Pastors Corner

Every year at this time we hear from them. We see them interviewed on TV and we read their articles in Time, Newsweek or some other nationally renowned periodicals. Regardless of the venue, the message is still the same: “Christ was not really raised physically, materially from the dead.” And worst of all, the so-called “authorities” who are interviewed on TV and quoted from in these articles are accredited theologians … Bible scholars with letters behind their names.

Of course, all too often the universities these men come from are places like Yale, Harvard, Princeton, etc, not exactly the bastions of solid, orthodox biblical Christianity. No surprise here. However, our pursuit of the truth on this matter should not end with the theories of mere “religious men,” but with the source of all truth, the Word of God. Does the Bible have answers for these false teachers and their theories? Indeed it does! In the 15th chapter of 1 Corinthians, the apostle Paul is expounding on the resurrection of Christ. In verses 3 and 4, he writes these familiar words:

“For I delivered to you first of all that which I also received: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, and that He was buried, and that He rose again the third day according to the Scriptures.”

We have in these words the Gospel message in its entirety.

Notice, it begins with the atoning (substitutionary) death of Christ for our sins; followed by His burial (which solidifies the fact that He indeed died/expired on the cross – He wasn’t “revived” after being on the cross, as some have proposed); and then finally His resurrection on the third day, all of which was “according to the Scriptures.” That is, all of the components of this Gospel – of Christ’s atoning death, burial and resurrection – were foretold in the Old Testament Scriptures (see Isaiah 53; Psalm 16:8-11 with Acts 2:22-36).

Some have proposed that Christ merely rose “spiritually” from the dead (not bodily, materially).

From the standpoint of Scripture, this kind of “resurrection” is meaningless.

The simple reason for this is that the Bible always affirmed the fact that the soul/spirit of a man survives the death of the body and goes either to sheol/hades (the abode of the lost/dammed), where they await the Great White Throne Judgment of Christ (Rev. 20:11-15), or into Paradise with Christ and the redeemed (see Luke 16:19-31; 2 Cor.

5:6-8).

Either way they await a resurrection where their souls will be reunited with their bodies – bodies that will either be “fitted” (transformed) for the torments of eternal hell or for the glories of eternal Heaven (see John 5:24-29; 1 Cor.

15:35-58; 1 Thess.

4:13-18; Rev. 20:6).

So, a “spiritual” resurrection is meaningless since our souls do not go out of existence or even on “sleep mode” at death.

We are very much alive spiritually at death, regardless of our destination.

Whenever I run into someone who has been under the influence of false teachers who believe only in a “spiritual” resurrection and deny the bodily resurrection of Christ, I like to point out that they are making the same mistake the disciples made when Christ first revealed Himself to them.

We find the account in Luke 24:36-43.

After He came into the room where they were assembled, the Scripture says, “But they were terrified and frightened and supposed they had seen a SPIRIT” (v. 37, emphasis added).

The disciples really believed they were only beholding the SPIRIT/GHOST of Christ.

How did Jesus deal with their unbelief? Notice what He said to them next: “Why are you troubled? And why do doubts arise in your hearts? Behold My hands and My feet, that it is I Myself.

Handle Me and see, for A SPIRIT DOES NOT HAVE FLESH AND BONES AS YOU SEE I HAVE” (vv. 38-39, emphasis added).

The text goes on to record how Jesus then ate some broiled fish and some honeycomb in their presence to settle forever in their minds and ours the fact of His bodily resurrection (vv. 40-43).

Those who oppose will then say, “Oh but you don’t understand…Jesus just manufactured a body to convince His disciples that He was alive!” This claim would make Jesus a deceiver.

And we know from the testimony of Scripture that He is not.

The Bible declares that He is the “Lamb without blemish and without spot…Who committed no sin, nor was deceit found in His mouth” (1 Peter 1:19; 2:22).

The irrefutable truth is this: Christ rose bodily from the dead.

In fact, the Greek word associated with resurrection in 1 Corinthians 15 is soma [example: v. 35, which says, “But someone will say, ‘How are the dead raised up? And with what body(soma) do they come?’”].

That word always means material, physical substance – not spiritual.

Paul goes on in the remainder of the chapter to describe how our future resurrection bodies, though physical, will then be dominated by the spiritual.

Just how all of this works is a great mystery to us now.

But we know that Scripture tells us that as Christ rose from the dead, being a kind of “firstfruits” of all believers who die in the Lord (1 Cor.

15:20), so Christ will one day “transform our lowly body that it may be conformed to His glorious body…” (Phil.

3:21).

In closing, look with me at seven implications that flow from a gospel with a non-resurrected Christ.

Paul provides them in 1 Corinthians 15:14-19.

Throughout this text He says, “If Christ is not risen…”.

First, says Paul, if Christ is not risen, “Our preaching is empty” (v. 14b), which is to say, “vain” or “without substance”.

Paul argues that if Christ is not risen there’s no Gospel.

It is lifeless! Second, if Christ is not risen, “Your faith is also empty” (v. 14c).

Again, as with the Gospel, if Christ is not risen then there’s no cause for a substantive faith.

It is a lifeless, empty faith because the OBJECT of our faith (Christ) is dead.

Third, if Christ is not risen “We are found false witnesses of God” (v. 15a).

Paul testifies earlier in this chapter that, after the resurrection, Jesus was seen first by the apostles, then by over five hundred disciples at the same time and finally by himself (vv. 5-8).

The question that has been asked over the centuries is appropriate here: “Do you really think the apostles and the early disciples who died a martyr’s death, having seen the risen Lord, would have given their lives for a lie?” Fourth, if Christ is not risen, “Your faith is futile” (v. 17b), which is to say, “profitless”.

In the end, says Paul, this whole enterprise (of faith) is a waste of time if Christ’s body is still in the grave.

Fifth, if Christ is not risen, “You are still in your sins” (v. 17c).

How tragic! Paul declared to the Romans that Christ “was delivered up because of our offenses, and was raised for our justification” (Rom.

4:25).

If Christ is still in the grave, none of it is true…NONE OF IT! Sixth, if Christ is not risen, “Those who have fallen asleep in Christ have perished” (v. 18), which is to say, they perish eternally (eternal separation from God).

By the time Paul wrote these words, there were many believers who had already died physically.

And if Christ was not raised from the dead, there’s no reason for us to hope that we or our loved ones who have died in faith will ever see life again…only judgment and eternal separation from God.

Seventh, if Christ is not risen, “We are of all men most pitiable” (v. 19b), which is the natural progression of thought regarding people of such dead religion! In the NIV, verse 19 reads this way: “If only for this life we have hope in Christ, we are to be pitied more than all men.” So, by implication, we have reason to pity a person or a religion that does not believe in the bodily resurrection of Christ.

I’m so thankful that Paul doesn’t stop here at verse 19.

He goes on to declare, “BUT NOW CHRIST IS RISEN FROM THE DEAD, and has become the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep” (v. 20).

If the editors of those articles mentioned before had quoted men from solid universities/seminaries like Moody, Liberty, Dallas, Cornerstone, Talbot (BIOLA), Western, Corban, Masters, Grace, etc., they would have been taken – not to the empty theories of men who are without faith – but to the empty tomb, and to many of the same Bible texts shown here that reveal the facts surrounding the literal, physical, bodily resurrection of our Lord.

Do you know this Christ? He offers salvation to all who will put their trust and faith in Him alone.

He said, “And this is the will of Him who sent Me, that everyone who sees the Son and believes in Him may have everlasting life; and I will raise him up at the last day” (John 6:40).

Dean Ellis

Pastor of Evangelism & Outreach

First Baptist Church, Colfax