“Now if Christ be preached that He rose from the dead, how say some among you that there is no resurrection of the dead? 13. But if there be no resurrection of the dead, then is Christ not risen: 14. And if Christ be not risen, then is our preaching vain, and your faith is also vain. 15. Yea and we are found false witnesses of God; because we have testified of God that He raised up Christ: whom He raised not up, if so be that the dead rise not.”
The cross has become the primary symbol of the Christian faith. We cannot diminish the importance of the cross to our faith, but without the resurrection the cross would lose its meaning. When Christ arose, the cross took on a profound new meaning. The cross was not the final word, for Christ arose and defeated death. Through Christ’s blood we are saved and cleansed, but it is the blood of the living Christ, not the blood of a dead Christ. 1 Corinthians 15:12-15 reveals the importance of the resurrection. The concept of resurrection is important. There were people in Corinth who were preaching that the whole concept of resurrection was false. The idea was that when a person dies that’s it – it is all over. This is why Paul wrote in verse 19: “If in this life only we have hope in Christ, we are of all men most miserable.” If this concept of the resurrection was false, then Christ was still dead. This is unthinkable. The resurrection is important in Christian preaching. In verse 14a, Paul wrote: “And if Christ be not risen, then is our preaching vain.” It would be impossible to preach a good news message about a dead Christ. In fact, there would be nothing to preach, and all Christian preaching would have died at Calvary. The resurrection is important to the Christian’s faith. In verse 14b Paul wrote: “(And if Christ is not risen) your faith is also vain." It would be impossible to have faith in a corpse, which is what Christ would have been if He had not risen. We are “saved by grace through faith” because Christ rose from the grave. We are sustained in our faith in Christ because He is alive and still at work in our lives and in our world. We have joy in our faith in Christ because He is alive. We have power due to our faith in Christ because He is still alive. This is why we can sing: “He lives, He lives, Christ Jesus lives today. He walks with me and talks with me along life's narrow way. He lives, He lives salvation to impart. You ask me how I know He lives, He lives within my heart.” The resurrection is important to the Christian’s witness. In verse 15, Paul wrote that if Christ is not alive, “we are found false witnesses of Christ.” We have a witness to the world because Christ is alive. In all four gospels, and in Acts, Jesus commanded his disciples, and us to witness to the lost both near and far. It is a biblical doctrine. The whole basis of our witness is that Christ is relevant to people’s lives. A dead Christ would certainly be an irrelevant Christ. Christ can save us and work in our lives through the Holy Spirit because He is still alive. Imagine trying to tell people about a man named Jesus who died two-thousand years ago and had never been seen nor heard from since then. Such a witness would certainly fall on deaf ears. It is of ultimate importance that we can call people’s attention to the empty tomb. The empty tomb is the sealing of the whole gospel story. All of Jesus’ healings, and other miracles, would be empty without the empty tomb. Thank God! We have a message about our living Savior. We can gladly sing: “Up from the grave He arose, with a mighty triumph o’er His foes. He arose a victor from the dark domain, and He lives forever with the saints to reign. He arose! He arose! Hallelujah, Christ arose.” We can gladly sing this great old hymn because it carries the weight of eternal truth. It is good news to a lost and dying world. Let’s tell them about it. Bro. Joe
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AuthorDr. Joe Beauchamp is the author of this blog and website. Categories
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