Christians believe in the resurrection of the body. The Apostle’s Creed ends with the words, “I believe in the holy catholic church, the communion of saints, the forgiveness of sins, the resurrection of the body, and life everlasting.” The hardest of these to believe is the resurrection of the body, even for Christians.

Science screams from every street corner that the final destination for people is death—a cessation of life. To “logically minded people,” Christians seem illogical; they seem to be believers in impossible futures. They, the logically minded people, raise a three-step objection. First, they claim that there is no such thing as a resurrection. Second, if they grant the possibility of a resurrection for the sake of discussion, they may say, “But that does not guarantee that Christians will be raised?” Third, mocking the Christian, they ask, “How are the dead raised?” All three of these objections can be answered from 1 Corinthians 15. I have addressed the first objection in my previous sermon on 1 Corinthians 15:1–11. If you have not heard it, it is available on our church website. In a nutshell, the objection can be answered if we can demonstrate a single resurrection. That is easy. Jesus is risen. Resurrection is possible. God willing, I will address the third objection on November 16^th.

Today, I plan to address the second objection. While it can be granted that Jesus was raised from the dead, his resurrection can perhaps be attributed to a miracle. Can we extend that one-time event to all Christians? Can we claim that Christians will be raised from the dead? Let me frame the issue for us differently. When we ask the question, “Is there a resurrection?” we are asking, “Was it ever?” When we ask the question, “Will we have a resurrection?” we are asking, “Will it ever occur again?”

According to our passage, 1 Corinthians 15:12–34, we can be confident that Christians will be raised from the dead since Christ is our head. In this sermon, I will demonstrate that the only logical way to live is as a Christian, one who believes in and longs for the resurrection. Let me repeat that. The only logical way to live is as a Christian. A Christian believes in and longs for the resurrection.

Now, I can imagine non-Christians cringe at that statement. In fact, I can hear many Christians protest and say, “Eddie, that’s a stretch. There are many godly Christians who are not sure about the resurrection. What if we are wrong about the general resurrection? Is it not better to live with Christian values regardless of whether the resurrection is true or false than to live as a non-Christian?” These Christians believe that Jesus rose from the dead; however, they are not sure if they or any other Christian would actually rise from the dead. They do not necessarily deny the resurrection; they are uncertain about it. They live with the mindset that if they believe in Jesus and there is a resurrection, then they will have gained all; if not, they lose nothing. Their entire faith is a gamble, a wager. If they have lived a good Christian life and died with that being their end, they lived a good life; they lost nothing. So they claim. But on the other hand, if they lived a good Christian life, died, and rose to eternal life, they won the lottery.

In reality, such Christianity is not far from gentlemanly paganism. Many non-Christians believe that death is the end of life, and yet they desire that the world should be a better place and live such that they are part of the solution to a happy world. They live kind, considerate lives. They raise their kids to be good citizens—caring, humble, productive people. The only difference is that the Christian embraces this lifestyle since it is biblical. Whereas the non-Christian embraces this lifestyle because it is better than anarchy. Standing on the authority of God’s holy word, I claim that such a lifestyle, both that of the gentlemanly pagan and the uncertain Christian, is irrational.

Have you ever wondered how important the resurrection of the body is to the Christian faith? Paul has answered that for us. If there is no bodily resurrection of the dead, then (1) Christ has not been raised (v. 13); (2) the preaching of the Gospel is in vain (v. 14); (3) your faith is empty and worthless (vv. 14, 17); (4) Christianity is misrepresenting God (v. 15); (5) you are still in your sins—i.e., you have no forgiveness of sins (v. 17); (6) Christians who have died have perished—they are not with Jesus since clearly he is not risen as well (v. 18); (7) Christians have no hope of eternal life and are to be most pitied (v. 19). Think about that for a moment. If there is no such thing as the resurrection of the body, then you cannot believe in the holy catholic church; it would not exist. Christians would not have communion or fellowship; you would not exist as a community. No one would experience the forgiveness of sins or life everlasting. Our creed would be empty, vain, futile, meaningless. Christianity would be an empty religion if the resurrection from the dead were a myth. Everything you believe hangs on this. You cannot be casual about what you believe about the resurrection.

