Dismantling Disbelief

If God’s people would, please
take your Bibles and turn to 1 Corinthians chapter 15. 1 Corinthians chapter 15, and whether
you’re just now joining us this morning or you’ve been with us
for some time, We should not be surprised to
come to 1 Corinthians 15 on Resurrection Sunday. If you’re a Christian
of almost any duration, you already know that this chapter
is Paul’s greatest articulation of the resurrection anywhere
in his writings. And so it can’t be too surprising
that we would land in this chapter on Resurrection Sunday, but It
is also a remarkable touch of God’s providence that we are
here and even in the particular passage in which we find ourselves. We started this study of this
epistle, 1 Corinthians, back in August of 2020. And since
then, we have been methodically working our way through this
dynamic letter. And about January, I saw that
it just might work out that we would be in 1 Corinthians 15
on Resurrection Sunday. And I neither slowed nor hastened
my pace in order to make that happen. But about a month ago,
I was certain that we would be somewhere in 1 Corinthians 15,
I just didn’t know exactly where. But in God’s good providence,
we not only find ourselves in 1 Corinthians 15 this morning,
but providentially we find ourselves in the heart of Paul’s discussion
of this glorious doctrine, an ambitious and impressive treatment
of one of the greatest doctrines in the Bible. And it seems very
clear that Paul himself initiates this discussion in 1 Corinthians
15.1. It’s not a question that the
Corinthians themselves had posed to Paul. Paul had already responded
to many of the Corinthians’ question. Rather, it was a report that
Paul had heard about this church that prompted him to address
the resurrection. And Paul opens in verses 1 through
4 by setting forth the gospel of the resurrection, as we have
begun to call it. And there in verses 1 through
4, he gives us a glimpse of heralding or proclaiming the good news,
the gospel of the resurrection. If you glance down just briefly,
he showed us the special intention by the gospel in verse one. I
make known to you, brethren, the gospel. That may have been
a little alarming to the Corinthian church, because Paul had already
preached the gospel to them, and essentially he’s having to
go back and start all over. At the end of verse one, coursing
into verse two, Paul presents to us the dynamic history with
the gospel. It wasn’t just that he had preached
the gospel once already, but they had also received the gospel. It established them in Christ. It saved them. Not only the intention
by the gospel and the history with the gospel, but the condition
in the gospel. And it’s a very alarming condition.
Look at verse two, through which or by which you are saved if
you hold fast the word which I preach. That’s a big if. The final portion of verses one
through four is the priority of the gospel. Paul said, I preach
the gospel as of first importance. And so Jesus Christ, he says,
was raised from the dead. It is good news, but as powerful
and direct as Paul’s opening address there is in those first
four verses, someone could still express unbelief in this wild
idea that someone could be raised from the dead. People could still
be in doubt. They could still desire some
kind of proof. And that’s exactly what Paul
provides in verses five through eight. It’s a list of those eyewitnesses
who would have been able and willing to testify to the resurrection
of Jesus Christ from the dead. He gives them proof of the resurrection.
And Paul reminds these believers in verses three and four that
he had preached the gospel of the resurrection because it was
of first importance This isn’t just one of so many doctrines
to which Christians may hold. It was of first importance, and
he reminds the Corinthians, you believed it. You were saved by
it. And please, if you would just
look down at his summary in verse 11, whether then it was I or
they, Whether it was any of the great host of witnesses willing
to come and testify about the resurrection, Cephas, Peter,
or any of the other apostles, or any of the more than 500 additional
witnesses, or James, or even me, says Paul, so we preached,
and so you believed. Or did you? That’s essentially
what Paul says in those first 11 verses. Because Paul’s sentence,
Paul’s next sentence must have been nothing short of disturbing
to the Corinthians. Would you just glance down initially
here this morning at verse 12? Now if Christ is preached, that
he has been raised from the dead, And he is, and he has been. How
do some among you say that there is no resurrection of the dead? And that question alone would
have driven all thoughts out of their mind. The spotlight
of heaven was focused upon them and instantly anyone who taught
this, this foolishness, Anyone who believed this, that there
was no resurrection of the body, yes, anyone who had even entertained
this viewpoint would have been immediately isolated, called
into account for capitulating into error. This concern about
their ideas about the resurrection is the very reason for this entire
chapter. And if some of them had tolerated,
put up with Paul’s review of the gospel in verses one through
11, they could no longer pretend to go along with Paul’s little
lesson. They suddenly found themselves
at a great theological crossroad. And this would be the moment
of decision. There could be no more waffling, No more neutrality,
no more wondering, no more doubting about the resurrection. The moment
was at hand. Would you read along with me?
