(A) Introduction: the problem (Read the reference)

In this section of his epistle Paul addresses a fatal deviation from the truth: But if it is preached that Christ has been raised from the dead, how can some of you say that there is no resurrection from the dead? v12.

Why were a faction in the church at Corinth saying: "There is no resurrection from the dead."? There are at least two possible reasons:

(1) Intellectuals in the church were influenced by the view of many sophisticated Greeks that the body was little better than a prison for the soul. The soul, all sensibility and fine feeling, was in life hindered by the demands of the body. In death the soul broke free and was no longer troubled by the carnal appetites. The body was mortal but the soul immortal.

It has to be said that people in the ancient world did not realise the relationship that existed between the brain, part of the body, and the spirit. We do have fine feelings and sensibilities but they are a function of the brain. How can they exist without a brain? In part they can be recorded in writing, music, painting and sculpture or retained by another's brain. However, they have no independent life in this form. Our spirit can only continue to function if it has a support system - like our brain!

(2) Other church members may have shared the widespread pagan view that death is the end of everything. Hymenaeus and Philetus were of this ilk. Paul writes of them in 2Tim2v18: They say the resurrection has already taken place, and they destroy the faith of some. Christians who accepted the teaching of Hymenaeus and Philetus believed that faith in Jesus resulted in the good life here and now. People were raised to life on making a commitment to Jesus. Resurrection from the dead was an irrelevance. There is a hint that some Corinthians were of this opinion in 1Cor4v8: Already you have all you want! Already you have become rich!

These attitudes do survive among present day Christians:

(1) One of the things that is consistently preached from many pulpits is that when a Christian dies he or she goes to heaven. Believers enjoy immediate entry into their reward. I am not convinced that there is much in the New Testament that warrants such a belief. See article on life after death.

No human beings have gone bodily to heaven except Jesus. John wrote: No-one has ever gone into heaven except the one who came from heaven - the Son of Man. Jn3v13. Jesus did not go bodily to heaven when he died. He said to Mary Magdalene, "Do not hold on to me, for I have not yet returned to the Father." Jn20v17. Jesus only went bodily to heaven after his ascension.

Yet, there are lots of Christians who believe that they will go to heaven when they die and function there much as they do on earth. They expect to meet loved ones who have died before them, converse with them, talk to Jesus, worship God and generally enjoy themselves. If this is the case what is the point of the resurrection of the body? It seems unlikely that those who anticipate life in heaven in these terms think much about the resurrection. Paul on the other hand longed for it: I want to know Christ and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of sharing in his sufferings, becoming like him in his death and so, somehow, to attain to the resurrection from the dead. Phil3v10and11

(2) Another group of Christians adopt an almost pagan view of life. These are the ones who believe in what is called 'the prosperity gospel'. Believers should anticipate having it all now: good health, long life, success, wealth, loving relationships and happiness. Such are the rewards in this life there is hardly any need to look forward to being raised at Christ's return and entering into eternal bliss. In practice adherents of the prosperity gospel have much the same attitude as jolly pagans who say, "You only live once - grab what happiness you can." Paul on the other hand was prepared to suffer incredible deprivation to attain to the resurrection from the dead. See also 2Cor6v4to10.

(B) What were the consequences of denying the bodily resurrection

(1) The bitter alternatives.

Paul states starkly, to bring the wayward Corinthians to their senses: If there is no resurrection from the dead, then not even Christ has been raised. v13.

Christ did not rise of his own accord! He dismissed his spirit into the care of God the Father. If God did not raise his Son to life then either he was displeased with him or he allowed evil to get the victory over good. So either Jesus failed to offer the perfect sacrifice for sin or in the end God allowed human wickedness to triumph. It would be a terrible thing if after all Christ's efforts Satan wears the victor's crown. What hope would there be for this fallen world if such was the case.

(2) Christianity is founded on a lie.

The early Christians told a terrible lie about God if Christ did not rise from the dead: 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. v15.

