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? But if there is no resurrection of the dead, not even Christ has been raised; and if Christ has not been raised, then our preaching is vain, your faith also is vain. Moreover we are even found to be false witnesses of God, because we testified against God that He raised Christ, whom He did not raise, if in fact the dead are not raised. For if the dead are not raised, not even Christ has been raised; and if Christ has not been raised, your faith is worthless; you are still in your sins. Then those also who have fallen asleep in Christ have perished. If we have hoped in Christ in this life only, we are of all men most to be pitied.
But now Christ has been raised from the dead, the first fruits of those who are asleep. For since by a man came death, by a man also came the resurrection of the dead. For as in Adam all die, so also 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, then comes the end, when He hands over the kingdom to the God and Father, when He has abolished all rule and all authority and power. For He must reign until He has put all His enemies under His feet. The last enemy that will be abolished is death.
My thoughts -
I will die. My body will perish. This is true of me. This is true of you. This is true of us all. I try to ignore that fact. I don't like to think about it. I don't want to acknowledge it. I want death to just go away. Even more than that I want death to never have been.
We preach Christ crucified. That is an amazing thing, isn't it? Jesus, who was/is God in the flesh, died. The author of life itself died. And not just died, but died for a purpose. Jesus died to take away our sins. Jesus died to reconcile us to God.
But we do not just preach Christ crucified. For, as amazing as that is without the resurrection it would be a weird, almost tragic story. Christ died. We're redeemed. The end?
No. We preach Christ raised from the dead. We preach Christ ascended into heaven. We preach Christ at the right hand of God and interceding for us. We preach Christ the Lamb of God come to take away the sins of the world and open the gates to welcome us into abundant and eternal life.
And yet we die. Our loved ones die. Our family members die. People die horrible, tragic, meaningless deaths every day. Death is still our enemy. Death is still mocking us. Death is still taunting us and taking us from this world and all of our friends, family, loved ones, and life.
Paul says death came from one man, Adam, and death has died with one man, Jesus. Jesus lived. Jesus died. Jesus was raised. Jesus ascended. Death is still here. Why? Why hasn't Jesus defeated this last enemy? Why is death still here?
I wish I had all of the answers. I wish I could make this make sense. I could try to spin this as a good thing, for us at least. I could argue that if Jesus had stopped death and time 2000 years ago when he ascended into heaven that none of us would have the opportunity to be here now. I could argue that life here, as short as it can seem, is a blessing. I could also argue that the spectre of death is a blessing in that it helps us to focus on the things that really matter in this life. When my uncle was dying of cancer, while he had horrible moments in his illness, he was as happy and as at peace as I have ever seen him. He was dying. There was no time left to mess around. It was a heck of a thing to see, a man at peace. I envied it. Not the sickness, but the peace that he had.
We are all dying. Some of us are dying more quickly than others. But we have this peace, too. We know that this life will end. We have a purpose. We have a mission. We have people to share the gospel with. We have Christ crucified to preach. We have the forgiveness of sins to share. We have reconciliation with God to offer.
But we also have the hope of Christ raised and Christ ascended. Sometimes that hope is easy to see. In my darker moments it is very difficult. The logistics of life, death, and eternity are too much for me. But I have watched believers leave this life in peace. It is an amazing thing to see. Even in death there is hope and peace.
Jesus has overcome. I don't understand the ways of God. I don't know why death wasn't defeated forever and always immediately upon the resurrection. Maybe death was and we just don't understand how eternity works while we are stuck here in space and time. Forever is an impossible idea in time. It is daunting. It doesn't make sense.
But we believe Christ was raised. We believe Christ has defeated death for us. We believe this and we have hope. We have so much so, in fact, that we sacrifice the fleeting things of this life for the hope of eternity. As Paul said, if Christ was not raised then we are to be pitied. We are a sad, sorry, pathetic bunch. We had one chance to enjoy all that we could in this world before the lights go out on us forever and we blew it. We threw it all away on the crazy idea that we should love our enemies, give everything to the poor, forsake the fleeting material things of this world and instead store up treasures in heaven.
If Christ was not raised then there is no place waiting for us in heaven, no hope beyond the grave, no life everlasting, no happy ending to this story. If Christ was not raised then we are deluded and living a nightmare, silently marching toward death and not even enjoying the view along the way.
If Christ was not raised there is no hope, there is no life, there is no future, there is no purpose. If Christ was not raised then everything is meaningless. If Christ was not raised, rather than being "more than conquerors" through him we are "less than pitiful". We are to be scorned. We are less than useless.
But we preach Christ crucified and Christ raised. We have hope. We have peace. We have joy. I have not seen the actual face and hands and side of Jesus raised like Thomas did. I have not heard Jesus's audible voice and blinding heavenly body like Paul did. I have not stared at the empty tomb like Mary Magdalene and Mary the mother of James did. But I have seen the hand of the Risen Lord at work in this life enough that I can't help but believe. I have tried it both ways. Unbelief is impossible. There is too much Jesus at work in this world to not believe that he must have been raised.
So, rather than being pitiful I have hope. Rather than being less than pitiful we are more than conquerors through Christ who lived, died, and was raised from the dead and has defeated death. We are alive in Christ now. Our bodies will die. And then we will be alive in Christ for eternity. We have abundant life now. We have abundant life eternally. Our bodies will die. That can not be denied. We see death every day. We know this. We can't deny it. And yet we have experienced enough of the Risen Lord in this life to know, even in the face of death, that we still have hope.
He is Risen!
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