1 Cor. 15:22-19
“If Christ Has Not Been Raised”
On March 4, the Discovery Channel aired a documentary, “The
Lost Tomb of Jesus”. The producers of the program claim that they found the (family)
tomb of Jesus. I have no desire to analyze and rebut their arguments and
claims. Even non-Christian scholars characterize their claim as “nonsense”
(Amos Kloner, professor of archaeology at Israel’s
Bar-Ilan University), “intellectually and
scientifically dishonest” (Joe Zias, former curator
of the Rockefeller Museum). And many call it an insult to the science of
archeology. Interestingly, the producers claim that their work does not deny
Jesus’ physical resurrection. But they say that, after His resurrection, Jesus went
on to live, marrying Mary Magdalene and having children with her, and
eventually dying and being buried in His family tomb. To them Jesus was no more
than a “has been”, a one-time phenom, who settled
down as a family man and disappeared into insignificance and oblivion--at
least, He should have. But they are willing to entertain the possibility of
Jesus’ resurrection. But His resurrection, to them, was just an unusual thing
that happened to Him. It had nothing to do with who He is,
nothing to do with His ministry and life, His messianic mission and apparently
nothing to do with the subsequent history of the world.
Is Jesus’ resurrection nothing more than an
unusual thing that happened to Him? Is that what the Bible testifies concerning
His resurrection? If not, what does the Bible say about it?
And how important is it for Christians to
believe in the resurrection of Jesus Christ anyway? There are some so-called
Christians who welcome the claims of the program, which even secular scholars
reject as preposterous. Should the discovery of Jesus’ bones, if it were ever to
be made, affect their faith? They say, no. Whether Jesus was physically raised
from the dead does not matter to them or to their faith. Are they right? Is the
resurrection of Jesus Christ only a minor, unnecessary doctrine of Christianity?
Would Christianity gain more credibility and acceptability if we just let go of
this antiquated, hard-to-accept message of Jesus’ resurrection?
We realize in reading our passage that such a view is not a uniquely modern phenomenon. Two thousand years ago Paul asked the Corinthians in amazement, “Now if Christ is proclaimed as raised from the dead, how can some of you say that there is no resurrection of the dead” (v. 12)? Consider the fact that Paul was speaking to the Corinthian church. The people he was addressing were supposed to be Christians, people who professed their faith in Jesus Christ and joined the church as its members! And they did not see the importance of believing in Jesus’ resurrection? And this was two thousand years ago? Maybe we should not think that the idea of resurrection was much easier to believe then because the people then were primitive and ignorant and gullible.
But we do have to wonder why some Corinthians identified with Christianity. If they denied the resurrection of Jesus Christ, what was it that they believed? What attracted them to Christ? Did they see in Jesus’ teaching lofty ethical ideals that were superior to everything else they had seen? Were they looking for healing for the physical maladies that afflicted them? Were they intrigued by the supernatural gifts being manifested in the church? Or were they drawn in by the loving fellowship of the believers, looking for a place to belong? These things may pique our curiosity or even meet certain needs of ours. But is that what believing in Jesus Christ is about?
Paul was obviously shocked by those at
As you can see, Paul did not view the resurrection of Jesus Christ merely as one of the many, many tenets of Christianity: he viewed Jesus’ resurrection as what they call a sine qua non of the gospel--something without which the gospel cannot be what it claims to be. Paul’s assertion was clear: the historical reality of Jesus’ resurrection is an absolutely indispensable and central message of the gospel. Deny the resurrection of Jesus Christ and the Christian preaching is in vain (v. 14)! Deny the resurrection of Jesus Christ and there is really no point in believing in Jesus Christ (v. 14)! Deny the resurrection of Jesus Christ and there is no forgiveness of sins (v. 18)! Yes, people may learn good morals and be motivated to discard their bad habits and be good to others. They may find comfort and encouragement. They may find friends who care and a place to belong. But Paul puts it in no uncertain terms: deny the resurrection of Jesus Christ and Christians are of all people most to be pitied (v. 19). For what does it profit a man to receive all kinds of good things in life from church and lose his soul? What does it profit a man to have his self-worth affirmed and self-esteem improved in the church and not have his sins forgiven? What does it profit a man to be healed of his sicknesses and be condemned to hell? What does it profit a man to find life-long friends of kindred spirit and be cast into hell? “[I]f Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile and you are still in your sins,” declares Paul. “Vanity of vanities! All is vanity!” will be the final cry of all our pursuits if Christ has not been raised from the dead!
Why is the resurrection of Christ so essential to the divine gospel?
