Do
you know that there are some people who refuse to believe that Jesus died and
rose again? They claim that Jesus actually passed out on the cross and was
revived by the cool air in the tomb. Unfortunately there is a major flaw with
this belief. It does not explain how water and blood flowed out when the Roman
soldiers crucified Jesus, but medical science can. When the soldiers pierced
Jesus’ side, they pierced the sac that surrounds the heart.
Bibliography
A
similar claim is made in 1 Corinthians 15:12-28. Some people in the Greek city
of Corinth argued that although Jesus died and rose again, believers who died
would not rise again. Part of Greek culture was the idea that the body was a
prison in which the soul was housed and that in death the soul that is good is
freed. The idea of bodily resurrection would have been offensive.
Paul
argued that this belief is false. Paul reminded the Corinthians that Christ was
a human being, and if people are not raised from the dead then Christ was not
raised from the dead either. If Christ is in a grave somewhere in the Middle
East, then we are still in our sins and the burden of our sins rests on us
instead of on him. As a result, we would have to stand before our righteous God
and give an account of every sin we have ever committed, and we would be guilty
of every one of them.
Paul
painted a dark picture of what life would be like without the resurrection. All
preaching would be empty or false. There would be no forgiveness of sin. We
would all face death without hope, and we would be tortured by the thought that
those we love who have already died have perished forever. The Resurrection is
for both now and the future. If it was
for this life only, then no life has any purpose.
Paul
refers to Christ’s resurrection as the “first fruits”, or the first of many who
would be raised from the dead. The term “first fruits” refers to a sample of an
agricultural crop that represents the nature and quality of the entire crop. Paul’s
insistence that Christ died and was raised from the dead moves God from the
background to the front stage of human experience. God gets involved in our
lives. God is fully in human form in the person of Jesus. God is fully involved
in everyone who has died.
There
are two main races in the world-the natural race, which is headed by Adam, and
the spiritual race, which is headed by Jesus. The natural race consists of
everyone who has ever been born, whereas the spiritual race includes everyone
who has accepted Jesus as their Lord and Saviour. To be alive in Adam is to be
alive in the flesh and the sin-filled world, but to be alive in Jesus is to be
alive spiritually.
Christ’s
resurrected body represents what the resurrected bodies of all believers will
be like. These bodies will never again be subjected to weakness, illness, aging
or death. Until Christ returns to earth, believers who die will exist in heaven
as spirits without bodies. Christ’s resurrection will give us the second, third
and more chances we need. In return, we need to embrace the chance of new life
Christ has given us.
It’s
appropriate that we are hearing this reading from 1 Corinthians today. We have
just celebrated Easter and Christ’s triumph over sin, death and the grave. In
doing so, he obeyed God’s will for his life. Jesus, the Son of God and the Son
of Man, is thus the only way salvation can be brought to us, because he has
fulfilled the righteousness we rejected and borne the judgment we deserved, and
each of these in the human flesh with which he was born of the Virgin Mary. He
set a good example for us to follow. That is, we are to obey God.
When
Christ returns, there will be the Great Tribulation and a terrible resurrection
for those who are destined to spend eternity in hell. The eternal kingdom will
be delivered to God and Jesus. Death will die and no one can escape it, but
Jesus will cast it into the depths of hell.
Christ
and the church will be joined when he returns. When they become united, God
will establish his kingdom here on earth. Everything will be under Christ’s
authority, and Christ will be under God’s authority. Jesus and God can’t be
controlled by us. They control us. They control our eternal destiny if we let
them. If we want to let them control our lives, we have to believe that Christ
died and rose again so that we can have eternal life. When this happens, we
will be different, and people will be able to look at us and see that we are
different. They will see that we are people who have seen Jesus. We will be
able to say the words of Job 20:25-“I know that my Redeemer liveth.” The
resurrection was the foundation for everything the disciples did, and it is the
foundation of our Christian faith.
When
all hope was lost, Jesus destroyed death through his resurrection. We can
rejoice that God can repair the status of our lives and restore us to
wholeness. Anything in our lives that is hated, weak, and contemptible can
become beautiful, radiant, and a blessing. We need to have trust and confidence
in God and allow the risen Lord to show us the way.
1.
ESV Study
Bible. Part of Wordsearch 10 Bible software package.
2.
Chafin, K.L.
& Ogilvie, L.J.: The Preacher’s
Commentary Series, Vol.30: 1,2 Corinthians (Nashville, TN: Thomas Nelson
Inc.; 1985)
3.
Radmacher,
E.D.; Allen, R.B. & House, H.W. :Nelson’s
New Illustrated Bible Commentary (Nashville, TN: Thomas Nelson Inc.; 1999)
11. Dr. Mickey Anders, “Does the Resurrection Make a
Difference?” Retrieved from www.lectionary.org.
12. Jeremiah, David: The
Jeremiah Study Bible, NKJV (Brentwood, TN: Worthy Publishing; 2013)
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