The Lord’s Day Evening
March 27, 2005
EASTER SUNDAY
I Corinthians 15:12-18
“Grave Talk”
Dr. Derek W. H. Thomas
Now turn with me, if you would, to I Corinthians, chapter 15, a chapter that focuses very particularly on the bodily resurrection of Christ. It was something that for a variety of reasons was denied in the church at Corinth, due to a number of factors, some of whom were suggesting that there was indeed a resurrection, but it had already taken place (it was a spiritual resurrection of some kind), and in any case they were down-playing the necessity for the empty tomb. And as we will see in a moment, for the Apostle Paul it was an assault on the very vitals of the gospel.
Now, we’re going to pick up the reading in what is a very closely argued portion, in verse 12, and we’ll be reading through to the eighteenth verse. Before we read the Scriptures together, let’s once again come before the Lord in prayer.
Our gracious and loving heavenly Father, now in the stillness of this hour we bow our hearts before You. We come as a needy people, needing Your divine comfort and reassurance, a word of promise to be written on our hearts. We are surrounded each and every day by trials and difficulties, by an enemy of our souls; and we pray that once again the comfort of the Scriptures may be the very source and bond that we need this evening. Come, Holy Spirit, and open up this Scripture to us. Give us illumination. Help us to see and to understand, and to comprehend; and not only to be hearers, but to be doers also. For Jesus’ sake. Amen.
Now hear with me the word of God:
“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 witnessed against God that He raised Christ, who 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 who have fallen asleep in Christ have perished.”
Thus far, God’s holy and inerrant word.
“This Christianity business is rubbish. I will prove that it is rubbish. I will write a book, and it will be the exposé of the Christian faith. I will call the book Who Moved the Stone? I will show and demonstrate as I would in a court of law that all the evidence, when taken into consideration, will demonstrate beyond a shadow of a doubt that this is the greatest hoax in human history.”
Well, those, of course, are the famous words of Frank Morrison. Seventy-five years later they still resonate, and as most of you will understand, in writing the book he was convinced of the resurrection, of the bodily resurrection of Jesus Christ. His book is still for sale, still in print.
Morrison was utterly persuaded by the legal testimony that the resurrection did indeed have a factual basis in history. But is it important? I mean, really? Is it important? What difference would it make if the bones of Jesus were to be uncovered, say, in some Palestinian soil or sand or cave—some archaeologist from The National Geographic would uncover the bones of Jesus, and all the evidence and testimony would suggest that it was authentic? Is it important? What possible significance would it have for us tomorrow morning as we go about the humdrum activities of our daily lives, if the resurrection in terms of bodily appearance of Jesus from an empty tomb were to be proved in fact to be false? Would it really change anything at all? What if the statement that we repeat so often in The Apostles’ Creed: “I believe that Jesus rose again from the dead on the third day...” what if that were proven to be, beyond all shadow of a doubt, to be a hoax, and a falsity?
Well, it’s very interesting. A hundred years ago exactly, Geerhardus Vos, preaching a sermon...in fact, on this very passage...in the chapel at Princeton Seminary, in April of the year 1905...and in it he says about the resurrection, bodily resurrection of Jesus, that “the very core, the very foundation and substance of the Christian faith are at stake.” He’s not talking about the crucifixion; he’s not talking about Good Friday; he’s not talking about the incarnation; he’s not talking about the ministry of Jesus: he’s talking now solely about the resurrection, the bodily resurrection of Jesus; the very core, the very foundation and substance of the Christian faith are at stake.
It is, of course, still the center of much heated debate. I ploughed my way through a hundred-page volume—a magnificent volume, I have to say, by an otherwise controversial theologian of our own time, Dr. N. T. Wright (Bishop N. T. Wright), in his book on the resurrection. It’s a marvelous book defending an orthodox view of the resurrection against all the possible—and I mean all the possible—objections that can be raised against it, and there are many.
I want us tonight to look at these astonishing words of Paul. They’re somewhat unusual words for Paul. Paul doesn’t argue like this in many places in his epistles. He doesn’t take an entire chapter to argue about some factual, historical issue in the life and ministry of Jesus Christ, except, perhaps, the death of Christ. Paul, for example, never mentions, at least not face on, the entire issue of the virgin birth, for example. But here, when it comes to the resurrection, he devotes this entire chapter to it.
I want us to spend the rest of our time this evening drawing from this passage three conclusions that the apostle draws, if in fact the resurrection is proven to be false. He says to these Corinthians, ‘If the resurrection is false, if there is no resurrection, and therefore Jesus did not rise, then first of all, your faith is vain. Secondly, your experience is vain. And thirdly, your hope is vain.
