Why the Resurrection? Day Nine/Reason Nine

As Our Guarantee of the Resurrection of Life

The apostle Paul was certain that Christ had been physically raised from the dead. His language conveys his certainty. Paul Himself saw Christ as he traveled to Damascus (Acts 9:1-9), and a great number of fellow disciples testified that they too had seen the risen Lord (1 Corinthians 15:3-8). Paul devoted a great amount of space in 1 Corinthians to securing the Corinthians’ faith, that they too would be resurrected because Christ was raised.

As Paul argues his points of the surety of Jesus’ physical resurrection, he comes to the point where he plainly asserts the fact of Christ’s resurrection: “But now Christ has been raised from the dead, the first fruits of those who are asleep”(1 Corinthians 15:20). We as Christians are not to be pitied because we have not hoped in vain because, without a doubt in Paul’s mind, Jesus has been physically raised from the dead, and we will be too.

There is, however, a proper and necessary order to the resurrection: “In Christ all will be made alive. But each in his own order: Christ the first fruits, after that those who are Christ’s at His coming” (1 Corinthians 15:22-23). All Christians, including those who have died, will be resurrected at Christ’s return. While this is not yet experienced, Christ has been raised, and He is the “first fruits” from the dead.

As in the Old Covenant, where the Israelites would bring the first fruits of the harvest to God as a sacrifice, so Jesus was the accepted sacrifice to God, and He is the first to be resurrected (cf. Leviticus 23:10-11). As the sheaf of the first fruits of the crop “was not only prior to the main harvest but was also an assurance that the rest of the harvest was coming,” so it is with Christ. “He preceded his people in his bodily resurrection and he is also the guarantee of their resurrection at his second coming.”[1] Because Christ has been resurrected, you are guaranteed to be resurrected “if you hold fast the word which [was] preached to you” (1 Corinthians 15:2). If you remain in Christ as a member of His body, the Church, you will take part in the resurrection of life (Revelation 20:4-6). Christ, being both the head of the church (Ephesians 5:23) and the guarantee to all who trust in Him, was the first to be resurrected, as is His right, being of a higher rank. In the same way, all the faithful will be resurrected at His coming.

“Now if we have died with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with Him, knowing that Christ, having been raised from the dead, is never to die again; death no longer is master over Him. For the death that he died, He died to sin once for all; but the life that He lives, He lives to God. Even so consider yourselves to be dead to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus” (Romans 6:8-11). Christ has put on immortality, and He shall never die again. Since He is God’s guarantee to us of what we shall be at His coming (cf. Colossians 3:1-4), we can trust God that we shall live eternally with Him. And so just as Christ has died to the power and curse of sin, we too have confidence to kill sin in ourselves that we might live to the glory of God and attain the goal of our faith: eternal life (cf. 1 Peter 1:9).

“Therefore, my beloved brethren, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that your toil is not in vain in the Lord” (1 Corinthians 15:58). The guarantee of the resurrection gives us confidence in the face of all trials, and it gives us reason to persevere under any and all circumstances (cf. Romans 5:2-5, James 1:2-4). It also guarantees us that our earthly labors are not done in vain. We shall receive the reward for our labors at Christ’s return (cf. 2 Timothy 2:7-8). Therefore, we can, and should, desire for Christ to return and to establish the fullness of His kingdom.

The resurrection displayed the power of God and the person of Christ. The whole of the Christian faith rests upon Christ being resurrected from the dead. It is the resurrection that gave Paul the confidence to proclaim, and for us to say along with him, “I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek. For in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith to faith; as it is written, ‘But the righteous man shall live by faith” (Romans 1:16-17).

The same power that raised Christ from the grave (cf. Romans 1:4), is the same “power of God” to transform lives and save all who believe. The same power that raised Christ is the same power that regenerates us, forgives us, keeps us, and will resurrect us from the grave at Christ’s return. We can thus proclaim the gospel to all, trusting in God to save the hearers: for “faith comes from hearing, and hearing by the word of Christ” (Romans 10:17). The power of the gospel, “the word of Christ,” is the power to bring about faith in its hearers and to effectually save them. We should thus not be ashamed to proclaim the gospel; “For the promise [of the gospel for the forgiveness of sins and the indwelling of the Holy Spirit] is for… as many as the Lord our God will call to Himself” (Acts 2:39). The gospel “is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes.”

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[1] Frank E. Gaebelein, Expositor’s Bible Commentary, 1 Corinthians 15:20.