Order in the resurrections
Key Verses: 1, 3-5, 14, 19, 22, 31, 42-43, 50, 51-52, 55,
This chapter contains perhaps the most concise synopsis of the Gospel message. Death for sins, burial, resurrection, appearances. This is what sets Jesus apart from other religious figures. Jesus claimed to be God (not that unusual for a religious figure) and then He proved it by rising from the dead. And when we trust Him based on these facts, our lives are changed. This is the gospel in a nutshell. So many other things can occupy our hearts and minds, but Jesus’ death, burial and resurrection are the core, must believe items. We must believe in the resurrection or our faith is empty. Without the resurrection, the gospel is not even a good idea or a good way to live. If there is no resurrection, then Christianity is a useless belief system, not worthy to be considered.
Christ’s death and resurrection reverses the effect Adam’s sin. Adam’s sin killed us all spiritually. His sin transferred to us through birth. Life comes in Christ through our second birth. And if the resurrection did not happen, Paul realizes that his life has been a waste, and he doesn’t want a wasted life.
Do you ever feel like you are wasting your life, that you lack direction and purpose? This is the very thing Paul wanted to avoid, and in Christ he found that direction and purpose. Without Christ there is no meaning. Without Christ suffering is just randomness getting personal. And if evil is just randomness, then good must also be randomness at work. But in Christ everything gets put into a larger scheme of things. Things can make sense.
Some of the Corinthian believers had specific questions about their own resurrection, like the physical characteristics of the new existence. Paul answers this by saying that it will be different than this existence, and we can’t really tell what that difference will be by looking at the present existence. All we know is that after death, things are different. Imperishable, glorious, powerful, spiritual; that is what we know about the future body.
All this physical world does not transmit to the spiritual. They are two separate realms. When we die, we leave behind this existence to pick up a new existence. We continue, but this physical existence does not. We are changed instantaneously. Death no longer holds any weight for us, because death itself has been conquered. Death simply marks the point in time between here and there. We know what is on the other side, so we can be at peace. Jesus gave us the victory over death.
The Arnold Journey 