Chapter 15 deals with the resurrection. Some of the teaching at Corinth (and other places) had begun to question the resurrection...because it could not be easily explained by science or by philosophy.
In 1 Cor 15:1-11, Paul reminds the church of the gospel he had preached to them. Nothing of what he had taught them was open for interpretation. It required wholesale acceptance and obedience (1 Cor 15:1-2). There was no real dispute about the death of Christ. Most believed that. Paul gave the reason for His death...as payment for sin (1 Cor 15:3). Christ died and was buried and rose again. The resurrection was evidence of the uniqueness of Christ and a demonstration of God's power over all things...even death (1 cor 15:54-57). The resurrected Christ appeared to more than 500 people before He ascended (1 Cor 15:5-8). To argue that Christ was not really resurrected was incredible...since evidence abounded!
Paul's argument shifts now to why it is essential to believe in the resurrection. First, if there is no resurrection for the saints, then even Christ was not resurrected (1 Cor 15:13). If Christ is not raised, then there is no basis for faith in Him or His gospel (1 Cor 15:14). Further, if Christ is not raised, then the preaching of the gospel is a false preaching because it lies about God (1 Cor 15:15-19).
As we follow the flow of thought...some had even begun teaching of a baptism for those who had previously died. Paul also points on the inconsistency in the argument. If there is not a resurrection, why are people baptized for the dead who will never be resurrected anyway?
Ultimately, Paul noted that the problem for many in the Corinthian church was that they had come to keep company with these folks whose theology and preaching was suspect...and as a result were being corrupted (1 Cor 15:33-34).
As for the argument over the resurrection body...what kind of body we have in the resurrection...Paul says it is a foolish question. It is not like anything we can fully comprehend now in our experience. It is a spiritual body (1 Cor 15:44). It is a glorified body...meaning that it is not flesh and blood and is perfect (1 Cor 15:42-43, 48). Just because we cannot fully comprehend or explain all of the details...does not make us right and it wrong. The resurrection is a reality...whether we can fully comprehend it or not.
The final question dealt with what happens to those (believers) who have not died at the time of the rapture (the second coming of Christ). Those who are alive will be "caught up" and made instantaneously like those who have died before us as we are taken to be with God.
In this chapter, Paul deals with every seemingly credible argument against the resurrection that was proposed by his opponents. He reminds the church of the gospel that they had professed to believe. It was essential that they held to this belief...by faith (1 Cor 15:58).
There are many things about God that are mysterious to us. This is good. We could not worship a God who we could fully comprehend. (A philosophical argument we will discuss again later). The fact is, we do not have to fully comprehend God to submit to Him. We have to understand enough to place our faith in Him and then rely on Him, by faith, for the rest. This applies to big issues like the resurrection...and the Trinity...and "substitutionary atonement"...but also to issues like daily disciplines...obedience in the area of relationships, finances, purpose...and life choices.
Proverbs 1:32 is the takeaway today. To keep it in perspective...it relates to Prov 1:7 which proposes that the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom... The naive and the complacent do not pursue God. They are passive. They think that God's instruction (wisdom) is overly involved (naive) or that they will get to it eventually (complacent). They do not pursue wisdom as though it were precious and absolutely necessary. As a result...they experience the judgment that comes when one chooses a path other than that of God. Yes...to not choose to pursue God is to choose to reject Him by default. There is no "neutral" or middle ground. Is effort involved in pursuing wisdom? YES! As with all good things in this life, effort is required...but it is a great value when attained.
Grace,
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This is a great reminder of our obedience. How much faith would be needed if we knew the next step? None. The flesh is a hard one, Paul tells us to say goodbye to flesh daily. If we woke up daily and put on Christ... wow... we spoke on this in our life group Sunday morning. Being called by mystery.... in our group we spoke about what we think about in the morning when we get up. Often times our first thoughts are not on our creator and how awesome He is but on the duties of the day and everything we must do in order to complete our day and we may or may not throw God in there somewhere. This should be our first thought and our thought throughout the day. God is with us everywhere... Why do we constantly foget this? Today, I had a distrubing customer come in today and of course had problem and completely took it out on me. I had to go to the printer in order to ask God for assistance with my tongue. But if I had been in conversation with Him before that would I have had to walk away.... God is constant. I would do good to remember this all day long!!!:)
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