And If Christ Has Not Been Raised (1 Corinthians 15:12-19, 29-34)

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. ...[29] Otherwise, what do people mean by being baptized on behalf of the dead? If the dead are not raised at all, why are people baptized on their behalf? [30] Why are we in danger every hour? [31] I protest, brothers, by my pride in you, which I have in Christ Jesus our Lord, I die every day! [32] What do I gain if, humanly speaking, I fought with beasts at Ephesus? If the dead are not raised, “Let us eat and drink, for tomorrow we die.” [33] Do not be deceived: “Bad company ruins good morals.” [34] Wake up from your drunken stupor, as is right, and do not go on sinning. For some have no knowledge of God. I say this to your shame.

I. Based On a Lie

Mortimer Mason was the highly regarded and deeply loved founder of Masonville, which grew up around a factory he also founded, and which has employed many in the town for generations. Now, since this is a fictional illustration, why don't we throw you into the mix as well. Imagine that, as someone born and raised in Masonville, you come to find out that you are Mortimer Mason's lost heir. This is incredible news (right?!), especially since you've struggled most of your life, in school, with work, and overall in terms of your place in the community . "Highly regarded" and "deeply loved" were never phrases that applied to you. But now, it seems everything has changed! As the lost heir of Mortimer Mason, you stand to inherit his fortune, his business holdings, and his palatial estate on the hill. After signing all the legal paperwork, you quit your job, you sell your home, and you count the days until you move into the hill house. You are now greeted in town with a new kind of respect, and are named the grand marshal of the Founder's Day parade. You even name your newly-born child Mortimer, in honor of your esteemed relative. Not everything is smooth sailing though: your spouse, not liking all the changes and attention, decides... to leave you. But the community rallies around you as their new favorite son (or daughter). All things considered, your life seems to be on a new, upward trajectory. This reassuring thought is ever-present in your mind as you sit atop the main float at the Founder's Day parade, waving to the gathered crowds. Suddenly, a news alert hits everyone's cell phones. As whispers fill the crowd, and a sour expression seems to infect the faces of more and more of the onlookers, someone runs over to you and shows you the news story: irrefutable evidence that Mortimer Mason was a fraud! Not only did he NOT found the town and the local industry, but he killed the man who had. Everything, all of it, had been been based on a lie. As you try to wrap your head around this shocking revelation, you look back at the faces of those in the crowd. In light of your story, in light of everything that had changed for you, how might these people NOW look at you? What might they be feeling?

II. The Passage: “Then He Appeared” (15:12-19, 29-34)

This fictional illustration is similar to what we find in our main text this morning, 1 Corinthians 15, verses 12-19. Now, we're also going to touch on verses 29-34. Why is that? Because both of these passages (vs. 12-19 and 29-34) are unpacking the hypothetical question, “What if Jesus had not been raised from the dead?” What's in between, vs. 20-28, is the exact opposite. It's an assertion of what actually happened, not a hypothetical. That's clear from the opening statement of v. 20: “But in fact Christ has been raised from the dead...”. We'll look at that section next time.

But as I just mentioned, in vs. 12-19, Paul begins to tackle this question, “What if Christ was not raised to life?” As we talked about concerning verse 12, “some” in this church were saying that “there is no resurrection of the dead”. That is, at the end of time, our dead bodies will not be raised, because... dead bodies do not rise. But as we've discussed, if you say that dead bodies do not rise, then the gospel itself, the Good News about Jesus, is under attack, since the gospel declares the resurrection of a dead body... the body of Jesus! So I think we can say that Paul recognizes the fact that the Corinthians have not sufficiently thought this issue through; that they have not considered the implications of this false teaching about human bodies. So as we just heard when this passage was read to us, Paul begins to unpack these implications. I see four general consequences of denying a resurrection, specifically Christ's resurrection:

First, if Jesus was not raised, then Paul's announcement about death's defeat and eternal life was, at the very least, a major waste (and a foolish waste) of time. He says as much in verse 14: “... if Christ has not been raised, then our preaching is in vain”. Since we're discussing Paul's ministry, we might also pull in vs. 30-32. If you look down at those verses, you'll see that Paul is talking about the risks he takes in proclaiming the gospel. “Humanly speaking” (v. 32), Paul had been attacked by beastly people (violent, dangerous people) (in Ephesus for example), people who could have and often did injure his body, sometimes even leaving him for dead. Paul asks his readers, “Why would I take such bodily risks if there is no hope of a bodily resurrection?”

Second, worse than just a waste of time or risky business in terms of bodily injury, if Jesus was not raised, Paul and the other apostles were nothing more than lie-peddlers. We heard this in v. 15: if Christ had not been raised, then “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.” If the body of Jesus was still in the tomb, then not only were Paul and other gospel preachers liars, but they were lying about, and in the name of, God. Yikes! Talk about foolish!

Third, in verses 14 and 17, the Apostle shifts the focus for his readers from his situation to their situation. If Jesus had not actually been raised from the dead, then (v. 14), “your faith is in vain”. He repeats this in verse 17: if Christ was not raised, “your faith is futile [useless, pointless]” and... (please don't miss this) “you are still in your sins”. Some among the Corinthians might say, as some say even today, “No. It's no so much a lie, just a misunderstanding in terms of the metaphorical language used. Jesus did 'rise up' in some sense, just spiritually not physically.” But Paul is clear that if the body of Jesus did not rise, then we are still sunk in our sins.