Beginning in verse 12, and we’ll course all the way down through
verse 19. Now, if Christ is preached that
he has been raised from the dead, how do some among you say that
there is no resurrection of the dead? But if there is no resurrection
of the dead, not even Christ has been raised. And if Christ
has not been raised, then our preaching is in vain. Your faith also is vain. Moreover, we are even found to
be false witnesses of God because we testified against God that
He raised Christ, whom He did not raise, if, in fact, the dead
are not raised. For if the dead are not raised,
not even Christ has been raised. And if Christ has not been raised,
your faith is worthless. You are still in your sins. than those also who have fallen
asleep in Christ have perished. If we have hoped in Christ in
this life only, we are of all men most to be pitied. The question that Paul advances
here, how do some among you say that there is no resurrection
of the dead, is a soul-piercing question. It goes to their core
beliefs. What they believe about the afterlife
would affect their entire spiritual life. And so their unrefined
views about there not being a resurrection is a problem of the first order. And it is a problem that Paul
cannot ignore. If left unchecked, this error
would spread throughout this already troubled church. For
some to be teaching this position, no resurrection, and for others
to be adopting this viewpoint, no resurrection, was deeply troubling
for the very one who deemed the doctrine of Christ’s resurrection
to be of first importance. Let’s begin, if we could, with
Paul’s very direct challenge of the Corinthian church there
in verse 12. He just presents to us a denial
of the idea of the resurrection. That’s what was going around
filtering through the church in Corinth. And Paul wants to
expose the absurdity of doubting the resurrection. That’s his
course. Look again at verse 12. Now,
if Christ is preached that he’s been raised from the dead, how
do some among you say there is no resurrection of the dead?
After this glorious declaration of the resurrection in the opening
11 verses, Paul brings up a concern for discussion. That some people
among the Corinthian church had somehow arrived at this position
that there was no resurrection of the dead. And so here they
were, the Corinthian church, found themselves suddenly caught
between two worlds. On the one hand, that which they
had heard, the stupendous report that God had raised Jesus from
the dead, and on the other hand, the conventionalists who shook
their heads and grumbled, impossible. To this day, this is how the
godless think of miracles, impossible, even in the face of plentiful
evidence such as was the resurrection. And these men of the world, doubters,
reduced Christianity to no more than moralism that affected this
life only. It’s hard to imagine that such
a line of thought could have taken root in the church so soon. Think of it. We know Paul’s epistle was one
of his very earliest letters. one of the first books that would
eventually become part of the New Testament. Paul wrote this
letter in about the mid-50s A.D., which means that a mere 20 years
or so had only a mere 20 years or so had passed before this
despicable false teaching had already found favor in the church.
But such is the nature of pernicious error, it comes in quickly and
subtly, and then it spreads like wildfire. On the face of it,
it’s hard to tell whether the Corinthians doubted only the
general resurrection, the resurrection of people, or the resurrection
of Christ as well. Historically, there were some
who denied the general resurrection of our bodies. And they would
say that Christ may have been raised and even may have ascended
bodily. But in glory, he returned to
his pre-incarnate state as God. And so that argument has no effect
on humanity, they say. But regardless of exactly what
it was the Corinthians were believing, in some measure they were doubting
the resurrection. Specifically, that even if Christ
was raised, they themselves did not look forward to such hope. And this thinking reduced Christianity
to no more than a self-help philosophy. Live your best life now. Be a
good person, that kind of thing. This life is all there is, they
said. So we should really be nice people
while we’re here. That’s the purpose of Christianity. That’s the extent of our religion.
