Reflections with Andy - 1 Corinthians 15: 12-36, Part One – The Resurrection
Paul spends time today talking about Jesus’ resurrection and our one-day resurrection. For him, and for us, the resurrection truly is the linchpin
In 1 Corinthians 15, Paul makes a bold claim: if there is no resurrection from the dead, then the entire Christian faith falls apart. In today’s reflection, Andy explores the cultural and theological background behind Paul’s argument, including the Jewish debate over resurrection and why the early Christians were so focused on Christ’s return. Paul insists that the resurrection isn’t a peripheral belief—it is the foundation of Christian hope. If Christ has not been raised, our faith is futile. But if Christ has been raised, then death is not the end, and we can live this life with confidence in the life that is still to come. Andy reflects on what it means to live fully in the present because our ultimate hope is found in eternity.
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Good morning! It’s good to be with you on this Thursday morning. I hope you’re doing well.
Today is a big day here at First United Methodist Church in Starkville because we’re going to be helping kids move into Mississippi State.
Well, we’re going to help kids move in.
But our joke is that we’re probably going to do more to support the parents than we are the kids.
I was talking to a friend of mine yesterday who’s moving his daughter up here, and we were talking about how much more relaxed it is to move your child into Delta State than it is to move your child into Mississippi State.
At Delta State, you show up, you move Thomas in, you take his stuff upstairs, you go run a few errands, you come back, and you’re done.
Mississippi State?
It’s like you’re parachuting behind enemy lines.
There’s a window.
You’ve got to hit the window.
And if you don’t hit that window, you’re in trouble.
So we’re going to be praying for all the parents moving their kids into Mississippi State, Ole Miss, and all the other universities around the state.
And we’re going to do what we can to help.
So keep all of those college students and their parents in your prayers as they make this transition.
Today we’re continuing in 1 Corinthians 15. We’re going to read verses 12through 36.
There’s a lot of really interesting stuff in this section.
And honestly, I don’t know that we’re going to get through all of it today.
There are several things in these next couple of sections that I really want to slow down and spend some time with because Paul is talking about some pretty big questions—eternity, death, resurrection, and what happens to us when we die.
So let’s take some time with this.
Paul begins by saying:
“Now if Christ is proclaimed as raised from the dead, how can some of you say there is no resurrection of the dead?”
That’s the question.
How can you believe that Christ was raised from the dead and then say that there is no resurrection from the dead?
Paul’s argument is pretty simple.
If there is no resurrection from the dead, then Christ hasn’t been raised.
And if Christ hasn’t been raised, then our faith is futile.
If Christ hasn’t been raised, then we’re still in our sins.
If Christ hasn’t been raised, then those who have died in Christ have perished.
And if our hope in Christ is only for this life, Paul says, then we are among all people most to be pitied.
That’s a pretty strong statement.
But Paul is making a very important theological argument here.
The resurrection isn’t some minor part of Christianity.
The resurrection is foundational.
The resurrection is the thing everything else depends upon.
And part of what is driving this conversation is the world in which Paul was writing.
There were people in the ancient world who believed there was no resurrection from the dead.
Within Judaism, there was actually a debate about this.
The Sadducees, for example, did not believe in the resurrection.
That’s why when you read the Gospels, you see the Sadducees asking Jesus that famous question about a woman who had been married to several brothers who each died.
They ask Jesus, essentially, “If there is a resurrection, whose wife will she be?”
The Gospel tells us that the Sadducees didn’t believe in the resurrection.
Part of that difference came from the way different Jewish groups understood Scripture.
The Sadducees placed particular authority on the first five books of the Bible—the Pentateuch, the books of Moses.
The Pharisees accepted a broader collection of writings as Scripture and found other passages that pointed toward resurrection.
So there was an actual theological debate happening within Judaism about whether resurrection was real.
And then you also had the broader Greek and Roman world, where there were all kinds of different ideas about what happened after death.
There could be ideas about an afterlife or some kind of existence beyond death, but the Christian claim was different.
Christianity wasn’t simply saying, “There’s something after this.”
Christianity was saying:
There is resurrection.