I. In the first place, your faith is vain. He says in verse 14 as much: “Your faith is in vain.”
Faith, here, in the objective sense, I think, not so much subjective...not our faith, but the faith...the faith as once delivered to the saints, the faith which is the gospel, the faith which is the body of truth and the doctrines that the Apostle Paul expounds in all of his epistles, the faith of the early Christians, the faith of these Corinthians—it’s all in vain. The faith that you’ve set your heart upon...it makes no sense, it doesn’t add up, it isn’t coherent. It’ll fail you in the end. The faith is false, it’s a sham, it’s a pretense, it’s a fairy tale; it’s fiction with nothing supernatural in it at the end.
If Jesus’ bones lie buried in the sands of Palestine in some tomb somewhere in Jerusalem, or His body taken secretly by, perhaps, some of His disciples and buried in some unknown location like the body of Mozart...(he was just an ordinary man, after all).
There were extraordinary things about Him, to be sure. He said some of the most astonishing things. He had an influence, a psychological influence, a personality influence, a discipleship influence on many, many people. He turned people around. He had that warmth and affection, that personality that drew people to Him. He’s certainly worthy to be remembered in the annals of history, to be honored, to be placed as a great figure of history. But that’s all.
What of those claims, those claims to be equal with God? “I and my Father are one”; “Before Abraham was, I am”; “I am the light of the world”...the use of that little phrase, ‘I Am’, characteristic as it was in the hearing of those who heard Jesus use those words of the divine name itself as given to Moses in the Old Testament? Paul’s great assertion as he writes to the Philippians “...who, being in the form of God thought it not robbery to be equal with God...”? John, in the prologue of his Gospel, “In the beginning was the word and the word was with God, and the word was God”?
These have no basis in fact if Jesus did not rise, if His body is still buried somewhere in some unknown grave in Palestine. If the resurrection isn’t true, the great seal of all that Jesus said, of all that Jesus did, of all that Jesus claimed to be is in question. It calls into question everything about Him: His words, His character, His motivations; His claim to undo the consequences of Adam’s fall in the Garden and the penalty of death that was the main consequence of Adam’s fall.
Death was then not Jesus’ great act of obedience as our representative and sin-bearer, as the last Adam, from which we would be released, breaking, as it were, death from inside. If He didn’t rise again, death was His just desert. He seems powerless to destroy it. Death, He is its victim—He is not its conqueror. He enters death passively without any ability to undo the hold of death on us.
At best the Bible is only a collection of religious aspirations, and the collective religious experiences of men and women: the dreams, and the hopes and aspirations of men and women; inventions, in the main, after the fact, as though we were to say, “I build my life on the sayings of Mahatma Gandhi, or Martin Luther King, whose dreams and hopes and words still affect so many people, even though they’ve died.” And this is no more than that.
There is nothing wrong with that idea, in itself, of course. Great things have been built upon the words of men and women who have died. Civilizations have been built on the words of men and women who have died. I myself am somewhat inspired by the music of Anton Brookner, or the poetry of George Herbert, or the art of Rembrandt, or the architecture of Sir Christopher Wren—but they’re all dead, every single one of them. I know that. Bodily, they are no more. Their ideas continue, their works survive, but they’re in their tombs...and in the place of some of them, we don’t even know where their tombs are.
But these men did not pretend to be the Savior of the world! They didn’t go about claiming to be God! Promising that after three days they would rise again from the dead! These men do not atone for my sin nor enable me to be certain about my future existence after death. They fill my life with moments of exquisite beauty, and sublime moments of a sense of the transcendent...but that’s all. I don’t mean to undervalue them in any way, but it’s not on the same scale as the promises that Jesus made in the gospel.
My friends, if you discover the bones of Jesus, then your faith is vain. Your faith is vain. The claims of Christianity are a sham. It is yet another failed hope and an aspiration of a man who lived beyond His ability to deliver. “The faith once delivered to the saints” encapsulated in The Apostles’ Creed: “On the third day He rose again from the dead” is just philosophical jargon for professional theologians to write books about, and that’s all. It has no place in my day to day life.
And Paul is saying to these Corinthians, if there’s no resurrection, then Jesus did not rise; and if Jesus did not rise, your faith is in vain. Your faith is in vain. What are you doing here on this somewhat cold evening for Mississippi, when you could be doing a thousand other things? ...because if Jesus did not rise, all of this is to no point and to no avail.
