On the 9th of April, 2017, BBC News  carried an interesting news article of a survey they commissioned. The headline reads: “Resurrection did not happen, say quarter of Christians”. The survey claims that “A quarter of people who describe themselves as Christians in Great Britain do not believe in the resurrection of Jesus.”¹

Responding, Reverend Dr Lorraine Cavanagh, the acting general secretary for Modern Church, which promotes liberal Christian theology is quoted to have said:

I think [people answering the survey] are being asked to believe in the way they might have been asked to believe when they were at Sunday school.

Science, but also intellectual and philosophical thought has progressed. It has a trickle-down effect on just about everybody’s lives.

So to ask an adult to believe in the resurrection the way they did when they were at Sunday school simply won\’t do and that\’s true of much of the key elements of the Christian faith.²

We live in a day and age where definitions and propositions are frowned upon, particularly when it comes to matters of faith. This sort of anti-precision attitude has somehow filtered into the church. We’re told, “don’t judge” “it doesn’t really matter what one believes as long as you’re morally upright, surely God won’t reject you!” “Christianity is a religion of love”.

But what has the Bible got to say to all this? Does it matter what a man believes, as long as he claims the name “Christian”?

Firstly, Christians are so named because of their belief in a historic person, “Jesus of Nazareth, a man attested to you by God with mighty works and wonders and signs that God did through him in your midst, as you yourselves know” (Acts 2:22). Secondly, apart from the mighty signs and wonders and signs with which God attested or endorsed Jesus to the whole world, there can be no Christianity.

What are these signs or proofs that God used to authenticate Jesus? And to what purpose or end?

This is what Peter speaking on the day of Pentecost had to say:

“Let all the house of Israel therefore know for certain that God has made him both Lord and Christ, this Jesus whom you crucified.” (Acts 2:36).

Previously, he had expounded:

this Jesus, delivered up according to the definite plan and foreknowledge of God, you crucified and killed by the hands of lawless men. God raised him up, loosing the pangs of death, because it wasnot possible for him to be held by it…This Jesus God raised up, and of that we all are witnesses. Being therefore exalted at the right hand of God, and having received from the Father the promise of the Holy Spirit, he has poured out this that you yourselves are seeing and hearing (vv. 32-33).

The thrust of Peter’s teaching here is that God has proved to the world beyond every reasonable doubt that Jesus is Lord and Christ, in that although He died, He was raised to life – an event that was witnessed by Peter and many others to whom the Lord showed Himself alive after His resurrection. The resurrection of Christ did not happen in a closet – it is a historic event that was witnessed by real, historic people who lived in Jerusalem at the time. Eyewitnesses documented it and passed it down to those who believed in Him. His tomb is still empty! Paul writing a short while later recounts how the Lord after His passion (suffering, death and resurrection) showed Himself to the apostles, to about five hundred disciples at the same time, and last of all to Paul himself as he journeyed to Damascus (Acts 15:1-21).

It is faith in Jesus Christ, His death which atoned for our sins, and His resurrection from death that saves (Romans 10:8-10). This is the content of the Gospel message.

No one can claim the title “Christian” who trivialises the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. Such a person is nothing short of a false disciple and an imposter. A denial of the resurrection of Christ is a denial of Christ and Christianity:

And if Christ has not been raised, then our preaching is in vain and your faith is in vain. We are even found to be misrepresenting God, because we testified about God that he raised Christ, whomhe did not raise if it is true that 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 futile and you are still in your sins. Then those also who have fallen asleep in Christ have perished. If in Christ we have hope in this life only, we are of all people most to be pitied. But in fact Christ has been raised from the dead, the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep (1Corinthians 15:14-20).

The resurrection of Christ forms the very nerve and fibre of the Christian faith. It assures all who believe in Him that they will live after death, be raised on the last day, just as Christ was Himself raised from the dead. Faith in the resurrection is the bedrock of the believer’s faith in the afterlife – a life that will be spent with the resurrected Christ in eternity. Any “Christian” faith that is not founded on the death and resurrection of Christ is no Christian faith at all. A professing “Christian” who denies faith in the resurrection of Christ has no hope for the life after death, and is of all people to be most pitied!

The progression of societal thought and norms, the expansion of human knowledge and achievement, or the development of scientific thought and discoveries cannot change the truth of God’s Word. People are free to believe what they may – this is a fundamental human right; nonetheless, the foundation of God stands firm and sure: The Lord knows them that are His (2Timothy 2:19). And all such, according to the Bible, are those who truly believe in their heart that Jesus is Lord – born of a virgin, lived a life of perfect obedience, died for the sins of many, was buried and rose again on the third day, according to the Scriptures.