We must understand that when Jesus rose again from the dead, He did not simply come back to life, getting a second chance to live in this world. That would certainly be news-worthy, to grab the headline for a day. But Jesus’ resurrection was not just one of many unusual events in history. Do you see how Paul draws an inseparable connection between Jesus’ resurrection and the forgiveness of our sins (v. 17)? But how is this so? Isn’t it the death of Jesus Christ that gives us forgiveness because He died to pay the penalty of our sins? Yes, that is true but more needs to be said.
We may say that Jesus died for our sins. And there are good reasons to believe so on account of His blameless life. But who knows what went on in His heart? He Himself said that external deeds of piety are not good enough, that what defiles a man is not what goes into him from outside but what comes out of him (Mark 7:18-20). To say that Jesus died for our sins may be a nice theory but where is the proof? Maybe it is a nice claim but how do we know that Jesus really died for our sins, that He was qualified to die for our sins as a pure, blameless sacrifice? The proof is in His resurrection. For, if He had to die for our sins, it was because the wages of sin is death--not just the physical death but the eternal death of suffering in hell forever. For the same reason, Jesus could not have been raised from the dead unless He paid for our sins fully, completely to the very last and least of them! If there were any sins not paid for, He could not be released from the clutches of death. His resurrection demonstrates that His mission to save us from sin was successfully accomplished!
When we look at the cross of Jesus, we see the profoundest love of the One who willingly laid down His precious life for sinners like us! But that would be nothing more than a warm, fuzzy, sentimental feeling if Christ had not been raised from the dead! For we know all too well, if we have ever loved someone, that we can do things for others out of love but still not produce the good results we intend. Sometimes, a lot of times, love is just not enough. We know it when we see our little ones so sick in bed. We can love them so much--we want to give our life for them if we could--but we can’t make them better. In the same way, all the sacrifice Jesus made would not do us any good if He had not been successful. The resurrection demonstrates that His death for our sins was efficacious, effective and successful. His resurrection demonstrates that He was indeed righteous, that He indeed paid for all of our sins, past, present and future. The cross touches us with a deepest love possible. But it is the empty tomb that gives the substance to the feelings we feel. It is the empty tomb that gives us an unshakable assurance that Christ indeed removed our sins as far as the east is from the west; that, as Jesus’ tomb is empty, so is our account of sin empty, completely empty. What good news is the gospel of Jesus Christ!
Here we must again affirm that the resurrection of Jesus
Christ was more than just one of many unusual events in history, in a different
light. For there were other instances of resurrection in the Bible--Elijah
raised the son of the widow of Zarephath; Elisha
raised the Shunammite woman’s son; Jesus raised Lazarus
and Jairus’ little girl and the son of the widow at Nain as well as some other instances. But Jesus’ resurrection
was unique even among all the other biblical occurrences of resurrection. All
those who were raised from the dead eventually succumbed to death again. Jesus,
on the other hand, was raised unto eternal life. He did not die again after His
resurrection to be buried in His family tomb. Forty days after His resurrection
He was physically taken up to heaven, into the kingdom of everlasting
life!
Do you see? When Jesus rose again from the dead, He did not simply come back to life, getting a second chance to live in this world, as others did. Jesus’ resurrection was a full intrusion of the power of the world to come, a full victory of heaven’s life conquering death once for all! Yes, even in the other instances of resurrection, the power and life of the kingdom of heaven manifested itself. But it was only a brief, temporary manifestation, just a spark shot out of a crackling campfire, brightly burning for a moment only to disappear into the night darkness. The resurrection of Jesus Christ, on the other hand, is the eternal, inextinguishable flame, whose undiminishing effulgence chases away the darkness of death.
It was indeed the most monumental, pivotal event in all of history, an event of cosmic significance and impact. See how Paul concludes our passage: “If in this life only we have hoped in Christ, we are of all people most to be pitied” (v. 19). What is implied in these words? The resurrection of Jesus Christ is connected with something other than this life, something beyond this world and this present age! Do you see? When Jesus rose again from the dead, never to die again, He made a permanent hole in the dam of death. The lid of death that covered this world in its darkness was pulled open and the light of heaven shines through the empty tomb of Christ. Jesus’ resurrection is a proof not only of our forgiveness completed; it is an undeniable proof also of the world to come, the world of everlasting life, the age of resurrection.
People are attracted to Jesus for many reasons. But Paul declares that our faith in Him profits us nothing if Christ has not been raised, if we don’t believe in the resurrection of Jesus Christ! But watch out! Paul warns us against viewing Jesus’ resurrection merely as a supreme demonstration of divine power, the power we can avail ourselves of to cope with the challenges and difficulties of this life. “If in this life only we have hoped in Christ, we are of all people most to be pitied!” And Paul knows what he is talking about. We know what he gave up because of the resurrection of Jesus Christ. He was a man of great prestige and status in the Jewish community at that time. He had a promising future as a disciple of the most distinguished Jewish leader, Gamaliel. He was granted the authority and power to arrest Christians and punish them. But now, after having encountered the resurrected Jesus, everything changed. He who once persecuted the church became the persecuted. He who was highly esteemed by his countrymen now was deemed the scum of the earth in the eyes of his countrymen, an object of their murderous hatred. Why? All because of the resurrection of Jesus, all for the hope of the life to come. If Christ had not been raised, oh what a waste of time, efforts and life! He would of all people most to be pitied!