Why is that the case? Because, if your physical death is an expression of God's penalty for sin, and Jesus was not raised to life after suffering that death because of our sin, then it must mean that Jesus remains penalized; that he has not sufficiently satisfied the penalty. And in the end, that means Jesus is or was no different from anyone else who died. If His body remains in the tomb, then, no matter what he said about giving his life as “a ransom for many” (Mark 10:45), his dead body proves he was ultimately just like every other human being. Therefore, anyone who hopes in this 'gospel lie' will, on the Last Day, still face God's justice against his or her sins.

Fourth (and finally), if we have placed our hope in a lie, but actually still remain in our sins, then (v. 19) “we have hope in this life only”; that is, our hope is not attached to anything real beyond this life. Thus, as he pointed out at the end of v. 18, “Then those also who have fallen asleep in Christ (i.e., those who trusted in Jesus, but have already died, they) have perished.” He picks up this conversation about those who have already died, he picks it up again in v. 29. If Jesus has not been raised, “...what do people mean by being baptized on behalf of the dead? If the dead are not raised at all, why are people baptized on their behalf?” Now, this is one of those verses in Scripture that we simply do not have enough information to make sense of its full meaning. There are no other verses that refer to this practice, and no relevant historical information outside the Bible. Nothing. So we have to be very careful not to speculate, or build something on such a thin foundation. What is clear is that this argument is just one of many arguments Paul is making about why bodily resurrection from the dead (and especially the resurrection of Jesus) is so critical. It really is one of those essential Jenga blocks. If you pull it out from the bottom of the stack, what happens? Everything else, all of these other treasured beliefs and practices of his readers, they all come crashing down when the idea of resurrection from the dead is rejected. And what should one do then? (v. 32) “If the dead are not raised, 'Let us eat and drink, for tomorrow we die.'” Shamefully, many of his readers had been influenced by such beliefs and such influencers, and Paul believes this is partly behind their sinful behavior. Claiming to know God, the Apostle points out (v. 34) how shameful it is, especially for us, to distort his word and his will.

III. Would People Pity You?

But please look back with me at verse 19, where Paul made this troubling, but accurate statement: “If in Christ we have hope in this life only, we are of all people most to be pitied.” Pity. I would guess that at least some of those people at that Masonville Founder's Day parade would be feeling the same thing, for you: pity. “How sad for her. How sad for him. They thought every-thing had changed for the better. What a pitiful turn of events; learning everything was built on a lie.” Paul leaves no room for some practical or utilitarian benefit. “Well, even if Jesus didn't rise from the dead, at least my kids have had a good moral upbringing. At least I enjoy the comfort of a community that shares my values. At least I have a sense of purpose, one that involves helping my fellow human being; that honors the past and respects tradition.” No. That's garbage. That's garbage if all of those things are founded on a lie. Why? Because truth matters, and... eternity is real. Therefore, if “...we have hope in this life only, we are of all people most to be pitied.”

Now, please don't miss that Paul's discussion here about pity assumes something. It assumes that people not only know what we believe, but also recognize how we have staked our lives on the truthfulness of our confession. In addition to maybe being disgusted with or angry at you, our fellow citizens in Masonville might pity you because you actually accepted the truth about your family tree. You quit your job, you sold your home, you even named you child Mortimer (!). Why? Because you believed the news about your family tree to be true... and others could see that.

In the same way, this whole discussion about the implications of the resurrection makes little or no sense if these were not life-changing doctrines for the Corinthians. They really were thankful to have heard the gospel. They really were comforted by the forgiveness Jesus died to secure, and the fact that they would see their deceased brothers and sisters again. Paul really did spend his life for the sake of the gospel, even facing danger and death to do so. And to the extent that any Christian, that any disciple, stakes everything on the gospel, and lives, to the best of his or her ability, in alignment with this radical truth, only then does Paul's argument have real weight. And only then would people feel bad for us, that we had pinned all our hopes, that we had given so much, that we had been so gullible, concerning what had turned out to be a lie (but isn't).

But let me go back to my earlier statement: “[Pity] assumes that people not only know what we believe, but also recognize how we have staked our lives on the truthfulness of our confession.” Is that you? If there was undeniable proof that the body of Jesus was still lying in some Middle Eastern tomb, is that how people would think about you? A mere religious confession would not produce such pity. Neither would merely living a counter-cultural lifestyle (there are lots of reasons why a person might live such a life). But when we 'talk' and 'walk', when we 'walk' our 'talk'...ah.

And so I ask you, is the resurrection of Jesus a Jenga block in your life? Do the most important things about your life come toppling down if Jesus stayed dead? If your life would pretty much continue as is, with maybe a few minor adjustments, then please talk to God this morning about your understanding of and your faith in the gospel. Pray that He would help you to see, more and more, how central the resurrection of Jesus is to everything you, everything we hold dear. Pray that He would help you to live daily, more and more, in the presence of a living Lord. Pray that He would help you to testify to others, more and more, about Jesus-inspired hope in the face of death. We'll dig even deeper next time in terms of the glory and the greatness of Christ's resurrection. Until then, be encouraged. We really can know that our faith is not in vain, and genuinely be reassured that our sins have been forgiven, and be strengthened that there is real hope in the face of death? Why? Because Jesus Christ was raised on the third day in accord-ance with the Scriptures, and appeared to many. Let's finish by giving thanks for that fact!