Someday He will come again, to judge the living and the dead (1Peter 4:5; 2Tim 4:1), and all true believers shall reign with Him forevermore (Rev. 20:6; 2Tim. 2:11-12)! Hallelujah!

Notes:

1. http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-39153121

2. Ibid.

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This is the second  in series on the resurrection. You can read the first in the series here.

Now, when Paul uses the word mystery, he is not referring to some unexplainable fact or a Harry Potter kind of mystery. For him mystery is something that was hidden before but is now made clear. For instance when he wrote about salvation being a mystery in Ephesians 3, he is not saying Salvation is something that can never be understood. What he is saying is that it was hidden in time past but, has now been revealed through the revelation of Jesus Christ. When we read back to the first part of v.35, “how are the dead raised?’, it appears the resurrection was shrouded in darkness for the Corinthians, and so Paul gives further insight in vv. 50-53 “I tell you this, brothers: flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God, nor does the perishable inherit the imperishable. Behold! I tell you a mystery. We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed, in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised imperishable, and we shall be changed. For this perishable body must put on the imperishable, and this mortal body must put on immortality”

The Corinthian Christians were of the view that once they become Christians and have been filled with the Holy Spirit, they have assumed their spiritual state here on earth. No wonder they laid so much emphasis on speaking in tongues and other spiritual gifts. In their mind, the heavenly reign Jesus spoke about is to be achieved here on earth.Does that sound familiar? There is a brand of Christianity today which teaches that once you become a Christian, you have entered your heavenly inheritance. You should enjoy all the benefits of heaven here on earth. For such people the kingdom is already consummated. As long as you have enough faith, you can live the kingdom life here on earth.
But Paul says here, wait a minute brothers! Flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God. Neither can the perishable inherit that which is imperishable. All the benefits of heaven are suited only for an imperishable body. As long as we are in our earthly bodies, we cannot claim the full rights of the kingdom. The point here is that there is no enjoyment of heavenly blessings without the proper dress.

In 2 Corinthians 5:1-6, Paul who was himself looking forward to the resurrection writes; “For we know that if the tent that is our earthly home is destroyed, we have a building from God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens. For in this tent we groan, longing to put on our heavenly dwelling …For while we are still in this tent, we groan, being burdened…, but that we would be further clothed, so that what is mortal may be swallowed up by life. He who has prepared us for this very thing is God, who has given us the Spirit as a guarantee”

Paul is reminding the Corinthians it is impossible to enjoy the benefits of heaven with flesh and blood which is subject to decay. If you look at his earlier analogy in vv. 41 & 42, he emphasises there are different bodies for different existence. Flesh and blood is fitted for this fallen word, while our transformed bodies will be fit for our heavenly dealing.

There is one thing I am sure we can all agree on, no matter how strong a person’s faith they will die at some point, unless the Lord comes first. Imagine someone who claims to be living his heavenly life here on earth growing old and dying. What does that say about the victory which has been achieved? If death comes after we have enjoyed our best lives, it means death has the last word. That’s why we must not place the cart before the horse as the Corinthians were doing: “Thus it is written, “The first man Adam became a living being”; the last Adam became a life-giving spirit. But it is not the spiritual that is first but the natural, and then the spiritual. The first man was from the earth, a man of dust; the second man is from heaven. As was the man of dust, so also are those who are of the dust, and as is the man of heaven, so also are those who are of heaven. Just as we have borne the image of the man of dust, we shall also bear the image of the man of heaven”(v.45).

Paul is saying here that our best life is in heaven. It is only when we put on our heavenly bodies, when the perishable puts on the imperishable and the mortal puts on immortality we can finally see the face of God and live: “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.” “O death, where is your victory? O death, where is your sting?”(v.54). It is only when death, the last enemy is defeated, that we can truly say that we have arrived. Until then “we groan, longing to put on our heavenly dwelling”

You must not misunderstand me, Jesus Christ defeated death and all who have repented of their sins and put their trust in him share in this victory. However this victory has been inaugurated, it is awaiting its final consummation, death will finally be swallowed up in victory and the perishable will put on the imperishable. How do we know this is true? Paul says that God has “given us the Spirit as a guarantee” The presence of the Spirit in the life of a believer is a down payment of the full inheritance to come.
This is where the Christian hope comes from. Though for a period we experience sickness, grow old and die, death does not have the final say. There is a seed of God in us which will come forth in a glorious way when Jesus comes back. And in case we are still alive when the Lord Jesus returns, we will all be changed into our heavenly and imperishable bodies. And that is what Paul calls the mystery of the resurrection.
The emphasis here is not so much about death as it is about our transformation: “Behold! I tell you a mystery. We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed, in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised imperishable, and we shall be changed.”

