“No Resurrection,” The False Teachers Claim - 1 Corinthians 15:12-19

Devotional Thoughts on 1 Corinthians 15

Week 3
 
“No Resurrection,” The False Teachers Claim - 1 Corinthians 15:12-19

12 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?  13 But if there is no resurrection of the dead, not even Christ has been raised; 14 and if Christ has not been raised, then our preaching is vain, your faith also is vain.  15 Moreover we are even found to be false witnesses of God, because we testified against God that He raised Christ, whom He did not raise, if in fact the dead are not raised.  16 For if the dead are not raised, not even Christ has been raised; 17 and if Christ has not been raised, your faith is worthless; you are still in your sins.  18 Then those also who have fallen asleep in Christ have perished.  19 If we have hoped in Christ in this life only, we are of all men most to be pitied.

Paul and others were faithfully preaching that Jesus has been raised from the dead.  When the gospel was preached, the resurrection was a vital element of the message to be believed!  Yet many people were claiming that the resurrection did not happen.  That was no surprise, since there were so many Jews and Gentiles who had a stake in denying the claims of Christianity.  Yet, surprisingly, based upon the news he had received from Corinth, Paul claimed that some of those who were teaching that there was no resurrection were false teachers among the Corinthian Christians!
 
Now, there was a sect of Judaism that taught that there is no resurrection.  They were the Sadducees.  This is stated several times in the New Testament (Matthew 22:23; Mark 12:18; Luke 20:27), and in the book of Acts, we find Paul using his knowledge of the differences in beliefs of the Pharisees and Sadducees in his favor by bringing up the subject of the resurrection:  6 But perceiving that one group were Sadducees and the other Pharisees, Paul began crying out in the Council, "Brethren, I am a Pharisee, a son of Pharisees; I am on trial for the hope and resurrection of the dead!" 7 As he said this, there occurred a dissension between the Pharisees and Sadducees, and the assembly was divided.   8 For the Sadducees say that there is no resurrection, nor an angel, nor a spirit, but the Pharisees acknowledge them all.”   (Acts 23:6-8).  Since this was so, it was possible that the false teachers were professing Jewish Christians who believed the doctrine of the Sadduccees.
So, beginning with verse 13 of this chapter, Paul begins a reasoned presentation of the negative impact of the arguments of these false teachers, followed by a positive presentation of the truth of the resurrection of Christ.

First, he argues, if there is no resurrection of the dead, then Christ Jesus was not raised.
Second, if Christ was not raised from the dead, then that which Paul preached was meaningless, as was the faith of those who had believed this message.
Third, Paul, and others who preached the gospel would have been false witnesses before God in that they testified that God had raised Christ from the dead when He had not done so since God does not raise people from the dead (as the argument goes).  Circling back, Paul argues that if the dead are not raised, then even Christ Jesus has not been raised from the dead!  If that were true, the faith of the believers – not only those at Corinth, but all believers – have believed something that is worthless, and they are still unforgiven and in their sins. 
Fourth, if the dead are not raised, all of those who have “fallen asleep” (died) as Christians have perished; that is, they have been utterly destroyed … they no longer exist!  To this, Paul adds the logical result:  if the hope of Christians pertains only to life in this world, we are the most pitiful of human beings, because we have put our hope in one who has promised everlasting life.
 
Before moving to Paul’s more positive argument based upon the reality of the resurrection, it is good for us to stop and think about our presentation of the gospel and how it is received.   People hearing the gospel for the first time have three big obstacles in mind:  the first is the idea that a man who died two thousand years ago could have provided a foundation of salvation through faith.  The average listener will assume that a heroic substitute can do nothing more than save the physical life of one or more people.  The second is that this Jesus rose from the dead.  No one alive today has seen a person who was dead and buried raised from the dead, though near death situations and remarkable recoveries abound!  The third obstacle is very personal:  it is the admission that one is a sinner in need of a Savior.  If there is a struggle before believing, or an unwillingness to believe, these are often standing in the way of faith in Jesus as one’s Savior.

As missionary servants of the Lord of Lords and King of Kings, we have had the privilege of seeing the sovereign God work in the hearts and minds of people in Japan, with even more obstacles occupying their minds, bringing them to faith in the Savior.  Ours was, and is, a message of hope, and those who have believed have believed in a living Savior.  Our next lesson will expose us to the next, more positive aspect of Paul’s argument.