August 25
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CHRIST’S RESURRECTION PROVES OUR RESURRECTION
12 Now if Christ is preached, that He has been raised from the dead, how do some among you say that there is no resurrection of the dead? 13 But if there is no resurrection of the dead, then not even Christ has been raised; 14 and if Christ has not been raised, then our preaching is in vain, your faith also is in vain. 15 Moreover, we are even found to be false witnesses of God, because we testified against God that He raised Christ, whom He did not raise, if in fact the dead are not raised. 16 For if the dead are not raised, then not even Christ has been raised; 17 and if Christ has not been raised, your faith is worthless; you are still in your sins. 18 Then also those who have fallen asleep in Christ have perished. 19 If we have hoped in Christ only in this life, we are of all people most to be pitied.
– 1 Corinthians 15:12-19
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According to wikibooks.org, the word “resurrection” means a ‘raising up’, or ‘rising up’ from the Greek word “anastasis.. In the verb form it means ‘to cause to stand or rise up; to raise from sleep or from the dead’. In 1 Thessalonians 4:18, rapture comes from the Koine Greek text which uses the verb form [harpagēsometha], which means “we shall be caught up”, “taken away”, with the connotation that this is a sudden event which is found in 1 Thessalonians 4:16-18.The resurrection of the dead is one of the most basic of doctrines; and we accept it as fact that Jesus Christ, the Messiah not only suffered and died for the sins of the world, but that He subsequently rose from the grave by the power of the Almighty God the Father. Martin Luther says “Everything depends on our retaining a firm hold on this doctrine in particular; for if this one totters and no longer counts, all the others will lose their value and validity.” Spurgeon says that “If Jesus rose, then this gospel is what it professes to be; if He rose not from the dead, then it is all deceit and delusion.”
Paul proves to the Corinthians the truth of the promise of our resurrection by pointing out the fact that Christ himself resurrected from the dead and was raised after he died on the cross to save us. He was rebuking some of those Corinthian believers who were questioning the promise that all believers will also be resurrected just like how Christ was raised from the dead. Some of the Corinthians were still influenced by the Greek Philosophy that they live forever but not in resurrected bodies. Paul had to prove to them that Jesus himself died and resurrected which proves that all believers will be given too.
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REFLECTION
• Why is the doctrine of the resurrection hard for unbelievers to understand?