The Pew has visited here before but spent time in Chapter 15: 35-58. Today we kind of flip things about, so to speak…and consider that the first 34 verses might just be the rest of the story. I have always considered this chapter to be the resurrection chapter, and with a sense of relief I know I am not the only one to refer to it as such. Before we get to far into this I want to follow a short path off here…I won’t walk you into a rabbit hole. There are many excellent commentaries and study materials that cover this subject well. One of my favorite is the Daily Bible Study series by William Barclay, which I will be referring to for this blog.(Letters To The Corinthians, Pages 141 through 161) I did not wish to give the impression that I had suddenly obtained a degree in Theology.

In the first eleven verses Paul spends some time repeating the main elements of the good news. The good news was the Resurrection of Jesus Christ. Paul felt that the good news was something the people had received…we might say in this day, you can’t make this stuff up and I will latter explain that statement. People didn’t just invent this event, in reality they most likely never thought about it. It was something which they had to receive. Here lies the first point. The church was and will always be a bringer of Good News, received and shared among the fellowship to be shared with the world. Good news is a stabilizer, it lifts us up and gives us hope and determination, we who walk in The Way call it faith. Barclay points out that the Greek word used here is in the present tense. Simply put that it is now, not having been but now…right now. You are being saved right now…salvation is an ongoing thing. God’s grace and forgiveness can never be exhausted. I have always believed that life is what it is…but God has through his Son Jesus Christ and the Cross has given us the the tools we need to overcome adversity as long as we hold on tightly to our God and our faith. Salvation is not an item or condition of connivence. We must examine our direction in life, why we believe the things we do and most of all think…I will keep it simple…What would Jesus Do? 

Remember I said you can’t make this stuff up? There were many appearances of Jesus after the resurrection that have been written about or told about by people of that day. There was the appearance to Peter, one of the earliest and is recorded in two books of the New Testament…  the messenger in the empty tomb…‘Go, tell his disciples’. There is the appearance to James who is the brother of Jesus. There were times that even our Lord’s family stood against him, thinking him to not be of right mind. Barclay points out that Jesus brought love forgiveness and renewal to the lives of these two men…men who had in some ways hurt Him. We are well removed from those days but over all the centuries passed many have died as martyrs to the faith…and continue to, you can’t make that up. Our writer, Paul was a man of humility, confident in his mission and ability to get it done. He was a man of fellowship preaching the good news with the other apostles in the fellowship of the believers.

Paul also had a habit of asking questions that challenged the status quo. These next verses 15:12-19 do just that. If CHRIST IS NOT RESURRECTED…what are we doing? Without the resurrection and the empty tomb our proclamation of Faith has no meaning. Our lives, mine and yours are suddenly without standing. Paul’s opponents in Corinth took the position that “Dead men don’t rise again.’ Paul’s answer to that was …if Jesus Christ did not raise from the dead then our whole Christian faith is a wreck. I am sure a man of lesser faith might have said quietly… ‘what am I doing, what are any of us thinking or doing.’ But have heart. There are some facts that that do make a difference to the church and our fellowship of faith. Jesus proved through the resurrection that truth is stronger than any falsehood. What is comes down to is that Jesus came among us armed with the truth. There were those who stood against him, plotted his death from the very start of His ministry. They plotted against Him because they did not want their false views to be discredited. It was once said, I don’t know by whom, that the victor gets to write history…The triumph of the resurrection and the strength of our Christian faith, give us the pen and ink to put it on paper, It being the strength of the gospel truth. The resurrection is proof that good is stronger than evil, love is stronger than hatred and as one final point… life is stronger than death. It is at this point that Paul speaks with great purpose and faith. He in effect is saying if you take away the resurrection of Jesus, leaving the impression that the Christian message is based on a lie…a lie that many have died for, insinuating they died trusting in a delusion, then you leave us without its greatest value, salvation and life ever after. You have destroyed the very foundation of the Christian Faith. These last verses in this first section we are covering vv.20-34 led us into the better known part of this chapter… The Resurrection of the body which picks up in verse 35.

These can be broken down as follows. 15:20-28 speaks of the  first fruits of those who have died. Paul often used terms that would be easily recognized by all Jews. It expected that the first fruits of the harvest be brought before God and until that was done the new barley couldn’t be sold in the shops or used to make bread from. These first fruits were a sign of the harvest to come…transition this into Pauls thinking that the resurrection of Jesus was a sign of the resurrection of all believers which was to come. The next thing to note is that Paul in verses 24-28  Paul clearly places the Son subordinate to the Father. God gave his Son a task to complete and when done to return home to the Father and in a kind of pictorial way takes His rightful place. Having done the Father’s will Jesus hands back a redeemed world…there will be nothing in heaven or in earth outside God’s love and power. Paul’s last point in the remaining verses of our study vv. 29-34 deal with an instruction from Paul. Paul advises the Corinthians not associate with those who say that there is no resurrection, they must not provide a platform that marginalizes the truth and gives false information to those of the faith. 

With that being said I encourage each of you to take the time to read the entire 15th chapter of 1 Corinthians. Rejoice on the foundational promise of our God through Jesus Christ…Stand on the promise.

Life is Good

jk