What difference does the resurrection really make? I can’t answer that question exhaustively, or this would become a book rather than a blog. But, let me share with you one reason why the resurrection matters.
1 Corinthians 15:12-15 says,
[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.
Apparently, there were some in the
Corinthian church that had decided they could be good Christians without believing
in any kind of resurrection. What they failed to recognize is that if there is
no such thing as resurrection, then Jesus didn’t raise from the dead either.
And if Jesus didn’t raise from the dead then everything that Paul and the other
apostles and Christian teachers have committed their lives to is emptiness.
Their preaching and the faith of all Believers are empty. Not only is their
faith empty, but additionally, they have made God into a liar. Here they are,
preaching that God said that he raised Jesus from the dead. Which obviously
didn’t happen if there is no such thing as a resurrection.
This past Christmas my son and
daughter-in-law promised their kids that they would take them to Disneyworld.
But what if there was no Disneyland or Disneyworld? What if they just made that
up? What if they made the promise because their kids were sad and they needed
something to make them happy? What if their hopes were built up and they were
told all about Disneyworld, what a great place it is, what fun they are going
to have? What if they told them that for months just to keep them excited, only
to tell them in the end that there really is no Disneyworld after all? That
would make my son and daughter-in-law liars. But they could argue, “Sure, but
look at the months of happiness it gave the kids. That’s what’s really
important. In the end it doesn’t matter whether there is really a Disneyworld
anyway. What matters is that we gave them several months of happiness.” That
not only makes them liars, it makes them cruel liars.
That’s Paul’s argument here. If
there really is no such thing as a resurrection from the dead, or life after
death, then not only do we have nothing to look forward to, but it makes God
into a cruel liar. Everything we have believed becomes a lie because it is
based on the promise of life beyond this life. Every dollar we have put into
the offering plate, every hour we have spent in church, every sacrifice we have
made because of our faith — it’s all a waste. It’s all based on a lie. Paul
experienced stoning, ridicule, rejection, beating, whipping, imprisonment, and death
all for a lie. Peter was crucified upside down for a lie. According to persecutionblog.com,
It is said that Roman
emperor Domitian commanded that the apostle John be boiled to death in oil, but
John only continued to preach from within the pot. Another time, John was
forced to drink poison, but, as promised in Mark 16:18, it did not hurt him.
Thus John, the head of the church in Ephesus at the time, was banished to
Patmos in A.D. 97.[1]
John went through all of that for
a lie. It is said that Thomas, who doubted the resurrection unless he could see
Jesus scars with his own eyes and touch them with his own hands, that Thomas traveled
to India where he preached the gospel for twenty years until he was killed for
his faith. All of that for a lie, if there is resurrection.
Without the resurrection not only
our lives and our faith, but the lives and faith of every Christian believer
since the Apostles have been based on a lie. Some might say that it doesn’t
matter whether it is true. It is still a great story that inspires us to live in
a way that makes life better. Really!? Like a lie would make my grandkids happy
for six months until they find out that there is no such thing as Disneyworld?
That kind of better life? A life that causes people to move far away from
family for the sake of a call to ministry. That kind of better life? A life
that motivates people to drive into a war zone with supplies for the people
living there. That kind of better life? Without the resurrection not only our
lives and our faith, but the lives and faith of every Christian believer since
the Apostles have been based on a lie. But thank God, Jesus rose from the dead.
That changes everything.
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