II. If Jesus did not rise, if there’s no resurrection, then Jesus did not rise; and if Jesus did not rise, then your experience is vain.
But then Paul goes on to say a second thing. If Jesus did not rise, if there’s no resurrection, then Jesus did not rise; and if Jesus did not rise, then your experience is vain. Your experience is vain...he says that in verse 17: “...you are still in your sins.” You are still in your sins. If Christ is not risen, then He wasn’t the Redeemer, He wasn’t the Savior; He did not provide substitution for our sins. He was not the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world. There was no great transaction accomplished at the cross of Calvary: our sins imputed to Christ, and the righteousness of Christ imputed to our accounts by faith.
Your praying is a waste of time, because God doesn’t hear sinners. Your entire problem, yours and mine, the sin that has caused this great gulf between ourselves and God, the reflex of His holy character toward sin...that problem remains. It remains. It has never been dealt with. Christ has not borne our sins in His own body upon the tree. He could only bear His own burden, not ours. We still bear our sins, and we will have to reckon with them on the Day of Judgment.
Those hymns that we sing, “There is a green hill far away, outside a city wall, where my dear Lord was crucified, who died to save us all...There was no other good enough to pay the price of sin; He only could unlock the gates of heaven and let us in.” And they’re not true. They’re not true, because no satisfaction has been provided. The Law’s demands have never been met. This is the greatest question of all. It’s the most solemn question...young people, it’s the most solemn question you can ever ask yourself: “How shall a man be right with God? How shall a man or a woman be right with God?” And if the resurrection did not take place in bodily form, then the consequence of Adam’s fall isn’t undone after all.
But you say, “I believe in a spiritual resurrection. I will ascend into some ether, or my memory will live on in the lives of other people.” You are not alone, my friend. There have been sects and religions even on the fringes of Christianity influenced by ideas just like that, that the resurrection is not a bodily resurrection; that we’re trapped in this prison house of this body, and that atonement and redemption means being freed from this body.
But you see, if Jesus did not rise in bodily form, then the consequence of the sin of Adam (which was death, bodily death), that consequence wasn’t undone. It still remains. Death is still the victor. That’s why Paul will say, “Christ was delivered for our sins and raised again for our justification.” The very gospel hangs on it! Our forgiveness of sins hangs on it! Everything that’s at the core and center of the very gospel itself hangs on the resurrection, because there can be no forgiveness of sins unless there is a bodily resurrection of Jesus Christ. If our justification means anything at all, it has to be the right to stand bodily—yes, bodily!—in the very presence of God as Adam had done before the fall. Atonement has at least to do that much to be able to say, “My sin, oh, the bliss of this glorious thought! My sin, not in part, but in whole, is nailed to the cross and I bear it no more. Praise the Lord, Praise the Lord, O my soul!” If Jesus did not rise bodily from the grave, then there is no divine vindication by the Father, no ‘Well done, My Son,’ no assurance that propitiation was made on behalf of our sins. We’re still in our sins, you and I. Christ has not lifted the burden, but sin crushes. Christ has not lifted the guilt of sin that condemns. Christ has not lifted the bondage of sin that enslaves.
How can I know that there is forgiveness with God, that He may be feared? How can I be sure that the words of Jesus are true and trustworthy, and that I can cast my entire soul upon them? Because of the vindication by the Father in raising Him from the dead! The empty tomb is God saying to us, “I am fully satisfied with what My Son has done on behalf of My people.” Christ has conquered him who holds the power of death, that is, the devil. Jesus has taken the battle, as it were, into enemy occupied territory. He’s come as a knight in shining armor to rescue a damsel in distress, so that you and I can say the terrors of Law and of God with me can have nothing to do. My Savior’s obedience and blood hide all my transgressions from view. The sting of death has been drawn...that’s what Paul goes on to say in verses 55-57. That’s why the New Testament calls death ‘sleep.’ It’s like going to sleep and waking in the very presence of God. But if Jesus did not rise, then your experience is in vain, and you are still in your sins.
III. Your hope is in vain
And then the apostle goes on not only to suggest that your faith is vain and your experience is vain, but in this triple hammer blow as he drives this rhetoric to its grand conclusion, your hope is in vain. Your hope is in vain. Verse 18: “Those who have fallen asleep in Christ have perished.” They’ve perished; that’s the horror, if the resurrection isn’t true.