You see, people don’t often think through the logical implications
of what it is they believe. It’s not easy to specifically
identify who these false teachers were because there were so many
different kinds of arguments against the resurrection that
were constantly and still are thrown at the idea. We know that
the Jewish Sadducees and the Greek Epicureans were materialists. In other words, they believed
that humans are material only. no eternal soul, and they ceased
to exist at death, so believed the Epicureans. The Sadducees
believed in a soul, but believed that the body, the physical body,
just disintegrated at death. Any hope for life after death
was an arrogant and hopeless longing. You might remember that
In Acts chapter 4, one of the very first big skirmishes that
the church faced was with the Sadducees over the issue of preaching
the resurrection. Not just Christ’s resurrection,
but the resurrection of our bodies at death. So strong was the Sadducees’
opinion against a resurrection that they were ready to do battle
with their fellow Jews, the Pharisees. And then there were the Stoics.
The Stoics had a little bit different view. The Stoics were the ancient
pantheists. They believed that all was God. God was everything and everywhere,
and everyone is just kind of absorbed into the deity at their
death. So they didn’t believe in the
doctrine of Christian resurrection at all. And then there were the
Platonists. Plato’s disciples, they believed
that physical matter was the root cause of all evil. And it
stands in the way of true goodness and godhood. And so a bodily
resurrection was unthinkable to them. If matter was evil,
why would a liberated soul want to be restored to a corrupt physical
body? Eternal life was okay, but not
with a physical body. And so it was among the Gentiles
who really didn’t know what they believed sometimes. When Paul
preached in Athens, you might recall, he said that God has
fixed a day in which he will judge the world in righteousness
through a man whom he has appointed, having furnished proof to all
men by raising him from the dead. And with that one phrase, Paul
created an uproar. Verse 32 says, when they heard
of the resurrection of the dead, some began to sneer. Yeah, right. Like somebody can rise from the
dead. And then, there were just the
run-of-the-mill heathen, who mocked the very idea of life
after death, especially of a savior that was dead, buried, and allegedly
raised, Either way, whether they considered the idea of a bodily
resurrection absurd or impossible, they denied the bodily resurrection,
all of them. And so in some measure, there
were some in the Corinthian church who were teaching and some who
were imbibing such teaching. that there was no resurrection
of the body from the dead. Souls might live on, but there
would be no resurrection of the body. The idea was absurd to
them. Well, all that to say that it
should not come as a surprise that there were false teachers
among the Corinthians casting doubt and disbelief on the resurrection. And that’s Paul’s challenge.
How do some among you say there is no resurrection of the dead?
If it is true there is no resurrection of the dead, then there are some
serious consequences that have to come with that. Seven of them by my count in
this passage. And we find these seven logical
conclusions in verses 13 through 19. And Paul’s masterful use of these
consequences, piece by piece, dismantles a disbelief in the
resurrection that was so prevalent in Corinth. These so-called teachers
are never identified, but their false teaching about the resurrection
is not only answered, it is utterly destroyed by Paul’s discussion
here in these verses. Paul begins exposing the absurdity
of doubting the resurrection. And to begin with, he says that
a denial of the resurrection, there in verse 13, first of all,
destroys the testimony of Christ’s resurrection. Look at verse 13. But if there is no resurrection
of the dead, not even Christ has been raised. It’s a simple
argument. There are several possible positions
with regard to their doubt of the resurrection of Christ, that
he was not raised bodily. Only his spirit was raised. And
you know from the accounts in the gospels, the empty tomb destroys
that argument. Christ was indeed raised bodily. Second argument is that Christ
may well have been raised from the dead and even ascended in
his heavenly body, but in glory he returned to his pre-incarnate
state. The third attempt to destroy
the doctrine of the resurrection is that while he was raised bodily,
no one else is. There’s two different standards. Christ was raised Our bodies
will not. And Paul seems to be addressing
this last one, but his answer encompasses any form of the denial
of Christ’s bodily resurrection. Paul basically says you can’t
have it both ways. Either flesh can be resurrected
or it cannot. And if you say that there is
no bodily resurrection, then that must necessarily include
Christ. And that Christ was not, as he
claimed, resurrected from the dead. You can’t have it both
ways. But that immediately leads to
a second dreadful conclusion. A denial of the resurrection
not only destroys the testimony of Christ’s resurrection, it
makes our proclamation of Christ’s resurrection pointless. Look
at verse 14. If Christ has not been raised,
then our preaching is vain. The logical conclusion is built
on the previous verse, verse 13. If there’s no resurrection
of the dead, not even Christ has been raised. And if Christ
has not been raised, then our preaching is vain. What point
would there be in proclaiming a gospel that was no good news
at all? It did not have the message of
hope and forgiveness, because if Jesus Christ was not raised
from the dead, then there is no hope for humanity. If death
with no resurrection was the end result, then Jesus is just
one more victim of death, not the conqueror of it, as Scripture
presents Him to be. And if this were true, then there
is no gospel, there is no good news to proclaim. What would
be the point of preaching anything at all? Paul’s word here, vain, as often
translated in the scriptures, is empty-handed, pointless. It’s empty and void of all power
and purpose. And that leads immediately to
a third, most alarming conclusion. The denial of the resurrection
not only destroys the testimony of Christ’s resurrection and
makes our proclamation of Christ’s resurrection pointless, but it
renders our faith in Christ empty. Look at the end of verse 14.
