Is Your Faith Futile?

 

If in Christ we have hoped in this life only, we are of all people most to be pitied.

1 Corinthians 15:19

 

Walk up to an unbeliever and tell them, ‘Jesus Christ is risen from the dead.’

What will they think? What will they say?

Will an unbeliever have hope in the resurrection? It is an issue that Paul addresses in writing to the church at Corinth.

We have just celebrated ‘Resurrection Sunday,’ which the world knows as Easter from ‘traditions;’ however Paul addressed the same questions one might ask you: questions like, ‘Is your faith futile?’

Isn’t your faith in the resurrection of a man from the dead (Jesus OR you or me…) rather useless and impractical?

In a word, NO.  Paul’s missing question (for unbelievers) would be:

Do you believe in God?

(Remember that Paul is writing to the church. We believe in God. Right?

IF yes; then all things are possible with God. [Matthew 19:26, Mark 9:23, Mark 10:27]

The Resurrection of the Dead

1 Corinthians 15 (English Standard Version)

12 Now if Christ is proclaimed as raised from the dead, how can some of you say that there is no resurrection of the dead?

So IF you believe in God, AND IF you believe the Bible is God’s word; do you believe that Jesus Christ is raised from the dead?

13 But if there is no resurrection of the dead, then not even Christ has been raised.

14 And if Christ has not been raised, then our preaching is in vain and your faith is in vain.

STOP here for a moment. Do you believe in God? YES. Do you believe that Jesus is the Son of God? NO.

(This is what some believe who claim God, but refuse to believe that God would send his only Son to the Cross as a living, human sacrifice for your sins and for mine.) Here is what unbelievers (and some with false claims as christians believe:

NO, God created man to live and die. Live for this day as God would wish.

NO judgment, NO hell, no accountability for sin beyond the grave… WE believe in a God of history, but not a God of the present (or of our future).  We may believe in a Jesus of history, too. But our soul dies with our body. No resurrection.

Paul goes on about the gospel (Good News), as if it too were a lie.

15 We are even found to be misrepresenting God, because we testified about God that he raised Christ, whom he did not raise if it is true that the dead are not raised. 16 For if the dead are not raised, not even Christ has been raised.

17 And if Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile and you are still in your sins.

It always comes back to that issue of SIN, doesn’t it?

Does GOD require a sacrifice for sin? Shall a mere man suffer consequence for sin at the hand of God?

Is God just? OR is God merciful to all (with justice for none)?

IF there is NO resurrection and NO eternal life; THEN life has no more meaning than a measurement of a man’s time and death no more meaning than the end of a meaningless life.

18 Then those also who have fallen asleep in Christ have perished.

19 If in Christ we have hope in this life only, we are of all people most to be pitied.

Is there no difference in the soul of a Christian and the soul of one who will not believe God?

Do the dead lie in the ground with lifeless souls rotting with bones and flesh?

OR

Does the soul find rest? Does the soul find sleep? (While the seed of flesh and blood waits in the ground for the germination of new Life of the resurrection?

20 But in fact Christ has been raised from the dead, the first fruits of those who have fallen asleep.

And now Paul refers to our sin, for which Christ paid the ransom of His Life on the Cross.

21 For as by a man came death, by a man has come also the resurrection of the dead. 22 For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ shall all be made alive.

Yes, the Resurrection of Christ Jesus is Good News! He IS the Lord over life, as He IS the Lord over death. The Cross would not be necessary without sin; as the resurrection would not be possible without Christ.

Flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God, nor does the perishable inherit the imperishable.

HE IS RISEN! Our faith in Christ Jesus as our Lord stands on the proof and evidence of Scripture. Our faith in the resurrection is not in vain; for we are not our flesh and bones, but living souls: born again in Christ Jesus our risen Lord!

53 For this perishable body must put on the imperishable, and this mortal body must put on immortality. 54 When the perishable puts on the imperishable, and the mortal puts on immortality, then shall come to pass the saying that is written:

“Death is swallowed up in victory.”
55 “O death, where is your victory?
O death, where is your sting?”

56 The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law. 57 But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.

58 Therefore, my beloved brothers (and beloved sisters in the Lord), be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that in the Lord your labor is not in vain.