But do these words apply only to Christians because they believe in the resurrection of Christ? If people don’t believe in the resurrection of Christ, are they OK? In a sense, Christians would be worse off if Christ were not raised from the dead. This is an impossibility, of course, because Jesus was raised from the dead and this historical fact cannot be undone. Paul already presented the evidence, the eyewitness accounts of Jesus’ resurrection in the previous section. If Christ had not been raised, for the argument’s sake, Christians might be most to be pitied. But does this mean that those who do not believe in Jesus’ resurrection have no reason to be pitied? Christians might be most to be pitied but non-Christians are to be pitied as well! Why?
What is this world without the resurrection of Jesus Christ and what it stands for? What is your life without the hope of resurrection and eternal life?
As someone once observed, and many others affirmed and attested time and again, all our problems in life arise from trying to get what we don’t have and trying to keep what we already have. Doesn’t that summarize your life so well? There are many things we want in life but few of them are easy to get. Things of value require a lot of money. The meaningful and fulfilling relationships we want are not easy to come by because it takes two to tango--oh, how difficult it is to win someone’s heart! But getting what we want is the easy part compared to what comes after finally getting it. There is the disappointment factor, the-grass-is-greener-on-the-other-side effect. Somehow things look so much better when they are out of our reach. Few things can satisfy the whetted appetite of our hungry, active imagination and wishful thinking. Once we hold the object of our obsession in our hands, its value drops like a brand new car coming out of the dealer’s lot. And even when we are fortunate enough to find something or someone that we can cherish more and more, how difficult it is to keep it! Things break down and decay. People change--their heart, their opinions, their will, and even their personalities! Even the most faithful and reliable friends grow old and die. And the greater our love and affection, the greater our pain of loss.
So what is the solution to these problems of life? How do we deal with them? One way is to ignore the problem, to simply live with the problem, to live by the motto, “It is better to have loved than not to have loved at all.” The problem is that the pain of loss may be even more unbearable because the love was so great. And how do we fill the emptiness caused by the loss? If you are fortunate enough to find something or someone better, greater still will be the emptiness that is left behind.
Another solution? To discard our desires for what we don’t have and to let go of what we have. But what kind of life is that? Is the absence of pain and grief the greatest happiness that our life can aspire to? Is that worth all the lost opportunities to experience the bliss and joy of living and loving? We can give up what we want and what we have because the wiser of us know that they cannot give us lasting happiness: nothing in this world we can keep forever, not even our life. So is the resulting emptiness worth living for?
Jesus’ resurrection points our eyes to the world to come, to heaven itself. For this world of disappointments and goodbyes cannot be our eternal home. This world of tears and fears, this world of injustice and inequity, this world loss and grief, this world of decay and death, cannot be our eternal abode. Are we not to be pitied if we strive for the things that we cannot get and cannot keep? What does it profit a man to gain the whole world and lose his soul? And are we not to be pitied if we let go of them, only to have our empty hands to look at?
But we who believe in the resurrection of Jesus Christ--that
wonderful and historical reality--can readily let go of the things we cannot
keep because we can with our empty hands take hold the things we cannot lose. And
if this world is all there is to life, why shouldn’t we bend our principles and
compromise our conscience to get what we want? And how can we risk loss for
doing the right thing? But because of the resurrection of Jesus Christ and the
promise it holds for us, we can gladly expend our life for what is truly good
and right without fear: if we do not get the intended results in this world, we
shall in the age to come from our heavenly Father who sees in secret (Matt.
6:4). Because of the resurrection of Jesus Christ, our work in the Lord will
not be in vain (1 Cor.
Oh, saints of God, awaiting us is the day when we shall be resurrected with Christ and enter into the kingdom of eternal rest, unspeakable joy, undiminishing glory, abounding riches, where there are no tears, no sorrows, no losses, no grief, no pain and no death. Because of the resurrection of Christ, making sacrifices and suffering for Christ’s sake is not a life to be pitied; it is rather a life to be prized, a life truly worth living, a life that will be envied by all on that glorious day of consummation. So then, let us live each day in the hope of our resurrection in Jesus Christ! Let us consider no sacrifice too costly in following Jesus Christ our Lord!
© Copyright 2007 by Jeong Woo "James" Lee
All Rights Reserved.