RESURRECTION

You know that superstition that the news of deaths always comes in threes? I have experienced that this week. And each of the three was completely unexpected. I knew each individual; some better than others. And each one has left other people that I know and love reeling in shock and grief. The individuals who passed ranged in age from 74 to just a child. 

Of all the various theological battles that the Apostle Paul fought in the pages of the New Testament, none seem more foreign and puzzling to me than what is recorded in 1 Corinthians 15. There he actually is going up against "fellow believers" who apparently do not believe in the resurrection of the dead.

These people are part of the church but seem to believe that there is nothing after death. When someone physically dies, that's it. That's the end of their existence. 

But apparently this was a fairly common belief in Jewish circles. And apparently, Jesus's teachings about eternal life struck a lot of people in his day as being fairly novel. 

Paul breaks out his famous logic to argue that the believer who doesn't buy into resurrection, is no believer at all: 

16 For if the dead are not raised, then Christ has not been raised either.

17 And if Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile; you are still in your sins.

18 Then those also who have fallen asleep in Christ are lost.

19 If only for this life we have hope in Christ, we are of all people most to be pitied.

Exactly! There are too many occasions in this life that are unbearably tragic if this is all there is to existence! 

Paul correctly points out that "if the dead are not raised," we might as well adopt the attitude of "Let us eat and drink, for tomorrow we die." 

The hope of RESURRECTION, though, changes everything.