From the very beginning the apostles, orthodox Jews who knew Jesus best, proclaimed a risen Saviour. On the Day of Pentecost Peter preached: "But God raised him from the dead, freeing him from the agony of death, because it was impossible for death to keep its hold on him." Acts2v24. Wonderful words! It would have involved a conspiracy on a grand scale for the first believers to establish a brazen lie, that Jesus rose when in fact he remained dead, his body stolen away and secretly buried somewhere else. Peter, James, John and Paul do not come across as liars! I knew a barefaced liar once - the landlord of the Brockley Six Bells. Everyone knew him to be incapable of telling the truth. He had a reputation far and wide for telling porkies. The disciples were not such men. The gospels, based very much on their testimonies, by no means flatter them! Jesus' closest followers are honestly portrayed as confused, misguided and fallible.

(3) Our faith is futile and we are still in our sins.

Paul wrote: And if Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile; you are still in your sins. v17.

This statement conflicts with the opinion of many today. Lots of rather patronising non-Christians talk as if faith was the important thing as far as religion is concerned. It doesn't much matter what you have faith in so long as that faith comforts, strengthens and cheers. Paul, on the other hand, knows that if Christ did not rise bodily from the tomb faith in him is a complete waste of time. Paul makes the vital importance of the resurrection abundantly clear in Romans4v25: He (Jesus) was delivered over to death for our sins and was raised to life for our justification. We can only be made right with God, reconciled to him, if he accepted Christ's sacrifice for sin. The fact of Christ's resurrection shows that God was indeed satisfied. God vindicated his Son by raising him from the dead. On Easter Sunday God's power and good pleasure ensured that Jesus conquered death both for himself and for us.

How dreadful to be still in our sins. I am reminded of that woman of whom Luke wrote: And a woman, having an issue of blood twelve years, who had spent all her living upon physicians, neither could be healed of any. Lk8v43. There was nothing anyone could do for the sick woman notwithstanding her faith. She tried every cure to no avail. She impoverished herself and grew worse rather than better. The same is true in our day of certain cancer sufferers. They undergo operations, radiation and chemotherapy with no success. No-one can fault their faith - but faith alone cannot save them. Thank God that the Great Physician is able to save to the uttermost all those who turn by faith to him.

(4) Our preaching and, indeed, all our Christian service is useless.

Paul spelled it out: And if Christ has not been raised, our preaching is useless. v14. At the end of the passage I believe Paul returns to this point. He wrote what many commentators have struggled to come to terms with: Now if there is no resurrection, what will those do who are baptised for the dead? If the dead are not raised at all why are people baptised for them? v29.

In Greek, the word, 'baptism', carries several different meanings. For example, Jesus said to James and John: "Can you drink the cup I drink or be baptised with the baptism I am baptised with." Baptism in the sense Jesus uses it means, 'an ordeal' or 'going through it'. We use the word in the same way in the expression, 'a baptism of fire'.

So I think Paul wrote something like this: Now if there is no resurrection, what about those who are going through it on behalf of the dead. If the dead are not raised at all why are people going through it for them. (This is similar to the opinion of Jerome Murphy-O'Connor.)

The interpretation above fits the context because Paul went on to write: And as for us, why do we endanger ourselves every hour? I die every day ... I mean that brothers .... . If I fought wild beasts in Ephesus for merely human reasons, what have I gained. v30to32.

If Christianity is based on a lie it neither accomplishes anything for those the evangelist is trying to save nor for the evangelist himself. The proclamation of the gospel is futile. It is a case of the blind leading the blind - both end up in the ditch. It is like a doctor prescribing a wonder drug that doesn't work or a Russian communist recruiting others to work for a system that ultimately fails to deliver.

I can remember reading many years ago that pioneer farmers were persuaded to cultivate the Great Plains of America by the slogan, "Rain follows the plough". All the hard work of the plucky pioneers came to nought because their efforts were based on a lie. Rain does not follow the plough. In recent years this country went to war in Iraq on the basis of a lie. It is extremely doubtful whether any good will come of it.

