1 Corinthians 15:14-18 “And if Christ is not risen, then our preaching is empty and your faith is also empty. (15) Yes, and we are found false witnesses of God, because we have testified of God that He raised up Christ, whom He did not raise up--if in fact the dead do not rise. (16) For if the dead do not rise, then Christ is not risen. (17) And if Christ is not risen, your faith is futile; you are still in your sins! (18) Then also those who have fallen asleep in Christ have perished.”
Central to the Christian faith is the fact that Christ has risen from the dead, for as the apostle Paul in the above quoted passage of scripture declares, without His resurrection we have no salvation and our sins have not been cleansed. In Paul’s day there were several false teachers that tried to influence the church. One such group were a sect of Jews called the Sadducees. That sect denied that there was such a thing as the resurrection from the dead, and their teaching had begun to influence the church in Corinth. And so the apostle Paul, in dealing with that false doctrine, explained to the believers in Corinth that if there is no such thing as the resurrection from the dead then Christ Himself could not have been raised. Paul went on to say that he and the other apostles who claimed to have seen our risen Lord, would in fact be lying if there was no such thing as the resurrection from the dead. And so Paul was telling them to make a choice as to who they wanted to believe. They could choose to either believe Paul and the other apostles who had demonstrated the power of God among them, or this sect of Jews who would try persuading them otherwise. Paul went on to explain to them that if Christ is not risen from the dead then the Christian faith is futile, and all believers are still in their sins and will perish in hell when they die.
Hebrews 9:11-12 “But Christ came as High Priest of the good things to come, with the greater and more perfect tabernacle not made with hands, that is, not of this creation. (12) Not with the blood of goats and calves, but with His own blood He entered the Most Holy Place once for all, having obtained eternal redemption.”
The reason that believers would still be in their sins if Christ had not been raised from the dead, is because as revealed to us in the passage of scripture quoted above, Christ Himself had to enter the Holiest of All to present His blood before God the Father as the perfect atoning sacrifice for our sins. And if Christ had not been raised then that sacrifice could never have taken place. And so it all comes down to belief, for our Lord Jesus did die for our sins and on the third day He was raised from the dead by God the Father. He ascended into heaven where He offered His blood as the perfect Lamb of God to cleanse us from all sin. And having obtained eternal redemption for us, our Lord Jesus then sat down at the right hand of the Father where He is presently waiting for all His enemies to be made His footstool.
Michael E.B. Maher
Comments