If Christ has not been raised, then our preaching is in vain,
your faith also is vain. As pointless as preaching, A
dead Savior believing in such would be equally pointless. If
Christ has not been raised, your faith also is vain. So if Christ was not raised from
the dead, then he’s still dead. And a dead Savior is no Savior
at all. And he can be no real benefit
to anyone. If Christ is not raised, then
he is not Lord. If Christ is not raised, then
he is not ascended to his heavenly father. If Christ is not raised,
he is not at this moment seated at the sovereign position of
authority at his father’s right hand. And any belief in a deceased
deity, no matter how moral his earthly life, is empty and pointless. All faith would be purposeless
and ineffective. But Paul builds further still
on their faulty premise. Would you look at verse 15? Because
there he says that a denial of the resurrection not only renders
our faith in Christ empty, it embellishes Christ’s witnesses,
or probably establishes Christ’s witnesses as liars. Look at verse 15. Moreover, we
are even found to be false witnesses of God, because we testified
against God that He raised Christ, whom He did not raise, if in
fact the dead are not raised. as the Corinthians were inclined
to believe, there was no resurrection, then anyone who dared to testify
to this fact would be considered a liar. This time Paul builds
his argument from the bottom up. He sets for the conclusion
first, we are found to be false witnesses of God. With the premise
last, if in fact the dead are not raised. But the end result
is the same. A denial of the resurrection
has disastrous consequences. This time, it establishes the
so-called witness as false. A false witness. This testimony cannot be accidental. It is false testimony deliberately
offered as true. A testimony of the worst kind. Something where if you were to
do it in court, you’d go to prison if you were discovered. Paul
graphically portrays such witnesses coming on God’s behalf. Witnesses
of God. But those who by their testimony
are found to be against God. It’s a masterful sentence. They
stood, he says, and bore witness, ascribing to God something that
was not true. Not just an inaccurate report,
but flagrant falsehood. These witnesses opened their
mouths, Whether Cephas, or the 500, or Paul, or any of the other
apostles who would testify to the fact that Christ was raised
from the dead, they saw him with their own eyes. If it’s not true, then they’re
liars. These witnesses opened their mouths, and what came forth
was not just a lie, it was blasphemy. Because they were attributing
to God something that had not happened. They claim to be speaking on
God’s behalf, but if there’s no resurrection of the dead,
they were found to be working against God himself. Now as bad
as that is, empty preaching, empty faith, blasphemous false
witness, can I tell you that it gets even worse? Glance at verse 16 and 17. Because there he says a denial
of the resurrection not only destroys the testimony of Christ’s
resurrection, makes our proclamation vain, renders our faith vain,
establishes Christ’s witness as liars, but number five, it
nullifies the idea of Christ’s atonement. He paid for nothing. He bought nothing. Look at verse 16. If the dead
are not raised, not even Christ has been raised. And if Christ
has not been raised, your faith is worthless. You are still in
your sins. For a fact, Paul repeats the
same reasoning from verses 13 and 14. It’s identical. And he builds to a mighty crescendo
here. If the dead are not raised, not
even Christ has been raised. And if Christ has not been raised,
your faith is worthless and you are still in your sins. This is the worst possible consequence,
people. If we should believe that the
dead are not raised, if Christ has not been raised,
we are dead in our sins. Back in verse 14, Paul used the
word here, vain, kinos. But here in verse 17, he employs
a different word, matia, useless, worthless, futile. In Acts 14, it’s the same word
that Paul used to refer to the false gods, vain things, worthless. Gods that could do nothing. because
we’re no living gods. He uses the same word in Titus
to describe foolish controversies and genealogies and strife and
disputes about the law, worthless, pointless. James uses the word
to describe the faith of the man who does not bridle his tongue,
worthless. Peter uses the word to describe
our former sinful life, futile, worthless. No faith, no faith, no matter
how passionate, how sincere in such a savior can save us from
so powerful a foe as sin if there is no resurrection from the dead.
