According to the Scriptures
July 17
On May 3, I said that the Resurrection of Jesus is the “lynchpin” of the Christian faith; I referred to today’s Bible readings in 1 Corinthians 15. In this chapter, Paul drives home this point. Without Jesus’ Resurrection, there would be no Christian faith. If the Resurrection isn’t true, the wheels of the Christian faith fall off.
As we have read so far in the book of Acts, Jesus’ Resurrection was the center of the Apostles’ witness. They weren’t ashamed of the Resurrection because they knew that this was a completely new thing! Dead men don’t just come back to life! And everyone who was around the region of Jerusalem just a few years earlier knew about it. In today’s reading, Paul says that the Apostles saw a risen Jesus. Over five hundred people saw a risen Jesus at the same time, and finally, Paul says that he had even seen the risen Jesus years after the others had. (1 Corinthians 15:5–8) He added that some of the eyewitnesses were still alive. If someone were to interview all of the people to whom Paul referred, they would be forced to acknowledge Jesus’ Resurrection as a fact of history due to the overwhelming evidence.
But Paul said that Jesus’ Resurrection wasn’t just a freak accident of history. He ties the Resurrection and the atonement for our sins to the Hebrew Scriptures. (1 Corinthians 15:3–4; Psalm 16:10; Isaiah 53:10; Hosea 6:2)
Proactively countering the argument of the Sadducees’ disciples, Paul says that if there is no Resurrection, then Jesus was still dead. And if Jesus didn’t come back to life, then the Christian faith was false. And if Jesus didn’t come back to life, Paul’s readers were still in their sins, and their faith was worthless. He said it would be a pitiful situation if believers believed Jesus for just this life (and not for the future life, as well). (1 Corinthians 15:12–17)
In this chapter, Paul says that everyone inherited the original sin of the First Man, Adam, and that believers inherited the righteousness of the Second Man, Jesus. You can’t have the imputed[1] righteousness of Jesus without having the imputed sin of Adam. In other words, receiving the blessings of Jesus’ righteousness presupposes receiving the death penalty of Adam’s sin.
Application
There are many benefits of Jesus’ Resurrection for believers. Paul reminds the Corinthians – and us by extension – that Jesus’ Resurrection is not just for the Current Age. Jesus’ Resurrection gives us the definitive and eternal hope of life in the Age to Come.
[1] Impute means to credit to a person or a cause. (Merriam-Webster, Inc. Merriam-Webster’s Collegiate Dictionary., Eleventh ed., Merriam-Webster, Inc., 2003.)
Imputed righteousness is theological concept in Christian doctrine where the righteousness of Christ is attributed to believers, making them justified before God despite their own sinfulness. (from Logos Bible Software’s Factbook)