The body is raised.
Jesus Christ was actually raised from the dead.
And because Christ was raised, those who belong to Christ will also be raised.
That’s what Paul is trying to make absolutely clear.
And remember when this was written.
First Corinthians was probably written sometime in the mid-50s AD, roughly twenty years or so after the resurrection of Jesus.
And the early Christians were waiting.
They expected Jesus to return.
They believed his return could happen at any moment.
And as time went on, some of the Christians in Corinth began asking a very practical question:
What happens to the people who die before Jesus comes back?
What happens to the people who have already died?
Have they missed out?
Are they gone forever?
What happens to them?
Paul’s answer is:
There is resurrection.
That’s the hope.
That’s why Paul says that if Christ hasn’t been raised, then everything falls apart.
If Christ hasn’t been raised, our preaching is pointless.
Our faith is pointless.
Our hope is pointless.
We’re misrepresenting God.
Those who have died in Christ have perished.
And if our hope in Christ is only for this life, then we are to be pitied more than anyone else.
But then Paul makes the turn.
He says:
“But in fact Christ has been raised from the dead, the first fruits of those who have died.”
That’s the hope.
Christ has been raised.
And because Christ has been raised, resurrection is possible for us.
And there’s something here that I think is really important for how we live our lives right now.
There’s a great idea from C.S. Lewis that I’m going to paraphrase.
Lewis talks about how our focus on eternity actually affects the way we live in the present.
And I think that’s exactly what Paul is getting at here.
If this life is all there is, then I have to make this life work.
I have to protect my reputation.
I have to make sure my retirement account is big enough.
I have to make sure my stock portfolio is doing well.
I have to make sure everybody thinks well of me.
I have to make sure that I get everything I possibly can out of this life.
Because if this is all there is, then this is everything.
But if this isn’t everything—if there is a resurrection—then I can live differently.
If my ultimate hope isn’t found here, then I don’t have to cling so tightly to what happens here.
I can live fully for Jesus right now.
I can give.
I can serve.
I can love.
I can take risks for the Kingdom.
I can worry less about my reputation.
I can worry less about what people think about me.
I can live with a kind of freedom that comes from knowing that this isn’t the end.
There’s something better coming.
And that’s the hope of the resurrection.
We talked yesterday about what Paul called “of first importance.”
Jesus Christ is of first importance.
And at the very heart of that first importance is this:
Christ was raised from the dead.
That’s the foundation.
Paul is essentially saying, “If this isn’t true, then none of this matters.”
If Christ wasn’t raised, then we’ve been lying to you.
If Christ wasn’t raised, then God didn’t raise him.
If Christ wasn’t raised, then our faith is futile.
If Christ wasn’t raised, then we have no hope.
But—
Christ was raised.
That’s the Christian proclamation.
That’s what we believe.
That’s what the Church has proclaimed for two thousand years.
Jesus Christ died.
He was buried.
And on the third day, he was raised from the dead.
And because he lives, we have hope.
That’s why the resurrection matters so much.
It’s not simply something we talk about on Easter.
It’s not simply a doctrine we put in the Apostles’ Creed.
It’s the foundation of Christian hope.
And so when Paul talks about the resurrection, he’s not talking about some abstract theological idea.
He’s talking about the thing that allows us to live differently right now.
Because if death isn’t the end, then I don’t have to live as though death is the end.
I can live with hope.
I can live with courage.
I can live with generosity.
I can live with love.
I can live fully for Jesus because I know that whatever happens in this life, this life is not all there is.
So that’s where we’re going to stop today.
There’s a lot more here.
Tomorrow I want to spend some time with verses 20 through 29, because Paul gets into Christ as the “first fruits,” the connection between Adam and Christ, and then there’s that very interesting passage about baptism on behalf of the dead.
There’s a lot to unpack there.
So we’ll take our time with it.
Thanks for being with me today.
Pray for all those college students and parents moving into Starkville and Oxford and all across Mississippi.
And remember this today:
Christ has been raised.
And because Christ has been raised, we have hope.
Thanks for being with me.
Have a great Thursday, and we’ll see you in the morning.