Without the Resurrection We’re Lost
1 Corinthians 15:11-19
12 Now if Christ is proclaimed as raised from the dead, how can some of 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 and your faith is in vain. 15 We are even found to be misrepresenting God, because we testified about God that he raised Christ, whom he did not raise if it is true that the dead are not raised. 16 For if the dead are not raised, not even Christ has been raised. 17 And if Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile and you are still in your sins. 18 Then those also who have fallen asleep in Christ have perished. 19 If in Christ we have hope in this life only, we are of all people most to be pitied.
Having described his own conversion as being one who was abnormally born (in the faith), Paul now takes on the implication for all believers if Christ had not been resurrected from death. I believe Paul engages in this conversation not only because of its theological implications but because he knew on a small scale what it meant to be reborn as a Christian in this life. His discussion here could quite possibly be addressing the Corinthians mistake of mixing their old pagan religion with faith in Jesus.
Commonly the Greeks believed that at death, only a person’s soul was taken by the ferryman across the River Styx to the gloomy world of the shades. This animistic idea that only the soul survives death in a shadowy, unhappy existence has been common to most non-Christian cultures, even highly advanced cultures like those of ancient Egypt, Mesopotamia, and Greece. Only Christianity has been brightened by the hope of the resurrection of the body.
It is always a mistake to mix the teaching of the Bible with other world religions. God didn’t like it when the ancient Hebrews did it, when the Corinthians did it, or when we do it. In the case of the Corinthians, this error leads to a terrible place; a place where there is no true hope in Christianity. If the resurrection isn’t real, why bother. He painted a deeply hopeless picture for us. But, as the rest of the chapter will prove, the resurrection is real, the death and resurrection of Christ did happen, and so our hope is sure.
12 Now if Christ is proclaimed as raised from the dead, how can some of 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 and your faith is in vain. 15 We are even found to be misrepresenting God, because we testified about God that he raised Christ, whom he did not raise if it is true that the dead are not raised. 16 For if the dead are not raised, not even Christ has been raised. 17 And if Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile and you are still in your sins. 18 Then those also who have fallen asleep in Christ have perished. 19 If in Christ we have hope in this life only, we are of all people most to be pitied.
Having described his own conversion as being one who was abnormally born (in the faith), Paul now takes on the implication for all believers if Christ had not been resurrected from death. I believe Paul engages in this conversation not only because of its theological implications but because he knew on a small scale what it meant to be reborn as a Christian in this life. His discussion here could quite possibly be addressing the Corinthians mistake of mixing their old pagan religion with faith in Jesus.
Commonly the Greeks believed that at death, only a person’s soul was taken by the ferryman across the River Styx to the gloomy world of the shades. This animistic idea that only the soul survives death in a shadowy, unhappy existence has been common to most non-Christian cultures, even highly advanced cultures like those of ancient Egypt, Mesopotamia, and Greece. Only Christianity has been brightened by the hope of the resurrection of the body.
Lockwood, Gregory. Concordia Commentary: 1 Corinthians p. 564. CPH
It is always a mistake to mix the teaching of the Bible with other world religions. God didn’t like it when the ancient Hebrews did it, when the Corinthians did it, or when we do it. In the case of the Corinthians, this error leads to a terrible place; a place where there is no true hope in Christianity. If the resurrection isn’t real, why bother. He painted a deeply hopeless picture for us. But, as the rest of the chapter will prove, the resurrection is real, the death and resurrection of Christ did happen, and so our hope is sure.
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