The sum total of all Christian endeavour is, according to Paul, of no worth if Christ is not risen. Christianity is only of real benefit if it is true.

(5) Believers who die are lost.

Paul indicated this was a certain consequence if Jesus did not rise from the dead. He wrote: Then those also who have fallen asleep in Christ are lost. v18. There are two reasons for this:

(a) Christ failed in his task. Jesus knew he had a work to do. He said: "For the Son of Man came to seek and to save what was lost." Lk19v10. This was a laudable aim but if he died and remained dead there is no guarantee that Jesus was qualified to save the lost. Jesus may have intended his death to save men from their sin but, without God demonstrating his complete satisfaction with the sacrifice Jesus offered by raising him bodily from the grave, he paid the ransom in vain.

(b) To fall asleep in Christ is not the ideal state for humans. If Jesus is not risen the best we can hope for is to remain asleep. If this was the ideal condition there would be no need to be raised to life.

(6) The pitiable state of Christians.

Paul wrote something to the Corinthians that a lot of Christians find hard to identify with: If only for this life we have hope in Christ, we are to be pitied more than all men. 1Cor15v19. Those who have an easy, comfortable life as believers and enjoy the social benefits of the church might question Paul's assertion. Non-Christians recognise the social and psychological benefits of 'having a faith'.

Paul, however, suffered for Christ's sake. He did not have a safe, prosperous, nice, stress-free Christian life. The little apostle had to tell the Corinthians: I die every day - I mean that, brothers - just as surely as I glory over you in Christ Jesus our Lord. v31. Paul reckoned that if the faith was based on a lie then he suffered for nothing. He was writing from Ephesus where the silversmiths mauled him as brutally as the wild beasts savaged their prey in the arena. This prompted him to write: If I fought wild beasts in Ephesus for merely human reasons, what have I gained? v32. If the resurrection was a lie then the best thing to do was to eat and drink, for tomorrow we die. v32.

What Paul wrote is true. It can be illustrated in a variety of ways. If a prospector undertakes a mining venture and invests all his capital in it on false information his expenditure of time, money and labour gains nothing. Imagine how the man who discovered a pearl of great price and sold all that he had to buy it would react if it turned out to be a fake. Put yourself in the position of a freedom fighter in a bad cause. After years of blood, sweat and tears to overthrow a tyrannical regime the one that replaces it is, if anything, worse.

(D) What Christ's resurrection does.

(1) It confirms Jesus' status as the Christ.

Paul wrote in triumph: But Christ has indeed been raised from the dead .... . v20.

God the Father by raising Jesus from the dead gave his stamp of approval to all Jesus said and did. The resurrection demonstrates that the claims Jesus made, like this one recorded in John, are true: The reason my Father loves me is that I lay down my life - only to take it again. No-one takes it from me, but I lay it down of my own accord. I have authority to lay it down and authority to take it again. Jn10v17and18.

(2) It ensures the resurrection to life of all Christ's followers - those who belong to him. v23.

Paul described the risen Christ in a very wonderful way: the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep. v20. The firstfruits of a crop are an harbinger of all that is to follow. In early July I will be able to pick a few runner beans from the vine - the firstfruits. They will be especially welcome because their appearance promises many more beans to come.

'Fallen asleep' is an expression that describes our state on dying. It is very wrong to suggest that the term just refers to the body and not the spirit. We know what happens to the body! The words used at the committal of a corpse to the grave are very apposite: 'earth to earth, ashes to ashes, dust to dust'. When we sleep it is our spirits that are at rest - it is our conscious mind that closes down.

Jesus considered that sleep was the best way to describe our condition between death and resurrection. This description indicates that God - the God of the living and not the dead, to use the words of Jesus - keeps our unconscious spirits safe and secure to restore them - purged and renewed - to our new bodies on resurrection day.

