promised hereafter. This is the good news that Jesus himself proclaimed, as did his followers. And this is the good news we celebrate today.
Have a blessed Resurrection Day and rest of the week! 🙂
What an excellent post, Colin. I’ll have to come round to your blog for Sunday devotions more often (on Monday – I try to stay unplugged on Sunday as much as I can). You’ve gone straight to the point of Jesus’ life and death and resurrection. I do wonder of your meaning of “He will save those He chooses to.” Like you, I believe that all fall short of God’s glory, but my understanding is that all people have been offered His salvation; it’s up to them whether they accept it. I’m curious if you disagree?
Thank you, Daisy. I believe that salvation is of God and God alone. Because of our sin, we are incapable of choosing God. The only way anyone can choose God is if He first chooses to change that person’s heart by His Spirit and enables him or her to come to Him. If God were to simply offer salvation to everyone, without the Spirit of God changing the rebel heart of stone to a heart of flesh that desires the things of God, no-one would choose God.
I could turn this into a really REALLY long response, but I’d sooner point you to a series of articles I wrote some months ago as part of my “Sunday School Notes” series that, I think, puts this whole question into context. I hope that helps answer your question–and if you want to discuss further, please feel free to do so, either in the comments, or by email.
Here are the articles: Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3