Christ's Resurrection: Christianity's Essential Foundation
Daily Scripture
1 Corinthians 15:12-19
12 So if the message that is preached says that Christ has been raised from the dead, then how can some of you say, “There’s no resurrection of the dead”? 13 If there’s no resurrection of the dead, then Christ hasn’t been raised either. 14 If Christ hasn’t been raised, then our preaching is useless and your faith is useless. 15 We are found to be false witnesses about God, because we testified against God that he raised Christ, when he didn’t raise him if it’s the case that the dead aren’t raised. 16 If the dead aren’t raised, then Christ hasn’t been raised either. 17 If Christ hasn’t been raised, then your faith is worthless; you are still in your sins, 18 and what’s more, those who have died in Christ are gone forever. 19 If we have a hope in Christ only in this life, then we deserve to be pitied more than anyone else.
Daily Reflection & Prayer
The apostle Paul went on in his letter to Christians in Corinth to directly address the doubts some in that group expressed about the reality of Jesus’ resurrection. He realized the challenge of believing something that most Greek philosophers dismissed as a complete impossibility (as do many raised in our culture’s skeptical scientific worldview). Paul laid out step by step why this was the indispensable foundation of the Christian faith. Take it away, he wrote, and all the rest falls with it.
- N. T. Wright wrote, “The gospel which Paul and the others announced was that Jesus was… the world’s true Lord.… as far as Paul is concerned the evidence that Jesus is the true King is that God has raised him from the dead (Romans 1:3–4)…. It’s only the resurrection that makes the crucifixion appear anything other than a horrible end for another failed Messiah.” * What helps you to trust that Jesus was not just one more idealist killed off by the evil in this world?
- Paul’s concern wasn’t abstract. “Without the hope of resurrection, what is the point of being one of the Messiah’s people in the first place? Hated, reviled, persecuted, struggling—if this is all there is, surely it would be better to throw in the towel, to admit that many other philosophies gave you an easier life, and stop wasting your time with this Jesus nonsense?” ** Are you open to the journey the risen Jesus calls you into as his power daily makes you new from the inside out?
Prayer
O God, thank you for Paul’s fiery intellect, as well as his deeply rooted faith. Keep growing in me a faith that touches my head and my heart and moves my hands to action. Amen.
GPS Insights
Jennifer Creagar
Jennifer Creagar serves as the Community Assistance Coordination Director in Resurrection's Congregational Care Ministry. She is married and loves spending time with her family, and she enjoys writing and photography. Jennifer is a very faithful Insights writer--she's scheduled to write for tomorrow--but she wrote this one for us in April of 2024.
I grew up in one of those families where there was a long list of “Things We Don’t Talk About.” Death and dying were definitely on that list, especially for children. When there was a death in the family, the children were relegated to babysitters while the adults dealt with the mystery of a loved one being with us at one moment and seemingly gone forever the next. And, as children, we just sat and wondered when people disappeared and we were told things like “He’s gone to heaven to be with Jesus,” or even just “She’s gone away to a better place.”
This did not make me very well prepared to understand Jesus’ death and resurrection. I was a young adult dealing with my own first personal loss of a loved one before I could even come up with the questions to ask. But, as one of my all-time favorite verses says, “Likewise, the Spirit helps us in our weakness; for we do not know how to pray as we ought, but that very Spirit intercedes with sighs too deep for words” (Romans 8:26). God knew and sent me some wonderful, very smart people to help me understand.
I can’t pretend that I understand everything about Jesus’ death and resurrection, but Paul did lay out some good, solid truths about death’s role in the life of us mortal humans. Death is the enemy, and the enemy has been overcome. In that, we can hope and be blessed. It doesn’t really make any death “better.” Paul’s words aren’t meant to tell us we shouldn’t be sad when someone dies. Grief is a normal, complicated, human emotion. Paul did want us all to know that death wasn’t the end–not for our loved ones and not for ourselves, and that “The LORD God will wipe tears from every face” (Isaiah 25:8, Revelation 21:4). We can understand that God loves us so much that Jesus faced death, a hard, merciless death, as a human, in order that death would be defeated, and it was. It has no hold on us for eternity. And that’s where the hope comes from. As Pastor Adam says, “The worst thing is never the last thing,” and we can count on that.
If you are struggling with the death of someone you loved and miss, or if you struggle and fear the end of your own life here in the mortal world, I know any of our pastors would love to talk to you about all of this. Just ask.
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Scripture quotations are taken from The Common English Bible ©2011. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
References
* Wright, N. T., Paul for Everyone: 1 Corinthians (The New Testament for Everyone) (p. 208). Westminster John Knox Press. Kindle Edition.
** Ibid., p. 210.