That loved one who’s dying tonight, and whose trust and faith and hope have been in Jesus Christ and in Him alone, and what do you say? What do you say to the folk now who are left behind? That they have good memories of that person? Yes, to be sure. But you cannot say, “To be absent from the body is to be present with the Lord.” You cannot say that one day that body will rise from the dead and be reunited with that soul, forever to live in the presence of God. Those who have trusted Christ in one sense have already died, and in one sense to be sure have already risen, so that Paul can write to the Ephesians and say, “We sit in heavenly places in Christ Jesus.” There is this existential dimension to the resurrection. We are raised in Christ. Buried with Him in baptism, and raised again in newness of life. We are not what we once were.
IV. But do you remember what the apostle says about the Holy Spirit?
That Jesus, having been raised from the dead, and having ascended to the Father, pours forth the Spirit upon us: the representative agent of Jesus in our hearts...as what? The first fruits, the down payment, the seal of the promises of God which are yea and amen in Jesus Christ; that the Holy Spirit who dwells within our hearts is God’s testimony that what God has done is only a part, it’s only a little, it’s only the beginning.
That’s what Paul will work out in glorious detail in the rest of this chapter. He draws the analogy between Adam and Christ: Adam is the type of Christ, the first man, made of the dust, into whom God breathed life; and Christ becomes the life-giving Spirit, creating life and a new order: not the second Adam, but the last Adam, because there is no need for another Adam. He undoes the consequences of Adam’s fall and brings into existence a new order, a new existence of power and light, and incredible glory...so that towards the end of I Corinthians 15 you will find some of the most difficult verses of all to interpret, and Paul begins to explore the kind of life that we will enjoy in bodily existence in the presence of God.
V. What lies beyond the grave?
And those words are very solemn words that are pronounced: dust to dust, and earth to earth, and ashes to ashes; in sure and certain hope of the resurrection fro the dead and the life everlasting, we sow this body into the ground in order, as it were, that it germinates and grows and one day will spring forth so that Christ becomes (in verses 20, 23 of this chapter) ...Christ is the first fruits, that like as Christ was raised from the dead, so we too who are in union with Christ will be raised from the dead.
We have so many questions. Will those bodies possess different qualities from these bodies, as seems to be hinted at when Jesus in His resurrected body was able to pass through a locked door? What happens to precious ones who die in infancy? Do they remain little babies in heaven, or do they, as some parts of the church have suggested, everybody becomes 33 years of age because Jesus died at that age? We don’t know the answer to these questions. Will there be coffee in heaven? I have no idea.
And a thousand more, but this one thing I know: “You shall be with Me where I am in glory,” Jesus said to the disciples; beholding the same vision, enraptured by the same glory, walking the streets of the New Jerusalem enthralled by life as it was always meant to be.
And that first Easter morning, what happened, exactly? What happened, exactly? That body, that physical body of Jesus which was dead and buried burst forth from that grave a new and resurrected life, as the very first fruits of them that sleep! So that you can say to your dear ones who fall asleep in Jesus, “Adieu, not good-bye. I will see you again. I will see you with my eyes, with my resurrected eyes. I’ll see you in glory.” Yes, the soul immediately passes into the presence of Christ, but that’s only an intermediate state about which the New Testament says very little. But the great hope is not the intermediate state, the great hope is the bodily resurrection, the new heaven and the new earth in which righteousness dwells.
If Jesus, my friends, is not risen from the dead, your faith is in vain and your experience is vain, and your hope is vain; and thanks be to God this Easter Sunday evening that we have a word of assurance and confidence written by the very finger of God and unable to be disproved: that Jesus literally rose in bodily form from that tomb in which He was laid.
There has been, of course, a long-standing liturgical tradition that goes back to the very earliest of centuries when officiants at services would say on Sabbath mornings, and particularly after Nicea. After the celebration of Easter, he would say, “He is risen!” and the congregation would say, “He is risen, indeed!”
He is risen indeed, and may God receive tonight all the praise and glory.
Let’s pray together.
Our Father in heaven, as we follow the logic of this argument it drives inexorably to despair and hopelessness and vanity, if indeed Jesus did not rise from the dead. And we thank You this evening for the testimony of Scripture in many places, to many eyewitness accounts, that Jesus truly did rise, and that His bones will never be found in any cave or tomb or sands of Palestine. We thank You tonight that He sits enthroned at the right hand of God, that the dust of the earth sits at the right hand of the Father as the first fruits of those that sleep in Jesus. Oh, encourage our hearts and motivate our spirits, and drive us, we pray, by Your Spirit, so to live in resurrection hope of life eternal. For Jesus’ sake we ask it. Amen.
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