Great Themes of the Bible
Resurrection
supposition of His death and resurrection. These are the saving truths of our holy religion. The death and revival, the crucifixion of our Redeemer, and His conquest over death, are the very source of our spiritual life and hopes.
Now concerning these saving truths, observe: (a) That they must be retained in mind; they must be held fast, so the word is translated (Heb. x. 23), 'Let us hold fast the profession of faith." The saving truths of the Gospel must be fixed on our mind, revolved much in our thoughts, and maintained and held fast to the end, if we would be saved. They will not save us if we do not attend to them and yield to their power, and continue to do so to the end.
(6) That we believe in vain unless we continue and persevere in the faith of the Gospel. We shall be never the better of a temporary faith. Nay, we shall aggravate our guilt by relapsing into infidelity; and in vain is it to profess Christianity, or our faith in Christ, if we deny the resurrection; for this must imply and involve the denial of his resurrection (with all its consequences). And take away this, you make nothing of Christianity, you leave nothing for faith or hope to fix upon.
8. CHRIST IS RISEN INDEED
Having confirmed the truth of our Saviour's resurrection, the apostle goes on to refute those among the Corinthians that said there would be none. ''If Christ be preached that he rose from the dead, how say some among you that there is no resurrection of the dead?"' (verse 12). It seems from this passage and the course of the argument that there were some among the Corinthians that thought the resurrection an impossibility. This was a common sentiment among the heathens. But against this the apostle produces incontestable matter of fact, namely, the resurrection of Christ, and goes on to argue against them from the absurdities that must follow from their principle. As: (a) "If there be," can be, "no resurrection of the dead, then Christ ts not risen" (verse 13); and again, 'If the dead rise not"', cannot be raised or recovered to life, ''then is not Christ raised'"' (verse 16). And yet it was foretold by ancient prophecies that He should rise; and it has been proved by multitudes of eyewitnesses that He is risen. And will you say, will any among you dare to say, that is not, cannot be, which God long ago said shall be, and is now undoubted matter of fact?
(b) It would follow hereupon that the preaching and faith of the Gospel would be vain. 'If Christ be not risen, then is our preaching vain and your faith vain"' (verse 14). This supposition admitted would destroy the principal evidence of Christianity, and so: (i) Make preaching vain. '"'We'"' apostles "should be found false witnesses of God.' We pretend to be God's witnesses for this truth, and to work miracles by His power in confirmation of it, and are all the while deceivers; liars for God, if in his name, and by power received from Him, we go forth and publish, and assert a thing false in fact and impossible to be true. And does not this make us the vainest fellows in the world, and our office and ministry the vainest and most useless thing in the world? What end could we propose to ourselves in undertaking this hard and hazardous service, if we knew our religion stood on no better foot, nay, if we were not well assured of the contrary? What should we preach for? Would not our labour be wholly in vain? We can have no very favourable expectations in this life, and we could have none beyond it. If Christ be not risen, the Gospel is a jest. It is chaff and emptiness.
(ii) This supposition would make the faith of Christians vain, as well as the labours of ministers: "If Christ be not raised, your faith is vain; ye are yet in your sins"' (verse 16); yet under the guilt, and condemnation of sin, because it is through His death and sacrifice for sin alone that forgiveness is to be had. "'We have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins"' (Eph. i. 7). No remission of sins is to be had but through the shedding of His blood. And had His blood been shed, and His life taken away without ever being restored, what evidence could we have had that through Him we should have justification (be accepted as righteous through the imputation of His righteousness) and eternal life? Had he remained under the power of death, how should He have delivered us from its power? And how vain a thing is faith in Him, upon this supposition! He must "rise for our justification, who was delivered for our sins"', or in vain we look for any such benefit by Him. There had been no justification nor salvation if Christ had not risen; and must not faith in Christ be vain and of no signification if He be still among the dead?
(iii) Another absurdity following from this supposition is that "those who are fallen asleep in Christ are perished". If there be no resurrection, they cannot rise, and therefore are lost; even those who have died in the Christian faith and for it.
It is plain from this that those among the Corinthians who denied the resurrection meant thereby a state of future retribution and not merely the revival of the flesh. They took death to be the destruction and extinction of the man, and not merely of the bodily life; for otherwise the apostle could not infer the utter loss of those that slept in Jesus, from the supposition they would never rise more, or that they had no hopes in Christ after life (they had died in a faith destitute of foundation if the resurrection of Christ was not true, and thus they were utterly lost) (verse 20); for they might have hope of happiness for their minds if these survived their bodies; and this would prevent the limiting their hopes in Christ to this life only. Upon supposition there is no resurrection in your sense, no after state and life, then dead Christians are quite lost. How vain a thing were our faith and religion upon this supposition!
(iv) This would infer that Christ's ministers and servants were ''of all men most miserable", as having hope in Him in this life only (verse 19); which is another absurdity that would follow from the asserting no resurrection. Their condition who hope in Christ would be worse than that of other men. Who "hope in Christ"' (trust or confide in him).
g. THE CHRISTIAN'S HOPE
All that believe in Christ have hope in Him; all who believe in Him as Redeemer hope for redemption and salvation by Him. But if there be no resurrection, nor state of future recompense (which was intended by those who denied the resurrection at Corinth), their hope in Him must be limited to this life. And if all their hopes in Christ lie within the compass of this life they are in much worse condition than the rest of mankind, especially at that time, and under those circumstances, in which the apostle wrote. For then they had no countenance nor protection from the rulers of the world, but were hated and persecuted by all men. Preachers and private Christians therefore had a hard lot if in this life only they had hope in Christ. Better be any thing than a Christian upon these terms. For in this world they are hated, and hunted, and abused, stripped of all worldly comforts, and exposed to all manner of sufferings. They fare much harder than other men in this life, and yet have no further nor better hopes.
And is it not absurd for one whe believes in Christ to admit a principle that involves so absurd an inference? Can that man have faith in Christ who can believe concerning Him that He will leave his faithful servants, whether ministers or others, in a worse state than His enemies?
SERMON OUTLINE
THE RESURRECTION OF CHRIST
I. THE IMPORTANCE OF THE RESURRECTION
(a) Because Christ Appealed to Its Evidence (6) Because Our Salvation Depends Upon It
II. THE PRooFs OF THE RESURRECTION (John xx) (a) Mary's Discovery of the Empty Tomb (i) The notion she entertained (ii) The narrative she retailed (b) The Apostles' Discovery of the Grave-clothes (i) Christ abandoned His grave-clothes because He rose to die no more (ii) Christ abandoned His grave-clothes because He is now clothed with robes of glory
III. THe Doctrine oF THE RESURRECTION (1 Cor. xv) (a) If Christ be not Risen (i) There is no resurrection of the dead (ii) The preaching of the Gospel is vain (iii) Faith is rendered void (iv) The Christian dead have perished (6) Now is Christ Risen from the Dead (i) Christ's resurrection the firstfruits of our resurrection (ii) Christ's resurrection the foundation of our hope