Paul employs Jesus’ own words here in John 8. Jesus warned,
I go away and you will seek me and you will die in your sin.
A dead Christ has atoned for no one’s sins and has redeemed
no one, and all are still dead in their trespasses and sins.
He could not justly be called a Savior, then could he? Because
without an atonement for sin, he could redeem no one. But Paul is not finished enumerating
the logical consequences of a denial of the resurrection. Would you
look also at verse 18? A denial of the resurrection,
number six, consigns humanity to eternal destruction. It seals
it. There’s no hope. Look at verse
18. Then those who have fallen asleep
in Christ have perished. This consequence, again, is built
on the previous. If we are still dead in our sins,
when we die, we die without atonement for our sin and we perish in
that sin. Paul simply uses a convenient
Jewish euphemism for death here, fallen asleep. He’s not talking
about a nap. He’s talking about all of those
who have gone before us into death. And note, note the distinction
between death, having fallen asleep, is very separate from
perishing. Death is inevitable. Perishing
is not. Everyone will die. But only those
who die in their sins are supposed to perish. Perishing is just another way
of speaking about God’s judgment upon sinners. And so not only
for us, but for all who have already died in Christ, it was
pointless. Their faith was vain. If Christ
did not rise from the dead, then they died believing a lie and
they perish eternally. And Paul’s description here is
Open-ended. It refers to anyone and everyone
who ever died hoping in Christ. The redemption was not secured.
Their sins were not paid for. Their eternity was not secure.
It would include everyone, every believing individual throughout
history, including those saints enshrined in the Hall of Faith,
Hebrews chapter 11, right? Hebrews chapter 11, of whom it
was written, all these died in faith without receiving the promises. But having seen them and welcomed
them from a distance, you know what that means? They had only
a scintilla, only a glimpse of Christ. Only a glimpse that God
was going to provide a Messiah. And in Him, they placed their
faith. On Him, they set their hope. And they died and their hopes
were dashed. If Christ was not raised from
the dead, it consigns all of humanity to eternal destruction.
Because even these would discover that it was not true. And they
would have to spend a Christless eternity in hell. And Paul lists
one last consequence of a denial of the resurrection. A denial of the idea of the resurrection
destroys the testimony of Christ’s resurrection. It makes our proclamation
of Christ’s resurrection pointless. It renders our faith in Christ
empty. It establishes Christ’s witnesses
as liars. It nullifies the idea of Christ’s
atonement. It consigns humanity to eternal
destruction. And seven, It makes believers
in Christ the world’s biggest victims. Would you look at verse
19? If we hoped in Christ in this
life only, we are of all men most to be
pitied. If Christ were not raised, not only have we believed in
him to no purpose, we received no salvation from it, but we
have proclaimed Him to no purpose, we have served Him to no purpose,
we have suffered for Him to no purpose. All of our lives as
Christians would count for less than nothing if there is no resurrection
from the dead. Even the hard-hearted people
of this world would have to look on us as believers with pity.
Just mournful sadness for the overwhelming disappointment to
find out at the end that it was all false, a sham, empty. No real savior, no real salvation,
no mercy or grace. What an unspeakable horror. We would feel duped. We would
feel cheated, swindled, and that by God himself. but glance down at verse 20,
would you? The very next verse, verse 20,
where Paul counters, but now Christ has been raised from the
dead. And just as Paul initiated this discussion in verse 12,
this whole string of verses, verse 13 through 19, is based
upon a very big if. If Christ is preached that he
has been raised from the dead, how do some among you say there
is no resurrection of the dead? Paul is challenging the idea
from the very start. And he articulates these seven
logical conclusions. If you say there is no resurrection,
you must also say these things. But now Christ has been raised. from the dead, and those seven
logical conclusions are immediately turned on their head. Christ
has been raised from the dead, and that means that a Christian’s
testimony is true and right. If Christ was resurrected bodily,
that is, in the flesh, then earthly bodies can be raised, raised
from the dead. Or to state it more directly,
Jesus Christ, God incarnate, fully God and fully man, was
raised from the dead in bodily form. Jesus Christ
experienced, if you think of it, he not only experienced conception
and birth, but hunger and thirst, fatigue and agony, death and
resurrection. Ultimately, he was brutalized
and murdered. He wept and bled. He died and
was buried. And it’s here the miracle began.