So, Cross Cultured Church, let me pray and ask God to help us as I preach this sermon.

Father in heaven, in the name of the risen Lord, I ask that you empower me by your Spirit to speak your words to your people so that your Spirit may strengthen our faith to believe that our bodies will be raised just as you have raised your son, Jesus, from the dead. Amen.

Now that you have heard what the stakes are, I need to establish whether and why Jesus’s resurrection affects Christians. I will do that in two parts. First, I will teach you from our text that Jesus’s resurrection affects Christians. Second, I will explain why the resurrection is part of God’s plan of redemption. After I have proved that Jesus’s resurrection affects Christians, I can make my case that the only logical way to live is as a Christian, believing in and longing for the resurrection.

Jesus’s Resurrection Affects Christians

Since we have noted that Jesus was raised from the dead in vv. 1–11, we must establish that Jesus’s resurrection affects Christians. If you look at verse 20, then you will see that the Bible teaches that Jesus is called the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep. Fallen asleep is a euphemism for those who have died. In 1 Corinthians, this is a euphemism used only of Christians. Paul intentionally denies the premise that death is final. It is merely a “falling asleep.” But I am getting ahead of myself. Firstfruits is an initial offering made to God, indicating there is more to come. The idea of firstfruits is not unique to the OT; it was commonplace among the cults of the ancient world, east or west. Paul claims that Jesus is the first of many resurrections to come.

Paul does not assert these first and following resurrections without any evidence. He argues that Adam and Jesus are our heads or representatives (v. 21). Adam’s representation resulted in death to all. Jesus’s representation results in the resurrection of the dead. In verse 22, Paul teaches the headship nature or representative nature of Adam and Christ. Death comes to all in Adam. All who are related to Adam die. Since all humanity is related to Adam, all die. The relationship to Adam is not merely physical but covenantal. That is the point of this text. If it were not so, then Paul could not claim that all in Christ will likewise be raised from the dead. Our relationship with Christ, that is, our union with Christ, is not biological but covenantal. Adam and Christ are the representatives or federal heads of the two covenants in redemptive history. Because of their role in redemptive history, the story of the fall and salvation, those who are covenantally united with them will experience what they experienced. Death through Adam and resurrection from the dead through Christ.

To deny the resurrection from the dead but to accept death as normal is absurd to Christianity. Sin and death entered the world as a result of Adam’s sin. It is understandable when modern science observes that death is ubiquitous. However, we must ask, “Why does death reign?” The Bible answers, “Because of Adam’s sin.” Death is ubiquitous; however, it was not always ubiquitous. Death entered the world at a point in history due to a sin in history. Just as the Bible teaches Adam as the representative of humanity, Jesus is the other representative in the Bible. His representation affects Christians. Since he rose from the dead, Christians will rise from the dead.

Now that we have established that Jesus’s resurrection affects Christians, we can look at a few more details. The general resurrection of Christians will occur at the end of this age (v. 23). When Jesus comes, at the end of this age (v. 24), Christians will be raised from the dead, following the resurrection of the firstfruits. This is the order of events. This is how history will pan out.

God’s Plan of Redemption

Now, I will proceed to the second part of my argument. Why is the resurrection of the dead, a certainty as I have shown, a part of God’s plan of redemption? I hope and pray that through this second part, the Spirit will deepen and solidify your faith in God, your joy in Christ, and your hope and longing for your resurrection, as well as the resurrection of your loved ones who have fallen asleep in Christ.

Vv. 24–28 sheds light on God’s plan of redemption. These verses draw on Psalms 110 and 8. In Psalm 110, God promises the Messiah that he will reign until all his enemies are made his footstool. One of these enemies is death. Although death seems final, it is not; death must submit to the lordship of Jesus. In God’s plan of redemption, the Messiah will defeat all God’s enemies, including sin and death. If death were final, as people say, then God would not be supreme; death would be supreme. We do not merely rise from the dead as a consequence of Jesus’s resurrection; our resurrection is the bona fide attestation of Jesus’s final victory over death and God’s supremacy over all things. If death were final, we should worship death, either fearing it or embracing it. However, it is not final. It is an enemy of God. We ought to hate death, not seek it. We grieve death because it is an unnatural event, a consequence of sin. As Christians, we do not seek death, but we prepare to fall asleep and wake up in the presence of Jesus, only to wait to be joined to our bodies again and live in the new heavens and new earth forever.