One day out of this life, death will finally be swallowed up and its sting taken away, because the believer will be in his perfect state, never to struggle with sin and its effects again. As natural as death may seem, it wasn’t the original plan. Death is a great reminder of our sin and disobedience to God: “the sting of death in sin”(v.56). The fearful part is that physical death is not the end of it, anyone who continues in rebellion against God into their death has a fearful expectation of a second death. This is where God, the righteous judge will condemn all rebels to eternal damnation. But you don’t need to subject yourself to this horror my non-Christian friend. Great was our sin, and great was our punishment, death hanged over all of us. We were in slavery to death. But God in compassion sent his Son into our world. He who knew no sin took on the form of a man, came to our world and perfectly obeyed the law and died the death we deserved.

Since therefore the children share in flesh and blood, he himself likewise partook of the same things, that through death he might destroy the one who has the power of death, that is, the devil, and deliver all those who through fear of death were subject to lifelong slavery.”

Have you trusted in this Christ for the forgiveness of your sins and reconciliation to God?

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1 Corinthians 15:35-58

Recently, in a conversation with a friend, we spoke soberly about the universality of death and how all of us are confronted by its reality, whether great or small, young or old, male or female, rich or poor; we are all subjected to the power of this great enemy. With every passing day each of us gets closer to the grave. I have a friend who is not particularly excited when you wish him a happy birthday. According to him, every birthday reminds him that he is getting closer to the grave. So for him there is nothing happy about a birthday.

However, as tragic and universal as death is, it is not the most important puzzle to solve. Considering the fact that the soul doesn’t die; the most important questions we should be asking are;
(i) What happens when I die? (ii) If my soul lives on, where will it be? (iii) Will it be in a happy place?  (iv) Where will God be when I die? (v) Will I see God? (vi) Will I meet my friends in the afterlife?

Every religion has something to say about death and what happens when we die. Buddhism and Hinduism believe that after death one is reborn into another body. Existence, they believe, is a cycle of birth, life, death and rebirth. They also believe that depending on your deeds in one’s previous life, they will be born in one of six realms. If you’ve been good in your previous life, you get to be reborn as a higher specie in your next life. The ultimate goal is to enter nirvana (their form of heaven) and escape the cycle of life. The Muslims also believe in the continued existence of the soul. They believe that on the last day Allah will recreate the decayed bodies of all dead people and then there will be judgment. Some believe all Muslims will eventually go to heaven. Those who did some bad things in life may be punished for a while in hell and eventually go to heaven.

Equally, like all these religions, Christianity also believes in life after death. However what sets Christianity apart from all the others is that we believe in a personal Saviour who died and was resurrected. So the Christian’s belief about life after death is not mere speculation. I am yet to meet a Buddhist or a Hindu who can tell me what species they were in their previous life. They have no idea because their belief about life after death is pure speculation. I will like to examine the Christian’s hope of resurrection through the eyes of the first century believers at Corinth. Paul had received a letter from the church in Corinth about various matters, some very disturbing. There was division in the church, cases of sexual immorality, confusion over the Lord’s Supper, disagreement over the gifts of the Holy Spirit, particularly speaking in tongues, and the list goes on.

Now, one source of confusion was about the resurrection of the dead. Living in a Greco-Roman culture which had weird views about life after death, it was possible their belief in the life after death was getting influenced by the prevailing wisdom rather than the Bible. The Greek belief in the life after death ranged from nonexistence to a shadowy and immaterial existence in an underworld. Some people in the church believed that by the gift of the Spirit, and especially the manifestation of tongues, they had already entered into their spiritual, “heavenly” existence. The body was just a hindrance waiting to be done away with at death. They had therefore denied the body in the present, and had no use for it in the future. That pretty much explains why there was sexual immorality of various kinds in the church. With such a distorted view, it didn’t matter what they did with their bodies.