He died and was buried, but he was raised again, Paul says in
verse four, according to the scriptures. And there we already
saw that Paul isn’t referencing any New Testament writings when
he mentions the scriptures. Here he’s speaking of passages
like Psalm 1610, the Old Testament. You will not abandon my soul
to Sheol, nor will you allow your Holy One to undergo decay.
This is the very passage that Peter cites in his first sermon
in Acts chapter two. That Psalm was written by David
seemingly about himself. But Peter declares that it could
not possibly apply to him because David was buried and his body
decayed like every other man. He says the patriarch David died
and was buried. But David looked ahead and spoke
of the resurrection of Christ. David was prophesying when he
wrote Psalm 1610. And so Paul’s point here is that
while Jesus died as a man, he was raised by divine power in
his fleshly body, also as a man. And if Christ was raised, then
the dead can be raised. The second argument, Christ has
been raised from the dead, and that means that our preaching
about Christ’s resurrection is not in vain. that anyone who
truly calls upon the risen savior for forgiveness shall be saved. Jesus himself staked his entire
reputation on his claim to rise again. And because he was raised
from the dead, not only was in his integrity upheld, but so
are those who testify of his resurrection. In Romans chapter
one, the opening of that section, he speaks of Christ, his son,
who was declared the son of God with power by the resurrection
from the dead. It was God’s stamp of approval
on his sacrifice for us on the cross. The third argument also
disintegrates. Christ has been raised from the
dead, and that means that our faith is not in vain. that Jesus
Christ is alive, He’s risen from the dead. Even this morning,
He sits at the right hand of God, and He is in absolute control
of all creation. Romans chapter 6 says, if we
become united with Him in the likeness of His death, remember
that image of baptism, dying with Christ, certainly we shall
also be in the likeness of his resurrection. We will rise. We will be with Christ in eternity. The fourth argument also disintegrates. Christ has been raised from the
dead, and that means that the great testimony of believers
from the very beginning until now is true. Not false. That we bear witness to truth,
not lies. The argument about being a false
witness crumbles. If it were a hoax, why wouldn’t
Jesus himself have exposed such a hoax? Why were faithful believers
willing to suffer and even die if theirs was a false witness?
If Christ’s resurrection wasn’t true, then even he would have
to be counted a liar because he presented himself to doubting
Thomas. and underscored his resurrection
from the dead. The fifth argument also disintegrates. Christ has been raised from the
dead and that means that our sins have been paid for in full. There’s nothing that anyone can
ever do to assuage God’s anger for their sin. But Christ has. Romans 4 says, those who believe
in him who raised Jesus our Lord from the dead, he who was delivered
over for our transgressions was raised because of our justification. The sixth argument is also destroyed. Christ has been raised from the
dead. And that means that we have a firm hope and that all
who have died in Christ are already enjoying the Savior’s presence.
Isn’t that a fantastic thought? Their souls will one day be reunited
with their physical bodies. The seventh argument is also
destroyed. Christ has been raised from the
dead and that means that not only are we as believers not
to be pitied in this life, We have a glorious hope of eternal
life with our already risen Savior. Paul prayed for the Colossians
that they would have their eyes open to see the riches of the
glory of this mystery. We are happier, more joyful,
more hopeful than any other people. We do not need the mere pity
and compassion of men because we already enjoy the redeeming
mercy of God. As Paul said in Romans 5, we
exalt in the hope of the glory of God. And this joy is not only
a joy about our future, it’s a present joy. Because the mercy of God’s redemption,
the forgiveness of sins, a restored relationship with the holy God,
the privilege of worship and service to Christ and his people,
It’s ours. We have not hoped in Christ for
this life only. We enjoy the privileges of God
even now. Would you rejoice before him
as we go to him in prayer?