Application

Now that I have proved that Jesus’s resurrection affects Christians, I am finally ready to argue that the only logical way to live is as a Christian, believing and longing for the resurrection. Since the unbeliever was willing to set aside the possibility of the resurrection for the sake of discussion, I, too, must be willing to grant death as a possible final state.

O unbeliever, if death is the final state, then why has man from the dawn of age sought the fountain of youth? There is an Ancient Near Eastern writing called the Epic of Gilgamesh. It is one of the oldest writings of the human race in our possession. Giglamesh, a ruler, discovers that death is the destiny of everyone. So, he prays to the gods to give him the ability to build a legacy so that others can remember him. The earliest long-form writing of the human race is about the certainty of death and what can be done to immortalize oneself. Why does the scientific industry spend millions on figuring out how to prolong life? Why is so much money spent on storing human consciousness in a machine, like that of the Blue Brain project? If death is final, then we should simply live like animals. We must give in to our appetite for food and sex. Isn’t that the point that Paul makes in v. 32?

But we immediately can see that we do not want to be animals, don’t we? The only super logical people in literature and film are villains. If they are the heroes of the story, we call such a story dark. Such characters embrace death as final and deny feelings, living like animals. And everyone else, even those who claim death is final, rally up to defeat this villain. Why? Because his actions hurt them since they do not desire to live like animals. It feels wrong to the human in them. Why do you and I have feelings? Doesn’t it show us that we are more than animals? We don’t just copulate, we long for companionship; we seek love. It hurts us when we lose friends or a lover. The death of a family member bereaves us. We do not simply move on. Shouldn’t we just move on since death is final? Why should we get married? Why should there be commitment in love? Because it hurts when it is not present. I could say so much here. We are not animals.

If this is what we have evolved to become, we have evolved poorly. We have evolved into creatures that are easily depressed. In order to overcome pain, we work hard to deny our feelings and numb our souls. A human cannot live like an animal and not feel pain. That pain tells us that we are made for something more than this life as we know it. Pain tells us that something has gone wrong in this world. We were created to enjoy life in God’s presence forever. All the joy and all the pain in this world point to it. Those who disregard this internal compass are irrational.

Since living like an animal is unacceptable, unbelievers chose to be gentlemanly pagans. They desire legacy, ambition, or quiet but productive lives, rather than anarchy. Neither legacy, ambition, nor even a quiet but productive life explains the purpose of life if death is final. If life is lived in the backdrop of certain death, it should either force us to live like animals or depress us. Their choice to escape anarchy is irrational.

However, we know for a fact that Jesus is risen from the dead. This fact also makes living like an animal irrational. When all facts, including Jesus’s resurrection, are considered, there is no other logical option than to live as a Christian, believing and longing for the resurrection because Scripture teaches that Christians will be raised from the dead. If the end is as Scripture says, the beginning of everlasting life, the quest of all mankind since the very dawn of time, then we must live as if it were so. Living in the light that we will be raised from the dead is the only logical way to live.

Instead of death depressing us, the prospect of resurrection lifts us and gives us the courage to face all sorts of dangers for the sake of the gospel. Paul faced beasts in Ephesus (v. 32). That is not gladiator-like courage! That does not come because death is final; it comes because death is not final. How so? If death were final, it would make no point to face a beast and possibly lose. No glory… no honor… no legacy…. But a Christian can be killed by a beast and receive glory and honor and immortality. May I encourage you to read the stories of martyrs like Polycarp or Perpetua?

Friends, I have shown you that Jesus’s resurrection affects Christians. This is theological. I have also shown you that you must live longing for the resurrection. This is logical. It is logical because it is based on facts, both historical and theological. Jesus was raised from the dead, and therefore, you, Christian, too, will be raised from the dead. So, do not continue to sin but strive to attain the resurrection from the dead.