1 Corinthians 15 has been occupying my mind for 4 weeks. I just finished preaching through it at our church. The more our faith and understanding grips the truth and gigantic blessing of the resurrection, the more hope and holiness permeates our lives. John Calvin wrote in his Institutes, 3.10.5, “Let us consider this settled, that no one has made progress in the school of Christ who does not joyfully await the day of death and final resurrection.”
For the next 4 or 5 posts I will give some thoughts on the resurrection from 1 Corinthians 15.
We start with some thoughts on the message of v.1 to v.11. The resurrection is a historical event. Jesus really did come into the world and we really did see his glory. Angels really did announce his coming on one particular night outside of the Judean village of Bethlehem. Wise men really did come from the East, Herod, really did try to kill the Christ child, his parents really did have to flee to Egypt, there really is an empty tomb, Jesus really did rise from the dead according to the Scriptures, and the resurrected Jesus was really seen by over 500 witnesses. All these these things happened by God’s will in God’s world!
The preaching of this gospel that Christ died and is risen again from the dead calls people to faith and repentance, and brings them to faith and repentance. God’s work in history saves sinners. R. Rayburn wrote, “What changes people's lives today, what sets men and women free from sin and guilt, what delivers them from the falsehoods that otherwise capture and oppress the human mind and heart, is not an idea, but a person, a person who was born, who lived, who died, who rose again, who ascended to heaven before the very eyes of his enemies and his friends and followers. We do not ask people to believe an idea, but to confess and trust and love a person, a person whose deeds are recorded in history.”
John Updike in his poem On the Resurrection has this stanza,
Make no mistake: if He rose at all it was as His body;
if the cells’ dissolution did not reverse, the molecules
reknit, the amino acids rekindle,
the Church will fall.
The church has not fallen.
A missionary in Turkey attempt top bring the truth of the resurrection of Christ to Muslims. He said: "I am traveling, and have reached a place where the road branches off in two ways; I look for a guide, and find two men: one dead, and the other alive. Which of the two must I ask for direction, the dead or the living?" "Oh, the living," cried the people. "Then," said the missionary, "why send me to Mohammed, who is dead, instead of to Christ, who is alive!
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