Paul, addresses this particular sin saying, “…The body is not meant for sexual immorality, but for the Lord, and the Lord for the body. And God raised the Lord and will also raise us up by his power. Do you not know that your bodies are members of Christ? Shall I then take the members of Christ and make them members of a prostitute? Never! Or do you not know that he who is joined to a prostitute becomes one body with her? For, as it is written, “The two will become one flesh.” But he who is joined to the Lord becomes one spirit with him. Flee from sexual immorality. Every other sin a person commits is outside the body, but the sexually immoral person sins against his own body. Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, whom you have from God? You are not your own, for you were bought with a price. So glorify God in your body.” (1Corinthians 6:13-20).

You see, their view of the resurrection had huge ramifications for their present life. And it does for us as well. In 1 Corinthians 15:35-38, Paul sets out to help them renew their minds about the resurrection of the body and how that should affect how they lived.

1) The Certainty of the Resurrection
2) The Mystery of the Resurrection
3) The Implications of the Resurrection

The Certainty of the Resurrection

Paul first and foremost appeals to the resurrection of Christ as the basis for the Christian’s own resurrection. “Now if Christ is proclaimed as raised from the dead, how can some of you say that there is no resurrection of the dead?”(v.12). There is a chain of consequences for such a denial, “If there is no resurrection of the dead, then not even Christ has been raised. And if Christ has not been raised, then our preaching is in vain and your faith is in vain.” (vv.13-15). The correlation for Paul was very clear. As compelling as such an argument is, there were people who could still not wrap their heads around it. Yes they believed Christ has been raised from the dead. But that is Christ, what about us, how could that happen? Right in verse 35, we see what the confusion was in Corinth. They could not understand it, and that means it cannot be true. That’s the problem with many of us even today. We measure truth by our ability to understand it. If we cannot understand something we conclude that it cannot be true. We limit the power of God by our finite minds. For many, the idea that Jesus the Son of God could die to save sinners doesn’t sit too well in their finite minds, and that is what has kept them from accepting Him as their personal Saviour.

The Resurrection And The Natural World

Paul draws an analogy from the natural world of agriculture to paint a picture of the resurrection. “What you sow does not come to life unless it dies” (v.36). Besides the fact that the seed must first die, Paul also emphasises that the final product is totally different from what is originally planted: “And what you sow is not the body that is to be, but a bare kernel, perhaps of wheat or of some other grain.  But God gives it a body as he has chosen, and to each kind of seed its own body.” (vv37-38). He further appeals to the different kinds of bodies that exist in nature, how the human body differs from that of animals or birds or the fish. Then in vv.40-41 he makes allusion to the galaxies “There are heavenly bodies and earthly bodies, but the glory of the heavenly is of one kind, and the glory of the earthly is of another.  There is one glory of the sun, and another glory of the moon, and another glory of the stars; for star differs from star in glory.”

From everyday natural experiences he draws lesson for the reasonableness and certainty of the bodily resurrection of the Christian (vv.42-44). Further, Paul compares this to our natures both in the first Adam and the last Adam who is Christ: “Thus it is written, “The first man Adam became a living being”; the last Adam became a life-giving spirit. But it is not the spiritual that is first but the natural, and then the spiritual. The first man was from the earth, a man of dust; the second man is from heaven. As was the man of dust, so also are those who are of the dust, and as is the man of heaven, so also are those who are of heaven. Just as we have borne the image of the man of dust, we shall also bear the image of the man of heaven.”(45-49).

The First Adam And The Last Adam

In our first Adamic nature we are like the seed that is planted, we must first die to attain the new nature which is after the order of the last Adam. We will have the same kind of body Jesus had when he was raised from the dead, the perishable for imperishable, dishonour for glory, weakness for power and natural for spiritual. Spiritual here is not referring to a ghost-like or immaterial form. We will have real bodies, except that this body will be pure and holy, not susceptible to decay and corruption. Just as Jesus had a physical body after his resurrection and could be touched and seen, we will also have recognisable bodies after our resurrection. There will be both continuity and transformation.

The resurrection is a work God does: “God gives it [the seed] a body as he has chosen, and to each kind of seed its own body.” When we consider the fact that it is God who works out all of this in creation, there should be no doubt that he is also able to accomplish this in us. A denial of the resurrection is a direct denial of the power of God. So regardless of what the Corinthians believed about the power of the Holy Spirit, the show-off of spiritual gifts and their elaborate “churchianity”, their beliefs about the resurrection was anti-Christian. Like the Corinthians, is it possible that we ourselves have denied the resurrection, perhaps not with words but with our actions?

To be continued.

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