Daily Prayer Devotional for Women and Men | OnlinePrayerJournal

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For additional translations of the passage, use this link to Bible Gateway.

The Resurrection of the Dead ¹²But if it is preached that Christ has been raised from the dead, how can some of you say that there is no resurrection of the dead? ¹³If there is no resurrection of the dead, then not even Christ has been raised. ¹⁴And if Christ has not been raised, our preaching is useless and so is your faith. ¹⁵More than that, we are then found to be false witnesses about God, for we have testified about God that he raised Christ from the dead. But he did not raise him if in fact the dead are not raised. ¹⁶For if the dead are not raised, then Christ has not been raised either. ¹⁷And if Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile; you are still in your sins. ¹⁸Then those also who have fallen asleep in Christ are lost. ¹⁹If only for this life we have hope in Christ, we are of all people most to be pitied.

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When we stand by a grave or see a coffin depart at a crematorium, it might be hard to keep the hope of resurrection central to our minds. The early church expected that the dead in Christ would come to new life in a short time. We have seen two thousand years pass since the resurrection of Jesus. The problem remains: the gap between the reality of death and the promise of resurrection. Paul makes a clear connection between Jesus’ resurrection and our hope. The two stand or fall together. If there is no resurrection of the dead, then Jesus was not raised. The converse, however, grounds our hope in reality. It is only with the resurrection of Jesus that we have evidence that the dead can be raised to life eternal.

Belief in the bodily resurrection of Jesus must be central to Christian faith. If Jesus did not rise from the dead, not only would we have no hope of resurrection, but we also would lack a basis for salvation. This is why evidence for his resurrection is important for us to study. Paul suggests that there is no value in being a Christian if Christ wasn’t raised and we have no eternal hope.

The whole Christian message becomes a delusion and a lie if there is no resurrection. The martyrs died in vain. Our loved ones are gone forever. Any sacrificial service we have given will never be rewarded. So, Paul gets it right when he says that we are to be the most pitied of people if there is no truth in the resurrection of Jesus. Fortunately, Tuesday’s reading begins with a ‘but.’

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