In The Face of Life and Death

DEVOTION

1 CORINTHIANS

IN THE FACE OF LIFE AND DEATH

1 Cor 15:29-32

9 Now if there is no resurrection, what will those do who are baptized for the dead? If the dead are not raised at all, why are people baptized for them? 30 And as for us, why do we endanger ourselves every hour? 31 I die every day — I mean that, brothers — just as surely as I glory over you in Christ Jesus our Lord. 32 If I fought wild beasts in Ephesus for merely human reasons, what have I gained? If the dead are not raised,

NIV

This is a long dissertation on the resurrection of the dead,  but we should break this up and see some truths within it. There is much more that is said following this but let us first consider this idea of being baptized for the dead. There is no doubt it is the strangest and most controversial passage in the whole of scripture. Scholars and theologians have argued over it for centuries, and it is certain they all disagree over its meaning. So how do we mere little people understand this concept? We do know from sources that this practice does exist in one present group, who call themselves the church of the latter day saints. This is practiced by having a person be baptized in proxy for one who has died, without having been baptized in accordance to their belief. We are not certain, as are all the scholars and theologians that this practice was actually going on in Corinth. Yet within the context of the whole of the rest that follows, it does make sense to understand this as when we all are baptized, we are baptized into the death of Jesus, and coming up out of the water as we will be resurrected with Jesus. If there is no resurrection our baptism into his death is meaningless, useless, without any value at all. If we live as believers, facing all the attacks of Satan against us and there is no resurrection, what have we gained? Some would say, living as a believer is all a bed of roses, but we know that is not so. At times it would be much easier to live as an unbeliever, with no restrictions on our behavior, and having no conflict with those who oppose our beliefs. But we cannot give up nor give in. We stand firm in our faith, which at times has some costs. We do this because we know there is a resurrection. Although we may not face the type of dangers the apostles did, such as an agonizingly painful death as a martyr for Christ, we do face dangers thrown at us by Satan to destroy our faith, and our very soul. We know that no matter how difficult our lives might be, we are merely here for but a short time which is followed by our death and resurrection into the very presence of our Lord. So who cares about a few dangers? Our death is only significant as the end if there is no resurrection, so then we should say, “ We only go around once, so grab for all the gusto we can”, but we know that is false and therefore we stand firm in the face of life and death.