1 Corinthians 15:1-19 - Faith’s Reality of Eternal Hope

1 Corinthians 15:1-19

The Risen Christ, Faith’s Reality (cf. Mark 16:9–20)

1 Moreover, brethren, I declare to you the gospel which I preached to you, which also you received and in which you stand, 2 by which also you are saved, if you hold fast that word which I preached to you—unless you believed in vain.

3 For I delivered to you first of all that which I also received: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, 4 and that He was buried, and that He rose again the third day according to the Scriptures, 5 and that He was seen by Cephas, then by the twelve. 6 After that He was seen by over five hundred brethren at once, of whom the greater part remain to the present, but some have fallen asleep. 7 After that He was seen by James, then by all the apostles. 8 Then last of all He was seen by me also, as by one born out of due time.

9 For I am the least of the apostles, who am not worthy to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the church of God. 10 But by the grace of God I am what I am, and His grace toward me was not in vain; but I labored more abundantly than they all, yet not I, but the grace of God which was with me. 11 Therefore, whether it was I or they, so we preach and so you believed.

The Risen Christ, Our Hope (cf. 1 Thess. 4:13–18)

12 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? 13 But if there is no resurrection of the dead, then Christ is not risen. 14 And if Christ is not risen, then our preaching is empty and your faith is also empty. 15 Yes, and we are found false witnesses of God, because we have testified of God that He raised up Christ, whom He did not raise up—if in fact the dead do not rise. 16 For if the dead do not rise, then Christ is not risen. 17 And if Christ is not risen, your faith is futile; you are still in your sins! 18 Then also those who have fallen asleep in Christ have perished. 19 If in this life only we have hope in Christ, we are of all men the most pitiable.

This great news we hold to by trusting God and taking Him at His word is the work of God to grant us that faith when we hear the gospel preached and receive Him in it.  It is never for nothing kmnot in vain, that in this faith in which we stand safe and secure from all alarms as we lean on His everlasting arms that are mighty to save and keep us as His own.  If we do not receive this word of hope then we remain lost in our sins and our shallow assent just short of faith is a vain mental assent masquerading as true saving belief.  What is the word we hear to believe and receive (John 1:12)?  Paul describes it here in this passage.  First of all, we hear that Christ died for our sins.  This is what the scriptures have told us all along (Genesis 3:15, Deuteronomy 18:15, Luke 24:26-27, Acts 17:2-3) concerning the suffering person and sacrificial work of Jesus Messiah, the Christ we come to know through this good word we hear.  Then after we hear He was put to death as a sacrifice to shed His blood in place of ours to cover our sin as God did in Eden in Adam and Eve’s skin coverings from the first sacrifice indicating what He would do on the cross, we hear according to scripture that Jesus was buried as dead in the body but raised Himself from death to life as He does us (John 5:24) through trust that He did this to save us in a certain hope of a future bodily resurrection as we have in our spirits now in this new birth of a new creation.  This resurrection of our Savior was witnessed by the apostles and many others as eyewitness proof of His work for us and was later seen by Paul on the road towards Damascus where Jesus showed Himself to the man who became an apostle long after the twelve and wrote these facts of truth for us to share in his witness and believe the gospel which he preached and wrote of here and elsewhere.  He saw the Lord in person as the other apostles and was chosen to witness the gospel to us in word and deed as recorded for us all who would follow him.  He made it clear that his salvation and calling were not because of his righteousness or because he deserved it, but as a persecutor of the faith and God’s children obtained it by the goodness of God’s grace and nothing more, just as each of us is called and saved by this same grace though repentance of our sin and faith (Acts 20:21) in Him.  He labored in that grace to bear witness that those who had ears to hear would do the work of God (John 6:29) by believing in the Son whom the Father sent by taking Him at His word and receiving Jesus as the Christ, the Son of God.  So men preach, and so we hear and believe.  How then can anyone doubt the facts of His resurrection on which the gospel of salvation is founded upon?  If Christ was not risen then we have no absolute hope of life after death either!  What a worthless message that would be!  If He did not rise from death to life, then what hope could we have after we die?  The resurrection is therefore the key to our hope of the gospel and its very solid foundation for effectual faith to salvation from our sin’s punishment.  We would remain in our sins for eternity, unable to partake of the tree of life lost in Eden’s Garden, and left only to be pitied for such a meaningless and ineffective faith in Christ.  Thankfully, we know that He arose in His own power over sin and death to free us by faith in His work for an eternity to come with God in Christ as witnessed by the internal presence of His Spirit confirming the firsthand truth to our spirits!  The risen Christ is faith’s reality and eternal hope.  This gives us the reason for Faith’s Reality of Eternal Hope in Christ’s death, burial, and resurrection!