Sunday Devotional: 1 Corinthians 15:14, 17

¹⁴ And if Christ has not been raised, then our preaching is empty and your faith is empty… ¹⁷ And if Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile–you are yet in your sins.

As Christians the world over celebrate the resurrection of Christ today, I thought I’d take a few minutes to contemplate these words of the Apostle Paul as they relate to our Savior’s death and resurrection.

In context, Paul is speaking of the future hope we have of being raised from the dead at the End Times. It seems some were denying this truth, and Paul uses the fact of Christ’s resurrection to assure his readers that just as Christ was raised from the dead, so we will one day rise with him. “For just as in Adam all die, in the same way also in Christ all shall be made alive, but each in his own order: Christ, the first-fruits, then those who are Christ’s at his coming, then the end,” Paul says in verses 22-24.

Many in our culture don’t want to deal with the resurrection of Christ as a reality. Atheists and materialists will flat-out deny such a thing could happen. Some would say that Christ’s resurrection was spiritual: he rose again in the church, or in the lives of his followers. Or others will say that you can be a Christian and deny that the resurrection happened because it’s one of those “negotiable” doctrines. What matters is you love God and love your neighbor.

The fact is that God’s plan of salvation necessitated the death of a substitute for our sin. He pictured this for His people in the Exodus (the blood of the lamb on the house lintels to ward off the angel of death), and in the annual Yom Kippur sacrifcies, where the sins of the people were laid upon a substitute. You can even see hints of this plan in the story of Abraham offering his son Isaac. Jesus himself told his disciples that it was necessary for him to go to Jerusalem, where he would suffer, be mocked, killed, and rise again three days later. Paul recognized that in his resurrection, Jesus was vindicated (see also Philippians 2:5-11). He conquered death for us, so not only do we not die in our sins, but we are raised up to new life with him. That new life begins on the day of our salvation, and will be fully realized on that final day, when we will be caught up with those believers who are still alive to meet the Lord in air and be with him forever (1 Thessalonians 4:17).

It is at the heart of the gospel message, and definitional of the Christian faith, that Christ not only died, but he physically rose from the dead three days later. We don’t serve a dead savior, but a risen Lord. This may not sit comfortably with people in our modern materialistic culture, but divine truth rarely does. I pray we will not only rejoice in the fact of the resurrection today, but we will be bold to proclaim this truth as long as the Lord gives us breath.

Have a wonderful week!