Resurrection of the Dead

Here's the conclusion of the paper I've been working on. It's written as a sermon manuscript with an "interesting" opening and all. Hope it makes sense...

Fortune telling and Psychic readings are huge industries throughout the world. For a price, you can have your palm read, learn your future from tarot cards, or discover astrological signs concerning upcoming events. Today, I want to tell you your future for free. Actually, I will let the apostle Paul describe the glorious future of all who have a genuine relationship with Jesus Christ. So, let us read 1 Corinthians 15:12-28 together.

One of the least enjoyable aspects of pastoral ministry is watching people suffer, especially when they have lost a loved one. Death is painful because the separation seems as if it will last forever. Death is also scary since we do not know what lies beyond. On the other hand, there can be some very positive responses to death if the person knows Jesus. Loved ones can reflect on the truth that the departed no longer experiences pain or sorrow. More importantly, the one who has died gets to see Jesus face-to-face and worship him fully. What a joy! When we consider these important truths, we cannot help but think that Heaven is the end. What could be better than Heaven?

Yet, Paul reminded the Corinthian church of something we all need to remember today. The resurrection of the dead is fundamental. Look at v. 12 with me. Paul asks a rhetorical question that tells us that some people in the Corinthian church must have denied that the dead would rise again. In the society in which the Corinthians lived, this belief would not have been as uncommon as it may seem to some of us.
Those who have spent some time studying their Bibles probably would consent that the future resurrection of the dead is a sound Christian doctrine. Yet, I would suggest to you that our struggle today is not that we deny it outright, but that many Christians ignore the future resurrection, treating it as irrelevant. Paul’s response in v. 13 is telling. He correlates Christ’s resurrection with our future resurrections, suggesting that to deny one is to deny the other. The point, then, is that even though the resurrection of the dead in Christ may seem like an irrelevant doctrine, we must hold to it as an irreplaceable feature of the Gospel message

The truth is, many of us would be more comfortable with Christianity if we were allowed to pick-and-choose what aspects of the Gospel we wanted to believe. Unfortunately, some actually do so. But, in vv. 14-19, Paul argues that to deny any aspect of the Gospel, specifically the future resurrection of the dead in Paul’s context, is to bring about drastic consequences. Paul lists seven consequences. First, all preaching is useless if the Gospel is not entirely true and reliable. Second, belief does nothing for the Believer. Just as believing that I will win a million dollars does me no good if it is untrue, so also belief in the Gospel is pointless if parts of the Gospel are false. Third, Christians are liars, especially if they knowingly proclaim falsehood to others. Fourth, faith is pointless if the object of faith is unreliable or untrue. Fifth, if faith is pointless, we are still under God’s wrath, trapped in our sins with no hope of salvation. The veracity of the Gospel is the foundation of our salvation, and the whole house crumbles if the foundation falls apart. Sixth, the dead are gone forever. Logically, if there is no salvation, then this life is the end for everyone. There is no hope of life after death. And Paul’s final drastic consequence for those who deny part of the Gospel message is that the world will see that Christians are fools, and they will pity us. A little later, beginning in v. 30, Paul says that all people who spend their life working for the Gospel are foolish if part of the Gospel they preach is false. The world will recognize it if the truth is that we have wasted our lives proclaiming a falsehood, and they will realize how pathetic we truly are.

What should be clear is that Paul takes the gospel very seriously. It is all or nothing, including the apparently strange belief in the resurrection of people who are already in heaven. However, in the next nine verses, Paul gives support for why the resurrection of the dead is inevitable and then describes why it is vital. Beginning in vv. 20-23, he gives three reasons why our resurrection is inevitable. In v. 20, he notes that at this very moment, Christ reigns as someone who was raised from the dead. Paul’s point is that it is silly to argue that resurrection is impossible when it has already occurred once. Paul even uses an analogy that Jesus is the first crop of a harvest that is sure to follow. No farmer picks the first ripe ear of corn and then presumes that there will be no more. Rather, he has a down payment of a future harvest of corn. Second, in comparison with the results of Adam’s sin, it is certain that Christ’s resurrection guarantees ours. To our finite minds, it is often difficult to understand how we are guilty for Adam’s sin. Yet, we know that Adam’s sin brought death for all who identify with Adam, meaning all of humanity. In the same way, everyone who identifies with Jesus receive the result of his resurrection, which is their own future resurrection. Third, in v. 23, Paul describes Jesus as a military commander who leads his troops. Where the commander goes, his troops will definitely follow. Since Christ was resurrected first, our resurrection will undoubtedly follow as the second stage of the end times progression.

So, Paul has told us that the resurrection of the dead in Christ is a fundamental element of the Gospel message, and he has proven that there are at least three good reasons to believe that our resurrection is guaranteed. Therefore, in the final four verses, Paul will share why our resurrection is vital. First, Christ must defeat all of his enemies in the end, as vv. 24, 25, and 27 make clear. These enemies are all the things that stand in the way of God’s glory. Christ will defeat Satan, his demons, sin, the effects of the fall, and even human lives that oppose Christ. He will subject everything to his autonomous authority including tornados, famine, disease, and all the horrible things we read about in the newspapers every day.

However, in addition to all these evils, there will be one final enemy that Christ will defeat as his ultimate act of power, as Paul describes in v. 26. The greatest enemy Christ will defeat is death, who will be destroyed by our resurrection. This is why the resurrection of the dead is so important. How else can Christ establish that he has absolute authority over death? Obviously, Christ rose from the dead, which means the beginning of the end for death. That is why Paul can already mock death, asking where its sting is. Yet, we actually still experience the sting of death every time we read the obituaries or attend a funeral. Paul’s point, though, is that death will one day truly have no more sting. When Christ raises his people from the dead, he will extinguish the consequences of death once-and-for-all.

Still, the destruction of death is not the end of the story. Paul goes on to describe that God’s glory is the purpose of all these events. Following Christ’s victory over all that opposes God, Jesus will submit himself to the Father so that God can reign as “all in all.” There is not time to discuss the relationships between members of the Trinity. What is clear from Scripture, though, is that no member of the Trinity is inferior to the others. All three are equally God. Yet, they play different roles. Thus, Jesus functions in submission to the Father even though he is equal. This should tell us a lot about our marriage relationships, by the way. The point is that Jesus will complete his role, submitting all authority to the Father in the way that Adam and Eve should have in the beginning. They chose to try and be “like God” even though they never could. Conversely, Jesus will submit to the Father even though he is equal. This will be the end of “the End.” Therefore, God will reign for the rest of time as “all in all.”

What is clear is that the timeline of creation is moving toward a certain end, and the final piece of the puzzle is God’s unchallenged glory. Since this is true, the purpose of our lives should be the same. The events of our lives should move toward the glory and praise of God. We should praise Him knowing that he will eventually rid creation of those things that cause us such pain and suffering. We should praise Him knowing that victory is Christ’s, and we have nothing to fear. We should praise Him knowing that in addition to the wonderful glory of Heaven, there will be a genuine resurrection of all who have died, rendering death incapacitated. This is the future according to the Bible, which is infinitely more reliable than any psychic could ever hope to be. And since all these things are true, we can trust in the veracity of the Gospel message as we take it to those who do not yet know the truth.

-Matt