Christ is the firstfruits. This implies that all those who belong to him experience what he experienced. At death he dismissed his spirit into the Father's keeping. Before his resurrection he had not yet returned to the Father. Jn20v17. It was only after his resurrection and subsequent ascension that Jesus returned bodily and consciously to his Father in heaven. That is the order of things for us too. The great event for the believer following death will be the resurrection to life.

(3) It guarantees the triumph of good over evil.

The end will surely come when Christ has put all enemies under his feet. v25. In the meantime he must reign until he has destroyed all dominion, authority and power. v24.

However bad things seem we need to remember that Christ is reigning and gradually extending his authority over the world of men. I attended a meeting last evening at Sudbury Grace Baptist Church where Paul Davies spoke to us about the situation of Christ's church in Albania. During the communist regime that followed the Second World War God was abolished in Albania. Prior to 1991 there were no churches and very few Christians in that country. Since the collapse of communism the church has grown at a phenomenal rate. Communism and all systems opposed to Jesus Christ will fail and the church will go marching on.

(3) It proves life is stronger than death.

Continuity is important to God. This is illustrated in the story of Ruth and Naomi. Ruth desired to marry her dead husband's kinsman redeemer in order to perpetuate the family line of Elimelech, Naomi's deceased husband. See exposition on Ruth chapter 4.

The laws of inheritance mean that though we are all different (excluding identical twins) we carry a substantial amount of our parents DNA. This is how we remain human!

Nature is remarkably tenacious. I have two weeds in my garden, ground elder and bindweed, that I do everything in my power to eradicate but they survive to this day. God is no more willing for a species to be lost than he is for a soul to perish.

Christ's resurrection shows that those that please God will overcome death. They will be like seeds that fall into the ground and die only in the fullness of time to burst into life again. John described the way to please God and to be sure of eternal life: Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life, but whoever rejects the Son will not see life, for God's wrath remains on him. Jn3v36.

Paul is certain that the believer will inherit eternal life. He writes: For as in Adam all die, so in Christ all will be made alive. v22. The last enemy to be destroyed is death. v26. Death is our enemy. It is the result of our fallen nature and ongoing sinfulness. At the resurrection Christians will receive new bodies and new natures. We shall see Jesus and be like him. We shall share his immortality - an immortality of body and spirit.

(5) It assures us that Jesus will finish the work God gave him to do.

God the Father gave the Son a task to complete. It was not complete at his death, resurrection or ascension. Although Jesus is reigning now he has not yet destroyed all dominion, authority and power. Jesus is coming again and in that Last Day sin will be purged from mankind, Satan will be annihilated and death too. When Christ has done all this he will, in perfect subjection to his Father, have finished the grand work of redemption. He will be able to offer it to God that God may be all in all. v28.

(6) It is a great encouragement to give ourselves fully to the work of the Lord.

Paul concluded his inspirational teaching on the resurrection by writing: Therefore, my dear brothers, stand firm. Let nothing move you. Always give yourselves fully to the work of the Lord, because you know that your labour in the Lord is not in vain. v58.

I very much fear that we are so obsessed with our present happiness and all the good things of this life that we forget that our final reward will depend in no small measure on the work we do for the Lord now. During the ardour of a life poured out in the service of his Saviour Paul kept continually in mind the heavenly prize giving at Christ's return.

(E) Conclusion.

Paul upbraids the Corinthian Christians for keeping company with the world: "Bad company corrupts good character." Elements in the church were so influenced by the ideas of non-Christian Greek intellectuals that the resurrection of the dead was denied. Paul has to tell the members of this foolish faction to come to their senses and stop sinning. They are guilty of the worst kind of ignorance - some of the church members, to their shame, were ignorant of God.

There remain those on the 'liberal' wing of the church who deny Christ's bodily resurrection. They are no better than the sceptical Corinthians. Paul would have no hesitation of saying of them, notwithstanding their academic qualifications: 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. v34.